offline siri: great, IF you can force it to not go online automatically. useless otherwise live text: just great. full web extensions: hell it's about time. new maps: google maps is just so much better. has 3d textured with satellit imagery... facetime : obviously you pick your friends & business contacts based on their phone manufacturers. what nothing more? nope not really... oh wait they didn't know what else to do, so they made a bad authy clone :-D
Apple users have been complaining for years that the OS has too many papercuts, things that work -- but badly, or that don't work the way you expect they should, or are too slow/take too much memory/are buggy.
We've had some releases that promised mainly to fix bugs, and that partially (but never fully) delivered. If this is another of those mostly bug-fixing+polishing releases, most of us in the Apple camp will be VERY HAPPY with that choice. Fix bugs, concentrate on all the low-level-stuff still required by the ARM64 transition and the closer merging of iOS+macOS, and leave the features for next year!
True, the only things I really care about here are the improved Maps and Safari interface (because currently both are inferior to alternatives) while my primary focus is on bug fixes and further optimizations. For one, they really need to bring back an option to revert the appointment interface to the iOS13-style because setting a time now is totally ridiculous.
So what you are saying is if Apple implements features you like already ... "it's lame". Improvements on existing features ... "so what" facetime : it works across phone manufacturers now .... did you read the OP?
Hmmm ... you must really be fun at parties ... you know, the ones that complains about everything
"Siri now becomes fully offline" That's not correct, is it?
All that becomes "fully offline" is the AUDIO processing. The request in "digital form" may still need to be handled by a remote server. In principal the back-end logic (eg map "what's 3 pounds in kilograms" into a request be sent to Wolfram Alpha, map "when does Iron Man 4 open" to request to be sent to?Fandango?, etc) could happen on-device, but I did not get the impression that's what they're doing now.
And of course doing the mapping locally restricts how rapidly they can iterate upgrading that back-end.
Would love to know if "Offline Siri" has the same problems online Siri has with accents or even minor speech impediments. Those issues aren't limited to Siri, Amazon's speech recognition sucks just as badly here.
Oh, and about the "Larger Wallet": Isn't this already a requirement for anyone wanting to own and use an iOS or iPadOS device? They aren't exactly cheap and affordable, are they now?
The iPhone SE is £450 for the 128GB version in the UK (I would never recommend a 64GB phone). That's pretty reasonable for a device as well-rounded as that.
As for the iPAd, those start around £410 for a 128GB device here - you're actually looking at more (£499 up) for a comparable Android tablet, and they all seem to be running Android 10.
Don't get me wrong, I'm an Android user myself, it's just the pricing argument isn't what it used to be. You get Android devices selling for more than Apple at the top end, and the only ones that undercut them at the bottom end are seriously compromised in one way or another.
Hopefully they will add caching to the Maps app, I had to switch to Google Maps two weeks ago on a trip because I couldn't get a cell signal to update Apple Maps. Luckily Google Maps allows caching an area and I keep my home state cached.
Google caching is a nice feature, but the manual curation is ridiculous. I don't know why Google requires that manual curation, but I suspect the same concern is limiting Apple -- when they introduce this they won't want to require the user manually refresh the "hold" on the data every month.
While manual caching is a thing for sure, you can also get directions and Google Maps will go "there may not be service along your route, should I download it?"
I've also added a manual download region around my home city and I've never, ever had to do anything to keep it updated. Just the single initial request.
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bernstein - Monday, June 7, 2021 - link
offline siri: great, IF you can force it to not go online automatically. useless otherwiselive text: just great.
full web extensions: hell it's about time.
new maps: google maps is just so much better. has 3d textured with satellit imagery...
facetime : obviously you pick your friends & business contacts based on their phone manufacturers.
what nothing more? nope not really... oh wait they didn't know what else to do, so they made a bad authy clone :-D
bernstein - Monday, June 7, 2021 - link
oh and they brought logitech flow to ipad/ios and made it work with all mice & keyboards.name99 - Monday, June 7, 2021 - link
You say all that like it's a bad thing!Apple users have been complaining for years that the OS has too many papercuts, things that work -- but badly, or that don't work the way you expect they should, or are too slow/take too much memory/are buggy.
We've had some releases that promised mainly to fix bugs, and that partially (but never fully) delivered. If this is another of those mostly bug-fixing+polishing releases, most of us in the Apple camp will be VERY HAPPY with that choice.
Fix bugs, concentrate on all the low-level-stuff still required by the ARM64 transition and the closer merging of iOS+macOS, and leave the features for next year!
ABR - Tuesday, June 8, 2021 - link
Exactly.Samus - Friday, June 11, 2021 - link
True, the only things I really care about here are the improved Maps and Safari interface (because currently both are inferior to alternatives) while my primary focus is on bug fixes and further optimizations. For one, they really need to bring back an option to revert the appointment interface to the iOS13-style because setting a time now is totally ridiculous.web2dot0 - Tuesday, June 8, 2021 - link
So what you are saying is if Apple implements features you like already ... "it's lame".Improvements on existing features ... "so what"
facetime : it works across phone manufacturers now .... did you read the OP?
Hmmm ... you must really be fun at parties ... you know, the ones that complains about everything
name99 - Monday, June 7, 2021 - link
"Siri now becomes fully offline"That's not correct, is it?
All that becomes "fully offline" is the AUDIO processing. The request in "digital form" may still need to be handled by a remote server. In principal the back-end logic (eg map "what's 3 pounds in kilograms" into a request be sent to Wolfram Alpha, map "when does Iron Man 4 open" to request to be sent to?Fandango?, etc) could happen on-device, but I did not get the impression that's what they're doing now.
And of course doing the mapping locally restricts how rapidly they can iterate upgrading that back-end.
skaurus - Tuesday, June 8, 2021 - link
They said that only some commands work fully offline, like launching an application or starting a timer for example.eastcoast_pete - Monday, June 7, 2021 - link
Would love to know if "Offline Siri" has the same problems online Siri has with accents or even minor speech impediments. Those issues aren't limited to Siri, Amazon's speech recognition sucks just as badly here.29a - Tuesday, June 8, 2021 - link
I live in an area with accents Siri doesnt like and it seems the more you use it the better it gets.eastcoast_pete - Monday, June 7, 2021 - link
Oh, and about the "Larger Wallet": Isn't this already a requirement for anyone wanting to own and use an iOS or iPadOS device? They aren't exactly cheap and affordable, are they now?29a - Tuesday, June 8, 2021 - link
No more expensive than other quality phones.Spunjji - Wednesday, June 9, 2021 - link
The iPhone SE is £450 for the 128GB version in the UK (I would never recommend a 64GB phone). That's pretty reasonable for a device as well-rounded as that.As for the iPAd, those start around £410 for a 128GB device here - you're actually looking at more (£499 up) for a comparable Android tablet, and they all seem to be running Android 10.
Don't get me wrong, I'm an Android user myself, it's just the pricing argument isn't what it used to be. You get Android devices selling for more than Apple at the top end, and the only ones that undercut them at the bottom end are seriously compromised in one way or another.
29a - Tuesday, June 8, 2021 - link
Hopefully they will add caching to the Maps app, I had to switch to Google Maps two weeks ago on a trip because I couldn't get a cell signal to update Apple Maps. Luckily Google Maps allows caching an area and I keep my home state cached.name99 - Tuesday, June 8, 2021 - link
Google caching is a nice feature, but the manual curation is ridiculous.I don't know why Google requires that manual curation, but I suspect the same concern is limiting Apple -- when they introduce this they won't want to require the user manually refresh the "hold" on the data every month.
evilspoons - Wednesday, June 9, 2021 - link
While manual caching is a thing for sure, you can also get directions and Google Maps will go "there may not be service along your route, should I download it?"I've also added a manual download region around my home city and I've never, ever had to do anything to keep it updated. Just the single initial request.
Sailor23M - Friday, June 25, 2021 - link
Apple Maps already has caching feature, just need to open that area and zoom in/out a few times and it caches.