.png)
Ever since we got a preview of the iOS 15 updates a couple of months ago, we’ve been waiting for this day to arrive, and now it has – along with WatchOS 8! Being the multitaskers that we are (and more so during the pandemic), we’re excited about the additional tools that can help us focus better on what we’re working on despite the numerous distractions that we face daily.
If you’re an existing iPhone user, all you need to do is back up your iPhone and update it to the iOS 15 by clicking here. However, if you’re in the midst of getting the latest iPhone and an existing iPhone user, you can temporarily back your data up on iCloud (even without a subscription) and transfer it to the new iPhone once you’ve got your hands on it. If you’re a first time iPhone user, fret not cos there’s an improved Move to iOS experience that allows you to easily transfer photo albums, files, folders and accessibility settings and make your transition a lot smoother from the start. As for the WatchOS 8, you can expect updates to Sleep, a new Mindfulness app as well as workouts for you to take better care of your health. All you need to do is update your Apple Watch and you’re all set!
10 new things about the iOS 15 that you should know about:
1. Introducing SharePlay
Keep those FaceTime convos going as you watch TV programmes and movies, listen to music or share your screen with SharePlay. Despite the distance, here’s a great new way to enjoy experiences with your loved ones!
2. FaceTime with anyone now
No longer limited to iPhone users only, FaceTime now connects you with friends and family who are using Windows or Android. It’s still end-to-end encrypted so your call will remain private and secure as any other FaceTime call!
3. Focus on what’s important
From a list of Focus options, you can now get work done while you’re in the zone without having any distraction. With this feature, your status will automatically be displayed in messages and other communication apps, letting people will know that you’re not available at the moment. However, they can still get to you in an emergency.
4. Sharing is caring
Having a second pair of eyes on your health can give everyone peace of mind. By updating the Health app, you can find new ways to share data with your loved ones, a metric that assesses your risk of falling and trend analysis to help you understand changes in your health. Whether it’s with a family member or caregiver, health sharing lets you share any information stored in the Health app. You can receive important notifications about your loved ones’ health and view things like their activity, mobility data, heart rate data and trends in the Sharing tab.
5. Get organised with Tab Groups
Save and organise your tabs in a way that works best for you and allows you to switch between them easily! Tab Groups sync across devices so that you have access to your tabs from anywhere.
6. Look back on happy days with new Interactive Memories
Memories introduces an interactive, immersive interface along with new Memory mixes that allow you to personalise the look and feel of your story with a song and vibe to match. The good news is that with millions of songs in the Apple Music library, you’ll be able to find the perfect tune to match the memories that appear via this new feature!
7. Accessible to everyone
If you’ve always wanted to customise display and text size settings for each app, you can now do it all: bold or enlarge text, increase contrast, invert colours and more for the apps you want! You can also explore people, objects, text and tables within images in more detail with the VoiceOver feature, navigate receipts and nutrition label values in logical order and move your finger over a photo to discover a person’s position relative to other objects in the image.
8. See only the Notifications that matter
Redesigned to help you prioritise information and reduce distractions, Notifications now include contact photos for people and larger icons for apps so that they’re easier to identify at a glance. The notification summary also helps you quickly catch up, delivering a collection of notifications each day based on the schedule that you’ve set.
9. Experience the magic of Live Text
Live text recognises text in images on your iPhone, the internet and in real time using the Camera app. Text is completely interactive in your photos so you can use things like copy and paste, Look Up and translate on images containing text. You can even tap on the image of a phone number to make a call or the image of a web address to open a page in Safari. Live Text works in Photos, Quick Look, Safari, Screenshot and live previews with Camera.
10. Make Privacy a priority
Time to gain control over your data with Apple’s privacy protections and transparency features! Now you can hide your IP address and location with Mail Privacy Protection and help prevent senders from seeing if and when you’ve opened their email. See how often apps have accessed your data like location and photos, and if apps are contacting other domains with the App Privacy Report.
7 ways the WatchOS 8 will give you greater insight into your overall wellness and help you look after your health:
1. Enjoy some ‘me-time’ with Mindfulness
The popular Breathe app has been reimagined, expanded and renamed Mindfulness to help you be more mindful in your everyday life. The Reflect feature of the app requires you to focus on a short, thought-provoking theme, which comes with a beautiful animation that’ll help you visualise every minute that passes. With every Breathe and Reflect session, it ends with a summary of total Mindful Minutes that you’ve achieved along with your average heart rate to reinforce your mind-body connection. The Breathe feature has also been refreshed with new visualisations and tips that’ll help you focus and connect as you breathe.
2. Make Sleep a priority
With the new iOS, you can get access to the data and trends of your sleeping patterns in the Health App. Along with Sleep, you can also track trends for more health metrics to see the changes in your health over time. Get to know your sleeping respiratory rate by calculating your breaths per minute as you slumber.
3. Keep your Focus on what’s important
Just like the iOS, your Apple Watch is able to help you stay in the moment when you need to focus on important matters by allowing only the notifications that you want. Any Focus that you set syncs across your Apple Watch, iPhone, iPad and Mac. Stepping away is easier when others know you’re busy and so, when you’re using Focus, your status will automatically be displayed in Messages – although there’s still a way for people to notify you when something really urgent pops up!
4. Smarter outdoor Cycling feature
If you’re one of those who’ve started to cycle during the lockdown, you’ll be thrilled to know that the Apple Watch is now able to detect when you’re riding a bicycle and will prompt you to start a cycling workout. It can also automatically pause and start again when you take a break and if you’re riding an e-bike, you’ll get more accurate calculations of calories burned. There’s also a voice feedback that you can you make use of, which’ll let you know about your milestones via speaker, AirPods or Bluetooth headphones.
5. Stretch your body with Pilates and Tai Chi
For Pilates fans, here’s a custom algorithm to track your metrics as you develop core strength, posture, balance and flexibility via a series of controlled and progressive exercises. You can also opt to clear your mind and reduce stress with Tai Chi.
6. Share your favourites with your loved ones
With just a few taps, you can now share photos via Messages and Mail as well as send songs, albums and playlists with the redesigned Music app and spice up your messages by entering a word or phrase to select from a huge library of GIFs.
7. Relive your favourite memories
You can now sync photo highlights from your Memories and Featured Photos to your watch. The photo collection from your Memories will be displayed in a unique mosaic grid and you can also use your Portrait mode pictures as the watch face and put your favourite photos of friends and family as you like, especially if you miss them and haven’t seen much of them during the pandemic!
Featured image: Apple
Compiled by: Lester Liang
.svg){kind=small}