Apple: These new features are coming to billions of devices with iOS 17

When Apple changes the software on its devices, it affects more than a billion people. Because so many users own an iPhone, iPad, an Apple Watch, an Apple TV or a MacBook. The in-house developer conference WWDC is therefore one of the most important events for the group and its users, alongside the iPhone presentation. Because here there Apple Preview of new features coming to devices in the fall. Those are the innovations.

Writing is the new audio

There are things that just disappeared with the smartphone. This includes answering machines on which you could listen live when someone left a message, so that you could then pick up the phone after all. Apple came up with something similar with the new version of the iPhone operating system iOS 17. If a caller speaks to the voicemail, the content appears in real time as text on the display. If you want, you can always pick it up.

The iPhone then uses the same technology when receiving audio messages in iMessage. If you don’t want to hear, you can read. Because you are not always in an environment where you can listen to an audio message. Apple’s FaceTime video calling app is also getting an upgrade with iOS 17. Like an answering machine, it also supports audio and video messages.

If you want to use FaceTime on the television, you can also do this with an Apple TV 4K in the future. The call is then transferred from the iPhone to the Apple TV or started directly on the television.

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The iPhone is placed with its camera under the television so that the user is in the picture. The iPhone camera even tracks the person in front of the TV as they move around the room. Apple announced an Apple TV app for Zoom and Webex video conferencing this year.

Apple continues to see its own Messages app as a way to keep users connected. Only iPhone users can use it to communicate with each other. Apple gives the SMS successor RCS (Rich Communication Services), which offers the modern range of functions that we know from WhatsApp, the cold shoulder. Google has repeatedly asked its competitor to go along with this. Modern Android smartphones master RCS.

Apple also promises improvements in its auto-correction, which is trained using machine learning. Speech recognition should also be more powerful now. AirDrop wireless data transfer is simplified. Images or your own contact can then be transferred by holding two iPhones or an Apple Watch close to each other.

iPhone becomes smart display

The stand-by function is intended to turn the iPhone into a smart display for the night. When rotated horizontally and loaded, it then displays photos and the time. The display can then be supplemented with widgets or buttons to control the connected home. So if you charge your iPhone in bed at night, you get a night alarm clock.

With the new App Journal, Apple provides its users with a digital diary that can be supplemented with photos, locations or workouts, among other things.

However, anyone who owns an iPhone 8 or an iPhone X will no longer be able to update to the iOS 17 version. Apple has been supporting its smartphones for significantly longer than Android device manufacturers.

More widgets on the iPad

More personalization will be possible from autumn on the iPad with widgets and on the lock screen – then even with interactive functions, so that a song can be played or a reminder ticked off from a widget. The Health app is finally available on the iPad. Oddly enough, Apple still owes a pocket calculator for the iPad.

The next macOS operating system, called Sonoma, will also be able to handle widgets more flexibly. They can then be stored anywhere on the desktop and also operated interactively. In the future, users will be able to overlay their video image over the presentation during video conferences on the Mac. This should work independently of the video conference app.

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For gamers, Apple is now introducing a game mode in which the processor and the graphics give priority to the games. This should enable a smoother display, for example.

The Apple Watch gets a slightly different user interface with watchOS10. Probably the most important innovation: If the digital crown is turned, a stack of widgets appears that you can scroll through. Depending on the situation, the widgets adapt so that, for example, the weather forecast is displayed in the morning, the calendar is displayed shortly before an appointment and the boarding passes from the wallet are displayed when travelling.

Apple has even announced an innovation for the AirPods. In addition to noise suppression and transparency mode, there will also be an adaptive audio mode in the future, which combines both previous modes. Using machine learning, this mode recognizes which sounds to block and which not. Also, once the AirPods user starts talking, the music will turn down and the noise-cancellation will pause.

Apple also used its developer conference to present a 15.3-inch (almost 39 centimeters) MacBook Air, which is said to be only 11.5 millimeters thick and weighs 1.5 kilograms. According to Apple, the battery should power the device for 18 hours. Depending on the equipment, it costs in Germany from 1599 euros.

Apple also showed a renewed Mac Studio, which is intended for more professional users and is powered by either the in-house M2 Max or M2 Ultra chip. As the last computer from Apple, the Mac Pro is now also getting a new chip with the M2 Ultra. Apple has thus completed its transformation from Intel chips to its own “Apple Silicon”. The Mac Pro costs from 8300 euros.

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