Today’s iOS 16.2 and iPadOS 16.2 updates bring several notable features to iOS 16 and iPadOS 16, including the Freeform app, which is a sort of digital whiteboard that you can use for anything, while also working collaboratively with friends and colleagues.
It includes the Apple Music karaoke feature called “Sing,” it introduces Advanced Data Protection for end-to-end encryption for more iClou features, plus more. On the iPad, the update brings support for external displays on M1 and M2 iPads.
Today’s macOS Ventura update introduces the Freeform app, designed to allow users to sketch, draw, and write on a blank whiteboard-style canvas that can be used with friends and colleagues. It also includes Advanced Data Protection for iCloud, expanding end-to-end encryption to iCloud Backup, Notes, Photos, and more.
watchOS 9.2 includes Race Route, a feature that is designed to let outdoor runners, cyclists, and wheelchair users to compete against their previous performances, plus for outdoor run workouts, it can detect when you arrive at a running track.
Following the release of iOS 16.2 and other software updates, Apple also made tvOS 16.2 available to Apple TV users on Monday. The update brings multi-user voice recognition for Siri and also Apple Music Sing with the karaoke experience to the Apple TV operating system.
None of this is revolutionary in any way. It really feels like a glorified Notes app, with a few extra tools and the ability to throw whatever you want onto the board wherever. But perhaps this simplicity is what I like the most because it's easy enough for almost anyone to use. I didn't have to explain how to use it to my editor when we were using it together; he kind of just got it and started making a board.
Freeform feels like an app that Apple realized it needed to make in order to test its new integrated collaboration features. I’m glad it did; it’s not going to change the world, but even Apple may be surprised at the different ways that users take advantage of that. It’s fitting that the future of the app is itself a blank canvas, waiting to be filled in.
Ultimately, at the end of 2022, this is where I stand with my iPad Pro and Stage Manager: this feature needs a lot of work and refinements still, but as I’m typing this story in Obsidian, I realize I’ve finally achieved the setup of my dreams, which seemed impossible just a few years ago. My iPad can now be a tablet, a laptop-like device with a Magic Keyboard, or turn an external display into a desktop environment. The same piece of glass can yield three distinct computing experiences, all powered by the same OS.
Alongside the first major Ventura update, Apple also released updates to Big Sur (11.7.2) and Monterey (12.6.2) that contain a slew of important security updates. Apple appears to be done releasing updates for the two-year-old Catalina.
As part of the barrage of operating system updates released earlier today, Apple published new iOS and iPadOS 15.7.2 updates that bring most of the iOS 16.2 security patches to the previous version of the operating system.
Software engineering and services employees are engaged in a major push to open up key elements of Apple’s platforms, according to people familiar with the efforts. As part of the changes, customers could ultimately download third-party software to their iPhones and iPads without using the company’s App Store, sidestepping Apple’s restrictions and the up-to-30% commission it imposes on payments.
The moves — a reversal of long-held policies — are a response to EU laws aimed at leveling the playing field for third-party developers and improving the digital lives of consumers. For years, regulators and software makers have complained that Apple and Google, which run the two biggest mobile app stores, wield too much power as gatekeepers.
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Currently, third-party web browsers, including ones like Chrome from Alphabet Inc.’s Google, are required to use WebKit, Apple’s Safari browsing engine. Under the plan to meet the new law, Apple is considering removing that mandate.
But regardless, Apple will figure out how to take a cut of all of this. Because that’s the business in which they now find themselves as they try to continue to grow revenue (and profit) from such a crazy base thanks to the success of the iPhone (and to a lesser degree, their other devices).
The company today announced that Flipboard’s curators will be able to publish original content into their magazine in order to engage with their readers in a conversation. The company believes the feature will allow curators to create small communities around a particular theme or interest.
Whether you are writing your next book, article, or that school paper you need to turn in, Ulysses can be the perfect writing tool you have been looking for on your Mac.
Its algorithms instantly shift higher-pitched wildlife into frequencies low enough to be detected by people who still hear most human speech and some birdsong, such as a robin’s, but who struggle above roughly 3 kilohertz. App users can tune settings to suit their needs—lowering the pitch by different intervals to hear, say, a Brown Creeper, Blackburnian Warbler, or Northern Parula as necessary.
Micaela believes that the best workout is one that you stick to — and thanks to her and Future, I’m doing just that.
Out of the many Apple devices I have right here in my home, only just one is capable of doing Apple Music Sing.
(Not that I am longing to sing along to Apple Music. In fact, if my memory is working correctly, I can count the number of times I've karaoke-d in my entire life on one hand.)
So, I only have my iPhone 12 mini to try out Apple Music Sing, and I have to say that the user-interface for this feature is not intuitive. And especially since karaoke mode is not available for all songs, and the first song that I've tried out is not available with Apple Music Sing.
Oh, and Apple Music Sing is such a clumsy name.
Happy singing!
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Thanks for reading.