Weekend good reads for Apple developers #2023/47

This week is quite short in US. So, good reads come early this time.

And with this, we're wrapping up. See you next week for another pack of good reads!

Weekend good reads for Apple developers #2023/46

It's Friday. Actually it is rainy Friday here in Bay Area, so it's a perfect weather to read through some of great reads for developers.

And this is it for today. We'll be back with new articles next week (probably, a little bit earlier due to Thanksgiving).

Weekend good reads for Apple developers #2023/45

Weekend good reads is here with another pack of interesting articles to go over this weekend.

And that is it for this week. See you next time!

Weekend good reads for Apple developers #2023/43

It's almost halloween here, but our regular list of great reads is not spooky at all!

Wrapping up for this weekend and see you next time in November!

Apple releases macOS Sonoma 14

Apple releases next major release of macOS – Sonoma.

macOS Sonoma brings all‑new capabilities that elevate your productivity and creativity. Discover even more ways to personalize your Mac with stunning screensavers and widgets that you can add to your desktop. Elevate your presence on video calls with a new way to present your work that keeps you a part of the presentation. Safari profiles and web apps help you organize your browsing in all-new ways. Game Mode boosts your gaming performance. Sonoma also brings big updates to Messages, Keyboard, and Accessibility. And when you upgrade, you get the latest security and privacy protections available for Mac.

Screen Savers

  • Stunning screen savers of locations from around the world seamlessly become your desktop wallpaper when you log-in
  • Shuffle settings for rotating through screensavers by theme including Landscape, Cityscape, Underwater, and Earth

Widgets

  • Widgets can be placed anywhere on the desktop and adapt to the color of your wallpaper while working in apps
  • iPhone widgets can be added to your Mac when your iPhone is nearby or on the same Wi-Fi network
  • Interactive widgets let you take actions directly from the widget such as running a shortcut, pausing media, and more

Video Conferencing

  • Presenter Overlay keeps you front and center while sharing your screen in FaceTime or third-party video conferencing apps (Mac with Apple silicon)
  • Reactions layer 3D effects like hearts, balloons, confetti, and more around you in video calls and can be triggered with gestures (Mac with Apple silicon, Continuity Camera with iPhone 12 and later)

Safari and Passwords

  • Profiles keep your browsing separate for topics like work and personal, separating your history, cookies, extensions, Tab Groups, and favorites
  • Web apps let you use any website like an app, complete with an icon in the Dock for faster access and a simplified toolbar for easier browsing
  • Enhanced Private Browsing locks your private browsing windows when you're not using them, blocks known trackers from loading, and removes tracking that identifies you from URLs
  • Password and passkey sharing allows you to easily share accounts with trusted contacts

Messages

  • Live Stickers sync from iOS and iPadOS to macOS, giving you access to the Live Stickers you create on your iPhone and iPad
  • Search filters for people, keywords, and content types like photos or links help you more easily find what you are looking for
  • Swipe to reply inline on any iMessage bubble

Gaming

Game Mode gives games the highest priority on the CPU and GPU, delivering more consistent frame rates and lower latency to wireless controllers and AirPods (Mac with Apple silicon)

Keyboard

  • Improved autocorrect accuracy makes typing even easier by leveraging a more powerful transformer-based language model
  • Inline predictive text shows single- and multi-word predictions that you can add by pressing the Space bar
  • Improved Dictation experience supports using your voice and keyboard together to enter and edit text

AirPods

  • Adaptive Audio delivers a new listening mode that dynamically blends Active Noise Cancellation and Transparency to tailor the noise control experience based on the conditions of your environment (AirPods Pro (2nd generation) with the latest firmware)
  • Personalized Volume adjusts the volume of your media in response to your environment and listening preferences over time (AirPods Pro (2nd generation) with the latest firmware)
  • Conversation Awareness lowers your media volume and enhances the voices of the people in front of the user, all while reducing background noise (AirPods Pro (2nd generation) with the latest firmware)
  • Press to mute and unmute your microphone by pressing the AirPods stem or the Digital Crown on AirPods Max when on a call (AirPods (3rd generation), AirPods Pro (1st and 2nd generation), or AirPods Max with the latest firmware)
  • Improved AirPods automatic switching now detects Mac up to 2X faster (AirPods (2nd and 3rd generation), AirPods Pro (1st and 2nd generation), AirPods Max with the latest firmware)

Privacy

  • Sensitive Content Warnings can be enabled to help prevent users from unexpectedly viewing sensitive images in Messages
  • Expanded Communication Safety protections for children now detect videos containing nudity in addition to photos shared through Messages and the system Photos picker
  • Improved sharing permissions let you choose which photos to share and add calendar events without providing access to your entire photo library or calendar

Accessibility

  • Live Speech lets you type what you want to say and reads it aloud in FaceTime calls or in-person conversations
  • Personal Voice helps users at risk of speech loss create a voice that sounds like them in a private and secure way using on-device machine learning
  • Made for iPhone compatible hearing devices can be paired and used with Mac (MacBook Pro (2021), Mac Studio (2022), and Mac computers with M2 chip)

This release also includes other features and improvements:

  • One-Time verification code AutoFill from Mail helps you quickly sign into sites in Safari, without leaving the browser
  • Inline PDFs and document scans in Notes are presented full-width making them easy to view
  • Grocery Lists in Reminders automatically group related items into sections as you add them
  • Visual Look Up for recipes helps you find similar dishes from photo
  • Visual Look Up in video helps you learn about objects that appear in paused video frames
  • Pets in the People album in Photos surfaces individual pets just like friends or family members
  • Option to say "Siri" in addition to "Hey Siri" for a more natural way to activate Siri (Mac with Apple silicon, AirPods Pro (2nd generation))
  • High performance mode in Screen Sharing supports color workflows and improves responsiveness while remotely accessing a Mac (Mac with Apple silicon)
  • Item sharing in Find My allows you to share an AirTag with up to five other people
  • Activity History in Home displays a recent history of events for door locks, garage doors, security systems, and contact sensors
  • Battery health management updated on 13-inch MacBook Air with M2 chip to better optimize long term battery health

Some features may not be available for all regions or on all Apple devices.

macOS Sonoma also includes several important security fixes.

Apple Newsroom: macOS Sonoma is available today

Release notes: macOS Sonoma 14 Release Notes

References:

Weekend good reads for Apple developers #2023/38

iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Pro are arriving to first customers. Hopefully, you've got the model you wanted and now you have some time to go through interesting reads.

And this is it for today. Have some fun over the weekend (especially if you got your new iPhone) and get back next Friday for another pack of great reads!

Weekend good reads for Apple developers #2023/22

Okay, I get it, it's weekend before the show. But why would you drop your routine? Let's go through some great technical and one fun article.

And, as promised, fun one – refresh your Apple history knowledge with WWDC 2023: The Pregame Quiz by Jordan Morgan.

Get ready for WWDC23 – next week will be definitely packed with new stuff we'll be learning the whole summer!

Apple previews new accessibility features just before WWDC23

Apple is celebrating Global Accessibility Awareness Day by announcing new accessibility features coming to its platforms later this year.

Assistive Access

Assistive Access is designed to help people with cognitive disabilities by simplifying app's interface to its essential features and removing cognitive load. This feature targets iPhone and iPad specifically.

It is not fully clear, if applications will be able to detect presence of Assistive Access mode and adjust their interface, however, at this point it seems to be reasonable to have similar option for complicated apps.

Live Speech and Personal Voice

Live Speech provides an option for people to type the text to have it spoken out loud during phone calls or live conversations. Frequently used phrases could be saved for quick access.

Users who are at risk of loosing their ability to speak could create Personalized Voice by reading phrases for 15 minutes. This voice could be used to read phrases via Live Speech.

Detection Mode in Magnifier

Magnifier now supports pointing to objects with finger to announce the object. Demo shows button text announcement on microwave oven. This feature significantly improves magnifier app for visually impaired people.

Several other features are added across Apple platforms that improve overall accessibility.

Apple Newsroom: Apple previews Live Speech, Personal Voice, and more new accessibility features

Weekend good reads for Apple developers #2023/9

Spring is coming, and we're continuing our tradition of weekend reads. Let's see what we've got for this week.

And that is it for today. Have some rest and get back next week.