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To say that 2020 was hard will be an understatement. 2021 isn’t looking particularly good either. But as they say, life must go on. We must pick up the pieces, build, and carry on. We must adapt. The pandemic has taught us the importance of a lot of things, those we often take – or took – for granted. Mental health for instance. People-to-people connections and conversations. So on and so forth. Technology has been a great enabler but like everything else, even big tech was not immune to the challenges the pandemic threw. A hard reset became necessary. We’ve been seeing more and more hardware being developed keeping in mind the demands of the new normal. Software driving this hardware is expectedly following suit. Apple’s new iOS 15 update is a fine example. With it, Cupertino is trying to bring back some focus to your life. There are other features geared towards enhancing productivity and privacy, like always, but it’s this big focus on “focus” or in other words, well-being, that really sets iOS 15 apart from all the previous versions. You may not be able to tell it apart from iOS 14, at least on first look, but after spending some time with it, one thing’s clear – there’s a lot to look forward to, and a lot to experience. Your mileage may vary, but iOS 15 does a lot of things right, and a lot of things different. To do that, it takes some inspiration from Android here and there, but much like any other Apple product, it turns them into its own. Here’s your first look at iOS 15 and all the top features coming to your iPhone later this year. (Photo credit: Saurabh Singh/Financial Express)
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Apple had announced iOS 15 at WWDC 2021 in June. An early developer preview was rolled out simultaneously. Now, it is available more broadly in the form of public beta. This means, anybody with an iPhone 6S and above and a hankering to try pre stable release software can download and start using iOS 15. More specifically, iOS 15 public beta/preview is available for iPhone 12, iPhone 12 Mini, iPhone 12 Pro, iPhone 12 Pro Max, iPhone 11, iPhone 11 Pro, iPhone 11 Pro Max, iPhone XS, iPhone XS Max, iPhone XR, iPhone X, iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus, iPhone 7, iPhone 7 Plus, iPhone 6S, iPhone 6S Plus, iPhone SE (1st generation), iPhone SE (2nd generation), and iPod touch (7th generation). (Photo credit: Saurabh Singh/Financial Express)
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Getting it on your supported iPhone is a straightforward process. Head over to this link: https://beta.apple.com/sp/betaprogram/ using Safari on your iPhone. Enroll your iPhone in the Apple Beta Software Program using your Apple ID. Download the beta profile and then install it on your iPhone by heading over to the settings app (at this point, it is advisable to have your iPhone backed up). Post reboot, you’ll find iOS 15 public beta available under the software update section. It’s a sizeable update (it was over 5GB in my case) so be sure to have a reliable internet connection. Also, be sure to plug your iPhone to a charger since the final setup/install requires 50 percent battery. (Photo credit: Saurabh Singh/Financial Express)
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Possibly the biggest visual change coming to your iPhone with iOS 15 is by way of notifications. There’s emphasis on both making them stand out and fade away in the background depending on your preference. In their most basic form, notifications (on the lock screen and control centre) have larger icons and in the case of messages (and calls), they also bundle contact photos. Basis of these subtle, but very useful cues, you can then choose to respond accordingly. A new feature called “Notification Summary” meanwhile collects “non-time-critical” notifications and delivers them “at a more opportune time” instead of pinging you right away. (Photo credit: Saurabh Singh/Financial Express)
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The ability to set custom notification profiles is easily the most useful feature of iOS 15. Think do not disturb mode but with more granular control. Called “Focus” the feature has its own dedicated tab in settings (you’ll also find it in control centre). Here you can manually add apps and contacts under personal, sleep, and work groups. Apple’s machine learning will also chip in every now and then with suggestions. Contacts and apps that do not belong to a focus group will not be allowed to pass through. Not just notifications, focus also lets you set different home screens (while hiding others) for different profiles so you can truly be in the moment. Once setup, you can trigger these profiles whenever you like or assign them to specific time of the day/night for when you think you might need them. The feature works across devices meaning turning a focus on for one device will also turn it on for your other devices. Lastly, you can also choose to make your “status” visible to others in Messages through an automated response, so they’ll know you’re not reachable at that point of time. (Photo credit: Saurabh Singh/Financial Express)
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There may be instances where you’d want to receive a notification from an app or contact regardless of the focus profile you’re currently on. For all those cases, Apple has added an override called “Time Sensitive Notifications” to allow apps and contacts to notify you immediately even when you have focus mode turned on. (Photo credit: Saurabh Singh/Financial Express)
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Next in line to get a “major” facelift is FaceTime. FaceTime calls are available for all users through the web on iOS 15. This means iPhone (iPad, and Mac) users can create links for FaceTime calls and share them with anyone through text or third-party instant messaging apps like WhatsApp. Android and Windows users can access these calls from their web browsers. Apple says FaceTime calls on the web will remain private or end-to-end encrypted. Spatial audio and new microphone modes including voice isolation and wide spectrum make calls feel more natural and life-like. Taking some inspiration from Zoom, Apple has also brought grid view and portrait mode to FaceTime. Some of this has been long overdue, but it’s good that all this is finally happening. (Photo credit: Saurabh Singh/Financial Express)
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FaceTime can now let you share movies, shows and music with your friends and family so you can watch them together. Apple calls this feature SharePlay. While surely useful, it comes with a fair share of quirks. Apple has partnered with Disney Plus, ESPN Plus, HBO Max, Hulu, MasterClass, Paramount Plus, Pluto TV, TikTok, and Twitch to integrate SharePlay into their apps. The list is missing out on two key players, Netflix and YouTube, and most of the services (on the list) are not even available in India at this point of time. The other catch is that it works only on Apple devices (despite FaceTime being more widely accessible now). (Photo credit: Saurabh Singh/Financial Express)
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Reiterating its commitment to user privacy, Apple has introduced three new privacy-focused features with iOS 15. The first being, by default on-device speech recognition for Siri. The second is App Privacy Report which is designed to give you an overview of how apps have used permissions in the last seven days. Another feature called Mail Privacy Protection hides your IP address and location from the sender while also keeping them from knowing if their email was opened. (Photo credit: Saurabh Singh/Financial Express)
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Safari is getting a sizeable update this year with a new tab bar for quickly switching between multiple tabs and Tab Groups to save tabs for easy access later. (Photo credit: Saurabh Singh/Financial Express)
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Other notable updates include “Live Text” to highlight text in photos or scenes straight through the camera app in real time, similar to Google Lens. Contrary to Google’s approach, Apple says Live Text works locally on-device. Another feature called “Visual Look Up” allows users to add more context to their surroundings. The Weather app has been updated with full-screen maps, and dynamic layouts while Notes is getting support for user-created tags. There’s a whole lot more to iOS 15. But mostly this is a mid-cycle refresh meaning it’s not radical or anything (relative to iOS 14), instead it’s all about under the hood refinements and polish making your iPhone more relevant to the times while setting the stage for what’s coming. A stable release is expected to be rolled out sometime in September. (Photo credit: Saurabh Singh/Financial Express)