Many More Things Coming To Apple Devices

Howdy y’all, here are more thoughts after WWDC24. This round, I’m scoping out the overview grab bag of new stuff I’m looking forward to.

By the way, isn’t it nice to buy a device for what it is and later get even more for free? The feature-set of my Apple devices at purchase was “enough.” But then Apple adds “One more thing” over and over again. We have plenty to be thankful for.

All the things

Calculator - first and foremost, this app will now, after many years, FINALLY, be on the iPad. BOOOOM. The mere appearance of this app on iPad is enough. While the Math Notes feature is wild, I’m just glad to get, you know, the Calculator. On iPad.

RCS - This could be called a “finally” too. I’m glad this newer and better version of SMS texting is on the way to iPhone. My parents use Android phones, and it will be nice to enjoy better texting with them.

Tab Bar - this new UI menu/view control thing in iPad is interesting. Don’t know if it’ll be good. I like the point about adding my favorite menu options there for quick access. But I also love the uniform Sidebar throughout all of Apple’s apps, consistent across iPad and Mac. So we’ll see.

Safari - I’m looking forward to trying out the more robust and smarter Reader mode. (I just wish the Safari Reader widget would work properly. It doesn't update when I’ve read one of the linked items.)

Passwords App - A whole new app just for password management. Yes! I rely on iCloud Keychain. This is going to make it better. Encryption, security, privacy, convenience: bring it on.

Maps -  Detailed hiking info for trails and topo maps, including National Parks: awesome. I love hiking and need/want to do it more. Maybe this will spur me on…and onto the trails more. Yes! The more I look at these features, the more I want to go hiking.

Notes -

• Text highlighting: nice. Really like the look of it. 

• Collapsable headings: nice. Really like the function of it. Better for organized reading and writing.

• Smart Script: cool! Okay, on iPad with Apple Pencil, your handwriting can be refined more legibly, and it has smart features like pasting typed text into your own handwriting like it’s a custom font. Plus there’s more. Looks great overall. Hope it works as advertised in practice.

Messages - tapbacks now feature ANY emoji you want. Finally. Super cool.

Freeform - Scenes: A nice small meaningful addition. I can see this coming in handy. For example: create a Freeform board for the current year, call it “2024 Planner.” Then create monthly and weekly views in your “digital planner.” And now create a scene for each of those views so you can quickly zoom to them.

Continuity - You’ll now be able to remotely control your iPhone directly and totally on your Mac. This is cool and could be quite useful. I look forward to trying it out. I love the idea that any and all iPhone apps will run on my MacBook, albeit via trackpad instead of multitouch. But it might mean that touch-screen Macs are on the way. Hmmmm…

Tiling - Cupertino, start your copiers. The nice and useful auto-window tiling that Windows has is now coming, in its own form, to the Mac. Thank you, Apple! I love the ease of snapping app windows to the halves of my Windows 11 PC at work. Now I’m eager to enjoy this convenience on my Mac. It’s the little things.

And speaking of the biggest little thing of all:

Calendar - now it will include Reminders: Of all the productivity stuff, this must be my most favorite. Scheduled reminders from the Reminders app can appear and work in the Calendar app. You’ll be able to create, edit, and manage them all in a single place. Yeah! Sweet setup.

I’ve always liked tasks or to-dos that have a date/time aspect to automatically appear on the calendar app because — wait for it — they have a date/time aspect. Of course! I like the visual, seeing my events, appointments, and tasks all on one place. Makes planning easier.

If you fail to plan, then you plan to fail. I plan to enjoy this integration.

Summary

As usual, there’s much goodness in the works. It’s fun to watch over the summer as developers and reviewers beta-test Apple’s new features, helping to polish them to perfection optimization. 

While good stuff’s coming, there are at least two key items still missing from iPad that I wish for: multi-user accounts or at least a guest-mode so I can share an iPad among my kids, and Standby Mode for iPad (like iPhone). This wouldn’t need to be MagSafe functional to me. Just let iPad have an always-on lock-screen when in landscape mode and plugged in, displaying live widgets. Let it be a Smart Home Display.

In any case, I’m thankful for all the Apple tech we already have today. The new stuff is icing on the cake.