Saturday, February 27, 2016
We know full well Apple won't pull a Microsoft, skip a version number, and be announcing iOS 11 inside 2016. Nope, like clockwork you can guarantee Apple will tease iOS 10 during its summer WWDC 2016 conference, a beta testing period will follow, and then it'll arrive aboard the iPhone 7 in the Autumn before being rolled to existing devices.
WWDC is one of Apple’s biggest public appearances of the year and 2016 will be no exception. WWDC is where we here about new products, new software and new initiatives. The conference is targeted towards developers but is essential viewing for all tech fans as it is where Apple details most of its future plans for the coming year.
But it’s not just the iPhone 7 that will launch in 2016. Apple is also said to be prepping the release of a smaller, cheaper iPhone called the iPhone 5se. The 4in iPhone is said to now be in production, meaning it could well launch alongside the Apple iPad 3 at the company's March launch event.
Apple's iOS 10 is already showing up in Google Analytics data for various websites, meaning people inside Cupertino are using it on their devices to browse the web. Right now it’s still way too early to tell what iOS 10 may feature, but that isn’t stopping us from putting together our first iOS 10 wishlist.
News about certain improvements to certain apps is begining to trickle through as well. Apparently Photos is getting a big overhaul.
"The apps will reportedly be updated with new features to put them on par with the now-discontinued iPhoto 9.6.1 for Mac and iPhoto 2.0.1 for iOS," notes Mac Rumors. "It is not clear exactly what features will be added to the apps, but Mac Otakara says iPhoto 2.0.1 included tools for editing EXIF information and touch-based brushes for adjusting brightness and other parameters on only specific parts of a photo. Similar editing tools could be added to the iOS version of Photos."
Many of the features on this wishlist are blue-sky wishes and some are even available on Android. Still, it's always good to have an idea about changes you'd like to see made to one of the world's biggest mobile platforms. It now all depends on what Apple sees fit to include. Here’s what we’d like to see.
Dark Mode
With OS X Yosemite, Apple finally added Dark Mode to the operating system. This allows users to replace the white menu bar and dock with a darker version. Professionals love this because if they are editing video, photos, and doing other graphics work, the dark elements of OS X allow them to focus more on their work. While the iPhone and iPad aren’t as big of productivity devices for professionals as the Mac (though that could change with the iPad Pro) we still think it’d be awesome to see a dark mode on iOS 10.
Siri API
Siri will play a much bigger role inside iOS 10 and might for the first time actually become useful. According to a report from Business Insider, Apple is testing a bunch of new features that will allow Siri to answer calls, transcribe voicemails and texts and, generally speaking, just do a hell of a lot more useful things for you on a day to day basis.
“Siri might also be able to recognise who’s talking to it as well, notes Alphr. “A new patent issued to Apple entitled, ‘User profiling for voice input processing’ details a method for using a user recognition engine to customise how Siri reacts to a different voices. For instance, allowing Siri to recognise that a particular person had accessed specific content on the device in the past, and so favour that content in its replies. Although this would obviously be most useful at present in the new Apple TV, it could point towards the potential for multi-user support coming in other iOS devices next year.”
The ability to merge Apple IDs
This isn’t a feature specific to iOS 10, although it would benefit every iOS user. When Apple introduced Apple ID’s over 15 years ago they started out as membership IDs for people paying for their iTools and .Mac services. However, when the iTunes Store came into being in 2003, Apple started using Apple ID’s for that. Then for the App Store as well. The problem is over the last 15 years many people accumulated more than one Apple ID, leading them to make some purchases under one and some purchases under another. Needless to say, having one digital ID is best and leads to a lot less confusion, so here’s hoping this year is finally the year Apple allows users to merge Apple ID’s into one.
Default 3rd-party Apps
People have been asking for this since day 1. Maybe iOS 10 is when we’ll finally get it? I happen to be a big fan of Mail, Calendar, and Safari, but I know there are plenty of people who think other third party apps handle those services better. The ability in iOS 10 to select a default 3rd-party app, replacing the standard iOS one would be a huge boon to users. Honestly, out of all the wish list features, I think this is the least likely...but then again no one thought Apple would ever add support for third-party keyboards.
Hide pre-installed apps
Apple, I’ll never use the Tips or Podcast app. If you insist I can’t delete them from my device, at least let me be able to hide them from the home screen without stuffing them in a folder marked “Useless”. ‘Nuff said.
Show/Hide nested folders in Mail.app
iOS’s Mail app gets better each year, but one thing still really bugs many users: the app shows all nested folders in your account, which means you have to do a lot of swiping to get to a folder you want. Apple should enable Mail to show/hide nested folders at will. It would make navigating the app much quicker.
Weather app for iPad
The Weather app for iPhone introduced in iOS 7 is one of the most gorgeous weather apps ever made. But why the heck isn’t it available on the iPad? Those beautiful weather animations would look amazing on the iPad's bigger display. Here’s hoping iOS 10 give us the Weather app for iPad.
Multi-user support
This is a holdover from our iOS 8 wish list. A feature long requested for iOS--particularly on the iPad--is multi-user support. The way this would work is that iOS would allow users to create multiple accounts on a single device. A user could log in with their pin, password, or Touch ID fingerprint and their iOS device would then be fully customized to their last-used settings: everything from app layout to wallpapers to email accounts.
This is arguably a feature more appropriate for the iPad or iPad Pro as often times families or couples share one iPad between then. Also, iPads are frequently shared in work environments. Multiple user accounts for the iPad in these environments would mean secure sharing between people without the risk of anyone else seeing your private information. As for the iPhone...multiple user accounts could also be enabled, but since our phones are such personal devices it’s not clear how many people actually share their phones with others to begin with.
Customizable Control Center
Another holdover from our iOS 8 wishlist: Control Center was perhaps the best feature included in iOS 7. With a swipe up from the bottom of any screen users could finally quickly toggle Airplane mode, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and rotation lock on or off. Users also finally got quick access to music controls and shortcut icons to Flashlight, Timer, Calculator, and Camera. What would be great, however, is if Apple would allow users to customize these four shortcut buttons. For example, I don't use the Timer that much, so I’d love to replace its shortcut button in Control Center with a button for Calendar, an app I use a lot.
