WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:06.760 Mmm, it's Pumpkin Spice Latte and Apple Operating System update season. 00:00:06.760 --> 00:00:11.880 Every fall, Apple delivers to us an aromatic array of new features that should make using 00:00:11.880 --> 00:00:15.080 their devices better and easier. 00:00:15.080 --> 00:00:25.280 Should. What we're getting is iOS and iPadOS 16, macOS 13, Ventura and watchOS 9. 00:00:25.280 --> 00:00:29.320 They all include a lot of new features and revisions, but what I'm noticing this time 00:00:29.320 --> 00:00:35.760 around is not just the features each platform gets, but also the features they all share. 00:00:35.760 --> 00:00:42.200 What does this mean for the whole concept of the operating system for Apple going forward? 00:00:42.200 --> 00:00:47.920 If you look at some sections of Apple's all-new features pages on their website, you can see 00:00:47.920 --> 00:00:55.040 that many of the updates are exactly the same, verbatim between all the operating systems. 00:00:55.040 --> 00:01:02.040 Messages, Safari, Mail, iCloud Photo Sharing, Home, Photos, Reminders, Live Text and a bunch 00:01:02.040 --> 00:01:07.800 of others. The new features added to these apps are doled out to all devices equally. 00:01:07.800 --> 00:01:11.400 This is a good thing as it means you won't lose out on functionality using the same app 00:01:11.400 --> 00:01:20.920 between different devices. You can undo, send and edit iMessages and emails no matter what keyboard you wrote them on. 00:01:20.920 --> 00:01:24.920 How you surf in Safari won't have to be limited by your screen size. 00:01:24.920 --> 00:01:31.040 The way you organize your reminders on your Mac won't be any different than on your iPhone. 00:01:31.040 --> 00:01:35.800 But are these updates really worthy of WWDC? 00:01:35.800 --> 00:01:40.840 Would they have even been noticed on previous releases like Panthers, Snow Lappered or Lion? 00:01:40.840 --> 00:01:49.920 I don't think so. Photos is a stand-alone cross-platform app, Safari is a stand-alone cross-platform app. 00:01:49.920 --> 00:01:53.320 Photos is a stand-alone cross-platform service. 00:01:53.320 --> 00:01:59.040 And yet, their updates are arbitrarily tied to the broader operating system update. 00:01:59.040 --> 00:02:03.760 This can be really annoying too. Take Maps for instance. 00:02:03.760 --> 00:02:09.360 You can finally make a multi-stop route no matter which device you're using. 00:02:09.360 --> 00:02:13.360 This is an easy feature that should have been added years ago, yet to get it you have to 00:02:13.360 --> 00:02:17.400 update each device's entire operating system. 00:02:17.400 --> 00:02:22.480 You might think that this means the operating systems are converging all into one harmonious 00:02:22.480 --> 00:02:25.960 whole, with only but a screen size to differentiate them. 00:02:25.960 --> 00:02:30.520 If Apple was doing that, future parity like we're seeing would be a necessary step. 00:02:30.520 --> 00:02:34.520 So is this preparation for one Apple OS to rule them all? 00:02:34.520 --> 00:02:41.720 Touchscreens on the Mac? I'd argue no, because these changes to the cross-platform apps just increase usability 00:02:41.720 --> 00:02:48.000 across the ecosystem. And if you take a close look beyond them, you'll find that these OS's are as different 00:02:48.000 --> 00:02:54.960 from each other as ever. Despite the fact that it's going to be a little delayed, iPad OS looks to be the most transformed 00:02:54.960 --> 00:03:00.820 this year. After all our dogged complaining, Apple is really bringing the iPad into its more capable 00:03:00.820 --> 00:03:07.120 own. Toolbars are customizable now, allowing developers and power users to personalize and optimize 00:03:07.120 --> 00:03:12.640 their app's functions. It looks like a promising step forward, as the iPad moves further away from the iPhone 00:03:12.640 --> 00:03:18.680 and closer in capability to the Mac. The biggest demonstration of this is Stage Manager. 00:03:18.680 --> 00:03:23.680 It's a new app windowing feature available only to M1-powered iPads. 00:03:23.680 --> 00:03:28.080 Instead of being limited to two full-screen apps side-by-side with a slide-over floater 00:03:28.080 --> 00:03:33.880 for good measure, you can now pile and resize groups of windowed apps together on the screen, 00:03:33.880 --> 00:03:38.040 and then switch between those piles based on what you're working on. 00:03:38.040 --> 00:03:42.520 This improved since I first tried it earlier this summer, but despite these soft round 00:03:42.520 --> 00:03:45.720 corners, there are still rough edges. 00:03:45.720 --> 00:03:50.240 Apps aren't freely movable and resizable, they kind of just snap into set sizes and 00:03:50.240 --> 00:03:55.960 positions. It's quite interesting that you cannot completely cover app Windows over one another. 00:03:55.960 --> 00:03:59.440 These behaviors will require getting used to, and developers are going to have to put in 00:03:59.440 --> 00:04:05.560 a lot of work to support all these new layouts, as you can see. 00:04:05.560 --> 00:04:11.080 Even on this big iPad Pro screen, I don't think I'd use Stage Manager, but hooked up 00:04:11.080 --> 00:04:14.360 to an external monitor, it's a game changer. 00:04:14.360 --> 00:04:18.400 Now the iPad really is a tangible computer replacement for those who can work within 00:04:18.400 --> 00:04:24.360 the platform's bumper guards. Though, if you're used to a desktop operating system, don't forget that you will probably 00:04:24.360 --> 00:04:28.760 run into mouse interactions that won't work like you're expecting. 00:04:28.760 --> 00:04:34.360 Touch first, everyone. Also, on a Mac, you can close, minimize, and maximize Windows with the traffic lights 00:04:34.360 --> 00:04:39.960 on the top corner of a window. Here, those options are buried under an annoying submenu. 00:04:39.960 --> 00:04:44.400 Now, while your Mac is charging, you'll be interested in knowing that Stage Manager 00:04:44.400 --> 00:04:51.680 is here too. And because the operating system was engineered from the ground up to support resizable windowing, 00:04:51.680 --> 00:04:58.640 it works much better. Here think about it as an alternative way to organize tasks in Windows, compared to 00:04:58.640 --> 00:05:03.480 mission control. Next, we have something that works great on the iPad, but not so much on the Mac. 00:05:03.480 --> 00:05:08.080 They have replaced the system preferences with the system settings app. 00:05:08.080 --> 00:05:13.760 Same stovetop logo, though. It's adopted the sidebar format found on Apple's mobile devices. 00:05:13.760 --> 00:05:17.200 That makes it easier to find the section you're looking for at a glance, but I'm not bold 00:05:17.200 --> 00:05:21.400 over by the controls and layout once you're in there. 00:05:21.400 --> 00:05:27.520 Everything feels more complex. Look at how these alignments have changed, creating redundant space between the options 00:05:27.520 --> 00:05:31.200 and the selections. It's very hard to see things at a glance. 00:05:31.560 --> 00:05:36.240 The screens are so much bigger, and I'm really not convinced that mobile UI paradigms should 00:05:36.240 --> 00:05:41.400 be in desktop operating systems. Wait, macOS has a noise machine? 00:05:41.400 --> 00:05:46.520 An accessibility? Well, that's hard to find. And why is this a toggle switch? 00:05:46.520 --> 00:05:50.000 Why is this a window? What? Why did it shoot? 00:05:50.000 --> 00:05:54.440 Developer Nicky Tonsky posted a thread on Twitter showing just how rough the early beta 00:05:54.440 --> 00:05:58.800 versions of this app are, and showcased some of the questionable UI choices Apple has made 00:05:58.800 --> 00:06:06.080 with it. I find it so unrelentingly grey, like this list of toggles that look greyed out as if 00:06:06.080 --> 00:06:09.200 you can't use them, but oh, you can. 00:06:09.200 --> 00:06:13.840 Also, these were the gesture videos to show you how to use your magic mouse and trackpad 00:06:13.840 --> 00:06:17.000 before. These are the new ones. 00:06:17.000 --> 00:06:24.840 This is what software feels like these days in microcosm. We've gone from a rich, beautiful, understandable video to an uninspiring, abstract, boring 00:06:24.840 --> 00:06:29.120 animation bound to peak the curiosity of exactly no one. 00:06:30.160 --> 00:06:33.920 Because everything has moved around so much, I'm going to recommend that you only update 00:06:33.920 --> 00:06:40.920 to Ventura when you're mentally prepared to. But don't worry, like iPadOS, this update will be coming a bit later. 00:06:40.920 --> 00:06:45.440 Now the update worth installing is iOS. 00:06:45.440 --> 00:06:53.400 I absolutely love the look of the new lock screen. It makes the phone so much more useful at a glance, something my Apple Watch is great 00:06:53.400 --> 00:06:59.200 at. You can now add simple widgets and set your wallpaper to shuffle photos from your library. 00:06:59.240 --> 00:07:03.360 And if you don't have widgets enabled, the clock can now be cleverly placed behind your 00:07:03.360 --> 00:07:07.800 photo subject. You can even change the clock's font. 00:07:07.800 --> 00:07:10.920 Notifications are piled up at the bottom now, out of the way. 00:07:10.920 --> 00:07:15.560 And finally, as your mood changes, you can swipe between all your multiple themes, which 00:07:15.560 --> 00:07:19.920 can also be tied to different focus modes. I do have some niggles. 00:07:19.920 --> 00:07:25.040 On some wallpapers, the widgets can become completely illegible because there's no contrast. 00:07:25.200 --> 00:07:29.720 Disappointingly, all the options and freedom we get on the lock screen comes with a commensurate 00:07:29.720 --> 00:07:35.400 removal of options for the home screen. Apple's default wallpaper options are all but gone unless you use the same background 00:07:35.400 --> 00:07:42.400 as the lock screen. Oh, and check this out in the Photos app. 00:07:42.400 --> 00:07:45.880 That's cool. I've always hated doing that on Photoshop. 00:07:45.880 --> 00:07:50.040 Apple's finally showing us what capabilities the neural engine can bring to software, adding 00:07:50.040 --> 00:07:54.360 to live text to video and dictation improvements. 00:07:54.360 --> 00:07:58.600 Other than these main highlights, you're really not going to notice the improvements 00:07:58.600 --> 00:08:02.240 in day-to-day use, unless you really dig deep. 00:08:02.240 --> 00:08:07.440 Adam Angst at Tidbit did a survey asking people what features from last year's releases 00:08:07.440 --> 00:08:12.320 people were using, and the results showed that a wide majority of users didn't use 00:08:12.320 --> 00:08:15.440 any of the new features, save for live text. 00:08:15.440 --> 00:08:21.480 It makes me wish for a release that has no new features and is just bug fixes and refinements. 00:08:21.480 --> 00:08:26.800 A year-long feature moratorium, wouldn't that be great? 00:08:26.800 --> 00:08:33.640 Thanks for worsening the UI of this Mac Address. Now, if you are going to update your devices right away, give this video a like, and if 00:08:33.640 --> 00:08:39.520 you're going to hold off, you might as well subscribe. Now, comment below, I'm curious what you think about a feature moratorium. 00:08:39.520 --> 00:08:42.880 Now, new features just fixes. 00:08:42.880 --> 00:08:43.240 You agree?