Updates Coming to Apple Services This Fall →

From Apple Newsroom:

Apple’s world-class services are an integral part of many millions of users’ everyday lives… Later this year, users worldwide will be able to discover, enjoy, and accomplish even more on their favorite Apple devices with new features and enhancements arriving with iOS 17, iPadOS 17, macOS Sonoma, watchOS 10, and tvOS 17.

I’ve been a big fan of Apple’s services for years, and it makes me happy to see this important category get a special WWDC shoutout. There are a ton of improvements and new features coming to Apple’s services in the fall.

You can click the link above to read the full details from Apple, but here’s a quick summary:

• Music: collaborative playlists, full song credits, SharePlay in the car, and a fun new Apple TV karaoke experience with Apple Music Sing and Continuity Camera

• Podcasts: redesigned Now Playing screen, unique artwork for each episode, and support for paid content from other subscriptions (including Apple Music Radio, Apple News+ audio stories, and some App Store subscriptions)

• Fitness+: custom weekly plans (including off days), audio focus to highlight trainer instructions or music, and the ability to stack multiple workouts back-to-back without stopping

• Wallet: recurring Apple Cash payments, personal IDs accepted at businesses

• Find My: share AirTag and Find My items with others, send or request location from new Messages menu

• Maps: offline maps, hiking trails in parks, and real-time electric vehicle charging station availability

• News+: daily crossword puzzles from The Puzzle Society

• Books: new pages for book series

There’s so much to look forward to here. I know I’m planning to enable AirTag sharing the second it’s available, and the custom plans and workout stacking in Fitness+ sound right up my alley. (My buddy Jonathan Reed posted a great thread on how these work.)

Mostly, I’m just excited to see Apple’s continued investment in their services division. The fact that they took time during one of their busiest weeks of the year to shout out all of these developments is encouraging.

My Favorite Announcements From WWDC

The big Worldwide Developers Conference opening keynote was yesterday, and it was jam-packed! Apple announced three new Macs, updates to all of their software platforms, and the much-anticipated Apple Vision Pro augmented reality headset. It was an awesome two hours.

Rather than summarize the entire keynote, I thought I’d share a few standout announcements to give you an idea of what excited me. These are the features I can’t wait to use when they release this fall:

Interactive widgets: Widgets are getting a big upgrade across all of Apple’s platforms. They’re now interactive, meaning that you’ll be able to perform actions with them from your home screen without opening the full app. I’m looking forward to controlling playback on podcasts, checking off tasks in Reminders, and more, all through the power of widgets. And, widgets are popping up in new places, like the Mac desktop and for the first time on the Apple Watch!

Password sharing: Apple’s password manager has long been the most convenient and secure way to save logins. The only pain point I’ve had with it is making sure my wife and I both have access to all of our shared accounts and those credentials are up-to-date. With password sharing, we’ll be able to automatically share certain logins and keep them constantly in sync if anything ever changes.

Health initiatives: With this year’s updates, Apple is pushing its health and wellness efforts even further with a focus on visual and mental health. For our eyes, the Apple Watch will keep track of how much time we spend in sunlight (an important intervention against myopia), and devices with FaceID will let you know if you’re holding a screen too close to your face. The Health app will add mood tracking capabilities and help you understand trends that relate to your mental health. Health is finally coming to the iPad, too, and there’s even a new Journal app for iPhone.

Stage Manager improvements: Multitasking on the iPad is getting even better. Windows in Stage Manager will be freely resizable and freely movable onscreen. No more getting frustrated trying to place a window exactly where you want it. There will be new keyboard shortcuts for opening apps for easily. And the iPad will work with USB cameras, including those built into external displays.

Adaptive audio: I love when my AirPods get new upgrades, and this one in particular sounds amazing. Switching between noise cancellation and transparency mode throughout the day isn’t a chore, but adaptive audio is going to offer the best of both worlds. It will automatically block out disruptive noises in your environment while still allowing you to hear what you need to and converse with others. This might be the feature I’m most looking forward to this year.

Spatial computing: This isn’t really a feature per se; it’s more an entirely new way of using a computer. What Apple unveiled with Vision Pro and visionOS is nothing short of breathtaking. I cannot believe we live in a world where this sort of device can exist, and I can’t wait until I’m able to use it for myself. (Given the price tag, it might be a while.) We are on the cusp of a whole new era in technology, one that I am very excited to witness.

Those are just a few of my highlights from the keynote. If you haven’t yet, you should definitely watch it for yourself because there’s so much more coming. The updates to our devices this fall are going to be really useful a lot of fun thanks to the hard work of Apple’s incredible team. I, for one, am a very happy Apple fan.

Happy WWDC!

WWDC23 Predictions

We’re less than a week from one of the biggest Apple events of the year: the Worldwide Developers Conference! Every WWDC, we learn what new features are coming in the big annual updates to iOS, iPadOS, macOS, watchOS, tvOS, and more. We’ll likely hear about a whole new platform this time around, Apple’s mixed reality headset. It’s an exciting time.

On the latest Magic Rays of Light, my co-host Sigmund and I shared our predictions for what we expect to be announced next week. We make a bit of a game out of it, competing to see who can best guess what Apple has been working on. I thought I’d post my predictions here as well.

In accordance with our show’s rules, I have eight regular predictions and one “out there” pick, something a bit riskier that hasn’t been rumored elsewhere. Here’s what I think we’ll see next week:

• iPadOS 17 will introduce the Health app on the iPad.

• New actions to toggle Silent Mode will be added to the Shortcuts app on iPhone and iPad, paving the way for this fall’s iPhone with an action button instead of mute switch.

• The Passwords feature in iOS 17 will add the ability to automatically share passwords and passcodes with others similar to shared photo libraries.

• The Up Next queue will be accessible from anywhere in tvOS 17, possibly via either a command from the Siri remote or a button in Control Center.

• watchOS 10 will feature glanceable widgets to get information from apps outside of the watch face.

• macOS 14 will be called macOS Mammoth.

• The headset operating system will allow users to pin widgets to specific points in physical space.

• Apple’s headset will be available in multiple finishes. (I always have to throw a color pick in there. 😁)

• My “out there” pick: Apple will introduce a new, ultra-wideband home accessory for room mapping and tracking users of the headset as they walk around.

Those are my predictions. Some of them I’m confident about; others, not so much. Either way, it’s fun to try and guess what Apple will announce, and we don’t have long to wait.

WWDC kicks off next Monday, June 5, at 10:00 AM EST. I’ll be watching the keynote live in the Apple TV app and chatting on Mastodon about all the exciting news. Feel free to join in on the fun. The more, the merrier!

What do you hope to see in the next big software updates from Apple?

Sequel

Being a TV fan in the age of streaming can be confusing. It’s not as simple as when everything was just on cable. There are so many shows on so many services with so many release schedules that it’s hard to keep up. Thankfully, there are plenty of tools out there to help.

The main app I use for keeping up with my favorite shows is Apple’s TV app. It’s excellent for finding and launching titles, and the app’s Up Next queue is the perfect way to make sure I never miss an episode. But that’s just part of the equation.

The Apple TV app is a great reactive approach to TV tracking: A new episode comes out, and I watch it. But sometimes, I want to be more proactive. When does the next episode of my favorite show come out? Has it been renewed for a new season? And what’s the release date for that series I’m really looking forward to? Those are questions I often find myself asking—and usually looking up on the web.

But I’d much rather use an app, a centralized place to quickly and easily find all of that information for all of my shows. What I need is a TV tracker. The problem is that I’ve tried many of them over the years, and none of them stuck. That is, until now. At long last, I think I’ve found the right one for me.

Sequel is an iPhone and iPad app created by Romain Lefebvre for tracking not only TV shows, but also movies, video games, books, and audiobooks. It’s the ultimate media tracker. I’ve been trying it out for the past month, and it’s the first time one of these apps has ever clicked for me. The app is just so good.

For the sake of this article, I’ll mostly be focusing on the TV-tracking features of Sequel, since that is my primary use case. However, the app works much the same way for other media types as well.

Getting started with Sequel is as simple as searching for the item you want to track and adding it to your library. Search is one aspect of media trackers that I’ve always found tricky, but Sequel really nails it. The process is simple, straightforward, and quick at finding just what you need.

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Search results in Sequel for The Last of Us.

When you hit the + button, in Sequel, you’re immediately taken to the search box without having to specify what type of media you’re looking for. Just type what you want, and the app will show the most relevant results across all media types. If you want to get more specific, you can choose to filter the search to only show a certain category, but that step usually isn’t necessary.

For example, if I search for “The Last of Us,” the app will show me results for the video game, the HBO show, and a couple of books based on the game. Results are even color-coded so I can quickly identify what type of media each result is. And I can choose any of the filters across the top of the results if I only want to search for a specific type.

The search view integrates with JustWatch to show where you can stream TV shows and movies in your region. It also shows upcoming releases and trending titles for each media type in case you’re looking for suggestions. It might not seem like a big deal, but the way Sequel handles searching is a big part of what won me over. I can find exactly what I’m looking for quickly and without hassle.

Once you’ve found a title you want to track, you can add it to your library. Sequel creates a separate library for each media type, so you can have up to five libraries total in the app. But in a nice touch, Sequel will only create a library for media types that you’ve purposefully added. Since I only use the app to track TV and films, I don’t have empty libraries for books, audiobooks, and games. Those features won’t appear unless I choose to use them. This keeps the app nice and clean, which I greatly appreciate.

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The library view for Series.

The library view is where things get really fun. When you add a title to your library, it goes into your Watchlist (or Wishlist for books and games). This list is broken down into several sections:

• Out Now shows recently-released titles that you haven’t watched yet.

• Watch Next lists the next episode of series you’re currently watching, much like Apple TV’s Up Next queue.

• Upcoming gives you a glimpse of future releases. It can be configured to show upcoming seasons or upcoming episodes.

• Released is a list of all the titles you’ve added to your library that aren’t in the Upcoming view.

Titles that you’ve completed will move from the Watchlist to the Watched section of the library (or the Read or Played section, depending on the media type) so you can keep a record of all the titles you’ve tracked.

I’ve been very impressed by the structure of Sequel’s library view and the helpfulness of the information it surfaces. Each section has something unique to offer, and they’re all laid out in a way that is easy to understand.

I spend quite a bit of time in the Watch Next and Upcoming sections. Each time I watch an episode of a show, I mark it as watched so that my library is always up-to-date. It’s a great way to keep track of where I’m at in each of the shows I’m watching. (Some might argue that I’d have less trouble if I would fewer shows; I object.)

The Upcoming section is my favorite feature of the app, though. By default, it lists the premiere date for the next season of each show in the library. This is a great way for me to keep up with upcoming Apple TV+ debuts and with when my favorite shows are coming back.

But that’s not all. There is a sorting button at the top of the library view that can unlock the Upcoming section’s secret superpower: upcoming episodes. Rather than listing only future seasons of shows, this setting will turn the Upcoming section into a list of upcoming episodes of all shows in your library, including ones that are currently airing.

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My favorite feature of Sequel: the Upcoming list sorted by upcoming episodes. Isn’t it beautiful?

With this setting, I’ve been able to create something I’ve always wanted but never been able to find: a chronological list of every upcoming episode of every show I’m watching. Now, I can open Sequel at the beginning of the week and find out exactly which of my shows are coming out on which days. If a show I’m watching takes a week off or change its release day, I won’t waste time looking for a new episode. I’ll already know what to expect thanks to my Upcoming list.

When I found this feature of Sequel, that’s when I knew for certain that it was the right TV tracker for me. As a chronic planner, I love having this sort of information available to me at all times. It gives me an idea of what’s to come. And it helps me get excited for all of the shows I love!

The library view adjusts slightly for different media types. The TV library is definitely the most in-depth, but each one is well-designed and made to help you keep track of your favorite media.

Sequel also offers a nice set of widgets for your home screen. You can use them to count down to a particular release, view your Watch Next queue, or quickly launch into a search. Unsurprisingly, the widget I like the most is the Upcoming widget, which shows upcoming releases across all media types in one list. It’s a really great way to keep track of all the fun things you’re looking forward to watching, reading, and playing.

Sequel’s widgets help me get excited for upcoming shows and films.

I keep the Upcoming widget on my home screen right underneath my Up Next queue from the TV app. The two make a perfect pair, and Sequel’s widgets round off an impeccable feature set for an ideal media tracker.

When I first heard about Sequel, I had already fallen off so many media trackers that I was hesitant to even give it a try. But I’m so glad that I did, because it’s become my favorite way to keep up with the shows I’m watching and looking forward to. It fits perfectly with the way my brain works, and it’s unlocked some abilities that I’ve always wanted in an app but could never find before. It is hands-down my favorite media tracker of all time.

If you’re like me and watch a lot of TV that you need to keep track of, or if you’re interested in tracking other types of media like films, books, and games, Sequel is a great way to do it. I highly recommend checking it out. It’s been so useful in helping me to take full advantage of my downtime, and I’m confident it can do the same for you.

Sequel is available to download for free on the App Store. Certain features like widgets, release reminders, and Where to Watch are available as part of Sequel+ for $3/month, $20/year, or a one-time payment of $100.

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If you’d like to hear me rave about Sequel some more in podcast form, check out this recent episode of Magic Rays of Light where Sigmund and I shared our experiences giving the app a try.

Apple’s Pro Apps Come to iPad →

From Apple Newsroom:

Apple today unveiled Final Cut Pro and Logic Pro for iPad. Video and music creators can now unleash their creativity in new ways that are only possible on iPad. Final Cut Pro and Logic Pro for iPad bring all-new touch interfaces that allow users to enhance their workflows with the immediacy and intuitiveness of Multi-Touch.

Today is a day iPad fans have been looking forward to for a long time. Apple’s pro apps are finally coming to the iPad! Final Cut Pro and Logic Pro for iPad will be available in two weeks on Tuesday, May 23.

This is great news not only because we now have two new high-quality apps at our disposal, but also because it represents the quality and power that are possible on apps for the iPad platform. Apple is bringing their very best creative software to the iPad for the first time, setting a high standard for professional iPad software.

A couple of interesting details are the hardware requirements and pricing. Final Cut Pro will require an M-series chip, limiting its compability to the two most recent generations of iPad Pro and the latest iPad Air. Logic Pro is less demanding, running on any iPad with an A12 or newer chip. These requirements make sense to me. It’s actually reassuring to know that Final Cut Pro is taking full advantage of the iPad’s transition to the M-series chips on the high end.

When it comes to pricing, Apple is doing something new with these apps: app subscriptions. Of course, subscriptions have been available in the App Store for years, but this is the first time Apple is selling an app (rather than a service) at a recurring price.

Each app will cost $5/month or $50/year after a one-month free trial. Compared to other software in their categories, Final Cut Pro and Logic Pro for iPad are a steal, and the fact that Apple chose a subscription model signals to me that these apps will be well-supported and developed for years to come.

As a long-time iPad devotee, I could not be more excited about this announcement. I’m not sure that I’ll be using these apps day in and day out, but the fact that they exist is a big deal. The iPad, and especially the iPad Pro, just continues to get better and better. And with this step, it’ll be a viable option for a whole new group of creative professionals.

It’s a good day to be an iPad user.