Apple’s annual World Wide Developer Conference (WWDC), which took place this week from 7 – 11 June, is the biggest showcase of the year for Apple developers.
This year’s event was no different, as the technology company unveiled a slew of new updates across its entire ecosystem.
Apple users can look forward to new releases for iOS 15 on the iPhone, MacOS on the Mac, iPadOS for its line of tablets, WatchOS on Apple Watch, and more.
“We’re excited to share our latest technologies with you and with the incredible community of millions of Apple developers around the world,” said Apple CEo Tim Cook. “Your creativity and groundbreaking apps continue to deliver new and meaningful ways to enrich people’s lives,” “We’ve continued to look for ways to cultivate the next generation of developers, with an emphasis on those underrepresented in technology.”
Here are the top upgrades Apple users can look forward to in the coming months:
Revamped Safari
Apple’s Safari search engine has always played second-fiddle to the likes of Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox but now the company is touting a sleeker design, faster response time and longer-lasting battery life for the platform. In addition, Apple said they have been reworking Safari by adding more sync features, enabling tabs to sync between devices.
They are also bringing the tab bar to the bottom of the page rather than at the top. This makes it easier to reach and use.
Apple will also bringing Safari’s desktop app extensions to iPhone and iPad. Apple said extensions can share code across an iPhone, iPad and desktop, making them easier to develop as well.
Focus on personalised health
Apple’s Health app is becoming even more perceptive. A few years ago, the company introduced a feature on Apple Watch that allowed you to call for help if you fall. Now, the health app can identify what the likelihood will be of you falling in the future. This new datapoint, called Steadiness, is based on the pace of your walk throughout the day, and if the likelihood of you falling increases, Apple will send a notification to warn you.
The company is also building a ‘trends’ feature into its health app – showing when your activity level has increased or decreased.
In addition, sharing data with family has also been a big focus. The company said people will now be able to share health data with other iPhone users, giving them access to whatever selected data you want. The idea is that it is meant to be particularly helpful for families with elderly people and children.
Build your own apps
The intention of Apple’s Swift Playground app was to teach people how to code. Now, the company is taking it one step further by making it possible for users to build their own apps too.
On the iPad OS 15 on the Swift Playgrounds app, people will be to write code, test out the apps, and even submit apps to the App Store. Although Apple has not added its Xcode developer tools to the iPad, this is definitely a step in the right direction.
FaceTime for non-iPhone users
Apple is planning a bunch of changes for FaceTime in iOS15 – the biggest being that FaceTime will now work on web, allowing non-iPhone holders to participate in calls.
The way it works is that iPhone holders send a link to their friends which, when they click on it, takes them to a webpage that looks similar to FaceTime on an iPhone.
