iPhone catches up

New version of iOS replicating the Google Phone

By Jerrison Oracion, Senior Columnist

June is usually the month where the E3 Expo takes place, with the gaming world and tech giants making big announcements—including Apple. Because the coronavirus pandemic is still happening, this year’s edition of the E3 Expo was cancelled and the presentations that were going to happen—including PlayStation announcing the PlayStation 5—were done on the internet. Major tech giants were still able to do their announcements since they are pre-taped, but they were done with no audience instead.

Rather than just doing the announcement on a stage, companies have been thinking of new ways to unveil their  novel products. Apple did an announcement during their annual WWDC conference at the Steve Jobs Theatre in their headquarters on June 22. And, for the first time in the history of the conference, it happened online. The announcement began with Tim Cook giving his thoughts on the current protests, racism, George Floyd, and the pandemic—which has led to everyone using technology more than ever before.

Because the announcement was pre-taped, it allowed the people running the show to transition from one segment to another by moving around the theatre. This made transitions look smooth and cinematic. Another thing to point out is that most of the people that were in the announcement were women—which is progress!

In the first half, they announced the next version of iOS called iOS 14. Some of the new features in iOS 14 include App Library view where apps are organized in folders by category, new widget sizes and movability to different screens aside from the “Today” screen, and Picture in Picture support—meaning users can now watch videos and browse the iPhone simultaneously. You will probably recognize some of these new Apple features because they have been available on Android phones for a long time now. It is like the opposite of the trope that a PC is similar to a Mac—now an iPhone is similar to an Android.

An advantage that iOS 14 has is that they put more green features in their standard apps, including routes to use when driving an electric vehicle and cycling options—which can also be found on Google Maps. Also, there is a new feature called App Clips where you can get a small version of an app immediately when you need it. They also invented a new scan code called an App Clip Code which is a hybrid of a visual code and NFC. Another surprising reveal: you can soon use your iPhone to unlock a car just by tapping it on the handle!

They even put less full screen interfaces in Siri, search, phone calls, and especially the iPad’s full screen interface—which makes it look like a Mac. The design of the interface finally has more details compared to the design in the past decade—and this transitions to the announcement of the next version of macOS called macOS Big Sur. Also, Cook made the major announcement that they are changing the processor in the iMac from an Intel processor to a processor designed by Apple, which is the same processor that they use in their mobile devices.

The processor will allow the iMac to have equally high performance while not using a lot of power. With all these announcements, Apple might have to go through the same patent war with Google that they went through with Samsung.