Author: azeeadmin

Apple today announced a number of coming changes and improvements to the App Store that will help developers better target their apps to users, get their apps discovered by more people, and even highlight what sort of events are taking place inside their apps to entice new users to download the app and encourage existing users to return.

The company said its App Store today sees 600 million weekly users across 175 countries, and has paid out over $230 billion to developers since the App Store launched, highlighting the business opportunity for app developers.

However, as the App Store has grown, it’s become harder for app developers to market their apps to new users or get their apps found. The new features aim to address that.

Image Credits: Apple

One change involves the app’s product page. Starting this year, app developers will be able to create multiple custom product pages to showcase different features of their app for different users. For instance, they’ll be able to try out things like different screenshots, videos, and even different app icons to A/B test what users like the most.

They’ll also be able to advertise the dynamic things that are taking place inside their apps on an ongoing basis. Apple explained that apps and games are constantly rolling out new content and limited time events like film premieres on streaming services, events like Pokémon Go fests, or Nike fitness challenges. But these events were often only discoverable by those who already had the app installed and then opted in to push notifications.

Image Credits: Apple

Apple will now allow developers to better advertise these events, with the launch in-app events “front and center on the App Store.” The events can be showcased on the app’s product page. Users can learn more about the events, sign up to be notified, or quickly join the event, if it’s happening now. They can also discover events with personalized recommendations and through App Store search.

App Store editors will curate the best events and the new App Store widget will feature upcoming events right on users’ homescreens, too.

Apple says the feature will be open to all developers, including those who already run events and those who are just getting started.

During the WWDC conference today, Apple unveiled the new macOS 12 Monterey. A major feature in the macOS update is Universal Control, which builds upon the Continuity features first introduced in OS X Yosemite. For years, it’s been possible to open a news article on your iPhone and keep reading it on your MacBook, or to copy and paste a link from your iPad to your iMac. But Universal Control takes these features further.

With Universal Control, you can use a single mouse and keyboard to navigate across multiple Apple devices at once. This functionality works across more than two devices – in the demo video, the feature is used to seamlessly move across an iPad, MacBook, and iMac. Users can drag and drop files across multiple devices at once, making it possible, for example, to use a multi-screen setup while editing video on Final Cut Pro.

What’s possible in Universal Control isn’t necessarily new – this has been made possible before through third party apps. Plus, in 2019, Apple debuted Sidecar, which allowed users to connect their iPad as a second monitor for their MacBook or iMac. But, Universal Control improves upon Sidecar – and maybe renders it obsolete – by allowing users to link any Apple devices together, even if it’s not an iPad. Though this update may not be ground-breaking, it’s a useful upgrade to existing features.

Apple didn’t announce that rumored combined Apple TV device that would combine the set-top box with a HomePod speaker during its WWDC keynote, but it did announce a few features that will improve the Apple TV experience — including one that involves a HomePod Mini. Starting this fall, Apple said you’ll be able to select the HomePod Mini as the speaker for your Apple TV 4K. It also introduced a handful of software updates for Apple TV users, including a new way to see shows everyone in the family will like, and support for co-watching shows through FaceTime.

The co-watching feature is actually a part of a larger FaceTime update, which will let users stream music, TV, and screen share through their FaceTime calls. The Apple TV app is one of those that’s supported through this new system, called SharePlay. It will now include a new “Shared with You” row that highlights the shows and movies your friends are sharing, as well.

Another feature called “For All of You” will display a collection of shows and movies based on everyone’s interests within Apple TV’s interface. This is ideal you’re planning to watch something as a family — like for movie night, for example. And you can fine tune the suggestions based on who’s watching.

A new Apple TV widget is also being made available, which now includes iPad support.

And the new support for HomePod Mini will help deliver “rich, balanced sound” and “crystal clear dialog,” when you’re watching Apple TV with the Mii set up as your speakers, Apple said.

Apple has announced the next major version of macOS at WWDC 2021 — macOS Monterey. Among other features, Apple is going to release Shortcuts on macOS. It’s going to look and work a lot like Shortcuts on iOS and iPadOS.

“The Mac has a long history of automation with command line, shell scripts, Apple scripts and Automator. And on iOS, we've made automation even easier with Shortcuts,” SVP of Software Engineering Craig Federighi said. “And this year we're bringing Shortcuts to the Mac.”

In the new Shortcuts app, you can see a gallery of popular shortcuts. It’s going to be interesting to see what exactly you can trigger with shortcuts, but you can expect to be able to launch apps, create GIFs, send a message, create an email, launch a website, etc.

After that, you can trigger your shortcuts in the right column of the Finder, in the menubar and in Spotlight. You can also trigger them with Siri.

With this announcement, Apple is also setting the stage for the end of Automator. “This is just the start of a multi-year transition Automator will continue to be supported, and you can import Automator workflows into beginning one with shortcuts,” Federighi said.

If you read between the lines, it sounds like Apple doesn’t plan to add new features to Automator. Shortcuts is the future of automation on macOS, iOS and iPadOS.

Apple kicked off its global annual developer conference, WWDC, with a ton of new features and technologies. TechCrunch has all the coverage here from the keynote. As with previous years, Apple has dropped a number of new security and privacy features.

New privacy dashboard keeps tabs on app tracking requests

Apple is bringing a new privacy dashboard to iOS 15 to make it easier to see which apps are collecting your data and when. It’s a continuation of Apple’s App Tracking Transparency feature that it rolled out earlier this year to block apps from siphoning off and selling your data to advertisers and data brokers. In iOS 15, you will be able to see which apps you have given permission to access your data — such as your location, microphone, contacts, and photos — and how often it’s accessed.

(Image: TechCrunch / screenshot)

Mail will block invisible email trackers

Emails are not as private as you might think. Most marketing emails contain hidden pixel-sized images that know when you’ve opened an email. These trackers also collect information about you, including your IP address, which can be used to infer your location. Some browser extensions already block these invisible email trackers. But Apple said it’s bringing privacy features to the Mail app, which will make it more difficult for emails — and ad trackers — from knowing what emails you’ve opened.

Siri will process speech on the device

Siri, Apple’s voice assistant, requires the internet to work, but will soon work offline. Apple said Siri will soon process speech on the device so that audio never leaves the device. Apple said this will help prevent unwanted audio recording, but will also help make Siri respond to requests faster.

Apple also has a few new security and privacy features baked into its new iCloud+ premium service, including private relay, which encrypts your Safari internet traffic.

As part of its new premium iCloud+ service, Apple is also rolling out private relay browsing, which encrypts your Safari traffic and routes it so that it’s more difficult to track which websites you visit. TechCrunch’s Romain Dillet has more.

The past year has seen some of the most dramatic updates to Macs in recent memory. At last year’s WWDC, Apple announced its long-awaited move from Intel chip’s to its own first party silicon. By the end of the year, the company launched the first three M1 Macs, along with Big Sur, one of the biggest updates to macOS.

At this morning’s kickoff to WWDC, the company unveiled macOS 12 — named, you guessed it, Monterey. Universal Control is the top line new feature here, which further bridges the gap between desktop and tablet. Sticking the iPad next to a Mac, you can move the cursor between devices using the same trackpad and keyboard. The feature works on up to three devices at once.

AirPlay to Mac also blurs that let’s you cast content directly to your big desktop screen — that’s nice for weirdos like me who don’t have a TV. Shortcuts are also now available on macOS, allowing for simpler automation that the existing Automater. Users will be able to import Automater workflows directly to the desktop version of the popular mobile app. It will be a multi-year transition, but rip Automater — you will be missed (kind of).

Shortcuts will be coming to Siri, Spotlight, the menu bar and Finder to start.

Developing…

You weren’t expecting to make it through this year’s WWDC without some big watchOS news, were you? Apple’s wearable isn’t quite doing iPhone numbers, but Watch has been massively successful for the company, utterly dominating the smartwatch market.

Surprising absolutely no one, the company is taking a more focused approach to mindfulness. Apple’s not ready to kill Calm or Headspace just yet, but the popular breathe feature is getting a much needed upgrade with new animations reminding users to reflect and be more mindful.

Also new is respiratory tracking, which thus far had been more of a background feature. It’s being surfaced in the watchOS experience, for tracking over time and more notifications.

It wouldn’t be a watchOS update without some new faces, of course. Here the company is adding a portrait mode to faces to offer more depth for shots as the lock screen. The Watch Photos app is getting a new layout, as well, along with the share images from the watch to first-party apps like Mail and Messages.

Fitness+ is getting a bunch of new content, as well, including artist musical spotlights for workouts including Alicia Keys, Lady Gaga and Keith Urban. Tai chi and pilates are also being added to the list of workouts tracked by the wearable.

And last, but certainly not least for many, watchOS is also getting GIF support.

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Apple is rolling out some updates to iCloud under the name iCloud+. The company is announcing those features at its developer conference. Existing paid iCloud users are going to get those iCloud+ features for the same monthly subscription price.

In Safari, Apple is going to launch a new privacy feature called Private Relay. It sounds a bit like the new DNS feature that Apple has been developing with Cloudflare. Originally named Oblivious DNS-over-HTTPS, Private Relay could be a better name for something quite simple — a combination of DNS-over-HTTPS with proxy servers.

When Private Relay is turned on, nobody can track your browsing history — not your internet service provider, anyone standing in the middle of your request between your device and the server you’re requesting information from. We’ll have to wait a bit to learn more about how it works exactly.

The second iCloud+ feature is ‘Hide my email’. It lets you generate random email addresses when you sign up to a newsletter or when you create an account on a website. If you’ve used ‘Sign in with Apple’, you know that Apple offers you the option to use fake iCloud email addresses. This works similarly, but for any app.

Finally, Apple is overhauling HomeKit Secure Video. With the name iCloud+, Apple is separating free iCloud users from paid iCloud users. Basically, you used to pay for more storage. Now, you pay for more storage and more features. Subscriptions start at $0.99 per month for 50GB (and iCloud+ features).

More generally, Apple is adding two much needed to iCloud accounts. Now, you can add a friend for account recovery. This way, you can request access to your data to your friend. But that doesn’t mean that your friend can access your iCloud data — it’s just a way to recover your account.

The last much-needed update is a legacy feature. You’ll soon be able to add one or several legacy contacts. Data can be passed along when you pass away. And this is a much needed feature as many photo libraries become inaccessible when someone close to you passes away.

Apple today introduced the next version iPadOS with more widgets and a better multitasking system. The announcement was by Apple SVP, Craig Federighi at Apple’s annual developer’s conference, WWDC. The features announced today are welcomed updates, but fall short from the major rework the iPad sorely deserves.The new iPad features come in addition to the bevy of features and updates found in iOS 15, which were also announced today.

“With iPad OS, we [want to] build distinct capabilities making it possible for the iPad to become whatever you need it to be,” said Apple SVP, Craig Federighi in a pre-recorded video.

iPadOS 15 retains the overall look and feel of the current iPad operating system. The updates in the new OS are mostly centered around multitasking. The iPad’s widget support gets a big update with iPadOS 15. The widgets are larger, more immersive, and dynamic. iOS’s App Library is finally available on the iPad where it tweaks the overall user experience. The feature, added to the iPhone in 2020, presents the user with an organized view of the apps on the iPad.

iPadOS 15 adds a new multitasking system. Called Split View, a drop-down menu at the top of the screen unlocks several multi-tasking, multi-window options. Called Split View, the system seems much smoother than the current multiscreen option on iPad OS, which is clunky and hidden. With Split View a feature called Shelf makes it easy to switch between different screens and screen grouping.

These new multitasking features will help our users be more productive, and do even more on their iPad,” said Federighi. “And what’s really cool is we now have a new set of keyboard shortcuts that let you do all of this without lifting a finger.”

Apple updated the note taking system in iPad OS to better take advantage of the iPad’s large screen. One new feature, called Quick Notes, allows users to float a note-taking window anywhere overtop of another app. That way, a user can take notes without

iPadOS 15 sports a new version of Swift Playgrounds that allows users to learn, build, and submit iPad and iPhone apps to the App Store. This represents a large step forward in Apple’s app development world. Now, a user can learn Swift and submit apps without the need of a Mac.

These features come just weeks after Apple started selling its more powerful iPad yet with many tech pundits calling on Apple to update the iPad’s operating system to better match the potential of the new hardware. iPad OS 15 is the evolution of the iPad and not the revolution many want.