As EM Forster said, just connect. It may not be thinking about the iPhone and Mac because they weren’t around at the time, but Apple seems to be taking this mantra to heart. Many of the two products’ newest features come to life when they encounter another Apple device; The new iMac may look the same on the outside, but it has new powers on the inside.
Apple executives met with Colleen Novielli from Mac Product Marketing and Stephen Tonna from Platform Product Marketing Independent Talking about how combining the capabilities of different Apple products has become more useful with the latest software.
An updated iMac arrived last month, featuring the same 24-inch display and seven different color options as its predecessor, but with a much more powerful Apple processor at its heart. In addition, new software has arrived for Mac, iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch with features that help these different devices work as a single device.
Continuity is an umbrella term for the ways you can share content between different devices, for example. If you have widgets (certain types of apps that display additional information or have more interactivity than most app icons) on your iPhone or iPad, you can now use them on your Mac desktop, too. In fact, if you don’t have these apps on your Mac, here’s the new item introduced with the latest software called macOS Sonoma.
Apple has been developing Continuity features for years, one of the first examples of AirDrop. This means you can easily transfer documents between devices. Stephen Tonna, who manages to focus intensely and relax almost indifferently at the same time, explains how this happens.
“Recall, when we first introduced AirDrop, it was because we, as an industry, were in the transition to going completely wireless and replacing the USB drive. We’ve long since moved away from that. AirDrop is still the easiest, fastest, most seamless way to transfer content between devices, and it’s a great way to transfer lots of photos.” “If you have an iPhone and want to share them quickly, this is the best way to do it.” AirDrop works wherever you are; There’s no need to setup, pair devices, check if you’re on the same network, or any other nonsense. In fact, you don’t even need to be near a wifi network because it creates its own connection.
Continuity works for other types of connections, too. “As long as you sign in with the same Apple ID, things start working. “You can use your iPad and Apple Pencil to get creative on your iMac,” Tonna explains. This works because you can set the devices so that people doodling with Apple Pencil on your iPad appear on your Mac screen. You can also set your Mac to unlock when it detects your Apple Watch is nearby, play content from your iPhone on the Mac’s larger screen, send and receive SMS messages from your phone as well as your Mac, and more.
“In reality, Continuity is this rich set of features that allow you to seamlessly switch between your devices and help you be even more creative in the things you do in your daily life. “Our main superpower is that we can put these together so that it’s not a complicated setup.”
The new processor for the iMac also helps. Colleen Novielli describes the new computer with pleasure and pride, saying: “The world’s best and best-selling all-in-one computer.” iMac and Continuity, he adds: “Bring your Mac to life for all the devices and users in the home or small business. Continuity works on all our Macs, but the iMac is perfect because the massive 24-inch display gives you plenty of space. Users say it makes them incredibly productive.” says.”
As Tonna mentioned, you can use this to make FaceTime calls more convenient. “Let’s say I start a FaceTime call when I go for a walk, and I want to continue that FaceTime call on my iMac when I get home. Transfers everything to iMac with one click.”
A new feature called NameDrop was in the news recently and the police department thought it was risky (it’s not). You put two iPhones together and it allows you to share your contact information. No more “I’ll call you and you’ll get my number” and then you won’t have to enter their name. I wonder how important this element of surprise is for Apple.
Tonna says: “Sharing contacts when you meet someone new used to be a cumbersome task. We offer this in a unique way and the wow factor is that the animation is so beautiful. But it’s also a very functional animation. It signals to you what’s really going on. If you choose to share, “Your contact is literally switching between devices. It’s always nice to get the wow factor. But at the end of the day, we’re creating these features to enable users to get more value from their products.”
It doesn’t have this seamless connection with Apple itself. Samsung already lets you transfer data between different products bearing its name, and Huawei does the same. Chip manufacturer Qualcomm recently announced Qualcomm Seamless, which will work on products of different brands and with different operating systems. Why does continuity feel like the best thing Apple could do?
“The reason we can do this better is based on Apple’s core values, which is that we make the hardware, software and services. The services piece is very important because iCloud is the connector that helps you move seamlessly between devices in a secure and private way. The hardware and software components are “It comes from our ability to combine technologies like Wi-Fi and Bluetooth to do things like understand when your devices are close to each other and enable features like Handoff.”
Casting is what allows you to transfer calls from a phone to a Mac or copy and paste between devices. Find a document on your iPhone, select Copy, for example, and then press Paste on your iMac and watch the document appear. As Novielli says, this is a way to make things better. “People have long had ingrained behaviors and ways of doing things that technology has enabled. So they think that if someone needs to move a file from place to place, they should open the email, attach the file, maybe zip the file. Then go to the other device.” Our philosophy is to help people do things better.”
As Tonna said, the starting capacitance of a Continuity feature is rarely the last iteration. “We’re always thinking beyond what we can do, but it really comes back to solving users’ immediate needs and then listening to feedback.”
This means we can expect bigger things to come from the Continuum in the future. Novielli sums it up this way: “Continuity is one of the things that allows technology to get out of your way and not interrupt your productive flow. So you can be the most productive you can be throughout the day.