'iOS 12' features put on hold said to include multiplayer AR games, automatic sorting of p...
A second report sheds more light on the features not expected to make the cut for this year's "iOS 12" update, as a redesigned home screen app grid, multiplayer support for augmented reality, and new algorithmic sorting of photos are now reportedly likely to wait until "iOS 13."
Word first surfaced earlier Tuesday that Apple internally told developers that some key features planned for this year would be pushed back to 2019 to allow the company to focus on performance and reliability.
Following that report, Bloomberg chimed in separately to confirm the delays, and also add some additional details. It said that "flashier changes" like the redesigned home screen are not expected to arrive until next year.
And while the advanced photo sorting capabilities in the works are also likely to be delayed, reporter Mark Gurman did say that "some smaller upgrades to the Photos app will still appear this year."
Other enhancements said to be in the works are improvements for FaceTime video calling, and improved parental controls.
Also expected to remain on track is the so-called project "Marzipan" that will simplify developer tools with a unified code base, potentially making it easier to port iOS apps to the Mac.
If Apple sticks to its regular annual release pattern, as is expected to do, then "iOS 12" should be unveiled at the company's Worldwide Developers Conference in June, before launching to the public in September.
In the interim, the company is working on a new iOS 11.3 update that will give users the ability to check the health of their device's battery, and choose to enable or disable automatic throttling of older devices to prevent random shutdowns. The update also includes four new Animoji, support for Messages in iCloud, ARKit 1.5, and tweaks to Apple Music and Apple News.
Word first surfaced earlier Tuesday that Apple internally told developers that some key features planned for this year would be pushed back to 2019 to allow the company to focus on performance and reliability.
Following that report, Bloomberg chimed in separately to confirm the delays, and also add some additional details. It said that "flashier changes" like the redesigned home screen are not expected to arrive until next year.
And while the advanced photo sorting capabilities in the works are also likely to be delayed, reporter Mark Gurman did say that "some smaller upgrades to the Photos app will still appear this year."
Other enhancements said to be in the works are improvements for FaceTime video calling, and improved parental controls.
Also expected to remain on track is the so-called project "Marzipan" that will simplify developer tools with a unified code base, potentially making it easier to port iOS apps to the Mac.
If Apple sticks to its regular annual release pattern, as is expected to do, then "iOS 12" should be unveiled at the company's Worldwide Developers Conference in June, before launching to the public in September.
In the interim, the company is working on a new iOS 11.3 update that will give users the ability to check the health of their device's battery, and choose to enable or disable automatic throttling of older devices to prevent random shutdowns. The update also includes four new Animoji, support for Messages in iCloud, ARKit 1.5, and tweaks to Apple Music and Apple News.
Comments
Anyways, regardless, I'm with them on slowing down features to nail performance and stability first.
I was worried that you’d never catch on.
Mark Gurman is a reporter, not a viable or reliable news source for what goes on at Apple. Gurman, has reported on other stories that panned out to be just unsubstantiated rumors.
In other words, don't get you knickers in a bunch over this story.
However, I didn’t use Siri at all until I got an Apple Watch and AirPods. Now I use it daily with frequency. I also didn’t appreciate other benefits of the watch, like it’s integrarion with Maps which mitigates the need to stare at a GPS while driving, relying more on vibration and speech. I’m anticipating that the sum of its parts is what will propel the Apple ecosystem, and that Apple has this in mind with AR.
Which brings me to the broader issue of focusing on flash rather then the cohesive utility of elements of the Apple experience. There’s a tendency to reduce the utility of something (watch, headphones, phone, speaker) to one or two standout features, while ignoring how each element brings out additional utility that, standing alone, each event can’t provide. Nobody would experience this cohesiveness if they didn’t have all or at least most of the elements, and if Apple can’t deliver on the services which connect them together.
I don’t expect perfection, but Apple has raised a high bar, and I would argue that Apple still has work to do refining the software-service glue, less so the hardwire elements. Siri doesn’t work well enough ( for example, if I’ve voice activated Siri, why do I need to unlock my phone? If the watch Siri picks up and needs to pass to the phone for some tasks, why do I need to physically press a button? Why can’t siri understand interrogative dictation, why won’t it correctly interpret a command to text “asking” as an interrogative query? Stuff like that”). Face ID for me, also doesn’t work well because I’m near sighted and often need to unlock while reading at a desk.
So, while I’ve been wanting a new home screen (more like windows phone, to be honest.. don’t hate me..), I prefer that Apple spend more time refining the services and functionality, especially that which increases the seemless connectivity between watch, phone, tablet, headphones, and PC. High quality, beautiful hardware and well designed GUI I’m not worried about.
The story is from Axios/Ina, Gurman only confirmed the details.
https://www.axios.com/scoop-apple-delays-ios-features-to-focus-on-reliability-performance-1517278421-d7722a3b-402e-4804-8f24-719154bf2a8e.html
But, I think security will be their #1 focus. I bet they’ll be going through their A processors with a fine toothed comb.
I also bet bug bounties get a lot of love from the software side..
A grid of apps could then pushed back to subsequent screens, so it would be still there, just de-priorized in where it’s located. If I wouldn’t have defined any ‘actions’, the grid of apps would still show up in the main screen.