This week, editor-in-chief of Space.com Tariq Malik joins Cherlynn and Devindra to break down what led to the ongoing billionaire space race and what's happening now. Was Richard Branson really in space? What's the difference between Virgin Galactic, Blue Origin and Space X's vehicles? Plus, what are these billionaires trying to achieve, and at what cost? Then, our hosts dig into Microsoft's new Windows 365 virtual machine and ask who it's for. Plus, updates across the Android 12, iOS 15 and macOS betas, and our thoughts on a Mario-themed smartwatch.
Listen below, or subscribe on your podcast app of choice. If you've got suggestions or topics you'd like covered on the show, be sure to email us or drop a note in the comments! And be sure to check out our other podcasts, the Morning After and Engadget News!
Space.com editor in chief Tariq Malik explains the new billionaire space race – 1:32
Microsoft launches its Windows 365 cloud service – 36:04
Notes from the Android 12 Beta 3 release – 43:30
President Biden signs executive order on net neutrality, right to repair – 47:11
New MacOS Beta release reverts Safari tab design – 51:35
Tag Heuer’s Super Mario smartwatch exists, costs over $2,000 – 53:31
Working on – 57:25
Pop culture picks – 59:46
Video livestream
Credits Hosts: Cherlynn Low and Devindra Hardawar Guest: Tariq Malik Producer: Ben Ellman Livestream producers: Julio Barrientos, Owen Davidoff, Luke Brooks Graphics artists: Luke Brooks, Kyle Maack Music: Dale North and Terrence O'Brien
When visually impaired music producer Jason Dasent decided to buy a collection of instrument plugins from Arturia about four years ago, he did so despite his suspicion that the company’s tools wouldn’t be accessible. He was right. “At that point I couldn’t browse and use the software,” he said. “I pretty much couldn’t do anything.” He had spent some $500 on Arturia’s V Collection 5, a set of virtual instruments that included recreations of some vintage synths he wanted to use. It was cheaper than spending hundreds of thousands on actual synths, he told himself.
But because Arturia’s preset manager Analog Lab wasn’t built to accommodate the visually impaired at the time, Dasent had to drop even more cash. “I would have to hire someone to come in for maybe three days to save these presets,” he said. For between $500 and $1,000, this person would export the presets to a format that would work in Avid’s Pro Tools, which had the accessibility features Dasent needed. It was a tedious and expensive process, he said, but even after that he could only choose presets. He couldn’t tweak cutoffs, envelopes, parameters or adjust the brightness. “I had no choice but to just stick with the presets,” he added.
In 2019, Dasent presented at the Audio Developers Conference (ADC) in London, where he was approached by Arturia’s then director of software development, Kevin Molcard. Moldcard wanted to make Analog Lab accessible, and asked for Dasent’s help. After the company set him up with the V Collection 7 and a key lab, Dasent started playing around. Eventually, Dasent was introduced to Arturia product manager Pierre Pfister, who wanted to learn more about what Analog Lab was missing.
Two months later, Dasent said, he got a call from Pfister. “I have something to show you.” What Pfister then shared with Dasent was an early version of a new accessibility toolset in Analog Lab V. “It’s as if my eyes are now open,” he gushed. That kicked off a months-long back-and-forth between Dasent, Pfister and the Arturia as they worked on the prototype, culminating in the launch of a new update today. The company is announcing a new accessibility mode to Analog Lab V, which will enable all users to turn on auditory feedback and screen reading. It also brings various “ergonomic improvements and bug fixes.”
With this new accessibility mode, the company's Keylab controllers now communicate with the Analog Lab software and a computer's text-to-speech engine. "Basically, as I press a button on Keylab, or I turn a dial or change a value, it sends notifications out to the system voice, allowing me to know exactly what's on the keyboard," Dasent said in a video describing the update. Now, when he tweaks faders and encoders on the keyboard, "I can know exactly what the values are as I tweak the parameters." As he turns a knob on the controller to scroll through a list of instruments, a voice reads out the name of each item he lands on.
Since Dasent is familiar with Arturia's devices, he has the layout of buttons and dials memorized. But he added that "the layout of the keyboard is very well thought out, so it makes learning where everything is very easy."
The most challenging part of getting the software accessible for visually impaired users, according to Pfister, wasn’t necessarily implementation or programming — it was figuring out how best to communicate with the system’s text-to-speech. Since a lot of music software (and many creative products in general) aren’t designed with accessibility in mind, there aren’t many best practices to pull from. Arturia almost had to start from scratch. “The hardest part was knowing what we should do and how we should make a product accessible,” Pfister said.
Once they figured it out and showed Dasent the first prototype though, the results were gratifying. “His reaction made everything worth it.”
Arturia
Pfister and his team know there’s more work that needs to be done. He acknowledged that Arturia is a small company and there’s “a lot of things we don’t know.” The plan for now is to continue listening to and soliciting feedback to “identify what most of our users would like to be able to do.” Whether that means getting all of the Analog Lab program fully accessible or to make all its individual instruments accessible, Pfister said the goal is to continue improving what it’s done with Analog Lab.
Like most of the tech industry, music software developers have, until now, largely overlooked the needs of people with disabilities. In a 2019 blog post for competing music company Native Instruments, UK technologist Chris Ankin said: “Historically, music software offered poor accessibility with existing screen readers.”
Even the leading digital audio workstation (DAW) Pro Tools struggled with keeping its software accessible through years of updates in the 2000s. At the time, in an effort to keep up with the latest versions of Apple’s desktop software, Avid offered newer plug-ins and features in its OS X version that those using older editions of Pro Tools did not get. The problem is, while the pre-existing Pro Tools HD (which launched in 2002) was “almost entirely accessible,” according to audio engineer Slau Hatlyn in an article on Avid’s website, the software for OS X wasn’t usable even after Apple introduced its VoiceOver screen reader in 10.4 Tiger in 2005. The only thing Hatlyn could access was the menu bar. “No other windows were readable.”
It took until Pro Tools version 8’s launch in 2008 for the software to regain accessibility, a long time considering “the previous accessible version was 5.3,” according to Hatlyn. Even so, the conversation continued, with Hatlyn calling out changes that broke accessibility between versions 10 and 11.
Arturia
And this is one of the industry’s most widely used DAWs. While Apple’s Logic is lauded as accessible, other music software companies that build assistive technology into their products are a rarity. Brands like Ableton and Image Line don’t appear to have comprehensive tools for the visually impaired in their products Ableton Live and FL Studios, at least based on the comments ontheir forums. A spokesperson for Ableton highlighted a Zoom Display feature, as well as recent updates to improve contrast, reduce automatic colors and adjust grid intensity as tools in Live for visually impaired users. The spokesperson added “We’re aware that there is much more to be done here.” Image Line has yet to respond to our request for comment.
Will Butler, the vice president of company whose app, Be My Eyes, connects blind and low-vision people with sighted volunteers, wrote a LinkedIn post about the accessibility of music software. In it, Butler asked blind music producer Byron Harden to anecdotally rank the accessibility of popular music software. While Harden placed GarageBand, Pro Tools, Audacity and Logic in the top four, awarding them passing scores out of ten, Ableton Live and FL Studio came in near the bottom with one point each.
Butler also highlighted Native Instruments for its efforts. In 2019, the company expanded support for Mac’s VoiceOver, as well as Narrator and the Speech API in Windows. Prior to that, Native Instruments had made keyboards with touch-sensitive rotary encoders and buttons with auditory feedback. With those, its software “can detect when the user’s fingers are resting on them, then give auditory feedback – synthesized speech – of the current value, and do so continuously as it’s adjusted.”
That auditory feedback is one of the features Arturia is bringing to Analog Lab V that Dasent is most grateful for. “One thing they got right: quality of feedback,” he said. Say for example you load a preset. When you hit the load button in Analog Lab V, it will say “Loaded” and read out the name of the pack. Dasent said that software can sometimes offer too much feedback or use overly lengthy sentences and phrases to communicate. It would be like a sighted person having to read 20 lines of text to get one little piece of information that a single sentence could have conveyed.
As Pfister recalled his first call with Dasent, he was amazed and shocked by the amount of effort Dasent was willing to expend to use Arturia’s instruments. “If they are willing to put in that much effort, why don’t we do a little bit to make their life so much easier?”
Indeed, while there are frontrunners in making music software more accessible for people with disabilities, the industry as a whole could benefit from a published set of best practices. This way, they could be disseminated to smaller companies entering the space and make it easier for them to build accessible products. Ultimately, as with the development of most assistive technologies, that would benefit all users regardless of able-bodiedness.
The third developer betas for iOS 15, iPadOS 15 and macOS Monterey started rolling out today, and key among the changes they bring is a set of updates to Apple's browser. Safari is getting some design updates, including easier access to reloading, sharing and Tab Groups in macOS Monterey, as well as improved navigation features in iOS 15.
One of the changes in the macOS Monterey beta that we didn't like was the removal of the tabs bar. Senior editor Devindra Hardawar pointed out that while the new menu in its place allowed Apple to devote more screen space to website content, it made sorting through your tabs messy and tedious. With today's beta release, though, Apple's brought back the standalone Tab bar, which will be enabled by default, like it was on Big Sur.
In addition, you'll also get one-click access to controls including Reload and Sharing, as well as access to new features like Tab Groups from the toolbar. If you liked the thin menu that gave you more space for browsing, you can still adopt it, and Apple's refined this to make it easier to see page titles while you rack up more tabs.
On iOS 15, Apple's tweaked Safari to make it easier to use with one hand. When you're entering a search, the field will now appear on top of the keyboard so it's nearer the bottom of the screen, making it easier to edit your query. When you're done typing, you can dismiss the keyboard by swiping down on it. Apple also added a Reload option to the long-press menu on the left side of the tab bar.
If you haven't already, you can enroll in Apple's beta program to check these previews out for yourself. But be warned, you'll need to be sure you want to risk running potentially unstable software. If you can't wait a bit longer for the stable release, make sure you back up your data before installing the updates. You can find out how to do so here.
Google is ready to add more features to the public preview of its upcoming platform as it gets closer to being ready for its proper launch. The company announced that it's pushing out the third beta of Android 12 today, and it brings features like scrolling screenshots, enhanced auto-rotate and more. For developers, Google said this is the "last beta release before the Platform Stability milestone," which means they can begin to test their apps for the next platform. Beta 3 will also include the final Android 12 APIs and official SDK.
Those may not seem obviously impactful for the average user. What will feel more immediately useful are scrolling screenshots, which Google said will work "out-of-the-box for most apps." With Beta 3, when you snap an image of your screen, you'll see a new "Capture more" button. Tap that, and you'll extend the boundaries of your screenshot to get all the content available, after which you can adjust the crop. Google said it's "continuing to iterate on scrolling screenshots" and "also working to provide support for a wider variety of content (such as web content)," so it's possible this version isn't what you'll see when Android 12 officially launches.
Google
Beta 3 also brings enhanced auto-rotate, which will use your phone's front camera to detect your face and tell when you've flipped the device. As opposed to relying only on accelerometers/gyroscopes to detect the orientation of your phone, this can make auto-rotate more responsive. It's "especially helpful for people who are using their devices while lying down on a couch or in bed, for example," Google said. If you don't like the idea of your camera being used to see how you're holding up your phone, it may help to know that the company said the feature lives in its Private Compute Core and the "images are never stored or sent off the device." Enhanced auto-rotate will be available on the Pixel 4 and newer Pixel devices.
If you're on an older or non-Pixel phone, you'll also see some improvements. Google said it "optimized the animation and redrawing and added an ML-driven gesture-detection algorithm" that's reduced the base auto-rotate feature's latency by 25 percent.
Another new feature on Beta 3 is platform support for Google's on-device search engine called AppSearch. It'll allow developers to offer better search tools in their apps, and also offer them the option of participating in a central index "that's maintained for the entire system in Android 12 (and later releases)." Those who opt-in to the central index will enable Google to show data from their apps in overall system searches. Developers can also choose to "securely share data with other apps, allowing them to search your app's data as well as their own." That means one day, if they decide to enable it, apps like Tinder and Spotify could search data within your Facebook, Twitter or Instagram apps, for example.
Google
That function is not here yet since it requires developer participation. Many other features on Beta 3 are also behind-the-scenes, like the new ability for enterprises to set camera and mic restrictions on devices they manage. Android 12's Game Mode APIs will let developers respond appropriately to different profiles selected by the player, "like better battery life for a long commute, or performance mode to get peak frame rates," for example. These will be part of an "upcoming game dashboard which provides an overlay experience with quick access to key utilities during gameplay" that will be available on select devices later this year.
We're still eagerly awaiting the addition of the Material You design scheme that Google unveiled at I/O earlier this year, but as Android 12 approaches platform stability and a final release, it looks like most of the features we were expecting are here. If you're eager to test out this preview and can't wait for the official launch, you can enroll in Google's beta program. As always, we must caution that preview software is not guaranteed to be stable and you should back up your data before installing the beta. Whether you check out this early build or wait for a little longer, it does seem like a meaty update is coming for Android users that could be worth the anticipation.
Your favorite video game plumber will soon be available on a Wear OS watch. Tag Heuer announced today that it's collaborating with Nintendo to make a Super Mario edition of its Connected smartwatch, featuring "the intrepid, iconic hero" in various watch faces and animations. It'll be available July 15th for $2,150, which is in line with how much the Connected series has cost in the past. One of the highlights here, though, is the company's use of Mario's appearances to encourage wearers to get active and reward them when they move.
According to Tag Heuer, Mario's "upbeat and active personality will encourage wearers of this smartwatch to enjoy moving too." But it's not just about being inspired by simply seeing his face on your wrist. The watch's dial will become "livelier and more animated the more the wearer is active." There's also a "gamification rewards system" at play. Mario will greet you with a salute each morning, and as you move about, you'll get different animations as you hit 25, 50, 75 and 100 percent of your steps target. These animations feature familiar items from the Mario universe, like the Super Mushroom, Pipe, Super Star and Goal Pole. The company says this idea was inspired by the notion of "easter eggs," so I suppose you're supposed to treat these animations as such.
Even when you're not being active, the Tag Heuer Connected Super Mario edition's interface will remind you of the character. You can choose from a selection of four new watch faces, and they don't just offer red-and-blue themes. The Timekeeping dial, for example, uses "retro elements from the 1985 version of Super Mario Bros. with Mario, all in pixels." One of the designs features Mario's cap, while another takes elements of the game and puts them in a rotating animation.
Tag Heuer
In addition to onscreen graphics, the watch itself has Super Mario touches. Push buttons, crown logo and bezel graduation now come in Super Mario red, and you'll find symbols etched into the bezel that reflect the in-game objects you'll see when you hit your steps goals, too. A letter M is engraved on strap buckles and the crown, while the words "TAG Heuer x Super Mario Limited Edition" are also carved into the back of the watch. The company is also offering two interchangeable straps for the new watch: a black leather band on red rubber and a "sporty alternative in matching red perforated rubber," as well as a travel case in — what else — Super Mario red.
Those hardware touches are pretty important since even though the Mario faces and skins will be available first on this limited edition of the Connected watch, Tag Heuer said it "is also considering making it available on other editions of TAG Heuer Connected at a later stage."
Since this is a Wear OS device (Tag Heuer hasn't responded to Engadget's query on whether this is the existing OS or if it will update to the version co-engineered by Samsung and Google), the rest of the watch's functions will feel familiar. You can access Google Assistant, get your calendar and weather updates, along with Fit progress tracking on the watch. It'll also offer the company's own Sport, Golf and Wellness apps for better fitness tools.
The Super Mario version of Connected has a 45mm face and weighs 86 grams (0.18 pounds) with a rubber strap. It's water resistant up to 5ATM, and Tag Heuer promises its 430mAh battery can last a full day.
Tag Heuer is only making 2,000 of these watches, which will be available in selected boutiques and at its websitein some regions, from 15th July 2021. At $2,150, the special edition costs more than its non-Mario counterparts, which start at $1,800, but if you're that hardcore of a fan, you might be convinced to fork over the cash.
If I asked you to envision a fitness tracker on a random person’s wrist, what would your imaginary wearable look like? For years, they’ve largely looked the same — plastic or metal rectangles attached to some generic silicone or nylon strap.
Fitbit likes to say its wearables resemble jewelry. But it’s difficult to make a fitness tracker that actually looks like jewelry and does everything from logging your steps, sleep and workouts to telling you to breathe and relax. The company tried its hand at a stylish fitness band in 2016 with the Alta, but that device was just a slightly narrower Charge with a finicky screen and has since been discontinued. With the Luxe, Fitbit is singing a familiar tune, once again promising a “fashion-forward fitness and wellness tracker... in an effortlessly chic bracelet design."
Design aside, the Luxe packs almost everything you’d want from a fitness band: a heart rate sensor, oxygen saturation (SpO2) monitoring, sleep tracking, water resistance and basic syncing with your phone. At $150, this could be a great option for those looking for a simple no-frills tracker that stands out from the crowd.
Design
Fitbit’s previous claims about how stylish and chic their trackers are have been questionable. They’re all just rectangular blocks with few minor variations. When announcing the Luxe, the company painstakingly detailed how it crafted the Luxe’s case, saying the device’s “breakthrough design has a soft, gentle shape inspired by the human body that sits lightly on your wrist with a jewelry-like look and feel.”
It used techniques like metal injection molding to make the stainless steel case, “providing the warmth expected of handcrafted jewelry, all while delivering a level of precision needed to enable its advanced sensor technology.” After throwing in a few dozen mentions of how elegant the Luxe is, the company ends up calling this “one of Fitbit’s most fashionable and comfortable devices yet.”
Co-founder James Park said “We’ve made major technological advancements with Luxe, creating a smaller, slimmer, beautifully designed tracker packed with advanced features – some that were previously only available with our smartwatches.” Meaning that Fitbit was able to squeeze advanced components into the teeny tiny body of the Luxe, which is about as wide as my index finger and just 1.43 inches long. It’s indeed very small and thin, with a profile of 0.4 inches. That’s about as thick as the Apple Watch SE, but about a third of the width. It’s also about three quarters as wide as a Fitbit Charge 4, and a hair thinner.
So yes, the Luxe is a dainty little thing, which is nice for people like me who have small wrists. The stainless steel case itself is slightly curved along the edges, making it less blockish than the Charge 4 and the Alta. But the strap you pick can make all the difference. When paired with the silicone option you get in the box, the Luxe still looks kinda basic. Swap it out for, say, the Gold Mesh version that Fitbit also sent me, and voila! Instant style elevation.
Cherlynn Low / Engadget
That’s nice, but you could make most other fitness trackers look attractive by swapping in a pretty band. Where the Luxe stands out is in its dainty size and narrow width, and that’s good news for those of us who want something smaller. The added bonus of the Luxe’s footprint is that it never got in the way when I was typing or performing a handstand.
The bad thing about the Luxe’s size is that its screen is correspondingly small. This is a 0.76-inch AMOLED panel running at a 124 x 206 resolution. It’s surrounded by a thick bezel, which is probably hiding all the Luxe’s sensors. But this makes things like your workout stats very hard to read. The screen itself is crisp, bright and colorful. But if you have trouble reading tiny text, you might need a bigger device. Fitbit told Engadget that an update is coming soon that will include larger text, though we still don’t know the specific timeline nor how this will look when it rolls out.
Navigation and in use
Like the Charge 4 and Sense smartwatch, the Luxe has no physical buttons. But unlike the other two, this tracker doesn’t even have an inductive solid state sensor that detects pressure to trigger an action. The only way you’ll be interacting with the Luxe is through its touchscreen. Thankfully, Fitbit uses a standard one here instead of its faux touchscreen that you had to forcefully jab for it to detect a tap. With the Luxe, you can swipe and tap on the screen just like on any smartwatch, albeit with a very rudimentary OS.
Cherlynn Low / Engadget
Swiping up from the main screen shows your daily progress and battery percentage, while dragging down lets you access Settings and enable Do Not Disturb, Sleep or Water Lock modes. Swiping sideways brings you through Notifications, Exercise, Relax (guided breathing), Alarms and Timers. You can scroll vertically on each of these sections to get to more functions. Double tap the top of the screen to go back (or swipe right). That’s it.
For more customization, like rearranging your favorite workouts in Exercise, you’ll need to go to the Fitbit app on your phone. By default, you’ll find Walk, Run, Bike, Swim, Treadmill and Workout (a catch-all for almost everything else) here. When you’re exercising, the Luxe will show your calories burned, time elapsed, heart rate and, where relevant, pace or miles covered. That’s far less information than you’ll see at a glance on a bigger screen, but that’s the sacrifice you make for a smaller tracker. You can swipe up to see more things, like a pause button, but that’s about it.
As you’re working out, too, Fitbit will show your cardio zone below your heart rate, with labels like “fat burn” and “peak.” This is useful information, but again, this is so tiny. I have decent eyesight and even I struggled slightly to read it (and it got harder when I was waving my arms about as I ran).
Cherlynn Low / Engadget
Cramped screen aside, the Luxe behaves like most other basic Fitbit trackers. Though notifications are tedious to read, it’s nice that you can send a quick pre-set reply or emoji from your wrist. The device will also buzz when you’ve been idle too long, or when you’ve achieved your targeted active minutes. When you lift your wrist, the screen wakes up to show you the time (in thankfully large font). If you wear the band to sleep, it’ll use your heart rate to detect what sleep zones you’re in, and after three nights it’ll tell you things like your resting heart rate. If you’ve been running, walking, swimming or biking (or more) for at least 15 minutes, the Luxe will automatically detect and record your activity. You can change that minimum time requirement to something else via the app, too. Unlike the Charge 4, though, the Luxe doesn’t have onboard GPS and will need to connect to your phone to map your outdoor runs.
Something that’s new since Google completed its acquisition of Fitbit is the introduction of Fast Pair, which works with Android devices. This made setting the Luxe up and syncing it to my Pixel 4a a breeze. I charged up the Luxe, and a window popped up on all my Pixel review units asking if I wanted to connect to the tracker. I tapped yes and before I knew it, I was going through the welcome pages since I already had the Fitbit app installed. This is much easier than the old method of first opening the app, hitting the Add New Device button and then waiting endlessly for my phone to find the wearable.
There are some other functions that the Luxe offers, but only if you pay the extra $10 a month for Fitbit Premium. The company is throwing in six months free with every purchase, and that gets you additional insight like your activity, heart rate and sleep trends. It’ll also unlock month-long and year-long reports on your wellness, detailed breakdowns on your sleep and stress, as well as guided workouts, mindfulness and nutrition programs. Without the subscription, most people should find the basic data the Luxe gathers is sufficient. But those who are keen on learning about their long term health trends might benefit from Premium.
Battery life
Cherlynn Low / Engadget
Fitbit promises the Luxe will last up to five days and I actually went a full week of testing the device before it conked out. That’s with tracking multiple workout sessions every other day, though I didn’t wear the band to sleep most nights. If you keep the Luxe on when you go to bed, and also connect it to your phone’s GPS a lot, your runtime will likely be shorter.
Wrap-up
The most impressive thing about the Fitbit Luxe isn’t its style; it’s its size. The fact that this little device can do so much is noteworthy, and those with smaller wrists will like the way it fits. But its size is also one of its drawbacks — its tiny screen makes things hard to read. Still, for $150, the Luxe is a well-made and capable fitness tracker that can track pretty much everything. If you’re looking for a simple activity band that’s smaller than most, this will serve you well. At least, as long as you have near-perfect vision.
The movement to get the FCC to restore net neutrality just gained some serious traction. The White House just announced that president Joe Biden will be signing a new executive order today that will establish a "whole-of-government effort to promote competition in the American economy." In other words, it's targeting anticompetitive practices.
The order includes 72 proposals and actions, among which it specifically says "the President encourages the FCC to restore Net Neutrality rules undone by the prior administration." It also asked the agency to consider limiting early termination fees and prevent internet service providers from making deals with landlords that limit tenant choices. In addition, it urged the FCC to revive the Broadband Nutrition Label that was developed under the Obama administration that would offer greater price transparency.
The order also looked at how "dominant tech firms are undermining competition and reducing innovation," and announced an administration policy of greater scrutiny of mergers. It would give focus on "dominant internet platforms," especially around "the acquisition of nascent competitors, serial mergers, the accumulation of data, competition by “free” products, and the effect on user privacy."
This story is developing, please refresh for updates.
With the iOS 15 and watchOS 8 public betas now available for testing, it’s time for us to get an early look at some of the features coming to Apple’s biggest platforms. While the next watchOS might not be as big a change as iOS 15, it still introduces new tools that promise better integration with your iPhone, along with some health and fitness updates.
If you’re thinking of checking the public beta out for yourself, make sure you’ve thought twice about the risk of running preview software instead of a stable release. Those who simply can't wait for a stable public release of the upcoming platform can sign up for Apple's beta program and install the builds now, provided you have an Apple Watch Series 3 and newer, as well as an iPhone running the iOS 15 beta. Either way, we've checked out the watchOS 8 beta so you can see from a safe distance or decide if the changes are worth the trouble right now.
Mindfulness, health and fitness
Though there aren't huge updates coming to watchOS 8, Apple's new health-centric features could interest those looking for a more wholistic approach to wellbeing. The company has renamed its Breathe app to Mindfulness, adding a meditation guide to the existing breathing exercises. You can set each Mindfulness session's duration to 1, 2, 3, 4 or 5 minutes before starting. A prompt appears before each session to help you focus your thoughts, along with a button to begin.
So far, I've seen typical meditation prompts that tell you to be aware of your thoughts and let them pass without judgement. Some other examples include "Think of someone you care about. Imagine you can feel your connection with them" and "Consider the values that matter to you in something you’re focused on."
Then, a colorful swirling animation takes up the screen. I usually just lean back and close my eyes at this point, but if you continue to stare at your watch, the animation is a nice distraction that's almost hypnotizing. At the end of your set time, the watch vibrates and shows a closing thought tied to the opening prompt, like "Bring this sense of open awareness with you." You'll also see your total Mindful minutes for the day (which includes time spent doing Breathe exercises) and your heart rate. After two Mindfulness sessions, my Apple Watch SE said my pulse plummeted from 67 to 47bpm, which is great I guess.
On its own, this feels like a glorified timer meets fortune cookie meets Magic 8 Ball, all set to Windows Music Player-style visualizations. But combined with reminders throughout the day that you can customize, Mindfulness could help remind you to check in with yourself periodically to assess your state of mind.
A few other health-centric additions to watchOS include two new Workout categories: Tai Chi and Pilates. I've yet to have a session of either exercise so I can't say how accurately Apple tracks these yet. There are also a couple more features I need more time to get a better sense for, like respiratory rate tracking overnight and walking steadiness. The latter requires about two weeks of walking with your iPhone stashed somewhere on your body, so it'll take some time before I get results.
Messaging, watch faces and new apps
A big part of the watchOS 8 update is improved communications tools and integration with your iPhone. Notably, the Messages app now allows you to compose via Scribble, Dictate and Emojis all within the same screen. I scrawled out part of a message, dictated longer parts of it, and added emoji from one page easily. Editing is also less of a hassle than before, thanks in large part to being able to use the Digital Crown as a cursor controller now. Hallelujah! Scrolling back to insert a space or fix a stray "v" got so much better.
There's also a new option now to send GIFs in Messages, from the same place you'd send a Digital Touch (just hit the search glass button and type in your keyword).
Communicating with people is also made easier thanks to the new Contacts app, which lets you find specific friends more quickly. If you've set one of iOS 15's new Focus modes on your iPhone, the same settings will apply to your watch. People and apps that have been blocked will remain muted on your wrist, and it was helpful to see a symbol at the top of the screen indicating which Focus mode is active.
Contacts isn't the only new app for watchOS 8. Apple's also redesigning Home to make interacting with your connected appliances easier, and bringing Find Items, Find Devices, and Tips to your wrist. The new OS will also add support for ultra wideband to enable more precise car key functions like spatial awareness.
This story is developing, please refresh for updates.
The iOS 15 public beta is live today, which means a larger swath of people can now check out the latest features coming to iPhones later this year. Despite being a beta, it’s surprisingly complete, with most of the coming changes already available. Some of the updates getting the most buzz are the new Focus modes and FaceTime sharing tools, but there are also changes across Messages, Maps, Weather, Safari, Photos and more to check out.
So far, the preview software seems largely stable. But as always with betas, think twice about how willing you are to risk bricking your phone in exchange for early access to new features. Regardless of whether that's you, we've put together a detailed preview of how iOS 15 will work when it launches in the fall.
FaceTime: SharePlay, screen sharing and spatial audio
Though it would have been a lot more helpful if Apple had launched this feature during the throes of the pandemic, FaceTime’s SharePlay feature will still be useful for many of us. Whether you want to watch an episode of Ted Lasso with your long-distance buddy or provide remote tech support to your relatives, SharePlay and screen sharing over FaceTime will make your life a little easier.
Screenshots of iOS 15 beta
Unfortunately, my colleague Mat Smith and I had to futz around for ages before we figured out how to SharePlay something. While screen sharing is more straightforward — just press a button at the bottom right of a new control panel at the top of FaceTime calls — SharePlay options only show up when you have a compatible media app open during a chat. Mat and I are seasoned tech journalists and we still spent some time looking for a SharePlay-specific button, which seems like the more intuitive way.
Once we figured it out, things went a little more smoothly. When you try to play an episode or video while on a FaceTime call, a window pops up asking if you want to use SharePlay. From there, you can choose to stream with your caller (or callers), play it only for yourself, or cancel.
As a reminder, depending on the app, both you and your friend will need subscriptions to watch stuff together on SharePlay. For Apple’s services like TV+ and Music, you’ll both need a subscription or trial. Other streaming apps like HBO Max, Hulu and Disney+ will be the ones that decide whether all parties need accounts to watch shows together on SharePlay, but it’s highly unlikely they allow it some other way.
On our attempts to stream episodes of Mythic Quest and Central Park on SharePlay, though, Mat and I kept getting a failure notice saying “Unable to SharePlay. This title isn’t available to SharePlay with people in different countries or regions.” It’s odd, since both those shows are available in both our regions. It’s also sad that you wouldn’t be allowed to watch it with someone abroad. Apple hasn’t said if this limit will be in place when iOS 15 launches, but if it is it’ll be disappointing for anyone that was looking forward to SharePlaying with their overseas partners, families and friends. We’ll update this article if Apple confirms this either way.
Screen sharing worked better. I was able to show Mat my dubious shopping list on Instagram though, as it does with other video chat apps, my camera automatically turned off whenever I shared my screen. When Mat streamed his display, his camera stayed on. We suspect this has something to do with the fact that he’s using a more capable iPhone 12 mini while I was on an aging iPhone XR that was burning up from my testing. This is a known issue with SharePlay that has been detailed in the iOS 15 developer beta release notes, so it may get fixed in time.
Screenshots of the iOS 15 beta
Two other FaceTime features that are also live in this beta: links to join calls from non-Apple devices and spatial audio. The latter lets you hear each person in a call from the direction where they’re positioned on your FaceTime grid. Since it required multiple people running the beta to work, I couldn’t fully experience this. I got on a call with Mat and our former colleague Chris Velazco, and while Mat and I were able to hear each other from different directions, Chris wasn’t on the beta and did not notice the effect.
I also sent FaceTime web links to Chris, as well as Engadget staffers Nathan Ingraham and Valentina Palladino. The URL brought us to a page that prompted us to enter our names, and as the host I could choose to allow or block each would-be participant. Chris was able to join my call from a non-Apple laptop, while Valentina and Nate went through the browser on their Macs. Meanwhile, I was using an iPhone. Everyone looked and sounded great… to me.
Valentina and Nate couldn’t hear each other until they used the FaceTime app on their MacBooks. Chris also couldn’t hear other people on the call — all anyone heard was my beautiful voice. (As it should be.) But really, this appears to be an issue with how browsers handle audio input devices or a possible bug in the beta.
It’s not yet clear whether the region-specific SharePlay restrictions will also work this way in the stable release. But so far, barring some glitches, the updates to Apple’s video calling app appear meaty and potentially very useful.
Focus modes
I’ve spent too much time talking about FaceTime, so I’m going to try to succinctly describe the other iOS 15 features I’ve tested thus far. One of these felt incredibly relevant as I spent time finishing this article on deadline: Focus modes. Here, Apple allows you to customize profiles that will allow notifications from specific apps or people when enabled.
Screenshots from the iOS 15 beta
Three placeholders are available at the start: Work, Bedtime and Personal. On your first time trying to enable each, you’ll have to set up which contacts and apps to allow. You can also choose to enable your Focus Status so people who try to reach you will see that you’re away when they’re using a compatible app. Developers of messaging apps will have to use Apple’s API to enable this, so that your friends who hit you up on, say, Telegram or Facebook Messenger will see your status too.
For now, only Apple’s own Messages supports it and I was able to see below our conversation that Mat had silenced notifications. I sent a message anyway, and the app showed my text was “delivered quietly.” Just like you can on Slack, you can choose to “notify anyway” so your message breaks through the wall of silence. (I’m not an awful person so I didn’t, poor Mat had already put up with my relentless testing and FaceTiming all day.)
With each Focus mode, you can also pick a home screen showing just the apps you want. To do so, you’ll have to first create each page as an additional panel on your main screen, then select the relevant one when customizing your Focus mode. I created a barebones page with just four apps and designated it as my main Personal screen. I also made a different option for Work and was able to have apps appear on multiple pages — Instagram and Twitter could be placed on every page, for example. When each mode was enabled, I couldn’t see any other page; swiping sideways only showed the apps drawer and the Today view.
I haven’t spent enough time with the beta to know how useful these customized views will be, but I’m already in love with the ability to pick different notifications profiles. You can also set them to automatically activate based on the time of day, your location or app usage. Again, this is something I’ll need to use for more than a few days, but I appreciate the concept. Unfortunately, I haven’t encountered Notifications summaries in the beta yet.
Live text (aka Apple’s version of Google Lens)
Many other iOS 15 updates are similar to features that competitors already offer, and the most obvious of these is Live Text. This tool scans the photos on your device for words and turns them into text you can actually use, whether it’s copying and pasting a phone number to another app or translating foreign words on a menu. This is basically Apple's answer to Google Lens, which has been around for years.
Screenshots of the iOS 15 beta
Similar to Lens, Apple’s version will show a small symbol at the bottom right of each image in the Photos app to indicate it’s found something. Tap that icon, and all the characters in that picture will be highlighted, and you can select the portions you need. I snapped a picture of my bottle of moisturizer and was able to copy all the words on the label and URLs also got identified as links I could click through. You can also use Live Text via the Camera app’s viewfinder without snapping a shot, by the way. When your phone detects words in the scene, the same icon will appear in the bottom right and you can hit it to pull up the snippets that Live Text noticed.
So far, this generally performed as expected, though it's worth noting that as its name suggests, Live Text only works on images that have a lot of words in them. But even a photo of my dinner, which included a container of yogurt with a brand name prominently displayed on it, didn’t trigger Live Text. Google’s Lens, meanwhile, will identify buildings, pets, furniture and clothes in pictures with nary a letter in them.
Maps, Photos and generally tighter integration
Elsewhere in iOS 15 you’ll find updates to Maps, Weather and Photos. In some cities, Apple’s maps look richer and more detailed than before, thanks to meticulous drawings of individual trees, lanes, traffic lights and more. I was able to explore a golf course in San Francisco, as well as the Conservatory of Flowers and Dutch Windmill in the Golden Gate Park in surprisingly detailed 2D and 3D views. I was disappointed when I zoomed super close to the Penguin Island in the San Francisco zoo and there were no cute little feathered friends. But I guess that’d be too much to ask.
Screenshots of the iOS 15 beta
Memories in Photos has also been updated to give you greater control over who shows up in them and what music plays in the background. You can now edit your pictures’ descriptions to create richer alt text that stays with each image as you forward them to friends. I liked using this to identify people and places in a photo for contacts who are blind or have low vision. Even though I added keywords like “sunset” and people’s names to some pictures’ descriptions, searches for those words in my iPhone’s Spotlight didn’t return those images. It would be nice, but the descriptions aren’t currently being indexed for that.
But that’s another update in iOS 15: Spotlight searches for all things in your phone will now include your photos in results, too. It uses Apple’s own machine learning to detect things in your library though, and this is still sometimes inaccurate. I searched for “Cherlynn” and “Sunset” and was shown screenshots with my name in them and an image of a red-hot map of New York from the Weather app that Apple thought was a sunset. This isn’t perfect, but at least photos are better integrated into Spotlight now.
Another update that provides better integration across iOS is the consolidation of media that your friends send you. Apple calls this Share With You, and things from your recent interactions with each person will show up there — pictures that Mat sent me of his adorable baby niece, as well as the screenshots he shared from our FaceTime adventures, were all in his page in the Phone app.
Screenshots of the iOS 15 beta
There’s still a ton more to explore not only in the public beta but in iOS 15 when the final release is ready. The Weather app has new maps that appropriately show just how scorching hot it’s been in the New York area these last few days. And we still have to test more things like Safari mobile extensions and ID and keys support in Wallet. For now, this has been an intriguing taste of what to expect in the software update. Despite a few snags, it looks like iPhone users will have plenty to look forward to later this year.
There's plenty to look forward to in the upcoming iOS 15 update: SharePlay in FaceTime, new Focus modes, better Maps and Weather apps, as well as deeper integration across Messages, Photos and more. Though there's still some time to wait before the next OS officially rolls out, those eager to try early versions of these new features can check them out starting today. Apple has released the iOS 15 public beta and if you're curious enough to install potentially unstable software, you can run it today. Additionally, Apple also dropped the public betas for iPadOS 15 (which shares many of the same features as iOS 15) and watchOS 8. Make sure you back up your data before you begin!
iOS 15 will be compatible with iPhone 6S and later (including both generations of the iPhone SE), as well as the 7th-generation iPod Touch. Those hoping to test watchOS 8 will also need an Apple Watch Series 3, 4, 5 or 6 running the iOS 15 beta. If you have compatible hardware, all you have to do is sign up for Apple's beta program on its website here. You'll get a notification that it's ready to install (or you can keep looking at your "Software update" page in Settings). We've been using a developer beta build for a couple of days and, assuming it's largely similar to the public beta, the software seems fairly stable with occasional glitches in specific apps.
While your devices are enrolled in the beta program, you'll receive updates automatically when they're publicly available. If you've played around with the preview and decide you've had enough, you can revert to an older version by unenrolling. Once again, to ensure that your data is safe, make sure you perform a back up before getting the beta.
