June 9, 2019 at 21:46Apple Beta Alive: Trivia Not Revealed at Presentation
Officially, new versions of Apple’s operating systems will appear only in a few months, but beta versions can be "felt" right now. To do this, you need a developer account, a computer with iTunes, Xcode 11 beta and firmware files: iOS 13, iPad OS 13, TV OS 13, Watch OS 6 and MacOS 10.15.1 Catalina. You can find them on developers.apple.com under Developer → Downloads.
At the WWDC keynote, of course, they talked about the most important new features, but to lively see how the new functions are implemented is not at all like on the slides. And then, Tim Cook and his team in two hours did not have time to mention a few interesting little things.
All the new features that are in iOS 13 are available on the iPad OS and in some places on the new Mac OS, but not vice versa.
Dark Mode
I do not understand why everyone is so happy about the dark topic, but yes, it is present. Lovers will appreciate it. Not only uniform backgrounds and text are changing, but also Apple wallpapers - a pleasant attention to detail.
The volume slider has moved.
Now when you change the volume, the slider appears next to the hardware buttons on the edge of the screen, and not in the form of a large blaze in the middle. On the iPad, this element also appears from the side of the volume buttons, but in the center, and not next to them.
Animoji
You can customize your animated avatar even more: freckles, shadows, piercings, grills, braces and even AirPods in your ears. The chip is more likely for those who use iMessage, but in principle, you can send it anywhere, saving the animation as a video.
Swipe keyboard
Added ability to type text without lifting a finger from the screen. Works so far only with English. In the Russian layout - do not drive with your finger - you will print only one letter.
FaceID is faster
Subjectively, face recognition is now faster - the lock icon has barely flickered.
Applications are more compact and faster loading.
Apple said that applications in the AppStore will be half as much in volume, and that the limit for downloading over a cellular network will increase by 50 MB. I won’t say anything about compactness, but the fact that apps started to run faster is a fact.
It’s easier to share a file. A
neural network in an iPhone was also taught to monitor who and what you most often send. In addition to applications, you can share a photo or link directly with a person through AirDrop or iMessage.
Optimized charging
The smartphone began to charge more slowly and often - no more than 80%. This iOS 13 monitors the health of the battery by charging it with low currents. And at the same time, it also monitors when the owner puts the phone on charge, hoping everything will be exactly charged up to 80% before the smartphone is unplugged. A full charge usually happens in the middle of the night. You can disable the feature: for a day or even forever.
Video can be edited directly in the gallery.
Videos can be rotated, flipped, sprinkled and cut off excess without getting into iMovie. They have been waiting for a long time.
Changed the photo gallery
At the conference, they promised that the photo gallery would learn to notice duplicates and “collapse” them in one shot. I have not noticed yet - perhaps this neural network has not yet finished analyzing a ton of my photos.
But now you can use a gesture to change the scale of the image display and move from specific photos to weeks, months and years.
Notes in the form of icons and search by scans
In the Notes application, you can select the presentation in the form of icons, not strings. In addition, a semantic search for scans became available. In beta, this only works in English texts.
New screenshot editor
In the screenshot editor, the tools were updated - they seemed to make them more skeuomorphic than before. The sharing button has moved up. While a little unusual.
On the left - it became, on the right - it was
“Find Friends” and Find My Phone was merged into one application.
Now both friends and devices appear on the map in one application. It is also stated that it will be possible to find the device even if it is not connected to Wi-Fi. If you enable the device’s loss mode, other Apple devices will “notice” its location and transfer information to the new Latitude application. They are afraid that all data is encrypted, and even Apple does not have access to it.
Music on two pairs of headphones at once
This is called a Bluetooth Wireless Splitter. Connect two pairs of headphones to the iPhone or iPad, and in the Music application, click on the sharing button. A menu opens where you can choose where to broadcast the signal. And even separately adjust the volume.
Judging by what tablets are available for beta, iPad OS will appear on the following models:
Widgets on the left side of the screen
Widgets can be pulled out from the left edge of the home screen. If desired, they can be left there forever.
Multi-window
On iPad, you can run applications in two windows at once. And it can even be one application, for example, Safari. Between windows you can drag and paste text and pictures. And the screen can be divided either in half, or give one program a quarter of the screen, and the second - the remaining space.
Safari displays full versions of sites
Apple believes that iPads are powerful enough devices with large displays to display full versions of sites.
New gestures
You can connect a mouse.
Owners of Android devices, you can start to laugh. On the iPad OS and iOS 13, mouse support has been added: wired and wireless. But the cursor just does not appear. Yes, it will not be a cursor, but a circle emulating a finger. This is part of the accessibility features - Assistive Touch. In order for the cursor to appear, this feature must be enabled.
Xbox One S and PS 4 controllers are supported.
In addition to the mouse, you can also connect BT controllers from Xbox or PS. It used to be real, but gamepads supported some games, but now they are supported by the system and, in principle, manage with their help everything that is in the AppStore. Powered by Apple TV, iPads and iPhones. In fact, an iPhone can be turned into a console, while simultaneously broadcasting a picture on a telly.
Screenshots using the stylus
If you have an Apple Pencil, you can not pinch the buttons on the device, but draw a stylus from any lower corner diagonally. A trifle, but nice.
Sidecar
The coolest thing - the iPad can now act as an additional screen for the Mac. For everything to work, the Mac must have a new version of MacOS Catalina, and the iPad needs to be upgraded to iPad OS.
While all this is in beta mode, the connection happens to break, but the fact itself! You can connect devices both by wire and via Wi-Fi - then the additional display will turn out wireless and you can leave the computer up to 10 meters. In SideCar mode, auxiliary tools such as the Shift, Cmd or Caps Lock buttons, as well as the Touch Bar strip, as in the latest MacBook Pro, are displayed at the edges of the iPad display.
This is how SideCar looks on the iPad side.
Mac OS Catalina added support for stylus and gestures, so you can interact with programs that are open on the Mac and display on the iPad using Apple Pencil, and you can zoom in on your images with your fingers.
When the bugs inherent in beta versions do not come out, everything works as if iPad is just an additional monitor, that is, quickly. True in SideCar mode, iPad also appears among devices in Finder.
iTunes is gone!
Finally, Apple realized that iTunes, against the background of all their other services, does not look, to put it mildly. Instead of one application for everything, three separate ones now appeared immediately: Music, Podcasts, and Apple TV.
And when devices are connected to the Mac, they appear in the fader - there is also synchronization, backups, firmware updates, etc. On-
screen time
As on other i-devices, the Mac has the ability to monitor the time spent in applications and on web pages. You can set up restrictions for working hours and “free hours” for all kinds of social networks. It turns out that extensions for a browser like Nudge can now not be downloaded.
Photo application updated
Hallelujah! Redesigned the Photo application. The interface has become more responsive, the gallery looks something like on an iPhone, and synchronization with iCloud is much faster.
Voice Control
Voice Control function is added on all platforms. When it is turned on, you can tell the system something like “Open Safari” and it will open. For convenience, you can choose a mode in which all labels and fields are numbered and simply pronounce these numbers. The main thing is that this is not part of Siri - everything works without additional activation.
It is noticeable that on the Mac it works very stably, but on the iPad, if the web page is large, it takes time for the elements to be numbered again after scrolling.
Arcade application does not yet work
Arcade - a game service that will work in the fall. At the same time, in all beta versions, a separate application has already appeared, but so far only a splash screen is shown in it.
Arcade will bring together 100 games with advanced graphics and high-quality gameplay. It seems that Apple is going to make another breakthrough, so that their ecosystem is perceived as a global gaming platform. To do this, they added gamepad support to all devices, including Apple TV, and the progress in Arcade games will be stored in the cloud and synchronized between all devices. That is, it will be possible to start playing in the subway on the way home, and continue at home already on the telly with a joystick under your finger.
Lyrics
Many songs in the Music app on the Apple TV now display words along the track. A kind of karaoke is obtained.
True, words are not for all compositions, and I didn’t notice any dependence on the language: there are words for Babkin’s songs in Ukrainian, and Rammstein also has lines, but the other German group AnnenMayKantereit has no titles. Most of the texts, of course, are in English.
Several accounts on one set-top box
Previously, on Apple TV, you could only have someone else's account. Now a few. When you change the account (by long pressing the Home button), the content in the built-in applications also changes: Music, Podcasts, Apple TV, Photos. That is, you will listen to one music, and your wife, say, another. Third-party applications are not affected by profile switching.
There are no underwater screensavers yet.
They promised that there will be new underwater screensavers with fish. Apparently, you have to wait for the final TV OS 13, because they are not yet in beta. But now you can configure the frequency of loading new screensavers: once a day or once a week. And you can turn it off altogether, because they actually take up a lot of space, about a gigabyte each.
In beta, the Apple Watch hasn’t worked so much of what it’s promised so far. We released new applications: Voice Recorder, Calculator, Audiobooks (you can listen without an iPhone), Cycle Tracker (for girls).
Plus, in the final version of the firmware an independent app store for watches will appear. That is, it is already on the list, but when it starts on beta it constantly crashes. The promised Noise application, which should signal to the owner if there are too loud sounds around, is also missing.
In general, the iPad OS seems to be the most unstable. In other systems, there are already minimal glitches and inconsistencies. Install or not, decide for yourself. But if something specific is interesting, ask in the comments - I’ll try to answer - I’m not betting beta yet. I'm going to play on Apple TV with a controller or something.
At the WWDC keynote, of course, they talked about the most important new features, but to lively see how the new functions are implemented is not at all like on the slides. And then, Tim Cook and his team in two hours did not have time to mention a few interesting little things.
iOS 13 beta
All the new features that are in iOS 13 are available on the iPad OS and in some places on the new Mac OS, but not vice versa.
Dark Mode
I do not understand why everyone is so happy about the dark topic, but yes, it is present. Lovers will appreciate it. Not only uniform backgrounds and text are changing, but also Apple wallpapers - a pleasant attention to detail.
The volume slider has moved.
Now when you change the volume, the slider appears next to the hardware buttons on the edge of the screen, and not in the form of a large blaze in the middle. On the iPad, this element also appears from the side of the volume buttons, but in the center, and not next to them.
Animoji
You can customize your animated avatar even more: freckles, shadows, piercings, grills, braces and even AirPods in your ears. The chip is more likely for those who use iMessage, but in principle, you can send it anywhere, saving the animation as a video.
Swipe keyboard
Added ability to type text without lifting a finger from the screen. Works so far only with English. In the Russian layout - do not drive with your finger - you will print only one letter.
FaceID is faster
Subjectively, face recognition is now faster - the lock icon has barely flickered.
Applications are more compact and faster loading.
Apple said that applications in the AppStore will be half as much in volume, and that the limit for downloading over a cellular network will increase by 50 MB. I won’t say anything about compactness, but the fact that apps started to run faster is a fact.
It’s easier to share a file. A
neural network in an iPhone was also taught to monitor who and what you most often send. In addition to applications, you can share a photo or link directly with a person through AirDrop or iMessage.
Optimized charging
The smartphone began to charge more slowly and often - no more than 80%. This iOS 13 monitors the health of the battery by charging it with low currents. And at the same time, it also monitors when the owner puts the phone on charge, hoping everything will be exactly charged up to 80% before the smartphone is unplugged. A full charge usually happens in the middle of the night. You can disable the feature: for a day or even forever.
Video can be edited directly in the gallery.
Videos can be rotated, flipped, sprinkled and cut off excess without getting into iMovie. They have been waiting for a long time.
Changed the photo gallery
At the conference, they promised that the photo gallery would learn to notice duplicates and “collapse” them in one shot. I have not noticed yet - perhaps this neural network has not yet finished analyzing a ton of my photos.
But now you can use a gesture to change the scale of the image display and move from specific photos to weeks, months and years.
Notes in the form of icons and search by scans
In the Notes application, you can select the presentation in the form of icons, not strings. In addition, a semantic search for scans became available. In beta, this only works in English texts.
New screenshot editor
In the screenshot editor, the tools were updated - they seemed to make them more skeuomorphic than before. The sharing button has moved up. While a little unusual.
On the left - it became, on the right - it was
“Find Friends” and Find My Phone was merged into one application.
Now both friends and devices appear on the map in one application. It is also stated that it will be possible to find the device even if it is not connected to Wi-Fi. If you enable the device’s loss mode, other Apple devices will “notice” its location and transfer information to the new Latitude application. They are afraid that all data is encrypted, and even Apple does not have access to it.
Music on two pairs of headphones at once
This is called a Bluetooth Wireless Splitter. Connect two pairs of headphones to the iPhone or iPad, and in the Music application, click on the sharing button. A menu opens where you can choose where to broadcast the signal. And even separately adjust the volume.
iPad OS 13 beta
Judging by what tablets are available for beta, iPad OS will appear on the following models:
- First-generation iPad Pro, 12.9 "and 9.7";
- Second Generation iPad Pro, 12.9 "and 10.5";
- 3rd Generation iPad Pro, 12.9 "and 11";
- iPad mini 4 and fifth generation;
- 3rd generation iPad Air;
- Fifth and sixth generation iPad.
Widgets on the left side of the screen
Widgets can be pulled out from the left edge of the home screen. If desired, they can be left there forever.
Multi-window
On iPad, you can run applications in two windows at once. And it can even be one application, for example, Safari. Between windows you can drag and paste text and pictures. And the screen can be divided either in half, or give one program a quarter of the screen, and the second - the remaining space.
Safari displays full versions of sites
Apple believes that iPads are powerful enough devices with large displays to display full versions of sites.
New gestures
- By holding three fingers on the screen, you can call up the text editing panel. Swipe with three fingers to the left is Undo, an analog of Cmd + Z on the Mac; to the right - respectively Redo.
- If you pinch three fingers with a pinch, you can copy the text; dilute - insert.
- Files, notes and photos can be selected with two fingers without first pressing a special button. Take two fingers and lead through the elements. On iOS, they did not implement it - apparently, there the screen is small.
You can connect a mouse.
Owners of Android devices, you can start to laugh. On the iPad OS and iOS 13, mouse support has been added: wired and wireless. But the cursor just does not appear. Yes, it will not be a cursor, but a circle emulating a finger. This is part of the accessibility features - Assistive Touch. In order for the cursor to appear, this feature must be enabled.
Xbox One S and PS 4 controllers are supported.
In addition to the mouse, you can also connect BT controllers from Xbox or PS. It used to be real, but gamepads supported some games, but now they are supported by the system and, in principle, manage with their help everything that is in the AppStore. Powered by Apple TV, iPads and iPhones. In fact, an iPhone can be turned into a console, while simultaneously broadcasting a picture on a telly.
Screenshots using the stylus
If you have an Apple Pencil, you can not pinch the buttons on the device, but draw a stylus from any lower corner diagonally. A trifle, but nice.
Sidecar
The coolest thing - the iPad can now act as an additional screen for the Mac. For everything to work, the Mac must have a new version of MacOS Catalina, and the iPad needs to be upgraded to iPad OS.
While all this is in beta mode, the connection happens to break, but the fact itself! You can connect devices both by wire and via Wi-Fi - then the additional display will turn out wireless and you can leave the computer up to 10 meters. In SideCar mode, auxiliary tools such as the Shift, Cmd or Caps Lock buttons, as well as the Touch Bar strip, as in the latest MacBook Pro, are displayed at the edges of the iPad display.
This is how SideCar looks on the iPad side.
Mac OS Catalina added support for stylus and gestures, so you can interact with programs that are open on the Mac and display on the iPad using Apple Pencil, and you can zoom in on your images with your fingers.
When the bugs inherent in beta versions do not come out, everything works as if iPad is just an additional monitor, that is, quickly. True in SideCar mode, iPad also appears among devices in Finder.
Mac OS Catalina
iTunes is gone!
Finally, Apple realized that iTunes, against the background of all their other services, does not look, to put it mildly. Instead of one application for everything, three separate ones now appeared immediately: Music, Podcasts, and Apple TV.
And when devices are connected to the Mac, they appear in the fader - there is also synchronization, backups, firmware updates, etc. On-
screen time
As on other i-devices, the Mac has the ability to monitor the time spent in applications and on web pages. You can set up restrictions for working hours and “free hours” for all kinds of social networks. It turns out that extensions for a browser like Nudge can now not be downloaded.
Photo application updated
Hallelujah! Redesigned the Photo application. The interface has become more responsive, the gallery looks something like on an iPhone, and synchronization with iCloud is much faster.
Voice Control
Voice Control function is added on all platforms. When it is turned on, you can tell the system something like “Open Safari” and it will open. For convenience, you can choose a mode in which all labels and fields are numbered and simply pronounce these numbers. The main thing is that this is not part of Siri - everything works without additional activation.
It is noticeable that on the Mac it works very stably, but on the iPad, if the web page is large, it takes time for the elements to be numbered again after scrolling.
TV OS 13 beta
Arcade application does not yet work
Arcade - a game service that will work in the fall. At the same time, in all beta versions, a separate application has already appeared, but so far only a splash screen is shown in it.
Arcade will bring together 100 games with advanced graphics and high-quality gameplay. It seems that Apple is going to make another breakthrough, so that their ecosystem is perceived as a global gaming platform. To do this, they added gamepad support to all devices, including Apple TV, and the progress in Arcade games will be stored in the cloud and synchronized between all devices. That is, it will be possible to start playing in the subway on the way home, and continue at home already on the telly with a joystick under your finger.
Lyrics
Many songs in the Music app on the Apple TV now display words along the track. A kind of karaoke is obtained.
True, words are not for all compositions, and I didn’t notice any dependence on the language: there are words for Babkin’s songs in Ukrainian, and Rammstein also has lines, but the other German group AnnenMayKantereit has no titles. Most of the texts, of course, are in English.
Several accounts on one set-top box
Previously, on Apple TV, you could only have someone else's account. Now a few. When you change the account (by long pressing the Home button), the content in the built-in applications also changes: Music, Podcasts, Apple TV, Photos. That is, you will listen to one music, and your wife, say, another. Third-party applications are not affected by profile switching.
There are no underwater screensavers yet.
They promised that there will be new underwater screensavers with fish. Apparently, you have to wait for the final TV OS 13, because they are not yet in beta. But now you can configure the frequency of loading new screensavers: once a day or once a week. And you can turn it off altogether, because they actually take up a lot of space, about a gigabyte each.
Watch OS 6 beta
In beta, the Apple Watch hasn’t worked so much of what it’s promised so far. We released new applications: Voice Recorder, Calculator, Audiobooks (you can listen without an iPhone), Cycle Tracker (for girls).
Plus, in the final version of the firmware an independent app store for watches will appear. That is, it is already on the list, but when it starts on beta it constantly crashes. The promised Noise application, which should signal to the owner if there are too loud sounds around, is also missing.
In general, the iPad OS seems to be the most unstable. In other systems, there are already minimal glitches and inconsistencies. Install or not, decide for yourself. But if something specific is interesting, ask in the comments - I’ll try to answer - I’m not betting beta yet. I'm going to play on Apple TV with a controller or something.