Apple’s latest software ties everything together

San Francisco: Apple’s big focus for software this year is making the devices you already have work together like one big happy family. Basically, everyone will be in everyone’s else business, but in a good way.

In what looks to be a major alignment of the company’s four major operating systems, Apple on Monday announced that iOS 10, MacOS (previously called OS X), TvOS and WatchOS will work together in ways they haven’t before.

This means Siri, Apple’s voice-based digital companion, will now be available on the Macintosh. The iPhone will now work as the Apple TV remote control. The Apple Watch will now unlock your Macintosh. Get the picture? That’s just a small sample of the features that were announced by Apple CEO Tim Cook and other executives at the 27th edition of the WWDC (Worldwide Developers Conference) in San Francisco.

Most of the new features will go into a public testing phase in July and be available as free upgrades this Fall.

Other major announcements at this year’s shows included a redesigned Apple Music service, an updated Apple News, and a lot of enhancements to Apple’s Messenger, which includes a feature that searches your outgoing messages for words that can be replaced by emoji (but only if you want to.)

The annual WWDC is not so much a launch event — not even a hint was dropped about any new iPhone — but is meant to provide a preview of the company’s major software enhancements so that developers can start to integrate those new features into their third-party apps.

WatchOS 3

Apple has put a lot of effort into increasing the amount of things that can be done with your Apple Watch, but if there is one area where it is doubling down, it’s in the fitness category. The fitness app has been redesigned for more activities, even including those for people in wheelchairs. It has also introduced a number of new watch faces so people can check up on their fitness progress throughout the day.

Apple is also making your fitness routine competitive. You will be able to share you fitness results, compete with friends and also encourage (or taunt) them. Most of this will be through the Watch’s improved user interface, such as new and more useful preset responses, such as “You’re going down” or “A.W.E.S.O.M.E.”

Apple has also acknowledged that preset comments sometimes just won’t have the response you are looking for, so they have introduced Scribble, a writing interface that allows you to draw letter with your finger, which the Watch will then convert into editable text. Scribble will be available in English and Chinese (Mandarin) when it launches this Fall.

There will be a number of performance upgrades with the WatchOS 3, too. Users will be able to “dock” their favourite apps, a move that should eliminate the time it used to take for those apps to load.

TvOS

The biggest upgrade for AppleTV will be the use of the iPhone as a remote control. The phone will not only be able to search for content, but will even stand in as a game controller.

TvOS is also promising to have increased interaction with Photos, smart home Apps and Replay, an App that allows gamers to record and share their latest games for others to watch.

TvOS now has 1,300 video channels and is working on developing Apps for Sling, FoxSportsGo and Molotov.tv.

Siri, which is already a feature on AppleTV, will be upgraded also, and will now be able to search movies by topic or even take users to a live (broadcast) channel.

Apple is also looking to simplify logging in to network-based channels such as the History Channel or ESPN. However, Apple did not address how it would deal with international network channels or where any of those channels would be available outside the US. In other words, it is looking like many of the channels will remain available only to subscribers of US cable companies.

MacOS

Apple’s development of device interactivity will also extend to their computers. For starters, if you have an Apple Watch, you will no longer need to enter a password to access your MacBook. The Watch will now be your physical password and allow you to bypass the login screen. Apple is promising adequate security so that neither your spouse or your parents will be able to “borrow” your watch to gain access to your files.

The biggest change though will be the addition of ApplePay on your desktop. ApplePay will no longer for be just for paying at the counter with your smartphone. It will now be available for online purchases, similar to PayPal. In an added level of security, users will be able to use the iPhone’s fingerprint scanner to verify their online purchases.

Most international users, however, will still not be able to ApplePay. The service is only available in seven countries and there appears to be no timeline for rolling it out anywhere in the Middle East.

Universal cut-and-paste: Probably the most basic but still incredible useful change for the new software will be a “universal cut-and-paste.” If you see something you like on your iPhone, you can “copy” it and “paste” it onto your MacBook. No more sending links or files to move content across your devices.

Apple will also allow you to access your desktop files on iPhone and backup older files into the cloud.

The new MacOS will be called Sierra. It will go into public beta testing in July and launch this Fall.

iOS 10

Apple CEO Tim Cook is calling it the mother of all upgrades and the new iOS software will turn the iPhone into a digital hub for all of its devices.

Lock Screen: First, there is the redesigned lock screen, which will now work with 3D touch. Press on a notification, such as a sports score or message from a friend, and you will get rich notifications, which will include real time news, videos and the ability to chat back.

Siri: Siri too is getting some much-needed upgrades, and, most importantly, it will be opened to third-party developers. Just how this will be developed is hard to predict, but Apple is ready working with select apps developers to promote the feature. This means you will now be able to tell Siri to send messages with WhatsApp or WeChat, tell Siri to turn off the lights in the kitchen (if you have a smart home) or hail an Uber ride.

Typing, Maps and Photos: Apple is also attempting to add contextualisation to its Typing, Maps and Photo apps, which is a nice way of saying “the apps will try to predict what you want to do and allow other apps to help.” The best example at the WWDC was using Apple Maps to find a nearby restaurant, and then using 3D touch to allow Maps to bring up OpenTable, a table reservation app.

Apple’s Photos app is also being designed to see things “in context.” The Photo app will use its face-recognition software to identify objects and locations, so that users will be able search their photos for the objects that are appearing before them, like “bikes” or “the beach.”

Music: The most needed upgrade for iOS 10 will be Music. The service was launched at last year’s WWDC and has quickly reached 15 million subscribers. It has also developed a reputation for being difficult to use. Apple gave a quick demo of the new software, which they say is focused on “clarity and simplicity.”

News:

Apple’s News App, which launched as the same time as Music, has never really gotten much traction. Apple says it is trying to change this with iOS 10 by adding subscription services into the news feed. I’m withholding any judgement on this until I see it, but given Apple’s rather short demonstration on this, I’m not expecting much.

HomeKit: Anyone who has bought a smart home device, knows the process of having to install the accompany app. Buy enough products and you can find yourself juggling more apps then is manageable just to “manage” your smart home. The HomeKit app is promising to integrate all the smart homes functions into a single app.

Messenger: The one area that Apple spent an disproportional amount of time promoting in its WWDC presentation was Messenger. It looks as if the company may have gone overboard in adding bells and whistles to make Messenger as much a visual communication tool as a written one. There will be rich links, bubble effects, full screen effects, Scribbling, Music and even hand writing. And of course there will be a emoji, now three times bigger.

But the one new feature that is sure to have many people declaring the end of the world’s written languages, is the Emoji swapping tool. This little tool will search your typed-words (before you send them, of course) and let you know every time it thinks it is an Emoji substitute. If you aren’t already, be prepared for a tsunami of emoji-filled messages.

Like all the other Apple software updates, iOS 10 will be available in the Fall.

Learn to be Swift

Two years ago Apple launched the Swift programming language. Now it is bring Swift Playground, an interaction apps that teaches the language to all levels of users, to the iPad. Apple is trying to develop coding skills from an early age, and the new App, which will be free, is expected to help promote the initiative.

“Swift Playground is the only app of its kind that is both easy enough for students and beginners, yet powerful enough to write real code,” said Craig Federighi, Apple’s senior vice-president of Software Engineering.