Microsoft is continuing to build on its promise to improve its services for gamers. Last year, it vowed to improve its Microsoft Store and last month unveiled a powerful new take on the Xbox Game Bar. Now its taking stock of its Xbox-branded services on PC. The official Xbox app for Windows, which used to include Xbox Live chat, an activity feed and more, will soon become a slimmer, more lightweight "Console Companion." For now, that just means a name change, though in a previous message Microsoft also teased a new "desktop experience."
While Microsoft hasn't been explicit in what exactly this will mean for the app, it does seem likely that social features such as messaging and party chat will move into the Game Bar. Microsoft has become increasingly cloud-focused in recent times, so this move would certainly speed up its gaming services and give gamers more of a reason to stick with Microsoft's eco-system -- and perhaps even eventually sign up to its game-streaming platform, Project xCloud.
I had some brief time actually using an iPad Pro running iPadOS yesterday, and one of the first things I did was open up a Safari tab Apple had waiting for me: a Google Doc. Google Docs has long been a huge problem on the iPad, for two reasons. First, Google’s own iPad app is god-awful and the company seems hell-bent on not updating it to work better. Second, Google Docs in Safari on the iPad right now redirects you to that app even if you “Request Desktop Site.”
On iPadOS, however, Google Docs in Safari seems great.
Admittedly, I only spent about five minutes poking around, but I went straight for the stuff I didn’t expect to work at all — and it worked. Keyboard shortcuts for formatting and header styling, comments, cursor placement, and even watching real-time edits from another person in the doc all worked.
Since native apps generally work better than web apps on the iPad, I would still probably prefer Google fix its app. Still, this is leaps and bounds better than any Google Docs experience on the iPad before and will be a huge boon for anybody who depends on it for their work.
As for how Apple pulled this off, I have a few answers and a lot of questions.
Answers first: Apple is setting the “user agent” (the thing browsers use to tell websites what they are) to the desktop version of Safari. That means websites won’t default to serving their mobile versions because they see an iOS-based browser. After that, though, Apple is optimizing that site to work with touch (and the iPad’s keyboard). So it was pretty easy to hit all of Google Docs’ menu buttons, and keyboard shortcuts were no problem.
Now, questions: to optimize these sites for touch, Apple says it is doing some re-rendering of the website on the fly to ensure they work on the iPad’s screen. I don’t know whether the touch optimization is part of that or if it’s another layer on top. It probably doesn’t matter unless one of the answers there means a speed hit on slower or older iPads.
The biggest question, of course, is whether Safari on iPadOS is actually “desktop class” in the way that Chrome OS or Safari on the Mac are. Is Apple just taking what is still at bottom its supercharged mobile browser and making sure it is optimized for commonly used desktop sites? Is it actually something like the full desktop Safari codebase on the iPad?
I tend to think it’s the former, but that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s a problem. We will have to wait until the official release to find out just how “desktop class” this version of Safari really is.
The bottom line is that it seems like Apple has heard a lot of the specific complaints about iOS on the iPad over the past year (USB drives, web apps, limited text editing) and taken steps to fix those exact problems. That whack-a-bug approach might not be what people really asked for, but it’s certainly possible that the end result will be the same: it’s going to be harder to argue that the iPad isn’t a “real” computer.
Another WWDC, another set of apps, products, and services that may have just been “Sherlocked” by Apple. The term, used as a colloquial way to refer to when Apple builds a native feature that effectively renders a third-party app or product useless, comes up every year as the company grows its OS offerings and introduces new capabilities worthy of your 30 or so minutes to update.
So what did Apple try to get rid of, or at least borrow from, this year? While not every single item here will be considered dead by the time Apple rolls out iOS 13 and macOS Catalina by the fall, at the very least these developers must now figure out ways to differentiate themselves enough to keep customers from switching to Apple’s version.
Single Sign On
Of all the different companies Apple is trying to go after, it’s obvious that Google and Facebook have been in the company’s crosshairs for the longest time, especially in regards to security. With Sign in with Apple, users can now opt to have Apple sign them up for apps and services instead of connecting through a Facebook or Google account. Apple promises to provide less information to apps than Facebook or Google would, and it even goes a step further and offers users a way to generate a random email that apps and services can spam without giving those companies your actual address. It’ll also allow users to sign in with Face ID.
Menstruation and fertility tracking apps
Apple has been criticized for its lack of comprehensive female health tracking support (it didn’t add female health tracking as a category until 2015), and this year at WWDC it finally announced that users can track their menstruation cycles through both the new Apple Watch Cycles app or the iOS Health app. This feature is rather belated, allowing for third-party apps like Clue, Flo, Eve, and Glow to take over the market for most of the past decade. Some of these apps have also come under fire for using sensitive quantified data for marketing and R&D. Another, Femm, was recently discovered to have been funded by anti-abortion groups, with the app claiming to monitor menstrual cycles while encouraging users to avoid using hormonal birth control.
Being able to track your cycles locally on your device mean users no longer have to worry about what third parties your data is potentially being shared with. It’s also included in the cost of your iPhone and Apple Watch, so no more paying for an app or dealing with ad-supported free apps.
Drawing tablets
macOS Catalina includes a new feature called Sidecar that allows you to use an iPad as a secondary screen to your Mac desktop. Since the iPad supports the Apple Pencil, that means if you own all three items already, you won’t need a Wacom-style dedicated tablet to draw inside your Mac apps anymore. And since the iPad has its own OS, and most drawing tablets don’t, it’s likely to be a much more worthwhile investment for artists who draw and design on the go since they can also use it with any relevant illustration apps. Still, it won't replace huge drawing tablets like the Wacom Cintiq.
Luna, Duet Display, and other sketching / second display apps
In the same vein, Sidecar also means that third-party apps that let you use the iPad as a second screen are no longer needed. Some of the more popular app for this are Luna and Duet Display, though the latter company also offers support for PC to iPad, so it’s not entirely dead just yet for households with varied OSes.
Google Street View
I’m not quite certain that Apple will have Google’s Street View beat just yet, but it’s at least trying. By including its own version of Street View (called “Look Around”), Apple is trying to recruit users back from Google Maps with the hopes that they’ll eventually populate its apps with more data. After all, Google Maps has grown into almost its own travel guide given all the different businesses that are listed alongside user-submitted photos and reviews, and Apple clearly wants a slice of that pie.
Apple Watch voice memo apps
Voice Memo is coming to the Apple Watch in watchOS 6, so there’s not really a reason to use free voice recording apps from third-party vendors anymore. There’s probably less of a reason to use paid ones too, unless they offer more in-depth tools like transcriptions or editing. Still, they’re features that Apple could reasonably build if enough users / developers want them, especially as it works to expand its accessibility tools.
Video editing apps
With iOS 13, users will be able to edit videos to adjust color balance, sharpness, saturation, and more. You can now even rotate and crop videos or apply filters! It’s not as in-depth as other video editing apps that let you cut and paste footage or layover music tracks for a complete edit suite on the go, but it’s enough that the casual person editing to share on social media can do so without a third-party app.
Home security camera cloud storage
Apple has long touted its on-device encryption for any data that users send through, whether that’s passwords, Siri voice data, or health information, and now it’s bringing the same feature to HomeKit to combat third-party home security cameras that are vulnerable to hacking. The new HomeKit Secure Video API tweaks the way these products store security footage by encrypting video content before sending it to iCloud. Apple is also offering 10 days of free recording storage without eating into your iCloud space.
Though Apple isn’t selling its own security camera, it does make it harder for companies that don’t adopt HomeKit to sell theirs given recent news of how home security cameras and doorbells from Google’s Nest and Amazon’s Ring can get hacked. And since encrypted home security videos are included now with the cost of iCloud, it’ll be tough to convince customers to shell out extra money for companies like Nest and Canary to save their videos in the cloud.
SwiftKey / Swype
iOS 13 also offers a new way to type, allowing you to swipe around the keyboard to type the word you want without lifting a finger. Apple calls it “QuickPath Typing,” which sounds an awful lot like Swype and SwiftKey, two of the more popular apps that started offering this feature years ago. It’s like Apple isn’t even going to pretend someone else popularized this input behavior with that naming mechanism.
Tile
Tile's stick-on Bluetooth trackers aren't quite killed by Apple yet, but it does borrow the same idea in terms of how the technology works. Both Tile and Apple’s new Find My app on macOS uses the power of crowdsourcing to locate a misplaced product by letting its Bluetooth connection ping other people’s devices, which relay that info back to the cloud. This allows the Find My app to work even when a MacBook is closed and offline.
So while it does depend on the MacBook having enough battery power to last until it’s found, it is one less device for a Tile to be stuck on. Of course, people don’t just use Tiles for Apple laptops, so for now the device lives to see another day. Emphasis on ”for now.”
If we missed any products Apple duplicated the functions of at WWDC 2019, feel free to drop them in the comments. It’s worth noting that Apple isn’t alone in this practice (we don’t have to tell you how many iPhone knockoffs are out there) — technology companies find, ahem, inspiration from one another or take different amounts of time to launch similar features all the time. As my colleague James Vincent put it, it’s just an occupational hazard of being an app developer nowadays.
Forget Game of Thrones. The greatest story ever told was one of two highly heralded platforms: iOS and Android. They’re in constant competition, and there’s never a shortage of shade, whether it’s Apple dropping a truth bomb about Android’s flip-a-switch privacy during its WWDC ’19 keynote, or Google showing off the prowess of its integrated AI smarts at its developer event.
Whatever smartphone you’re using, you’re bound to find similarities in features. That’s because like in fashion, there are trends, and Apple and Google are setting the bar. Both companies have major software updates coming soon—iOS 13 and Android Q, respectively—both of which will usher in a variety of new abilities you’ll quickly find you can’t live without. (As long as you update your software, of course.)
Dark mode
Android Q’s Dark Mode is most certainly A Mood. Screenshot: Florence Ion
Developers of both platforms cheered in unison when Apple and Google respectively announced that there would be a dark interface coming to their platforms. That’s likely because there are many out there feeling burnt out by the brightness of their screens.
iOS 13 and Android Q will come equipped with a system-wide dark mode. All menu screens, buttons, and fonts will adhere to a darker color scheme, along with notifications panels and pop-ups, and the dock in iOS. All of Apple and Google’s first-party apps will support the feature on each of their platforms.
Reminders
Apple announced a revamp of the Reminders app in iOS 13. The app will feature new categories to help separate tasks by urgency, as well as a new AI-propelled feature that will remind you when it’s time to do the thing you planned to do.
Android Q will already have this ability inherited through the Google Assistant app, which lets you start off a command with, “Hey Google, remind me to...”. And since it’s linked to the Assistant, the reminder will pop up on your phone, and from your smart speaker, and in your Chrome browser (though only if you want it to).
Robust privacy features
Both Android Q and iOS 13 are getting their own version of robust permissions settings.Screenshot: Florence Ion
At I/O, Google announced a heaping of features coming to Android Q related to privacy. We won’t know the extent of them until the software is final, though in the latest versions of Android you can already adjust individual permissions by the app.
iOS 13 will have similar abilities where you can choose how often to give your location data to a particular app, so it’s not pinging when you’re not using your phone. In a one-up move on Google, Apple also introduced the “Sign in with Apple” feature, which will let iPhone users create new accounts and log into them using Face ID. Apple accounts will also be able to create throwaway email addresses for different apps, helping cut down on spam in your inbox.
Improved Maps
iOS 13 will have its own version of Google Maps’ Street View feature, called Look Around. Image: Apple
Apple Maps is finally getting the Street View it deserves, except that it’s called Look Around. It works similarly to the feature in Google Maps, allowing you to pan around, take a walk down a virtual street, and scan for monuments.
There’s also a Share ETA feature coming to iOS 13. Like the option in Google Maps, you can send out a link to a friend to temporarily follow along your route, until you get to your destination. Unfortunately, it’s unlikely sending a link from Apple Maps to your Android-using friend will work, as the app is not available in the Google Play Store.
Swipe typing
Apple’s version of swipe-typing is called Quick Path. Image: Apple
Swipe typing, where you use your thumb to swipe across the keyboard and pray the prediction engine catches your gist, isn’t new to the iPhone. But in iOS 13, the ability will become native. Apple named its version Quick Path.
Google’s Gboard keyboard app (also for iOS) has already had the feature for years, not to mention third-party apps like SwiftKey and Swype. At least now you won’t have to download an app to enable it on the iPhone.
Photos
Google Photos can already facilitate in rotating your video for you. Screenshot: Florence Ion
iOS 13 will include new editing tools for photos and videos. You’ll be able to edit elements like brilliance, shadows, highlights, contrast, saturation, white balance, sharpness, and definition. There’s also a vignette and noise reduction feature. And for quick edits, videos can be rotated from the Photos app.
Android Q has similar editing prowess for photos and videos by way of Google Photos. The app lets you crop and tweak photos and trim videos that are too long for social media.
On-device data
This is not likely to be something you see advertised in a TV commercial. One outstanding trend in the mobile world is the idea of shrinking data so that it can be stored locally to help reduce reliance on the cloud. Apple and Google, in particular, have figured out how to compress gigabytes of files into mere kilobytes of data—a true technological feat. It’s not something we’ll immediately notice when we pick up an iPhone or Android phone. And in fact, that’s entirely the point.
Apple doesn't share a whole lot of information about the ins and outs of dark mode, but here's what we know about the new feature so far -- and what we don't.
You'll turn on dark mode by swiping into the Control Center (either up from the bottom or down from the top right corner, depending on which iPhone you have). Then just tap the button to toggle on the control.
You'll also be able to schedule dark mode to turn on only at night, and turn off again during the day. It sounds like you'll be able to set those hours, as you can with night mode for Samsung Galaxy phones and Wind Down, Google's greyscale app for getting sleepy.
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Dark Mode comes to Apple iOS
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Will dark mode automatically work with all my apps?
Dark mode will work with systemwide apps on your iPhone, including Messages, Safari, the camera and photo gallery, the calendar, internal menus and Maps. Every app that Apple controls itself should support Dark Mode.
However, third-party apps might not all work with dark mode immediately. Apple hopes that in releasing OS 13 to developers early, they'll get to work programming their apps to run in dark mode when you turn it on.
As with dark mode in Android Q , it's possible that iPhone apps that don't have a dedicated night mode or dark theme can get in on the feature automatically when you turn on dark mode in the settings, by inverting the colors.
Will it work for iPad?
For the first time ever, this year's iOS release won't power the iPad. Instead, Apple broke off iPadOS, a dedicated version of its operating system to work with the iPad's signature tablet features. However, iPadOS is based on iOS and will also feature systemwide dark mode.
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iOS 13 is packed with new features
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Why is Apple using dark mode now?
Dark themes have certainly been around for years as third-party apps and themes. Unlike Google, Apple didn't say why it's looking into dark mode, though we're sure high demand was certainly part of it.
Apple doesn't have a track record of being terribly concerned about trends, often bringing out features years after competitors. It's always been much more concerned about getting things right than getting them first. It's also possible that Apple used MacOS Mojave as a test bed before moving on to the highly scrutinized iOS.
Apple didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.
One of the interesting new features introduced at WWDC was Sign In with Apple. It’s a new sign-in system made by Apple that’s meant to replace other platforms offered by Facebook and Google. The idea here is that Apple’s system ensures your data stays safe and doesn’t get abused by third-party developers.
Sign In with Apple lets you login with Face ID or Touch ID, and it only lets you share your name and email address with apps. And if some apps do require your email address, you can share your actual email address with them — or better yet, Apple can help you mask your actual email address. This works by Apple creating a unique email address for each app you login to, and simply forwards email to that unique/fake email address to your actual email address. That way, the apps never get your actual email address.
And all of this is actually really great. Apple’s system might be the only single sign-in system that keeps your data safe. But here’s the thing: iOS apps will be forced to use the new system, which is a bit unfriendly on Apple’s side.
Apps that offer third-party sign-in will require to offer Sign In with Apple as an option when iOS 13 launches later this year. “Sign In with Apple will be available for beta testing this summer. It will be required as an option for users in apps that support third-party sign-in when it is commercially available later this year,” Apple said.
That’s not particularly a bad thing, especially since Sign in with Apple makes logging into apps much quicker and safer. And Apple forcing apps to offer its own service as an alternative to those provided by Facebook and Google will allow the service to reach more users quickly, and hopefully replace the horrible systems provided by other companies, especially Facebook.
The problem, however, is that it’s not really clear how Sign In with Apple works on other platforms. If you create an account on your iPhone or iPad, it’s not clear how you would access that same account from an Android device, a Windows laptop, or just from any other laptop on the web. It’s a bit of a mystery for now.
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