Apple today announced a few workout-related features coming to watchOS 8 and Apple Fitness+.
Starting with watchOS 8, users will be able to track Tai Chi and Pilates workout styles on their Apple Watch. Apple said that the new workouts are supported by powerful custom-built heart rate and motion algorithms to provide users with accurate metrics.
Apple Fitness+ is also gaining a few features in watchOS 8, including Picture in Picture support and new filtering options, as well as the ability to stop and resume an in-progress workout on any device.
Coming to Apple Fitness+ later this month, Apple also revealed that there will be a new workout series with trainer Jeanette Jenkins. Additionally, there's also an "artist spotlight" series of workouts that highlight songs from specific artists, like Lady Gaga, Alicia Keys, and Keith Urban.
Apple is bringing new features to the Health app that aim to make it easier to identify, measure, and understanding health changes over time.
Mobility tracking will soon capture a new Walking Steadiness metric to assess your fall risk, by measuring speed and evenness of gait. Apple will leverage the data to generate a classification of your steadiness and how it changes over time.
Apple is also adding detailed descriptions to help users better understand lab results. These will enable you to see whether results are in expected ranges, and allow you to get additional info on the metrics. And with Trends, you'll see long-term changes for metrics like steps, sleep, and so on.
There's also a new ability to share your health data with your physician in a secure way, allowing doctors to see health records and spot trends over time. This can also be shared with family members or a care team, so that you can keep track of meaningful changes in personal health metrics of everyone in your family.
Apple today revealed watchOS 8, the next major version of its watchOS operating system, with brand new features, including enhancements to health tracking including a new Mindfulness app and improvements to the way users interact with their Apple Watch.
Referring to the Apple Watch face, watchOS 8 now supports using portrait mode photos in the watch face, using data from the image to layer the date and time behind a subject in the photo. watchOS 8 also gains support for Find Items, a new standalone app on the Apple Watch that will allow users to locate and find item part of the Find My network. Introduced in iOS 15, Focus, which provides users with a powerful set of tools to reduce distractions during work, downtime, and more will also be coming to the Apple Watch.
watchOS 8 supports Focus, a powerful set of tools available in iOS 15 to help users reduce distraction and be in the moment. Apple Watch will automatically align with any Focus set on iOS, so that notifications from people and apps are filtered based on what a user is currently doing. Focus uses on-device intelligence to make suggestions based on usage patterns — for example, when starting a workout on Apple Watch, the Focus for fitness is suggested
watchOS 8 also features a redesigned Music app that makes it easier to share songs, albums, and more through iMessage. watchOS 8 now also allows users to set multiple timers, features expanded support for the Always-On display in Apple Watch Series 4 or later for more apps such as Maps, Mindfulness, Now Playing, Phone, Podcasts, and more.
Apple today announced that iPadOS 15 features the ability to build iPhone and iPad apps directly on the iPad in the Swift Playgrounds app.
In iPadOS 15, Swift Playgrounds features the ability to create iPhone and iPad apps using Swift UI. Swift Playgrounds app project packages can also be opened and edited in Xcode on a Mac, giving users the option to develop apps across the iPad and Mac.
Code is immediately reflected in the live preview when building apps, and users can run their apps full screen to test them out. Created apps can be submitted to the App Store directly in Swift Playgrounds.
At WWDC, Apple announced that iCloud is getting a premium subscription tier called "iCloud+," which includes "Private Relay" that allows users to browse the web through Safari with all information leaving their device remaining encrypted and access to "Hide My Email."
One of the headlining features for iCloud+ is Private Relay, which, similarly to a VPN, ensures that all traffic leaving a device is fully encrypted, so no third party between the website and device can see the website being viewed.
Private Relay is a new internet privacy service that’s built right into iCloud, allowing users to connect to and browse the web in a more secure and private way. When browsing with Safari, Private Relay ensures all traffic leaving a user’s device is encrypted, so no one between the user and the website they are visiting can access and read it, not even Apple or the user’s network provider. All the user’s requests are then sent through two separate internet relays. The first assigns the user an anonymous IP address that maps to their region but not their actual location. The second decrypts the web address they want to visit and forwards them to their destination. This separation of information protects the user’s privacy because no single entity can identify both who a user is and which sites they visit.
Also part of iCloud+ is Hide My Email, which builds on the idea of Sign in With Apple by providing users a random email address that forwards to their personal email. Users can use Hide My Email directly in Safari, iCloud settings, and more.
Expanding on the capabilities of Sign in with Apple, Hide My Email lets users share unique, random email addresses that forward to their personal inbox anytime they wish to keep their personal email address private. Built directly into Safari, iCloud settings, and Mail, Hide My Email also enables users to create and delete as many addresses as needed at any time, helping give users control of who is able to contact them.
The last feature part of iCloud+ is support for HomeKit Secure Video, which provides end-to-end encryption for home security footage that won't count against a user's iCloud storage space.
iCloud+ expands built-in support for HomeKit Secure Video, so users can connect more cameras than ever before in the Home app, while giving them end-to-end encrypted storage for home security video footage that will not count against their storage capacity. HomeKit Secure Video also ensures that activity detected by users’ security cameras is analyzed and encrypted by their Apple devices at home before being securely stored in iCloud.
iCloud+ will be offered to iCloud users at no additional cost, starting as normal with 50GB of storage for $0.99 per month, with the ability to add one HomeKit Secure Video Camera and up to 2TB of storage with unlimited secure video cameras for $9.99 per month.
Apple today announced iPadOS 15, which introduces the ability to place widgets anywhere on the Home Screen and includes an App Library, a feature first introduced in iOS 14.
Widgets can be pinned in different sizes on any page of the Home Screen, providing useful information to users at a glance. Widgets on iPad also get a new larger format to make better use of the device's larger screen.
First introduced on the iPhone in iOS 14, the App Library automatically organizes all of a user's apps into one, easy-to-navigate view and will intelligently surface apps that may be helpful at a given time. The App Library is built right into the Dock, making it simple for users to access. Additionally, the App Library allows users to hide and reorder their Home Screen pages.
Apple today unveiled iPadOS 15, its next-generation operating system for iPad that introduces a slew of new features like widgets on the Home Screen, an iPhone-style App Library, new multi-tasking features, and more. Here's a rundown of what to expect.
Widgets
Like iOS 14, iPadOS 15 lets users place widgets anywhere on their Home Screen pages and among their apps.
Widgets are also getting a new larger format on iPad that make better use of the larger screens available, which should make showcasing media more enjoyable. There are also new iPad widgets for Find My, Contacts, Game Center, Mail, and the App Store.
App Library
App Library, which also debuted in iOS 14, is now coming to iPad, allowing users to organize their apps into categories like Productivity, Games, and Recently Added. The App Library is built right into the Dock, so users can always get to it with a touch. App Library also lets users hide and reorder their Home screen pages.
Multitasking
iPadOS 15 also brings multitasking improvements with a new multitasking menu that allows users to switch between full screen, Split View, and Slide Over.
In Split View, for example, it's possible to swipe down to replace an app with a new one for either side of the screen, while the same thing works for apps with multiple windows.
Meanwhile a new Shelf display gives you access to all open windows for any given app. For example, you can view multiple open Safari windows and even windows that are paired with other apps in Split View, for an at-a-glance overview.
Apple is also adding new key shortcuts for these new multitasking iPad functions. Users can quickly set up and switch between Split View and Slide Over with new shortcuts for multitasking right from the keyboard.
Notes
As for note-taking on iPad, the Notes app is finally getting tags support. Tags will make it easier to categorize notes and find them quickly with an all-new Tag Browser and tag-based Smart Folders.
Users can also expect improvements in areas of collaboration and organization. With mentions, for example, you can tag people in shared notes and they'll receive a notification. You can add a tag anywhere in a note, and find it using the tag browser.
There's also a new Quick Notes feature whereby notes can be jotted down fast on iPad and Mac, and viewed and edited on iPhone. Whether browsing in Safari or finding a restaurant on Yelp, users can bring up Quick Note anywhere to jot down a thought and add links, providing an easy way to get back to exactly what they were looking at.
FaceTime
With iPadOS 15, users will be able to share experiences with SharePlay while connecting with friends on FaceTime, including listening to songs together with Apple Music, watching a TV show or movie in sync, or sharing their screen to view apps together.
Shared playback controls let will users play, pause, or jump ahead, and users can extend playback to Apple TV, and watch it on their TV while sharing the moment with friends and family connected over FaceTime. SharePlay will also let users share their screen.
Safari
Safari is gaining a new tab design that lets users see more of the page as they browse. The new tab bar takes on the color of the webpage and combines tabs, the toolbar, and the search field into a single, compact design.
Meanwhile, Tab Groups offer a new way to easily save and manage associated tabs. Tab Groups also sync across Mac and iPhone, allowing you to continue working on the same project on different devices, or easily share multiple tabs with friends and family. Safari on iPad also now supports web extensions, which will be available on the App Store.
Focus
With iPadOS 15, Apple is introducing a new Focus feature that aims to help reduce distractions and zone in on a single thing. Focus does this by filtering notifications based on what you're doing.
You can set your device to help you be in the moment by creating a custom Focus or selecting a suggested one based on the context, like during work hours or while you're winding down for bed. It's also possible to create Home Screen pages with apps and widgets that apply to moments of focus to only display relevant apps and reduce temptation.
Elsewhere, a new notification summary aims to offer an organized collection of notifications that can be delivered any time you choose, such as in the morning and evening, making it more convenient to catch up on the day's activity.
Live Text
A new Live Text feature can recognize text in a photo and let you do something with it. One example that Apple offers is a snapshot of a storefront revealing a phone number and the option to place a call. Live Text will also work with handwritten text, according to Apple. Meanwhile, with Visual Look Up, you can identify objects within a photo, such as a type of flower or dog breed.
Other Features
In addition, Spotlight is getting the ability to search the Photos app and web images, offering results for contacts with context like recent conversations, shared photos, and their location if shared through Find My.
iPadOS 15 will bring the Translate app to iPad for the first time. The Translate app detects when you're speaking and in what language, and will automatically translate it for you. Meanwhile, the systemwide translate function works anywhere, including with Live Text.
The Photos app is getting more advanced Memories, offering a new look, a more immersive and interactive interface, and integration with Apple Music, which uses on-device intelligence to personalize song suggestions bring memories to life.
iPadOS 15 will also support Universal Control, which allows you to work with a single mouse and keyboard to move between iPad and Mac for a seamless experience, with no setup required.
Elsewhere, Swift Playgrounds is gaining the ability to build apps on iPad, with improved code completion, new libraries, guides, and even the ability to submit your app straight to the App Store.
The developer preview of iPadOS 15 is available to Apple Developer Program members starting today, and a public beta will be available to iPadOS users next month.
Apple today announced that an expansion of the company's more detailed Apple Maps app will be expanding to Spain and Portugal today, followed by Italy and Australia later this year.
The revamped Maps app features richer landscape details such as roads, parking lots, parks, buildings, airports, and more. Apple uses its own vehicles equipped with LiDAR sensors and cameras to obtain mapping data.
Apple worked for over a year to complete the rollout of the new Maps app in the United States, and the process concluded in January 2020 with the expansion to the Southeast and Central United States.
Spatial Audio, powered by Dolby Atmos for Apple Music is officially launching today, Apple announced during its WWDC keynote. Announced earlier last month, Spatial Audio provides a more immersive music experience for Apple Music subscribers at no additional cost.
Spatial Audio will initially be available to thousands of songs on Apple Music, with the selection growing more in the future. The feature, powered by Dolby Atmos, will be supported on all AirPods and Beats headphones with an H1 or W1 chip, as well as the built-in speakers of the newest iPhones, iPads, and Macs.
Learn more about Apple Music Spatial Audio using our guide.
Apple today announced that some users will be able to add their driver's license or state IDs to the Wallet app in iOS 15 this fall. This will be available in select states in the United States. If supported, you'll be able to scan your ID and store it directly in the Wallet app.
Apple is working with the TSA to enable airport security checkpoints as the first place customers can user their digital IDs in the Wallet app. Like other cards and items in Wallet, your ID will be secure and encrypted.
Apple today at WWDC revealed a new iOS weather app with additional features, like full-screen maps and live weather notifications. The new app includes many features similar to Dark Sky, which Apple acquired last year.
Apple said that the redesigned app includes more graphical displays of weather data, full-screen maps, and dynamic layouts that change based on conditions.
There's also new animated backgrounds that more accurately reflect the sun's position and precipitation, and notifications highlight when rain or snow starts and stops.
Apple said that the new graphics were created to make it easier to understand conditions like wind, UNV, and barometric pressure. In total, there are thousands of variations of backgrounds to reflect sun positions, clouds, rain, snow, and more.
Apple today, with iOS 15, announced a slew of new changes coming to notifications on iPhone, including a completely redesigned interface and a new way to summarize notifications based on activities.
Notifications now have a completely new design on the lock screen, featuring richer images for messages, and a cleaner more compact look. With the redesign, iOS 15 also introduces a Notification summary, which uses on-device machine learning to automatically populate notifications based on priority in a new lock screen design.
Notifications have been redesigned, adding contact photos for people and larger icons for apps that make them even easier to identify. To help reduce distraction, a new notification summary collects non-time-critical notifications for delivery at a more opportune time, such as in the morning and evening. Using on-device intelligence, notifications are arranged by priority, with the most relevant notifications rising to the top, and based on a user’s interactions with apps. Urgent messages will be delivered immediately, so important communications will not end up in the summary, and it’s easy to temporarily mute any app or messaging thread for the next hour or for the day
The redesigned notifications is one of many changes coming to iOS 15. Learn more about all the other new features.
Apple at WWDC has announced several new upcoming FaceTime features for Apple devices, like spatial audio, voice isolation, wide spectrum, FaceTime Links, SharePlay, and more.
Adding spatial audio will make it feel like you're sitting in the same room as the person you're speaking to, and in group calls, friends will sound spread out in the room.
Voice isolation is a machine learning feature that blocks out ambient noise and prioritizes your voice so that it comes through crystal clear.
FaceTime links allow users to plan ahead and send links to a call via iMessage, email, WhatsApp, Calendar, and more. The links also work with Android right from the browser.
SharePlay is a new set of features designed for shared experiences. For example, it will be possible to listen to music together, watch movies, and share your screen.
Apple today previewed iOS 15, the company's next major update for the iPhone, featuring new video calling capabilities, improvements to Messages, user statuses, a smart notification summary, and more.
FaceTime
In iOS 15, FaceTime features a new grid view and portrait mode support for video. For audio, FaceTime calls now offer Spatial Audio so that voices sound as if they are coming from where the person is located on screen, and adaptive voice isolation for a more natural experience.
In addition, users can now generate a shareable link to a scheduled video call, and can join FaceTime calls through the browser on Android and Windows devices.
"SharePlay" in FaceTime allows users to bring music, videos, and movies into calls in sync, as well as share screens. SharePlay works across iPhone, iPad, and Mac, and with shared playback controls, anyone in a call can play, pause, or jump ahead. SharePlay is also available as an API to be integrated into third-party apps such as Disney+, HBO Max, and TikTok.
Notifications
Notifications in iOS 15 have been redesigned, adding contact photos for people and larger app icons. There is now a notification summary that presents notifications based on how users interact with their apps and priority.
Focuses
iOS 15 offers new user statuses called a "Focus." A Focus filters notifications and apps based on what a user wishes to focus on. Users can create a custom Focus or select a suggested Focus. Users can also create Home Screen pages with apps and widgets that apply to moments of focus to display relevant apps only.
When a user's Focus or Do Not Disturb status blocks incoming notifications, their status is displayed to others in Messages.
Photos
Photos features "Live Text," allowing users to highlight and select text in images. Live Text also works in other apps such as Apple News.
In iOS 15, Photos will also be presented in Spotlight searches and Apple Music songs can be added to Photos memories. Memory mixes are synchronized with the video and images, and user-configurable with intelligently chosen songs from Apple Music.
Wallet
iOS 15 brings additional types of keys to the Wallet app, including corporate badges, hotel room keys, and keys for home smart locks.
Wallet will also supports identity cards in the United States. Users simply scan their ID to add it to the Wallet app.
Weather
The Weather app now features a completely new design, a full-screen in-app map, and new background animations that reflect the sun's position. The new design changes based on conditions and notifications can highlight when rain or snow starts and stops.
Maps
Maps features a globe view and a much more detailed 3D view in cities, including a new night-time mode. There are new road details, such as turn lanes, medians, bike lanes, and pedestrian crosswalks, to assist drivers in cities.
There is now more information in the Transit view, and Maps now automatically follows you during a transit route and can alert you when to disembark, as well as offer more detailed directional information.
With iOS 15, users can hold up their iPhone, and Maps will generate an accurate position to show detailed walking directions in augmented reality.
Safari
Safari features a completely new design with easier-to-reach controls. There is a new, compact tab bar that floats at the bottom of the screen so users can swipe between tabs. There are also tab groups to allow users to easily access them at any time across any device. Safari on the iPhone also supports extensions for the first time and a customizable start page.
Other Features
iOS 15 also features voice search in Safari, cross-app drag and drop, and new Memoji outfits. Messages features new ways to share content such as images, music, podcasts, Apple News articles, and more, as well as pinned content.
Spotlight can leverage web image search and enhanced search, and offers richer contact card, actor, musician, TV show, and movie results. The Notes app now features tags to categorize notes, and mentions and an activity history in shared notes.
The Health app has a new sharing tab that lets users share their health data with family or caregivers, and Trends can highlight meaningful changes in health metrics. Find My adds a new widget, support for live-streamed locations, and AirPods on the Find My network.
iOS 15 also brings more privacy to the iPhone, including on-device Siri requests, Mail Privacy Protection, and an App Privacy Report.
iOS 15 will be available on all of the same devices as iOS 14, meaning that all iPhones from iPhone 6S and newer are supported.
The developer preview of iOS 15 is available to Apple Developer Program members starting today, and a public beta will be available to iOS users starting next month.
Apple's all-online Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) starts today with the traditional keynote kicking things off at 10:00 a.m. Pacific Time.
We're expecting to see a number of announcements, including iOS 15, macOS 12, watchOS 8, and tvOS 15, but it's unclear what else we'll be seeing at the event. While there had been some claims of redesigned MacBook Pro models making an appearance at the event, last-minute rumors have indicated that hardware announcements are unlikely this year.
Apple is providing a live video stream on its website, on YouTube, and in the company's TV and Developer apps across its platforms. We will also be updating this article with live blog coverage and issuing Twitter updates through our @MacRumorsLive account as the keynote unfolds. Highlights from the event and separate news stories regarding today's announcements will go out through our @MacRumors account.
Apple is facing increasing pressure to tighten its App Tracking Transparency rules after it was found that third parties are using workarounds to identify users who do not consent to be tracked, according to the Financial Times.
Apple rules around App Tracking Transparency, which came into effect as part of iOS 14.5 and iPadOS 14.5, require apps to ask for consent to track users across websites and apps so that they can be targeted with advertising.
According to Eric Seufert, a marketing strategy consultant, many apps are using workaround methods to identify users who do not consent to being tracked, meaning that the amount of data being collected from many users is de facto unchanged.
"Anyone opting out of tracking right now is basically having the same level of data collected as they were before. Apple hasn't actually deterred the behavior that they have called out as being so reprehensible, so they are kind of complicit in it happening," Seufert explained.
According to an email seen by the Financial Times, one app vendor told its clients that it had managed to continue collecting data on over 95 percent of its iOS users, using device and network information such as IP addresses to determine user identities. This secretive technique, known as "fingerprinting," is banned by Apple, which insists that developers "may not derive data from a device for the purpose of uniquely identifying it."
Some adtech groups, used by thousands of developers, believe that looser "probabilistic" methods of user identification, which group users by behavior, are allowed under Apple's rules, since they rely on temporary, aggregated data rather than creating unique or permanent device IDs.
The situation regarding workarounds and Apple's lack of enforcement has created confusion around what Apple's rules actually allow. Apple told the Financial Times:
We believe strongly that users should be asked for their permission before being tracked. Apps that are found to disregard the user's choice will be rejected.
Apple declined to comment about whether it makes a distinction between fingerprinting and "probabilistic matching" under its rules.
Some industry observers think that the problem is severe enough that Apple is at risk of legal issues. Alex Austin, chief executive of Branch, a mobile marketing platform, said "It's becoming clear that iOS 14 was much more a marketing promotion than an actual privacy initiative, sadly."
Apple has suggested that third parties' ability to track users is blocked when users ask them to stop, but if this is not the case, Apple may be subject to litigation over marketing rhetoric and reality. Founder of the Yale Privacy Lab, Sean O'Brien, accused Apple of being "extremely disingenuous" in lauding its privacy measures without adequately enforcing them.
Apple may find this out the hard way, as Google has in the past, if the company is hit with lawsuits for misleading customers in regard to privacy. Just as it was discovered that Google's location history was never actually turned off in 2018, I think we will find that Apple still allows apps to peer into the windows of consumers' lives.
O'Brien highlighted a comparison with Google, which faced a number of lawsuits after it was discovered that it had been tracking the locations of its users even after they expressly told it not to.
Seufert believes that Apple is likely to provide clarity on the issue soon, which could coincide with its Worldwide Developers Conference, leading to a potential wave of app rejections during the review process later this month for those developers that use surreptitiously tracking techniques.
In March, Apple announced that the full-sized HomePod would be discontinued once supplies run out, following years of reportedly lackluster sales. Apple said it would focus its efforts on the HomePod mini released last year.
"HomePod mini has been a hit since its debut last fall, offering customers amazing sound, an intelligent assistant, and smart home control all for just $99," Apple said in March. "We are focusing our efforts on HomePod mini. We are discontinuing the original HomePod, it will continue to be available while supplies last through the Apple Online Store, Apple Retail Stores, and Apple Authorized Resellers."
Since that announcement, the HomePod has been removed from sale on Apple's online store in several countries, including France, Germany, China, Hong Kong, and India. The full-sized speaker remains available on Apple's online store in the United States, Australia, and the UK for the time being, but only in a white color.
Apple ensured that it will provide HomePod customers with software updates and service and support through AppleCare for an unspecified amount of time.
Update: The white HomePod is once again in stock in Canada, but supplies are likely running very low at this point.
Apple has used its app review process as a bulwark in recent legal assaults on its App Store policy, and put particular emphasis on the security benefits for iOS users when buying apps. However, an investigation has found that almost 2% of the top 1,000 highest grossing apps on a given day were some sort of scam.
According to The Washington Post, which conducted the investigation, scam apps have been "hiding in plain sight" in Apple's App Store, including several VPN apps that duped users into paying for software they didn't need, a QR code reader that asked users for a $5 weekly subscription for a feature that's already built into Apple's native Camera app, and some apps that fraudulently appropriated the branding of Amazon and Samsung.
Two thirds of the 18 apps that The Post flagged in its paywalled report have since been removed by Apple from the App Store. However, according to market research firm Appfigures, the scam apps are said to have cost customers an estimated $48 million during the time that they were available, while earning Apple a sizable commission in the process.
The report comes at a time when Apple has increasingly looked to security as one of the reasons it takes up to a 30% cut on all App Store transactions. In the recent Apple vs Epic Games trial, for example, CEO Tim Cook claimed the the company's strict review process prevented the App Store from becoming a "toxic mess." Cook has also suggested that allowing developers to offer their own payment systems in apps would make the App Store no better than a "flea market," and that by curating the App Store, users have "a safe and trusted place" to discover apps.
Only last month, Apple announced that it had blocked $1.5 billion in potentially fraudulent transactions in 2020. In the same press release, the company claimed that it catches most scams within a month of them arriving on the App Store.
In a statement given to The Post, an Apple spokesperson said:
"We hold developers to high standards to keep the App Store a safe and trusted place for customers to download software, and we will always take action against apps that pose a harm to users. Apple leads the industry with practices that put the safety of our customers first, and we'll continue learning, evolving our practices and investing the necessary resources to make sure customers are presented with the very best experience."
The problem of scam iOS apps has dogged Apple's App Store for some years now, but recently there have been concerted efforts by some developers to highlight that the problem remains as big as ever in at least some app categories.
