We are less than 5 weeks away from WWDC, where Apple will announce the updates they have planned for the new version of iOS, macOS, watchOS, tvOS, and hopefully the HomePod. Luckily for us, 9to5mac has some well-placed connections and we have already gotten a little taste of what’s to come in iOS 13.
Make sure you check out the macOS preview here.
Marzipan
As I described last week with the macOS preview the headlining feature of iOS will probably be Apple’s Marzipan effort.
This year, I think the bulk of the excitement will be placed on the macOS side of the Marzipan apps, but I think there’s a chance that iOS will benefit from this move as well.
As mentioned a couple of times, developers will be able to check a box when compiling their iOS apps to make them Mac apps. What I hope happens though is that developers figure out how to bring more powerful systems to the iPad.
I don’t expect it to happen the first year, but by next year I think we will start seeing the benefits of the roll out.
I know if I was developing an app, I’d rather have one code base to worry about versus two or more.
Dark Mode
Dark Mode has been long asked for on iOS. I would like to see this come to the iPhone as I think I’d use it more there than I have on the Mac. With the display technology on the iPhone X, XS, and XS Max, the phones would actually benefit from having a darker display. If there are sections that don’t have to get as bright, it could help the battery since oleds don’t have to light up the entire screen like LEDs do.
This is already something that you can kind of work with as an accessibility feature, but it isn’t a true dark mode.
Of course, dark mode is also supposed to be easier on your eyes versus the bright white pop of iOS currently.
I would especially like this if Apple built in a timer to it a la
The thing that really keeps me from using dark mode on the Mac (besides automation) is the jarring contrast between the dark interface and the bright white page of the internet. There have been moves to offer a dark mode on websites automation based on HTML code, but not everyone has jumped in yet (me included, but it’s on the docket).
I’ll probably just leave it in lite mode and never change it until I get bored.
Improved Multitasking and Panels
One of my most exciting improvements for iOS is improved multitasking on the iPad. The iPad might allow multiple windows from the same app now. So you could have two windows of Word open next to each other.
This will be a great boost in productivity for many.
There is also rumors of floating windows other than slide over windows.
Undo
Finally! Shake to undo is dying, at least on the iPad.
For as long as I can remember, the undo gesture for iOS has been terrible. Back when the iPhone was on a 3.5-inch screen, there wasn’t room to add in a button for an undo button, so the user experience designers came up with the great idea to shake your phone to undo an action. I guess that’s something that frustrated users do anyway so…
Once the iPad started to get more screen space, they finally added an actual button on the keyboard for undo, but the shake remained. If you accidentally delete an e-mail and the keyboard is nowhere to be found, you’ll need to shake your giant iPad.
The rumors are saying that Apple will be adding a three finger swipe on the keyboard for undo and redo, but just on the iPad that already has the undo button, so I’m confused.
I’m interested to see how Apple implements this throughout iOS. Will it just be on the keyboards on iPhones like it currently is on iPad? Will the shake remain?
Desktop Safari on iPad!
A much requested feature by many of the pundents, myself included, have wanted a stronger safari on iPad. It looks like Apple will be changing the way that Safari request websites on the iPad.
Starting with iOS 13 is looks like Safari on the iPad will request the desktop version of websites instead of the mobile version.
Finally, going to YouTube will give you all the options instead of the mobile and dumbed down version. Safari will finally start to get stronger on iPad!
New Mail
Mail is rumored to finally be getting smarter. There are many mail apps out there that offer some of the features rumored to be coming this year, but it’s nice that they will be integrated to the system mail app.
Categories will be coming to mail, so that you can lump all your junk mail together. At the least you can get more organized.
There will also be an option to place mail in a remind me later folder, which will… remind you later.
Good updates, a long time coming.
New Volume change display
I’m not going to hold my breath on this one, but supposedly, there’s a new Volume display when you change the volume.
Currently, when you are watching a video or just change the volume on the home screen, a giant volume indicator takes up the screen. Hopefully this rethinking of the volume indicator won’t take up
Fonts
Looks like they might be allowing people to actually add the ability for users to add their own fonts to the system. Those of you looking to get your favorite Wingdings into the system can start to rejoice.
AR work
ARKit is supposed being getting the ability to detect more objects soon, improving the Augmented reality efforts by the company. This seems pretty cool for the future of a couple of elements like the car and headset, but also for games.
New Siri Hooks
Looks like Apple is also going allow more apps to finally hook into Siri naturally. Apps like media playback, search, voice calling, event ticketing, message attachment, train trip, flight, airport gate and seat information will all be able to tie into Siri on the backend instead of having to hack something together in Shortcuts.
NFC for 3rd party
I’m not so sure about this one, but the rumors are saying that Apple will be opening up the NFC chip for 3rd party developers. I don’t think security would be compromised, but it won’t be as secure as if it was locked down. Still it will be nice to be able to use the NFC chip for something other than Apple Pay.
CoreML
Developers will be able to update machine learning on-device using an updated CoreML. This could bring machine learning to the next level inside apps so that they can learn more and quicker.
While these cover all the rumors I’ve come across, one thing I haven’t really heard about is improvements that we’ve been asking for like the ability to plug in a hard drive. The system is still fairly young but it’s time to really push the OS especially on the iPad Pro. Still, most of these are steps in the right direction.
Wrap up
It looks like iOS 13 is going to be a whopper of a release if all of these things come to pass. I’m going to reserve the right to be wrong on any number of these things because you never know what will ship by the time it gets down to it.
While I don’t have much to say on this in general, I think this could be one of the biggest new updates to the operating system. The more these programs can learn, the smarter and more helpful they can be. Apple is already using this to have Siri learn about your day so that it can suggest apps you use or things you do all the time.
Still, there’s lots to like here. What are you looking forward to the most? Let me know in the comments below.