Categories
Uncategorized

iOS 15 for iPhone — MEGA REACTION! (WWDC 2021)

Apple has just announced iOS 15 for the iPhone and I'm watching along and give you my live analysis on all the new features and functionality, including FaceTime, Messages, Keys, Maps, SharePlay, Safari, Photos, and more!

  • [Woman] Hi, Wanderlust Creamery.

  • [Woman] Morning to Starbucks.

  • Oh, whoops, sorry. Just applying a deep neural network here to a photo of your shop.

  • [Speaker] Yes, I'd like to order 4,000 lattes to go please.

  • No actual need for ice cream at this time.

  • No, just kidding. Wrong number. Thank you.

  • Gotta drop, bye.

  • Bye-bye.

  • WWCDC 2021, live reactions, iOS 15. Will it next level the iPhone? Let's do this. Sponsored by Curiosity Stream with Nebula. Now hit that subscribe button and bell, so you don't miss any of the reviews.

  • This year, we've set out to make FaceTime calls feel more natural, comfortable, and lifelike.

  • Makes a certain amount of sense that does because of how much we've all become dependent on video conferencing over the last year and a half.

  • [Speaker] We're bringing spacial audio to FaceTime.

  • And spatial audio is Apple's technology that takes either a Dolby Atmos signal or any signal and turns it to a 3D sound stage for FaceTime that's coming from where they're positioning the people on the FaceTime stage.

  • The first, is voice isolation.

  • Which is trying to do a better job of noise canceling just removing everything else that could be considered background noise, so that your part of the conversation will be more distinct and not lost in that background noise. It's almost like, the reverse of active noise cancellation because it's not removing the noise for you. It's removing the noise for everybody else.

  • Let me fix this. Better right?

  • And then equal in opposing that, they're doing wide spectrum, which, I don't wanna call the opposite of transparency, but it kind of is, it's making sure that everything, all the ambience, all the din that's going on around you comes clearly through if that's what you wanna share with everybody.

  • I wish I could be there.

  • Me too.

  • There's a grid view at long last, because while the first FaceTime group view was animated and interesting to look at, once you're doing it all day every day, it gets really tiring. So now you can just drop it right into grid mode and see everybody in a normal static, well, not static, but normal steady view.

  • We're introducing, portrait mode.

  • FaceTime bouquets backgrounds, to sort of blur out the clutter that could be behind you.

  • We've created, FaceTime links.

  • So that you can establish a FaceTime call, ahead of time the way that you can do with a Zoom or WebEx call now.

  • [Speaker] You're friends with Android and Windows devices can use your FaceTime link to join the call, right from their browser.

  • And there is a compelling argument towards them making, towards Apple and making FaceTime more applicable to things beyond just interpersonal communications because they are end to end encrypted and they're serious about it. And a lot of other tools have ongoing security concerns. So FaceTime as an option here, you know, for a lot of people will be a good option.

  • SharePlay is a powerful new set of features, for shared experiences that you can enjoy, when you're on a FaceTime call.

  • So you can listen to music together, you can watch videos together, and yes, something that's been on my list for a long time FaceTime screen-sharing, which some of you have been able to do on Mac OS since the days of iChat, but it's been just completely missing on iOS forever.

  • [Speaker] When you're on a call, all you need to do, is press play in Apple Music, and you can choose to listen together.

  • So Apple is using all these new audio technologies to enable the music sharing, which is interesting. They've improved the voice quality, but you know, you don't need that much quality for voice. I mean, it sounds good, but it's not mission critical, but for music, listening to poor music would be a bad experience.

  • When you're on a FaceTime call, jump to a streaming App and press play. And boom, you and your friends are watching the same video, totally in sync.

  • Oh, that's a really nice integration of Picture in Picture with messages, because, FaceTime and iMessage are already connected in that, you can move back and forth between the same group calls and the same group messages, and now they're integrating the play experience into that, which is legit terrific.

  • And when the moment calls for a bigger screen, you can extend the video to your Apple TV and watch it there, while sharing the moment with your friends.

  • It's not just Apple music, it's not just the TV, the Apple TV App, but there's an API, so that other developers can integrate, question remains, will they? Companies like Spotify have been good at complaining, but very bad at implementing. Netflix of course will be a big question because they haven't, they've chosen not to play nicely with the Apple ecosystem because they don't wanna lose ownership of the audience. They don't want their interfaces to be inter-mediated. But to me, that just means they're disqualifying themselves from the greater conversation and, I'm forgetting to open Netflix more and more these days.

  • Check out screen-sharing. You can use it to browse Zillow listings live with your future roommates, or show off a tricky move in your favorite game.

  • And that's over-delivering. They're never promising, but over delivering.

  • We're introducing great new ways to enjoy all of this amazing shared content, and the exchanges that follow.

  • So they're using new interface parent times, stacks and collages, so that, multiple photos don't just create a skyscraper in your iMessage App but you can stack them and then expand them or spread them out so that they're, they still keep the conversations, it's not a wall in between the conversations but all the content is still available to you.

  • [Woman] I'm not going to read this right now, but I'd love to the next time I catch up on the news. And I can tap from Casey to pick up our conversation and remind her, that deep dish, is obviously the best kind of pizza.

  • And we'll have to see if there's an API for this as well, because Apple news is probably only one very limited type of content that people share.

  • [Woman] So now, if I wanna check out that playlist Leah sent earlier, I can head over to Apple Music.

  • They're shared with you in photos as well, so those stacks and those collages are gonna be featured for you, so that the next time you go to photos, there'll be available for you there. And that again, that's pull interface, not push interface, that requires you to remember to go back or to happenstancially, be willing to interrupt whatever reason you're going to the photos App, just in general, humans aren't good at state change. It's why we forget what we were doing when we go into another room because that change is enough to distract us.

  • And if something especially important comes through, you can quickly pin it.

  • Which are great because, once you have the pin down, when you're going back to messages, they're available there and hope that you can always still use the Siri remember this, and then your reminder is populated with it.

  • We wanna free up space, to focus and help you be in the moment.

  • Because as we've already seen with, Do Not Disturb and things, when everything is important, nothing is. Notification quickly becomes interruption.

  • [Man] They have a fresh, new look. Contact photos for people and larger icons for Apps.

  • And there's a new notification summary, which is like a digest of all the notifications that have come in to you, over a period of time or that you can schedule to look at at certain times. And it's tying into the device intelligence which we saw Sebastien Marineau-Mes introduce last year which has just been getting better and better. It's a really good side of Apple AI right now.

  • [Man] Notifications in the summary are ordered by priority with the most relevant ones, rising to the top. Notifications from people, will not end up in the summary so you won't miss important messages as they come in.

  • And there's also status now. So for example, if you're in, Do Not Disturb, people will know that. They won't just be sending you, like I often do, a wall of text for you to come back to later. Maybe they still will, but at least they'll be doing it knowingly and with intent.

  • [Man] And for truly urgent messages, there's a way to get through.

  • And so, super setting Do Not Disturb is focus, which includes yes, Do Not Disturb, but also, work, and personal, and sleep, so that you could have various statuses within these Apps. And it goes beyond notifications. It's also being used as a system wide organizational paradigm.

  • [Man] When setting up a focus, we use on-device intelligence, about your past activity, to suggest Apps, and people, to allow notifications from.

  • I'm not quite sure about the modes yet, I'm gonna have to try those out, but, I do like that Focus is, such a focus this year.

  • [Man] You can even dedicate a page on your home screen to match your focus, and organize your Apps and widgets in a way that reduces temptations.

  • And next is, live text. which looks like basically turning all texts and all images, into something that is searchable throughout the operating system. Which is something other Apps and other operating systems have been doing for a long time but something that has been only barely and specifically implemented in iOS until now. And it really, it should have been universal years ago but it's really great that it's becoming universal now. And it looks like Apple is going back the way it did, when they released their version of face identification, finding faces of your friends in your photos, and that is going back and churning through on device using machine learning, to recognize, understand, categorize, and index all of this information. Which as much as I just said, it took way too long for this to come to iOS, is sort of how Apple has been rolling with these things, and that is taking a lot of time, but doing it in an implementation, that they believe really prioritizes and respects privacy and security, that doesn't go to a server, doesn't share all your information with a server, but that keeps it all personal to you.

  • [Man] I can just select it like this, and I have the option to use a lookup, to find out more about this restaurant, and even look up its location.

  • And they're tying it into that computer vision system. The system lets us search for specific things in photographs. So for example, dogs, and types of flowers, and, as we got the hint with the accessibility system, Apple is getting much more sophisticated about describing, ingesting, understanding and describing what is in these photos. Will they be as good at it as Google out of the gate? Almost certainly not.

  • Live text works with photos across the entire system, including screenshots, quick look, and even photos on the web.

  • But will a lot more people or at least some people for whom those security and privacy issues are so fundamental, prefer or only use this, rather than something provided by Google? Equally absolutely. So they're also integrating Apple Music into the photos App, taking the existing, For You system and the part of it that would put together a personalized movie for you based on an event, or a person, or something like that, and tying it into Apple Music so that instead of the generic soundtracky sort of stuff that they've been using, the very limited stuff they've been using previously you'll have access or they'll have access to everything in the Apple Music catalog, but that at the same time, just pushes Apple Music all the more because they have that integration, they have that shared platform. What will the experience be like if you don't have Apple Music? Probably not as good as if you do have Apple Music, which again, tries to increase that ecosystem, that added value. And from Apple side that average revenue per customer. So the music is being chosen again by on-device intelligence and they're applying filters and effects based on device intelligence. So doing things like adjusting color and contrast, to create, I don't wanna say cinematic, more TV commercial like, energy and effects in real time. And then of course, because you're the human, you get to overrule all of this and you can either search for your own tracks or choose something that you've listened to recently that might be especially relevant to you. And that's sort of my favorite approach with all of this. And that is, to have machine learning do all the heavy lifting, all the grunt work, the sorting, doing everything that would be tedious and boring for us to do, get that all out of the way and let us do that last 10%, 5%, of polishing, or again, overruling, that makes it truly human, truly representational of us.

  • We started with car keys, which were improving with ultra wide band support for an unlock and drive experience. No need to take your iPhone out of your bag or pocket.

  • But now, adding home key, so that if you have a system that supports, cardless, keyless, entry, you can now put that card onto you iPhone.

  • Just add your corporate badge, and tap to enter your building, or office. And where you travel, with hotel keys.

  • You'll be able to scan your driver's license, your state ID, all of these things. And TSA will be implementing it. So at least if you're traveling within the US, to and from the US, that'll be beneficial. Apple always does amazing, amazing things with the wallet App but they're always just so limited to the US or a very handful, very few handful of countries and I hope there's some way that Apple can just apply, bend their will upon making them more universal, more international.

  • The weather App. We're introducing a beautiful new design with data and layouts that change based on conditions.

  • Not just the background animations, although yes that too, but the kind of information that it's giving you, the information density, both graphical and numerical, by better animations, better looks, high resolution maps, and also just a better swath of available data around what's happening with the weather.

  • [Woman] Maps will offer incredible new details, for commercial districts, marinas, buildings and so much more.

  • And you can look at this as a precursor to what we're gonna eventually need for an augmented reality world, when you have, your future Apple glasses product, on your face, and you're looking around, and you need this layered on top of the real world for you whether you're a tourist or just in an area of town, you don't go to a lot or trying to find a specific thing. Even an area you do go to a lot, all of that will have to be available then, so Apple's all obviously getting it all prepped now. And it's got a much more distinctive look. Before it was sort of a bad reality, it was the low polygon count reality, melty reality. Well, this is almost looking so real. Almost like, I don't wanna call it a cartoon look, but it's a very stylized look. And that starting off, it looks like with this, the new driving experience, that's coming to the iPhone and then later to CarPlay. Oh and they're adding another very Googley feature, that is the ability to scan buildings, to scan your surroundings, to help you better more accurately, place yourself in the real world and then provide you directions based on that.

  • [Man] The new tab bar appears with just a tab, and it's directly under your thumb.

  • And, you know, for years now, ever since the iPhone 6 and 6 plus when Apple went to big and bigger designs, they've kept the interface elements largely at the top forcing you to either juggle your phone like you're Penn and Teller, or to use reachability, which is an extra step. So more interface elements that they can push to the bottom of the screen, the better, especially as devices keep getting bigger and bigger.

  • [Speaker] It's now easier and more natural to access your other tabs too. You can just swipe over the tab bar, to move quickly between them.

  • And of course, one of the huge benefits that Apple's providing is that, these groups will be available, these tabs will be available for you across your devices. I mean, it may be easier to create them on the Mac, but really convenient, much more convenient to access them on the go with your iPhone.

  • And the new customizable start page, syncs with Mac, so you have the same Safari experience everywhere.