You won't need an Apple Watch to access the company's Fitness app anymore. With iOS 16, Apple is bringing the software to iPhone, the company announced during WWDC 2022. Like its watchOS counterpart, the app will allow you to set daily activity goals, with a "Move ring" there to motivate you to stay active throughout the day. Your iPhone will use its sensors to track your steps and workouts and then convert that information into an estimation of the calories you've burned. At any time, you can share your Move ring with friends and family to push them to achieve their activity goals too.
Apple is at last promising better sleep tracking for Apple Watch as part of watchOS 9. The Sleep app will add a sleep stage function. It will be able to detect the REM, core and deep sleep stages and track those over time. Those who participate in the Apple health research program will be able to submit their sleep stage data to researchers for a new study.
One of the more notable health features for watchOS 9 is that it will show how long a wearer is in a state of atrial fibrillation (AFib) if they have been diagnosed with the condition. The new feature will show the time of day or week that AFib is most active.
You'll receive weekly notifications to help you gain a better insight of AFib frequency. The Health app will show a detailed history, along with indicators of lifestyle factors that may impact the condition, such as exercise, sleep and alcohol intake. You'll be able to download a PDF that includes your aFib history and possible lifestyle factors to share with your healthcare professionals.
Apple Watch's electrocardiogram (ECG) tool can look for signs of an irregular heartbeat or AFib. The US Food and Drug Administration just granted Apple approval last week for an ECG history feature.
In addition, Apple is introducing a Medications app to help users keep track of when to take their meds.
Almost two years since the launch of Apple's M1 chip — the first ARM-based "Apple Silicon" hardware — we finally have a successor: M2. While the M1 chip was notable for showing what Apple could accomplish with a more efficient mobile design (a dramatic departure from Intel's power-hungry x86 processors), the goal of M2 is more about refinement rather than breaking new ground. This time, it's all about efficiency.
But given how far Apple has scaled the M1 — to the point where it basically fused two chips together to create the mighty M1 Ultra on the Mac Studio — it'll be intriguing to see how far Apple can take the M2's design (we've yet to hear about an updated Mac Pro, don't forget).
Apple
The M2 chip supports up to 24GB of unified memory, compared to just 16GB with the M1, as well as double the memory bandwidth (1000 GB/s). And once again, it offers 8 cores (4 high performance, 4 high-efficiency). Apple claims the efficiency cores are vastly improved, and overall you can expect an 18 percent increase in multithreaded performance over the M1. The M2 chip can be equipped with up to 10 GPU cores, which are up to 35 percent more powerful than the M1 at their greatest power state.
Video editors may benefit the most from this new chip, as the M2 includes support for ProRes encoding and decoding, along with 6K external displays. The chip's neural engine is also 40 percent faster, which will significantly speed up AI tasks.
The M2 chip will arrive first in the redesigned MacBook Air, which loses that line's iconic wedge shape, as well as the 13-inch MacBook Pro.
As expected, Apple has introduced watchOS 9 at WWDC. The new Apple Watch platform includes a big upgrade to fitness features with distance and time intervals. You'll know when to slow down for a recovery, for instance. There are also heart rate zones (for both sleep and workouts), and personal bests can help you improve performance over time. You won't always need the wristwear, though— Apple has also promised to offer fitness features on the iPhone.
You'll also see some interface tweaks such as banner notifications. Apple has both revamped existing watch faces (such as Astronomy) and introduced new ones like Lunar and Playtime.
Apple is expanding its personal safety features in iOS 16 with Safety Check, a new feature meant to make it easier to lock down privacy and security settings. Safety check allows users to quickly review which contacts may have access to their location or calendar info, as well as the permissions being used by individual apps.
The feature is formatted into a checklist to make it easy to review and revoke access on an app-by-app or contact-by-contact basis. The company said the feature could be particularly impactful for people trying to flee an abusive relationship.There's also "emergency reset" that allows people to reset their Apple ID password and revoke access to specific apps and personal information.
Apple is reinventing the driving experience with a new generation of CarPlay features, deeply integrating the functions of the vehicle with your iPhone. The new system is reportedly capable of controlling the entirety of the vehicle's infotainment systems, regardless of the system that it is being run on, effectively making your phone the "core" of the in-cabin systems. The company is not sharing many additional details about what specific features and functions will be arriving first —those announcements will be teased out later in the year.
During the WWDC 2022 developers conference on Monday, Apple executives announced that that its Maps app will be receiving a number of feature updates, including one long sought after by users: the ability to add multiple stops to a route.
Apple is adding Pay Later functionality to its Wallet app, the company announced today during WWDC 2022. The feature will allow you to split the cost of Apple Pay purchases into four equal payments with no interest and late fees.
Reports that Apple was working on a pay later service first came out in 2021.
Apple will soon allow you to take back messages you didn't really want to send. The upgraded Messages app in iOS 16 is getting a new "undo send" feature, as well as the ability to edit chats you've already sent and mark threads as unread.
The company is also giving dictation a serious upgrade, which should make it easier to send messages on the go. With the updates, dictation can automatically add punctuation to longer messages, and can even add relevant emoji characters.
Ahead of its official release sometime later this fall, today at WWDC 2022 Apple announced a number of exciting new features heading to iOS 16.
One of the most important new changes in iOS 16 is a revamped lock screen, which features a wide range of customization options and layouts. There will even be new templates that let you choose different fonts and accent colors, in addition to support for widgets — all of which can be accessed without needing to unlock your phone. Additionally, there's also a new wallpaper feature that lets you select from a range of categories including dynamic wallpapers that change based on the time or even the weather.
Another big update is revamped notifications, which will now roll up from the bottom of the screen. Meanwhile, the new Live Activities features is designed to help you keep track of current events and appointments like live game scores.
iOS's Focus Mode is also getting an upgrade that works with the new lock screen, so you can use widgets or things like to-do lists to stay on target.
This story is still developing, so check back soon for updates...
