Apple Announces New Features for iOS 16

07 JUNE 2022 - The update announced Monday that’ll likely affect the largest number of people is iOS 16. Lots of tweaks coming for that, starting with a personalized lock screen experience. Pictures on the screen get a multi-layer treatment, allowing effects to be added to the pics, with time and other elements inhabiting a space behind the subject. Users can also add widgets, which take their inspiration from Apple Watch complications. That means at-a-glance info like weather, battery levels, Activity ring progress, and so on.

There are improvements for Focus, improvements for Live Text and Visual Look Up, and improvements for Family Sharing and Parental Controls.

Apple Maps finally gets multistop routing, which is awesome.

Dictation sees improvements - allowing users to move easily between voice and touch. Apple says:

Users can type with the keyboard, tap in the text field, move the cursor, and insert QuickType suggestions, all without needing to stop Dictation. In addition, Dictation features automatic punctuation and emoji dictation.

Siri has picked up the ability to run shortcuts “as soon as an app is downloaded without requiring upfront setup,” according to Apple.

The Fitness app is coming to iPhone - no Apple Watch required.

The Wallet app is adding an interesting feature called Apple Pay Later. According to Apple:

Apple Pay Later provides users in the US with a seamless and secure way to split the cost of an Apple Pay purchase into four equal payments spread over six weeks, with zero interest and no fees of any kind. Built into Apple Wallet and designed with users’ financial health in mind, Apple Pay Later makes it easy to view, track, and repay Apple Pay Later payments within Wallet.

That just sounds crazy.

Probably the most futuristic tech displayed is the next generation of CarPlay. According to Apple:

CarPlay will be able to provide content for multiple screens within the vehicle, creating an experience that is unified and consistent. Deeper integration with the vehicle will allow users to do things like control the radio or change the climate directly through CarPlay, and using the vehicle data, CarPlay will seamlessly render the speed, fuel level, temperature, and more on the instrument cluster.

Sounds kind of “Jetsons,” but should be coming soon. Well… relatively soon. With commitments from carmakers like Ford, Lincoln, Mercedes-Benz, Infiniti, Honda, Acura, Jaguar, Land Rover, Audi, Nissan, Volvo, Porsche, and more, a piece from MacRumors has Apple saying that “the first vehicles to support the new CarPlay experience will be announced in late 2023…”

There’s a new privacy tool called Safety Check meant to help people at risk from domestic or intimate partner violence.

There are improvements to the Home app. There are improvements to Health. Apple News gets a My Sports. You can make your own Personalized Spatial Audio profile.

The iCloud Shared Photo Library mentioned for macOS Ventura makes its way to the phone. Makes sense. It’s a cloud service, after all. See also updates to Messages, new tools for Mail, and Passkeys for Safari.

And that is not even close to everything.

Who’s Turning 16?

Just like with macOS, some iOS devices will not be able to make the jump. A piece from MacRumors has Apple indicating that iOS 16‌ will be available only on the ‌iPhone‌ 8 and later. The first iPhone SE is out, according to that report. Meanwhile a separate report from MacRumors indicates that Apple is well and truly done with iPod touch. According to that piece, Apple on Monday:

…removed the iPod touch's product page from its website in all remaining countries where the page was still available, such as the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia, marking a final farewell to the portable music player.

The piece goes on to say that “Apple's newly announced iOS 16 software update is not compatible with any iPod touch models, according to Apple's website.”

The first iOS 16 beta is available to developers now. It’ll be out to public testers next month. The great unwashed get the update this fall.