Apple at their annual WWDC, which was online only due to the Pandemic, released plans to transition from Intel Computer Chips to Apple Made ARM for the processor. The transition is expected to be finished in 2022. The first computer chip was the Apple M1 which supports the 13†Macbook Pro, MacBook Air, and Mac Mini.
Also at WWDC 2020, Apple unveiled iOS 14 with home screen widgets, app redesign. Apple Also unveiled MacOS 11 or Big Sur which brings a total redesign, a new control center, new app icons as well as support for Intel App on the New Apple Chips. Apple also released WatchOS 7 with sleep tracking, schooltime mode, and more. tvOS 14 brings profiles, new AirPods features.
iOS 14 – A Huge Update
iOS 14 unveiled at WWDC releases new features like a totally redesign Home Screen, support for widgets vis the Home Screen, new app viewer, and more.
iOS 14 is the fourteenth and current major release of the iOS mobile operating system developed by Apple Inc. for their iPhone and iPod Touch lines. Announced at the company’s Worldwide Developers Conference on June 22, 2020 as the successor to iOS 13, it was released to the public on September 16, 2020.
Apple also focus on privacy in this updates including do not track across apps and sites which takes hit at Google and Facebook trackers, alerts for when apps uses the clipboard as well as App to list privacy policy on their App Store Listing.
Apple designed iOS 14 with several new features that improve how the AirPods and the AirPods Pro work with iPhones and iPads, including spatial audio, better device switching, battery notifications, and Headphone Accommodations for those who need help with sounds and frequencies.
App Clips are a new feature expanding on the functionality of the App Store. Intended as a dynamic feature rather than a permanently installed app, App Clips are extremely pared-back with very few OS permissions. At the time of announcement, only the use of Apple Pay and Sign in with Apple were shown.
App Clips may be discovered in person via NFC tags (iPhone 7 or newer) or QR codes with App Clips branding. They may also be shared via Messages, or placed on websites or Maps.
Unlike previous versions, in which icons on the home screen were rearranged in order and corresponded directly to apps, users may add app icons and newly-introduced app widgets; pages may be added or deleted at will. This allows users to hide infrequently-used apps and avoid clutter.
Widgets
To the left of the first page, the Today View is replaced by a scrollable widget UI. Widgets may be placed on the home screen to sit amongst app icons;[15] they may be resized to two-by-two, horizontal two-by-four, or four-by-four icons. Widgets of the same size may be stacked over each other and swiped between for convenience; a Smart Stack may be placed which automatically shows the most relevant widget to the user based on the time of day.[16]
App Library
To the right of the last page, the App Library lists and categorizes apps installed on the device. Apps within each category are arranged based on the frequency of their usage. In addition to a category for suggested apps, a “recent” category lists apps recently installed alongside App Clips recently accessed. Users can search for the app they want or browse them in alphabetical order.
MacOS Big Sur – Ten is out and Eleven Now In
macOS Big Sur is the 17th and current major release of macOS, Apple Inc.’s operating system for Macintosh computers. The successor to macOS Catalina, it was announced at Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference on June 22, 2020, and was released to the public on November 12, 2020.
macOS Big Sur brings a major user interface redesign. It is also the first macOS version to support Macs with ARM-based processors. To mark the transition, the operating system’s major version number has been incremented from 10 to 11, for the first time since 2000. The operating system is named after the coastal region of Big Sur in the Central Coast of California.
The rollout of Big Sur has been plagued with problems. Upgrading to Big Sur has bricked some computers, rendering them unusable. Affected machines must be taken to Apple for repairs, since they cannot be rebooted and thus cannot be fixed via NVRAM, SMC, safe mode, or internet recovery. This problem mainly affects MacBook Pros from late 2013 and 2014, though some users have experienced similar problems with recent machines. The initial rollout also disrupted Apple’s app notarization process, causing slowdowns even on devices not running Big Sur.
On Macs based on Apple silicon, macOS Big Sur will run iOS and iPadOS applications natively and without any modifications needed from developers. The first Macs that will be able to do this are the late 2020 MacBook Air M1, the 2020 Mac Mini, and the late 2020 MacBook Pro M1 (2 ports)