Latest news with #AppleDesign
Yahoo
14-06-2025
- Yahoo
The pros and cons of updating your iPhone with iOS 26
Apple unveiled its new iOS update at the Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) this week – but it has already divided users. The new iOS 26 will be available in developer beta this month, and showcases a new 'liquid glass' look for the operating system. The update is known as iOS 26 thanks to next year being 2026, and Apple will also rebrand Mac OS and WatchOS in the same way. Apple's Tim Cook described it as, "Expressive. Delightful. But still instantly familiar." Expressive. Delightful. But still instantly our new software design with Liquid Glass. — Tim Cook (@tim_cook) June 9, 2025 Users on social media were quick to criticise the new look, which Apple described in a release as being "crafted with liquid glass — a new translucent material that reflects and refracts its surroundings, bringing greater focus to content, and delivering a new level of vitality across controls, navigation, app icons, widgets, and more. 'The new design extends to the home screen and lock screen, making them more personal and expressive than ever. Alan Dye, Apple's vice president of Human Interface Design, has described the update as 'the broadest software design update ever' from the company, saying: 'It combines the optical qualities of glass with a fluidity only Apple can achieve, as it transforms depending on your content or context.' The new liquid glass interface streamlines and simplifies apps like safari, camera and photos, helping users to focus. It adds transparent overlays and animation effects, including transparent app icons. Apple Intelligence is also more tightly integrated into the OS with functions like live translation built into apps. The new look is inspired by the visionOS software inside Apple's expensive vision pro headset. The look is translucent, with the option for translucent icons and windows that Apple says, 'behave like glass in the real world.' But despite the flashy new look, Apple claims it will not impact battery life. Apple has significantly revamped the phone experience, with call screening, showing users details of the caller on screen, and the option to screen messages in messages. A new layout in the phone app gathers favourites, recents and voicemails into one screen. A new hold assist alerts on-hold users when a live agent is available. The look represents a radical departure for the OS, and many users are not happy about it. One user complained on X that the new liquid glass "looks abysmal and is a perfect example of focusing on form/prettiness/design over of functionality/readability/practicality". Another wrote: "Steve Jobs would never have approved of this. Liquid glass seemed cool when I first saw it, but in reality it's just annoying to my eyes in most cases." the new liquid glass looks abysmal and is a perfect example of focusing on form/prettiness/design over of functionality/readability/practicality like, what are we doing here — puddi (@puddi) June 9, 2025 Steve Jobs would of never approved glass seemed cool when I first saw it, but in reality it's just annoying to my eyes in most cases. — Joey 👟 (@SolanaJoeyy) June 10, 2025 It remains possible that Apple will tone down the liquid glass effects before the software leaves beta testing, but as it stands it looks like an extremely radical reinvention. Users have already expressed fears that the software may not run well on older devices, or devices with weak batteries. My 85% battery health iPhone 13 trying to run Liquid Glass on iOS 26 — GSX (@GigaSyntax) June 9, 2025 Other users have voiced concerns over the widespread use of AI in the device. Apple AI was widely criticised at launch, and will now be integrated into almost every part of the operating system, with users able to search and take action using AI inside any app. AI is now baked into many functions of the operating system, with users able to ask ChatGPT questions about what they are looking at on screen. Live translation will be built into messages, facetime and phone, and is able to translate in real-time between different languages. Visual intelligence also recognises when users are looking at events, and offers a suggestion to instantly add it to the calendar. Users can now also send Apple cash within chats. Apple Intelligence is now baked into maps, so that, for instance, the app can warn of delays on a user's usual route home. There are also updates to child accounts, making it easier for parents to limit screen time and block sensitive content. The new software will be available to developers this month, and a public beta test will be available in July. Different beta releases will continue on both developer and public beta tests through summer. Apple usually releases new versions of iOS to the public in September, alongside the new crop of iPhones. This new iOS is a radical reinvention, so there is a possibility of delay, but the third week of September seems the likeliest time for launch.
CNET
11-06-2025
- CNET
Every New iOS 26 iPhone Feature: Liquid Glass, Camera and AI
Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference is a peek into the near future of the iPhone, and this year, that view is through a Liquid Glass lens. That's the name of a new look being applied throughout the Apple product line that takes on visual characteristics of glass similar to the VisionOS interface on Vision Pro. In addition to the new look, iOS 26 (numbered to coincide with 2026, the new naming convention for all of Apple's system releases) brings improvements to the Phone app, redesigned Camera and Photos apps, a sprinkling of Apple Intelligence and much more. The next version of the operating system is due to ship in the fall (likely with new iPhone 17 models), but developer betas are available now with a public beta expected in July. Apple/Screenshot by Joe Maldonado/CNET Transparent new Liquid glass design After more than a decade of a flat, clean user interface -- an overhaul introduced in iOS 7 when former Apple Chief Design Officer Jony Ive took over the design of software as well as hardware -- the iPhone is getting a new look. The new design extends throughout the Apple product lineup, from iOS to WatchOS, TVOS and iPadOS. The Liquid Glass interface also now enables a third way to view app icons on the iPhone home screen. Not content with Light and Dark modes, iOS 26 now features an All Clear look -- every icon is clear glass with no color. Lock screens can also have an enhanced 3D effect using spatial scenes, which use machine learning to give depth to your background photos. The new All Clear icon look in iOS 26 is part of the Liquid Glass design. Apple/Screenshot by Jeff Carlson/CNET Dynamic and adaptable lock screen Translucency is the defining characteristic of Liquid Glass, behaving like glass in the real world in the way it deals with light and color of objects behind and near controls. But it's not just a glassy look: The "liquid" part of Liquid Glass refers to how controls can merge and adapt -- dynamically morphing, in Apple's words. In the example Apple showed, the glassy time numerals on an iPhone lock screen stretched to accommodate the image of a dog and even shrunk as the image shifted to accommodate incoming notifications. The dock and widgets are now rounded, glassy panels that float above the background. As notifications fill the bottom of the screen, the subject in the background image is pushed up and the time numerals resize to accommodate. Apple/Screenshot by Joe Maldonado/CNET Now Playing: Apple Unveils Liquid Glass, a New Design Language 05:53 Camera and Photos apps go even more minimal The Camera app is getting a new, simplified interface. You could argue that the current Camera app is pretty minimal, designed to make it quick to frame a shot and hit the big shutter button. But the moment you get into the periphery, it becomes a weird mix of hidden controls and unintuitive icons. The Camera app has fewer distractions. Apple/Screenshot by Joe Maldonado/CNET Now, the Camera app in iOS 26 features a "new, more intuitive design" that takes minimalism to the extreme. The streamlined design shows just two controls: Video or Camera. Swipe left or right to choose modes. Swipe up for settings such as aspect ratio and timers, and tap for additional preferences. With the updated Photos app, viewing the pictures you capture should be a better experience -- a welcome change that customers have clamored for since iOS 18's cluttered attempt. Instead of a long, difficult-to-discover scrolling interface, Photos regains a Liquid Glass menu at the bottom of the screen. The Photos app gets a welcome redesign. Apple/Screenshot by Joe Maldonado/CNET The Phone app gets a revamp The Phone app has kept more closely to the look of its source than others: a sparse interface with large buttons as if you're holding an old-fashioned headset or pre-smartphone cellular phone. iOS 26 finally updates that look not just with the new overall interface but in a unified layout that takes advantage of the larger screen real estate on today's iPhone models. The Phone app's unified layout should make for less switching between screens when dealing with calls. Apple/Screenshot by Joe Maldonado/CNET It's not just looks that are different, though. The Phone app is trying to be more useful for dealing with actual calls -- the ones you want to take. The Call Screening feature automatically answers calls from unknown numbers, and your phone rings only when the caller shares their name and reason for calling. Or what about all the time wasted on hold? Hold Assist automatically detects hold music and can mute the music but keep the call connected. Once a live agent becomes available, the phone rings and lets the agent know you'll be available shortly. Messages updates The Messages app is probably one of the most used apps on the iPhone, and for iOS 26, Apple is making it a more colorful experience. You can add backgrounds to the chat window, including dynamic backgrounds that show off the new Liquid Glass interface. Enliven your daily chats with backgrounds and more group features. Apple/Screenshot by Joe Maldonado/CNET In addition to the new look, group texts in Messages can incorporate polls for everyone in the group to reply to -- no more scrolling back to find out which restaurant Brett suggested for lunch that you missed. Other members in the chat can also add their own items to a poll. A more useful feature is a feature to detect spam texts better and screen unknown numbers, so the messages you see in the app are the ones you want to see and not the ones that distract you. Safari gets out of its own way In the Safari app, the Liquid Glass design floats the tab bar above the web page (although that looks right where your thumb is going to be, so it will be interesting to see if you can move the bar to the top of the screen). As you scroll, the tab bar shrinks. Web pages occupy the entire screen and the address bar shrinks to get out of the way. Apple/Screenshot by Joe Maldonado/CNET FaceTime focuses on calls, not controls FaceTime also gets the minimal look, with controls in the lower-right corner that disappear during the call to get out of the way. On the FaceTime landing page, posters of your contacts, including video clips of previous calls, are designed to make the app more appealing. FaceTime minimizes its controls into one corner. Apple/Screenshot by Joe Maldonado/CNET New Music app features Do you like the sound of that song your friend is playing but don't understand the language the lyrics are in? The Music app includes a new lyrics translation feature that displays along with the lyrics as the song plays. And for when you want to sing along with one of her favorite K-pop songs, for example, but you don't speak or read Korean, a lyrics pronunciation feature spells out the right way to form the sounds. AutoMix blends songs like a DJ, matching the beat and time-stretching for a seamless transition. And if you find yourself obsessively listening to artists and albums again and again, you can pin them to the top of your music library for quick access. Keep the beat going with intelligence-based song transitions using AutoMix. Apple/Screenshot by Joe Maldonado/CNET New Games app is a reminder that yes, people game on iPhone The iPhone doesn't get the same kind of gaming affection as Nintendo's Switch or Valve's Steam Deck, but the truth is that the iPhone and Android phones are used extensively for gaming -- Apple says half a billion people play games on iPhone. Trying to capitalize on that, a new Games app acts as a specific portal to Apple Arcade and other games. Yes, you can get to those from the App Store app, but the Games app is designed to remove a layer of friction so you can get right to the gaming action. The new Games hub has a simple control screen to let you navigate all of your Apple games on any device. Apple/Screenshot by CNET Live translation enhances calls and texts Although not specific to iOS, Apple's new live translation feature is ideal on the iPhone when you're communicating with others. It uses Apple Intelligence to dynamically enable you to talk to someone who speaks a different language in near-real time. It's available in the Messages, FaceTime and Phone apps and shows live translated captions during a conversation. Live translation during a voice call Apple/Screenshot by Joe Maldonado/CNET Maps gets more personal Updates to the Maps app sometimes involve adding more detail to popular areas or restructuring the way you store locations. Now, the app takes note of routes you travel frequently and can alert you of any delays before you get on the road. A Maps widget shows a frequently-used route. Apple/Screenshot by Joe Maldonado/CNET It also includes a welcome feature for those of us who get our favorite restaurants mixed up: visited places. The app notes how many times you've been to a place, be that a local business, eatery or tourist destination. It organizes them in categories or other criteria such as by city to make them easier to find the next time. New CarPlay features Liquid Glass also makes its way to CarPlay in your vehicle, with a more compact design when a call comes in that doesn't obscure other items, such as a directional map. In Messages, you can apply tapbacks and pin conversations for easy access. Widgets are now part of the CarPlay experience, so you can focus on just the data you want, like the current weather conditions. And Live Activities appear on the CarPlay screen, so you'll know when that coffee you ordered will be done or when a friend's flight is about to arrive. The new CarPlay interface with Liquid Glass. Screenshot by CNET Wallet improvements The Wallet app is already home for using Apple Card, Apple Pay, electronic car keys and for storing tickets and passes. In iOS 26, you can create a new Digital ID that acts like a passport for age and identity verification (though it does not replace a physical passport) for domestic travel for TSA screening at airports. The app can also let you use rewards and set up installment payments when you purchase items in a store, not just for online orders. And with the help of Apple Intelligence, the Wallet app can help you track product orders, even if you did not use Apple Pay to purchase them. It can pull details such as shipping numbers from emails and texts so that information is all in one place. The Wallet app supports legal state IDs and national IDs for age and identity verification. Apple/Screenshot by Joe Maldonado/CNET New features powered by Apple Intelligence Although last year's WWDC featured Apple Intelligence features heavily, improvements to the AI tech were less prominent this year, folded into the announcements during the WWDC keynote. As an alternative to creating Genmoji from scratch, you can combine existing emojis -- "like a sloth and a light bulb when you're the last one in the group chat to get the joke," to use Apple's example. You can also change expressions in Genmoji of people you know that you've used to create the image. Combine existing emoji using Apple Intelligence. Apple/Screenshot by Joe Maldonado/CNET Image Playground adds the ability to tap into ChatGPT's image generation tools to go beyond the app's animation or sketch styles. Visual Intelligence can already use the camera to try to decipher what's in front of the lens. Now the technology works on the content on the iPhone's screen, too. It does this by taking a screenshot (press the sleep and volume up buttons) and then including a new Image Search option in that interface to find results across the web or in other apps such as Etsy. Apple/Screenshot by Joe Maldonado/CNET This is also a way to add event details from images you come across, like posters for concerts or large gatherings. (Perhaps this could work for QR codes as well?) In the screenshot interface, Visual Intelligence can parse the text and create an event in the Calendar app. Some iOS 26 updates Apple didn't mention Not everything fits into a keynote presentation -- even, or maybe especially, when it's all pre-recorded -- but some of the more interesting new features in iOS 26 went unremarked during the big reveal. For instance: If you have AirPods or AirPods Pro with the H2 chip, you can use AirPods Camera Remote to start recording video on your iPhone by pressing and holding one of the AirPods. You can choose your own snooze duration of between 1 and 15 minutes for alarms. Audio recording options have expanded, enabling high-quality recording during conference calls and high-definition recording in the Camera app with AirPods and AirPods Pro that contain the H2 chip. Accessibility features include an "all-new experience designed with Braille users in mind," more options for the Vehicle Motion Cues feature to avoid motion sickness and "a more customizable reading experience." Reminders uses Apple Intelligence to "suggest tasks, grocery items and follow-ups based on emails or other text on your device." The Journal app supports multiple journals, inline images and a map view that tracks where journal entries were made. Parental controls have been updated in unspecified ways, including "enhancements across Communication Limits, Communication Safety and the App Store." Apple/Screenshot by Joe Maldonado/CNET iOS 26 availability The finished version of iOS 26 will be released in September or October with new iPhone 17 models. In the meantime, developers will get access to the first developer betas starting on Monday, with an initial public beta arriving in July. (Don't forget to go into any beta software with open eyes and clear expectations.) Follow the WWDC 2025 live blog for details about Apple's announcements. iPhone models compatible with iOS 26 iOS 26 will run on the iPhone 11 and later models, including the iPhone SE (2nd generation and later). That includes:
Yahoo
10-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Steve Jobs Would 'Have Fired Everyone': Apple's Liquid Glass In iOS 26 Gets Roasted Online — Dan Ives Calls WWDC 2025 A 'Yawner'
Apple Inc.'s (NASDAQ:AAPL) bold new design in iOS 26, dubbed "Liquid Glass," is drawing sharp criticism online — and investor Ross Gerber thinks the backlash may be warranted. What Happened: Unveiled during Apple's WWDC 2025 keynote on Monday, Liquid Glass is a translucent, reactive interface meant to make the iPhone experience more fluid and immersive. It now extends across buttons, sliders, the lock screen, Control Center and more. Apple executive Alan Dye described it as combining "the optical qualities of glass with a fluidity only Apple can achieve." However, users aren't convinced. A user on X, @Greggertruck, shared a screenshot of the new Control Center and wrote, "Steve Jobs would have fired everyone." The post quickly gained traction, with investor Gerber chiming in with a Hundred Points emoji. Trending: Maker of the $60,000 foldable home has 3 factory buildings, 600+ houses built, and big plans to solve housing — The user wanted Apple to make the design more opaque. Other users echoed the sentiment, calling the design "a smeary mess of colors and overlapping functionality." One said, "Looks like when you get someone to use Photoshop for the first time, every effect box is clicked." Some were more measured. "I'm gonna keep an open mind," said @SawyerMeritt, "but it definitely feels like things are going to be harder to read with this new design." During the keynote, Apple acknowledged it still needs more time to finish its long-overdue revamp of the Siri voice assistant. Wedbush analyst and longtime Apple supporter Dan Ives described the event as showcasing "slow and steady improvements," but ultimately called it "a yawner." On the other hand, Deepwater Asset Management's Gene Munster said, 'At this point, they're [Apple] not ready to talk about the more advanced AI they're likely working on. The good news is they have a couple of years to figure it out.' He also said that the most significant announcement at WWDC 2025 was Apple's unveiling of the Foundation Model framework, a tool designed to help developers more easily integrate Apple Intelligence directly It's Important: Apple has long prided itself on design simplicity — a principle its legendary co-founder Jobs championed. Jobs' return to Apple sparked a legendary business comeback, driven by his focus on simplicity, intuitive design and a deep commitment to crafting products that were both functional and beautifully minimal, even in unseen details. In 2019, Apple's design legend Jony Ive's departure seemed sudden, but reports from The Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg suggested that it was the result of a years-long shift in the company's priorities—from design to operations. Ive and his team reportedly grew frustrated as design took a back seat under CEO Tim Cook, whose lack of involvement in product development led to discontent and departures within the design team. Read Next: Are you rich? Here's what Americans think you need to be considered wealthy. If there was a new fund backed by Jeff Bezos offering a 7-9% target yield with monthly dividends would you invest in it? Photo Courtesy: Kemarrravv13 on Up Next: Transform your trading with Benzinga Edge's one-of-a-kind market trade ideas and tools. Click now to access unique insights that can set you ahead in today's competitive market. Get the latest stock analysis from Benzinga? This article Steve Jobs Would 'Have Fired Everyone': Apple's Liquid Glass In iOS 26 Gets Roasted Online — Dan Ives Calls WWDC 2025 A 'Yawner' originally appeared on Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Fast Company
10-06-2025
- Fast Company
Apple's Liquid Glass is exactly as ambitious as Apple
Apple is calling it the biggest redesign in history. Starting this fall, iOS, MacOS, iPadOS, and WatchOS will all be unified under a single design paradigm for the first time: What Apple is calling Liquid Glass. Introduced this week at the Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC), Liquid Glass is a highly articulated reskin of iOS and its other software, intentionally launching with feature parity to not rock the boat and leaving hundreds of millions of customers unsure of how to use their phones. In the future, it's more of a question mark. It's a UX framework that can be exactly as ambitious as Apple chooses to be. What is Liquid Glass? The basic idea behind Liquid Glass is this: Instead of the opaque windows and menu bars we've grown accustomed to for years, Apple products will be united through an amorphous glass-like interface. Everything from your app dock in iOS and MacOS, the play/pause controls of Apple Music, and the URL bar in Safari to the oversized digits telling time on your phone and the widgets on your desktop, will all be some level of clear. The most overt of the updates comes in the form of a new magnifier and slider, which now seem to pop off your screen and bend the text and images underneath like a water droplet. Most of the other updates are more subtle. Turn your phone in your hand, and the new glass app icons appear to catch light around the edges. advertisement The final deadline for Fast Company's Next Big Things in Tech Awards is Friday, June 20, at 11:59 p.m. PT. Apply today.
New York Times
09-06-2025
- New York Times
Apple Just Showed Off a New Look for iPhones. Here's Everything Coming in iOS 26.
Apple's operating systems are getting new names. If you're confused by the jump from iOS 18 to iOS 26, that's understandable. From now on, iOS, iPadOS, macOS, and the rest of Apple's operating systems will be named by the year after their release. This is similar to how car companies assign model years to vehicles. For example, the version of iOS announced at WWDC is iOS 26, and the one coming out next fall will be iOS 27. Apple will continue its naming tradition for macOS by choosing California locations — macOS 26 will be known as Tahoe. Your iPhone is getting a sleek, transparent redesign. At its launch in 2007, the design of iOS took cues from physical objects: The YouTube icon, for instance, was an old-timey TV, the dock at the bottom of the screen looked like metal mesh, and materials such as woodgrain and brushed steel appeared throughout apps. iOS 7 in 2013 moved iPhones away from that skeuomorphic design toward a cleaner, flat-color design. With the launch of iOS 26, Apple bridges the gap between those styles with a design that has touchable physicality while still being clear and easy to understand. The company calls this new design language Liquid Glass. iPhone menus will have a luminous, frosted-glass appearance with subtle touches of color. Many elements are more rounded and have a subtle sense of depth. And the 'liquid' part is quite so: Menus and buttons will respond to your touch, sometimes breaking apart into new menus. The new look supports light and dark modes, as well as a new all-clear mode that applies a semitransparent appearance to your iPhone's interface. All of Apple's devices are getting the Liquid Glass look: Macs, iPads, Apple TV, and Apple Watch will use the same design language and share features. Apple said that this was the first time it had done a total redesign across all of its devices. Apple Real-time call and text translation will make chatting easier. In Messages, texts will automatically be translated into the recipient's preferred language. In FaceTime calls, you'll hear the speaker's language and see translations displayed as text. This will work in regular phone calls, as well: You and the caller will each hear your preferred spoken language, even if the person you're calling doesn't use an iPhone. (This feature will be available only for iPhones that can run Apple Intelligence, meaning the iPhone 15 Pro and later models.) Real-time translation in Messages will support English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Brazilian Portuguese, Spanish, and simplified Chinese. In FaceTime, translation is limited to English, French, German, Brazilian Portuguese, and Spanish. Real-time translation is one of the most compelling applications of artificial intelligence, but executing it well is challenging. Google fumbled its own live translation demo onstage at its Google I/O developers conference in May. We'll have to see if Apple is able to make this tricky feature work successfully. Camera controls will be easier to use, and the Photos app brings back familiar features. When you open the iPhone Camera app, you'll be able to choose between shooting video or taking still photos. You can access other options, such as panoramas, with a swipe. More advanced options are hidden but readily accessible. iOS 18 introduced some confusing changes to the Photos app and made it more difficult to find your library. Good news: In iOS 26, Apple is bringing back tabs for your Library and Collections. Messages group chats get upgraded with custom backgrounds and polls. Group chats are their own social networks, and now you'll be able to personalize them even more. You can choose your own background to share in a group chat, or choose from Apple's premade dynamic backgrounds. Backgrounds sync between devices, so when you open a conversation on your iPad or Mac, you'll get the same experience. If your group chat struggles to come to a consensus on, say, where to eat or the nature of existence, you can create a poll to settle disputes. Members can cast their votes and add their own options to the poll, too. And typing indicators are coming to group chats to display when someone is responding, which might make the family discourse a little less chaotic. (Maybe.) Apple Spam messages get easier to dodge. The Messages app can now shunt texts from unknown numbers into their own place outside of your inbox. You can respond to them or ignore them. For calls from unknown numbers, your iPhone can now automatically answer and ask the caller for their name and the nature of the call. Only after the caller provides this information will your iPhone ring. A new Hold Assist feature can save you from being on endless hold. iOS 26 can also detect that on-hold music is playing and offer to keep your place in line. If you accept, you can close the app and go about your business. When you're taken off hold, iOS 26 will detect it, alert you, and tell the person that you're on your way back. Use your iPhone and Apple TV for at-home karaoke. You can now use iPhones as microphones to sing along with Apple Music on Apple TV. Your voice is amplified through the TV, and friends can respond with emoji reactions and pick the next track. On the iPhone, Apple Music supports new animated album art on the lock screen and displays lyric translations and pronunciations. (I'm personally excited to understand what my new favorite Korean folktronic album is actually about.) CarPlay's redesign lets you focus on driving. CarPlay, which turns your dashboard into a touchscreen interface, will now keep important information such as maps front and center even when you receive calls or notifications. (No more getting lost because you decided to answer a loved one's call.) You can now use widgets and view live activities, such as flight status, on the display, too. You can share flight updates from the Wallet app. Digital boarding passes are being refreshed with a new design. You can also view airport information and share flight status from within the Wallet app, so family or friends can see where you are. You can take a screenshot to search what's on your screen. Previously Apple's Visual Intelligence could view the world through your camera, doing things such as identifying businesses and capturing event details from posters. With iOS 26, when you take a screenshot you'll have added options along the bottom to access Visual Intelligence. If you screenshot an event announcement, for example, Apple Intelligence can record the details. On stage, Apple showed off using Visual Intelligence to find a lamp that had been discussed in a post on social media. These features are similar to Google's Circle to Search feature for Android, and they reflect a larger effort on Apple's part to expand the context that Apple Intelligence tools can access. Apple is launching a new all-in-one gaming app. The new Games app provides easy access to browse the games you already own and view titles available through the Apple Arcade subscription service. The app also attempts to streamline finding friends for multiplayer games and offers a centralized place for stats and leaderboards. In addition, Apple is creating a Challenge mode, so you can compete against your friends to get the top score in single-player games. Like the updated Messages and Phone apps, the new Games app is cross-platform: You'll be able to see stats and invite friends to play on macOS as well. But the smarter Siri is still a ways off. At last year's WWDC, Apple previewed a vision for Siri that used AI to understand both your personal context — who you know and what you do — and what you're looking at on your phone. This year, Apple said that those features weren't yet up to snuff, and that the company would have more to share on that later this year.
