I liked a lot of what they had to show. I don't use FaceTime much, but adding a bunch of Zoom-like features and the music/video sharing struck me as cool (a year too late, sure, but who knew?). Speaking as someone who has a parent in poor health, the new and shareable health features I dug in a big way. Processing Siri voice commands on device is a winner in my book (and not just for the speed). The linking between apps, especially messaging, could be pretty useful. Etc.
Apple has plenty of sins, and—them being them—it'll take a year or more before half the new stuff work as well as it should (if ever), but in terms of the features/directions they're going, I'm pretty happy with the directions they're going in. To the other stuff (need to reboot regularly, etc.), I dunno whether it's based on usage tendencies or luck of the draw with devices, but I've really never had the kind of technical problems others have described. Usually, everything just works. The worst I tend to get is choppy behavior from non-Apple AirPlay and HomeKit devices, which can get super annoying, but not enough to put me off.
But yeah, you'll fill your corporate lingo Bingo cards in fifteen minutes flat every time with the cringy presentations. 
I'm definitely not a poweruser of iOS, but I really like a lot of what they showed in there. Seems like a strong deepening of features for a lot of the apps I do use most often.
Maybe it was my mood, but when I watched live I found the keynote to be very “meh” overall.
Then when I was browsing my feeds last night I kept coming across interesting bits that I either missed, or didn’t get mentioned. Here’s a list I jotted down of the features that I’m most interested in.
Apple Watch:
Multiple timers - number one update!!!
Mindfullness app
Sleep respiratory rate - interesting, but no sure if useful
iPhone & iPad:
Safari extensions - nice!
Safari tab groups
On-device Siri
Notifications summary
Focus mode
Text selection magnifying glass - hooray!
iPad:
Home screen widgets - been waiting a year for this!
Better multi-tasking
iPhone apps in landscape mode - nice for stupid apps like Instagram
iPhone:
Sleep home screen widget
Apple TV:
Control Apple TV with HomePod Mini - I may finally buy a HomePod for this
HopePod Mini:
Recognize different voices
One thing that didn't make the keynote: in CarPlay, you will have the option for Siri to immediately read aloud text messages as you receive them, rather than having to look down at the screen to tap on the message notification to trigger it. I will definitely be using that.
And the dark sorcery that is Universal Control. You know, for those of us with Macs.
That was the only thing that I thought was cool out of the whole presentation. Its use is limited for me, since I mostly converted to Windows over the past few years (although I do plan to get a new MacBook Air at some point, if the rumors of colored computers are true, to replace my aging 2015 MacBook Pro), but it still looks really cool.
Lots of neat stuff. Mostly I'm interested in focus, Facetime with anyone, the notifications update, wallet/keys updates, and the photos update. Nothing monumental but a lot of improvements that look good for me.
Here are couple more interesting tidbits:
tvOS 15 lets you sign in to apps using Face ID on your iPhone
You can place multiple copies of the same app on your home screen with iOS 15
This sounds silly at first, but I use a couple of the same apps for both work and home. With focus mode it seems I’ll be able to auto-hide my work screen (and more importantly notifications!) at certain times.
One feature of my new email provider is now being implemented by Apple: Apple Mail adds tracking pixel blocker to stop data collection
Finally joining the somewhat current generation with an iPhone 11. So in the year and a half of the pandemic, have they worked out FaceID with masks? No, apparently not. Otherwise, it's been an enjoyable upgrade.
Finally joining the somewhat current generation with an iPhone 11. So in the year and a half of the pandemic, have they worked out FaceID with masks? No, apparently not. Otherwise, it's been an enjoyable upgrade.
If you have an Apple Watch you can have it unlock your phone while wearing a mask.
Nope! Budgeting for a new phone was definitely my limit. I don’t really have a use case for a smart watch.
Nope! Budgeting for a new phone was definitely my limit. I don’t really have a use case for a smart watch.
Sure you do: unlocking your phone while wearing a mask 
I didn't think I did until my wife bought me one. Then it turned out that I respond pretty well to the little activity rings, so it's been earning its keep by keeping me at least a little active.
Honestly though, the biggest effect the Apple Watch has had on me is now I really want a "digital crown" control on my phone...
Honestly though, the biggest effect the Apple Watch has had on me is now I really want a "digital crown" control on my phone...
It works wonderfully on the AirPods Max. It's infinitely more accurate and satisfying than any touch or a rocking clicker.
What irks me is that watch can unlock an iPhone when masked, but it still requires a passcode for Pay.
I'm pretty surprised how much I use my watch nowadays. It took me a long time to pull the trigger on one and when I finally did so it was for the health tracking stuff. I never imagined using it so much. Now I use it all the time. I use it for HomeKit control, timers/alarms, reminders, messages, media control, calendar events and even checking items off my shopping list while I shop. I even bought a refurb Apple Watch 3 as a second device just for sleep tracking.
I never thought I would "Michael Knight" with it either, but I use raise-to-speak all the time. I don't talk to Alexa much anymore expect for playing music and adding things to my shopping list. (I'm also trying to move away from using Echoes long term.)
The coolest thing I recently learned I could do is use my watch to play/pause music on my phone with my AirPods and even adjust the volume with the crown. It also works to play/pause and skip back on my Apple TVs.
It took a really long time, but I have to admit that Apple really got its hooks into me with its ecosystem.
Mr GT Chris wrote:Nope! Budgeting for a new phone was definitely my limit. I don’t really have a use case for a smart watch.
Sure you do: unlocking your phone while wearing a mask :lol:
Also pinging your phone because you keep misplacing it. 
*Legion* wrote:Mr GT Chris wrote:Nope! Budgeting for a new phone was definitely my limit. I don’t really have a use case for a smart watch.
Sure you do: unlocking your phone while wearing a mask :lol:
Also pinging your phone because you keep misplacing it. :D
Forgot about that. I do that all the time!
Siri has always been the best way to set a timer, and on the watch it's even easier. On the phone you have to tell her to "set a N minute timer" but you can just tell the watch "N minutes." It's smart enough to know that you're talking to a time piece so you want to keep time.
I've also gotten some good use out of using my watch as a remote for my phone's camera.
Siri has always been the best way to set a timer, and on the watch it's even easier. On the phone you have to tell her to "set a N minute timer" but you can just tell the watch "N minutes." It's smart enough to know that you're talking to a time piece so you want to keep time.
Except you can only set ONE TIMER at a time. This infuriated me until I came up with idea of using named alarms instead. The good news is that with the next update there will finally be multiple timers on the watch. But not on the phone for some ridiculous reason.
*Legion* wrote:Mr GT Chris wrote:Nope! Budgeting for a new phone was definitely my limit. I don’t really have a use case for a smart watch.
Sure you do: unlocking your phone while wearing a mask :lol:
Also pinging your phone because you keep misplacing it. :D
Speaking of which, putting AirTags on my keys and wallet have been game changers, even though I already had Tiles on these things before.
AirTags have shown just how underbaked Tile was.
/Rant of the day on OSX...
Sister in law gave me a very old macbook 4,1 and and an old macbook pro 9,2. She just wanted me to move her crap over and get her running on the 9,2.
1. No problem, I also have extra RAM and a 512 SSD I'll throw in the 9,2 then run migration assistant.
2. Bring out the ole El Capitan installer (because the 9,2 can't take newer) and run a fresh install. 30 min in it errors out with cryptic code. I looked it up. Apple disabled installations of El Capitan after a certain date so you have to disconnect Wi-Fi backdate in terminal and restart the process. Done, and lame on Apple!
3. Start up and run the migration assistant on both computers. Sorry your migration assistant is out of date on the 4,1. Run updates, same error. back to google and It looks like I have to get it up to Snow leopard. 10.6... OK no problem.
4. Run OSX update (that's what its called on 10.5.) and it shows Mountain Lion is available (But no snow leopard). Cool, it let me download and run ML then was like WTF is this package. You can't run this on this old machine. OK... guess I do need to get Snow leopard. Except it's not available for download, you need a disc.. OK, no problem lets google some torrents..
5. Safari on the 10.5 is too old to work with real websites, and sucks in general, and Firefox and chrome are telling me to upgrade my OS :(. Went to my PC and found it no time with links from Apples support forums :D. Download to exfat thumbdrive. Nope, go back and change it to fat 32 but then remembered file size limit. NTFS it is.
6. Copy .dmg to desktop and write it to USB stick with disk utility. Wow, actually worked.... then I try to run it and get a cryptic error that you can't run it. Look it up, and thanks to random posters again, I find that it will work if I boot into it.
7. Boot into installer and it actually works (Yay!). Installed.
8. Now I'm near the finish line and I go to run Migration assistant. Nope still out of date with a message that I need the most recent OS. I know that won't work so I run updates and try again.. Success... Kinda.
9. Your iphoto library needs to be imported. OK go ahead and import that apple. No, you need the tool iPhoto library updater by Apple. OK no problem. Search the app store... nothing. Search google and get a link. Cool but where's the download link, it just explains how to use the tool. 30 minutes of searching and I got nothing. Just went over to my PC and a download link appears on Firefox. FU Safari!
And that's where I am now and am giving up for the night. I have been familiar with OSX for a while now and 6 or so years ago was ACSP certified for 5 years in a row until we stopped using Apples at my work. So I'm not a complete noob but this whole process was just so cryptic.
/End rant
Vargen wrote:Siri has always been the best way to set a timer, and on the watch it's even easier. On the phone you have to tell her to "set a N minute timer" but you can just tell the watch "N minutes." It's smart enough to know that you're talking to a time piece so you want to keep time.
Except you can only set ONE TIMER at a time. This infuriated me until I came up with idea of using named alarms instead. The good news is that with the next update there will finally be multiple timers on the watch. But not on the phone for some ridiculous reason.
Yeah, that's gotten me a couple times too. It doesn't help that when I went looking for "multiple timers for Apple Watch" I found a highly recommended app... that would only let me create timers on the phone. I could select and run them on my watch, but I couldn't create new ones or adjust their length.
/Rant of the day on OSX...
Oof. Yeah, Apple really doesn't make it easy to work with older Macs. If I had to do something like what you describe I think I'd start looking for Terminal-based solutions/manual file transfers. Which is not easy or convenient, but should theoretically be possible if you can find out enough about the system's Unix guts.
Oof. Yeah, Apple really doesn't make it easy to work with older Macs. If I had to do something like what you describe I think I'd start looking for Terminal-based solutions/manual file transfers. Which is not easy or convenient, but should theoretically be possible if you can find out enough about the system's Unix guts.
Yeah, I didn't want to go down that road. Not only do they not make it easy, they purposefully make it more difficult by making arbitrary installation cutoff dates and required installs not available for download. I'm going to get back to that project today so keeping my fingers crossed.
Kudos for not ranting about your SIL having you migrate her from what seems to be a 12 year old machine to a 9 year old machine.
"Hey sis, here's your laptop. It's running MacOS version Ubuntu."
Kudos for not ranting about your SIL having you migrate her from what seems to be a 12 year old machine to a 9 year old machine.
Seriously. It sounded like a simple project to begin with. The 9 year old hardware was top of the line so actually is still pretty OK for a laptop. i7 2.3 Quad core, Nvidia GT 650M GPU, 8 GB RAM, SSD (that I just put in), new battery.
"Hey sis, here's your laptop. It's running MacOS version Ubuntu."
I would love to but as soon as she tried to install one of her teacher programs the support calls would never end!
Update on the progress btw:
Installed Iphoto Library upgrader. Run it. "You can't use this version of iPhoto library upgrader" with this version of Mac OS. It's running Catalina now. I'm not surprised at this point Apple. Can't download the tool on earlier versions of OS but can't run it on later ones. I rated their support article as a 0:5. The last link even goes to a page not found. 
"Hey sis, here's your laptop. It's running MacOS version Ubuntu."
Sounds like a great idea. No one has ever had to deal with unmet dependencies, right?
Regarding iPhoto libraries... it might be easier to grab all the photos in Finder and copy/import them into the new version. You won't preserve slideshows and albums that way, but the pictures and metadata should be there.
Regarding iPhoto libraries... it might be easier to grab all the photos in Finder and copy/import them into the new version. You won't preserve slideshows and albums that way, but the pictures and metadata should be there.
This probably would have been the smart thing to do! I ended up running the tool on the old computer which made them unreadable there but thankfully after I copied the library over it was able to import.
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