Shipments of wearable devices stalls in first quarter compared to Q1 2017
Apple leads the market share for wearables in the first quarter with four million shipments
Paul Lipscombe
June 5, 2018
New software updates will be available on devices released in 2013 and beyond
Apple has unveiled iOS12 during the first day of the week-long WWDC conference.
The latest update to the operating system is available for all mobile devices released by the manufacturer in the past five years and aims to make the oldest of the devices launch apps 40 per cent faster, bring keyboard up 50 per cent faster and take a picture from the lock screen 70 per cent faster.
Photos has a personal section to application that shows you featured, ‘on this day’ images and suggests effects and ideas for sharing. The application will also suggest which people to tag into a post and a selection of images to share.
Third parties have been embraced in updates to Siri and the artificial intelligence that surrounds the iPhone which Apple has named ‘Shortcuts’. Users can link a particular verbal phrase or command to a function a third-party application carries out so, for example, if a user uses ‘Tile’ they can say something like “I’ve lost my keys” to Siri and the Tile will ring.
Part of the shortcuts application will also allow consumers to set a series of functions to happen instantly. The example given was for if the consumer is going home, they can say something like “I’m on my way home” and the app can take the user’s location, map out their route home, calculate an ETA, send that ETA to someone at home and set the heating to a certain temperature.
A different reality
iOS12 also supports a new augmented reality open file format called USDZ which allows consumers to pick up images view them in the environment they are currently in via the camera. These files can be sent via messages or email, picked up in the files app and taken from the web and place them into the real world.
Augmented reality is also featured in a new application that will come on the new device called ‘Measure’ which allows users to pin two points on the camera screen and measure the distance between them. Apple also released a third-party developer tool called AR Kit 2 which developers can use to develop AR features.