Apple:
Users can now customize the Lock Screen with stunning wallpapers, new ways to showcase their favorite photos, and expressive fonts and colors to personalize the look of the date and time. Interactive widgets take glanceable information further with the ability to get tasks done right in the moment with just a tap, directly from the Lock Screen or Home Screen.
[…]
Working with PDFs on iPad is easier than ever. Coming later this year, AutoFill identifies and fills fields in forms, allowing users to quickly add details such as names, addresses, and emails from Contacts.
[…]
The Health app comes to iPad with a design optimized for the larger display.
[…]
Stage Manager adds more flexibility to the positioning of windows and offers the ability to use an external display camera for FaceTime and conference calls.
See also: Federico Viticci, Dan Moren, MacRumors.
Previously:
Health.app iOS Widgets iPadOS iPadOS 17 iPadOS Release Lock Screen Stage Manager Wallpaper
Apple:
Apple today released watchOS 10, a milestone update bringing a new visual language to apps to see more information at a glance, a new Smart Stack to show relevant widgets right when they’re needed, and delightful new watch faces. Bluetooth connectivity for power meters, speed sensors, and cadence sensors arrive for cyclists, unlocking new metrics and Workout Views, and cycling workouts will automatically show up as a Live Activity on iPhone and utilize the full screen. Additionally, new Compass Waypoints and Maps capabilities can further help during outdoor adventures. The Mindfulness app offers new tools to support mental health with state of mind logging, and Apple Watch also introduces the ability to measure time spent in daylight using the ambient light sensor.
See also: MacRumors, Dan Moren.
Previously:
Update (2023-10-25): Matt Birchler:
This week I talked about how I, and many other people, didn’t feel like the new watchOS button behaviors are intuitive (even after using them for 3 months). “Maybe it will make sense with a new watch that has different button layouts.”
Early in the watchOS 10 beta I mentioned that the buttons at the end of a workout were shuffled around from how they had always been and that ending a workout took more taps than before. “Maybe it will make sense when we see the new watches in September and they have a new feature.”
[…]
The Series 9 and Ultra 2 Apple Watches added no functions to the Workout app and the UI is identical to the other models
Update (2023-11-22): Alex Guyot:
One complication associated with the Dock’s new position is that double-clicking the Digital Crown already had a behavior in watchOS. This action has long been used to automatically swap back and forth between two apps, or between an app and the watch face.
[…]
I do wish Apple would make the watch face itself accessible from the Dock. In the old system, if you opened a single app and then wanted to hop right back to the watch face, the Digital Crown double-click action would make that happen instantly. Without the watch face showing up in the Dock though, the only method we’re left with is to press the Digital Crown, wait a few moments to make sure you aren’t going to register a double-click, and then press the Crown again.
[…]
I think the assignment of the hardware button to Control Center, without updating the Control Center interface at all, was downright lazy. It feels as though Apple knew they wanted to place the Smart Stack where Control Center was (a perfectly reasonable idea), but didn’t put in the work to think of a new place for Control Center to live where it would actually make sense.
[…]
Alternatively, I wouldn’t mind at all if the company reconsiders Control Center again, making it a software button at the top of the Smart Stack, and changes the Side button into an Action button.
Update (2024-01-11): Joe Rosensteel:
The hold-down-to-change-watch-faces thing lasted from September 10th to November 15th, so clearly that one didn’t go over well. Moving the Control Center to the side button persisted, without any preference or option to revert. Maybe fewer people were pissed off about it?
[…]
Perhaps, what’s so frustrating to me is that the Smart Stack is so useless to me, specifically. I can’t speak for everyone else, but all of the times I’ve accidentally opened this treasure trove of irrelevance it’s displayed the day of the week, the month, the date, the goddamn time, and then a card that’s either a snippet of my almost entirely empty calendar, or the weather. All of this information (except my mostly empty calendar) is better laid out in my Modular watch face, using complications.
[…]
And yet, I somehow get both the swipe up, and the upwards swipe on the Digital Crown to get to it? It deserves two special gestures?
I also find the top part of Smart Stack useless, but it doesn’t really bother me because it’s still easy (though less intuitive given how it works on iOS) to access Control Center with the button.
Control Center watchOS watchOS 10 watchOS Release
Alexander Sandberg and Holly Borla (tweet, Hacker News):
This is a major new release that adds an expressive macro system to the language and introduces support for integrating Swift into C++ codebases through bidirectional interoperability.
It also introduces parameter packs, an improved expression evaluator while debugging, enhanced crash handling, Windows platform improvements, and more.
[…]
The new consume operator tells Swift to deinitialize a variable and transfer its contents without copying it. The consuming and borrowing parameter modifiers provide hints that Swift can use to eliminate unnecessary copying and reference-counting operations when passing a parameter.
I have not been following this closely, but as far as I can tell this is for optimizations in code that you write. It doesn’t help when your code is being called by the standard library. If you try to iterate a Sequence or sort an Array of custom objects, I think it’s still going to do lots of unnecessary reference-counting.
Finally, noncopyable structs and enums allow you to create types which, like a class, can’t be meaningfully copied when assigned, but like a struct or enum, do not need to be reference-counted because only one storage location can own the instance at a time.
[…]
Lots of good stuff here. I’m still using Xcode 14, and the Swift compiler frequently crashes or produces incorrect results. I hope this version is better.
See also: Paul Hudson.
Previously:
Automatic Reference Counting (ARC) Language Design Memory Management Optimization Programming Swift Programming Language
Prajakta Gudadhe and Ashwini Varma (via Hacker News):
Security is our number one priority. Chromebooks get automatic updates every four weeks that make your laptop more secure and help it last longer. And starting next year, we’re extending those automatic updates so your Chromebook gets enhanced security, stability and features for 10 years after the platform was released.
[…]
Starting in 2024, if you have Chromebooks that were released from 2021 onwards, you’ll automatically get 10 years of updates. For Chromebooks released before 2021 and already in use, users and IT admins will have the option to extend automatic updates to 10 years from the platform’s release (after they receive their last automatic update).
[…]
Our new repair flows allow authorized repair centers and school technicians to repair Chromebooks without a physical USB key. This reduces the time required for software repairs by over 50% and limits time away from the classroom.
[…]
Chromebooks include lower upfront costs than other devices: a 55% lower device cost and a 57% lower cost of operations. Over three years, Chromebooks save more than $800 in operating costs per device compared to others.
Lucas Gutterman:
Many schools are buying way more laptops than they used to, to ensure that every student has a device to use in class and at home. It would be one thing if kids could use the same laptop for their entire education. But currently, Chromebooks have a built-in “death date.” After as few as four years, Google stops updating the software – rendering the laptop useless.
To stop this Chromebook Churn, over 10,000 supports signed a petition, joining a coalition of nonprofits, parents and teachers asking Google for longer-lasting laptops. Thursday’s announcement is a victory for all of us. Once laptops have a lifespan of 10 years, fewer will “expire” and need to be disposed of.
Meanwhile, macOS Sonoma drops support for Macs that Apple was selling in 20182019.
Previously:
Education Google Chromebook Mac macOS 14 Sonoma
