Apple recently had their World Wide Developers Conference where they showcased the latest software updates for their products. This year they unveiled iOS 14, iPad OS 14, Big Sur for the Mac as well as updates to the Apple Watch and Apple TV. The amount of stuff that they announced was quite overwhelming and they were presented in a very different format this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. However they were still able to pull off a great presentation.
So in this article I want to talk about the some of the things I’m looking forward to the most this fall when they release their latest updates and I want to start off with the iPhone.
iPhone Customization
The App Library is touted to decrease clutter but also keeps your apps within reach. 
Widgets will now exist outside the typical widget menu. Widgets can be made bigger or smaller as well.
I have been an iPhone owner since the iPhone 4 and I used to upgrade my phone yearly when they were more affordable. Lately I’ve been able to hold onto my phone through at least two generations before the screen inevitably breaks. One thing has mainly stayed the same no matter what number iPhone I had and that was the home screen. Sure a bigger screen meant more apps per page and heck even grouping apps was good enough at one point. However I found myself constantly wanting to change the layout of my apps to keep things fresh.
Fortunately that will soon change with several redesigns coming. The first will be the inclusion of widgets outside of the widget menu and onto the home screen. This will make your home screen feel a bit more dynamic while providing more information at your fingerprints. Another update will come in the form of the App Library which will organize all your apps based on usage or app type. This feature will also allow the user to hide certain apps from appearing with the intent to reduce clutter and effort put into finding certain apps.
Messages gets an Update
The message app will finally see new features that other messaging apps have already implemented. This is a familiar strategy from Apple, not always first with a feature release but when it does it is very reliable. Coming to Messages will be the ability to pin important conversations at the top so that they won’t get drowned out by other ongoing conversations.
The next two features are very important to keep the app current which is the ability to mention (@auntie or @bff) and to reply to a specific message. The mention function has been utilized in WhatsApp for quite a while and works great in group messaging. However I think being able to reply inline will reduce clutter and confusion when group chats get way too big or when they are very active.
iPad and iPhone Updates
I think the two features that stand out to me the most will be the ability to change your default apps as well as a less disruptive experience receiving phone calls or using the search. Starting with the latter, it has very annoying to be interrupted when a call comes through. The new way of receiving a call notification will be a banner that will persist at the top of the screen where a simple swipe will send the call to voicemail. This new method will also apply to the search feature that would blur the screen when it was being used. A change to this system will allow users to keep track of what they were working on.
Lastly, despite Apple wanting to have a firm control over its ecosystem they are relinquishing some control and permitting users to choose their own apps to replace some of Apple’s. For example users who prefer Chrome over Safari will now be able to select Chrome as their default browser. However the extent to which users can change Apple’s default apps is limited but it is a hopeful sign that Apple will let this customization go further.
iPad Specific Updates
Scribble can be used in just about any text field it seems. 
Hand written text can now be selected and manipulated.
As mentioned previously most updates coming to the iPhone will also be available on the iPad. Apple however has been making a push to make the iPad more laptop like and has made this apparent by recently adding mouse and trackpad support. This shift in attitude carries over into the next iPad OS update in that apps will get a redesign and provide users with more functionality with the inclusion of a sidebar. With this, users will be able to do more from a single screen much like users of desktop apps can.
Another big update coming to the device is the increased usability of the Apple Pencil. This comes in two parts, the first being the introduction of Scribble on iPad, which allows users to use their pencils to write in any text field and the device will be able to convert it into typed text. This is great when you’re using the pencil and are switching between apps because you won’t have to put down the pencil to use a keyboard.
The other update regarding the iPad and the Apple Pencil is improved note taking functionality. I don’t really use the pencil to write in my notes because it felt a little clunky to me, but according to Apple they have made some great improvements. For example, blocks of text can be resized or moved around instead of being static. This way you can add additional information after the fact or make any updates as needed.
Mac Updates
The desktop and laptop products are getting a new OS this year called MacOS 11 or Big Sur. Weirdly enough, this wasn’t the big headline to come out of their presentation. In fact, Apple is making a big shift in the processors that the Macs will use and have opted to implement their own processors to these devices. However this doesn’t mean that they’ve left Intel completely in the dust because they stated they will continue to support and roll out Macs with Intel processors.
Apple has been making their own processors for their mobile devices for some time now and they have proven that they can squeeze out more performance from the device while still keeping battery usage to all time lows. Yet when it comes to full fledged computers this transition can be a bit tricky because a lot of programs are built on top of the underlying chip architecture. This means that developers for Mac apps will now have to take this into consideration during development. It will be interesting to see how smoothly this transition occurs and what the timeframe will look like for each product to get updated.
Other Updates
To round out the discussion I want to finish off with an update to the Apple Watch. I personally love the watch and it definitely makes it convenient to handle music or podcasts and the occasional phone call that comes through when I’m away from my phone. I use it the most during exercise, utilizing both Apple and third party apps. For the exercises that I implement, I am happy with my current setup but I am interested in seeing how Apple has made their exercise app more feature rich and will test it out when it releases.
The big announcement however was in the form of Apple’s own sleep tracking app. Presumably it will better recognize sleep patterns because it has some great hardware to utilize. My current sleep tracking set up involves a Fitbit flex 2 and the Fitbit app which provides reliable information but becomes a bit cumbersome. I know, first world problems.
The only downside to this long awaited update is the fact that I charge my watch mainly when I sleep. It will be intriguing to see how others will adapt, myself included, to this slight inconvenience.
So there you have it, a listing of my personally most anticipated features coming to Apple’s products. Quite frankly this has made me more excited about some of the new hardware coming down the pipeline starting with the iPhone 12 and Mac computers with Apple’s own processors. Let me know what kind of features and products you’re most looking forward to from Apple and don’t forget to subscribe to my emailing list to get notified on my latest posts.