Apple’s WWDC 2017 day one presentation has just come to a close and they really went all out in pushing productivity and convenience to its audience. For now, we are going to look at the improvements that the company has brought to the iOS for both iPhone and iPad and a new device that they are releasing to rival the other home assistants that are out there, HomePod.
iOS iPhone
iMessage is the default messaging client that most of the people in the West use and now Apple has included a drawer where all the stickers will be stored, they have also enabled syncing to the iCloud allow you to carry your messages to any other device and you can make payments through the app, similar to what Facebook Messenger can do. The Photo app has also gotten an update and it comes in the form of grouping your pictures based on context like ‘growing up’, ‘Anniversary’ and more. It can also edit live photos, allowing you to select the particular frame you like and saving it as a photo. The Maps app is also updated showing you the speed limit and lane assists so you will not miss the turn, a more impressive feature is that it will show the plans for the mall or airport that you are heading to, giving you the chance to plan out your trip while in the destination.
Image Source: The Verge
The App Store is also updated where it would show you three tabs, the first being the Today tab where it will show you the latest apps that came out today and tell you the story of how that app was born straight from the words of the developer. The Game tab is dedicated to showing you the games that you might like and breaking down the games into a subcategory such as Action, Puzzle and more, there is also an App tab where it will show you apps that are not related to games.
iOS iPad
For the iPad’s version of iOS 11, Apple has added a dock at the bottom of the screen for you to add apps that you frequent too, making it easier to launch whatever you need, the dock is also accessible in full-screen apps but swiping from the bottom to bring up the dock, swiping the app from the bottom to top will show you a screen with all the other apps suspended and waiting for you to come back to them.
Now, there is also support for multi-window, allowing you to drag an app from the dock to the screen and it will appear on the side, similar to what you can do on Windows, it will also allow you to drag and drop, images, texts, URL and more from one window to another. The virtual keyboard has also been updated that makes it much easier to add punctuations and numbers by pressing and swiping down to select the number or punctuation on that key. Lastly, is the addition of Markup which is a productivity app that will allow you to draw on images or pictures saved on the iPad, they also made it easy to access notes that are being written when the device sleeps by simply tapping on the screen with the Apple Pencil. It does not stop there, you can also draw on emails making it more personal when sending it, the search feature in iOS can search for notes even if the whole note is written as it can understand handwriting.
HomePod
Rumors were right about a Siri-enabled speaker and it is called the HomePod. The device is a 7-inch tall speaker with the bottom, housing tweeter speakers that drive the sound from the bottom and a subwoofer, driving the bass to the top. The speaker can also detect the room that it is in, this is because the speaker is able to detect the individual channels in a song and redirect them accordingly to fit the room it’s in, and will work together with another identical speaker next to it.
As this is coming from Apple, with the phrase ‘Hey Siri’ the speaker will activate and is ready to perform the commands that you request from asking to play music to switching off the lights in your home. The HomePod will come in White and Space Gray and will be available in the US, UK, and Australia and the rest of the world next year, it will retail for $349.
Overall, what we saw today was pretty interesting advancements and tech that they are bringing to consumers and the promise of productivity on their devices makes it a really good selling point. Did you watch the keynote? Let us know what you were more excited about in the comments.
