Tag: redesign
Google Photos is about to get a lot better on your tablet with upcoming redesign
The MacRumors Show: Talking Through watchOS 10’s Huge Redesign
Last week, Bloomberg‘s Mark Gurman reported that watchOS 10 will introduce an all-new system of widgets for interacting with the Apple Watch. He explained that widgets will become a “central part” of the Apple Watch’s interface and compared the new system to Glances, the widgets interface that launched on the original Apple Watch before being scrapped in watchOS 3, and the style of widgets that iOS 14 brought to the iPhone.
Apple is also apparently testing changes to the functions performed by the Apple Watch’s buttons. For example, a press of the Digital Crown may now launch the new widgets view, rather than navigate to the home screen.
The new interface will apparently be “reminiscent” of the Siri watch face that was introduced in watchOS 4, but as an overlay for any Apple Watch face. “It’s also similar to widget stacks, a feature in iOS and iPadOS that lets users pile many widgets into one and scroll through them,” Gurman added.
There are also rumors about watchOS 10 introducing a new home screen layout that takes cues from iOS with features like app folders. The changes are part of what is expected to be one of the Apple Watch’s biggest software updates since its introduction and the most significant change to the Apple Watch this year, as only minor hardware updates are expected to be unveiled later this year.
We consider how this new UI could take shape and how we feel about the proposed changes, reflecting on Glances, watchOS 4’s Siri watch face, past changes to the Apple Watch’s buttons, and the future of apps on the device.
We also discuss some of the latest Apple news, including the expansion of AirTag-like tracking alerts to third-party devices, iOS 17‘s rumored Wallet and Health app redesigns, and the delay of the microLED Apple Watch Ultra to 2025.
Listen to The MacRumors Show in Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, Pocket Casts, Castro, Google Podcasts, or your preferred podcasts app. You can also copy our RSS feed directly into your podcast player. Watch a video version of the show on the MacRumors YouTube channel.
If you haven’t already listened to the previous episode of The MacRumors Show, catch up for our discussion about all of the top features and improvements we’d like to see come to tvOS 17, the HomePod, and HomeKit at WWDC later this year.
Subscribe to The MacRumors Show for more episodes, where we discuss some of the topical news breaking here on MacRumors, often joined by exciting guests like Mark Gurman, Marcus Kane, Christopher Lawley, Frank McShan, David Lewis, Andru Edwards, Tyler Stalman, Jon Prosser, Sam Kohl, Quinn Nelson, John Gruber, Federico Viticci, Sara Dietschy, Luke Miani, Thomas Frank, Jonathan Morrison, iJustine, Ross Young, Ian Zelbo, Jon Rettinger, and Rene Ritchie. You can also head over to The MacRumors Show forum thread to engage with us directly. Remember to rate and review the show, and let us know what subjects you would like the podcast to cover in the future.
This article, “The MacRumors Show: Talking Through watchOS 10’s Huge Redesign” first appeared on MacRumors.com
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Apple Maps Redesign Now Rolling Out in Taiwan
With the updated design, landmarks and buildings are shown in 3D, and green spaces, parks, trees, roads, and other areas are displayed in more detail and with more accuracy.
Apple’s revamped map experience also provides iPhone, iPad, and Mac users with better navigation, turn-by-turn walking directions with augmented reality, and in general, a much more detailed and immersive Maps interface.
This design began rolling out in September 2018 in Northern California, and as of 2019, it was available across the United States. Apple has since expanded it to multiple other countries, most recently adding Finland, Norway, Sweden, Austria, Croatia, Czechia, Hungary, Poland, and Slovenia.
O’Beirne expects the new Apple Maps design to be officially live in Taiwan in June.
This article, “Apple Maps Redesign Now Rolling Out in Taiwan” first appeared on MacRumors.com
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This Windows 12 concept makes me excited for a full redesign
Apple Maps Redesign Expands to Austria, Croatia, Czechia, Hungary, Poland, and Slovenia
Maps can also help drivers in Austria, Czechia, Hungary, and Poland with certain electric vehicles plan trips that include appropriate stops for charging by analyzing elevation changes and other factors along a route. Meanwhile, transit riders in Austria, Croatia, Czechia, Hungary, Poland, and Slovenia can find nearby stations more easily and pin favorite lines. Riders will also receive notifications when it’s time to get off at their stop.
Look Around is also expanding to all of these countries starting today, offering high-resolution street-level imagery in the Maps app. The feature is similar to Google’s Street View, but with smoother transitions when panning and zooming.
As noted by Apple Maps expert Juston O’Beirne, this is the eighteenth time that Apple has expanded its new map data since its public launch in September 2018. It has expanded to the U.K., Ireland, Canada, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, France, Germany, and select other countries and territories.
This article, “Apple Maps Redesign Expands to Austria, Croatia, Czechia, Hungary, Poland, and Slovenia” first appeared on MacRumors.com
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Apple Working on Natural Language Updates for Siri, Planning Redesign for macOS Ventura TV App
Information sourced from the tvOS 16.4 beta suggests that Apple has developed a “Siri Natural Language Generation” framework, presumably to enhance the personal assistant’s natural language capabilities. According to 9to5Mac, Apple is using natural language generation for telling jokes with Siri, but as that functionality is on the iPhone and other devices, it is not quite clear what’s changed. As 9to5Mac explains:
In the latest tvOS 16.4 beta, Apple has enabled a new framework for “Siri Natural Language Generation” capabilities. As it currently stands, Apple is only using natural language generation for telling jokes with Siri on Apple TV. The company is experimenting with how language generation could be used for timers, as well.
The updated natural language generation framework seems to be limited to tvOS 16.4 and little is known about it at this time, but 9to5Mac suggests that similar (and not activated) code is included in iOS, HomePod OS, iPadOS, and macOS, so whatever Siri features Apple is working on could also come to all devices in the future.
There is no indication that any natural language enhancement for Siri is an attempt by Apple to compete with Google, Microsoft, and others on AI-enhanced chatbots, but it seems that Apple may have some kind of plan to boost Siri’s capabilities starting with tvOS 16.4.
Separately, a hidden version of the Apple TV app for Mac in the latest macOS Ventura 13.3 beta demonstrates a new design. There is an added sidebar for navigation, which brings the Apple TV app for Mac in line with the version for the iPad.
The sidebar brings easier access to various TV app functions, including Apple TV+, Watch Now, the Library, purchasable TV shows and movies, and more. Aside from the sidebar, the interface looks similar to the current TV app.
It’s worth noting that the updated version of the TV app is not implemented in the current macOS 13.3 beta, so it could be added in a future beta or Apple could save it for a later software update.
This article, “Apple Working on Natural Language Updates for Siri, Planning Redesign for macOS Ventura TV App” first appeared on MacRumors.com
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Imagined Mac Mini Redesign Argues Apple Should Borrow From Mac Studio
The idea mainly comes from MacRumors forums user “Rickroller,” who shared basic images of the concept earlier today. They suggest that a Mac Studio-like design could bring significant thermal improvements to the Mac mini to enable better performance, and even add some simple quality-of-life enhancements such as front-facing USB-C ports and an SDXC card reader.
Leaker Jon Prosser shared renders of a complete redesign for the Mac mini in early 2021, thought to be destined for an M1 Pro or M2-series model. The design depicted a smaller chassis with a “plexiglass-like” top, but did not emerge with the latest M2 and M2 Pro Mac mini models last year.
In 2022, Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo warned that the next Mac mini models would have the same design as prior models. Looking to the future, Kuo again believes that the new Mac mini models in 2024 will have the exact same design as their predecessors.
The Mac mini currently features a silver aluminum unibody design that Apple introduced in 2010. It has used this design for every Mac mini, other than offering a Space Gray colorway in 2018. By the time the next-generation Mac mini models launch in 2024, this design will be 14 years old – becoming the longest continuously used Apple design in the company’s history.
Bloomberg‘s Mark Gurman recently suggested that Apple has no plans to update the Mac Studio with the M2 Max and M2 Ultra chips in the near future. The main reason for the decision seems to be the change in direction of the Apple silicon Mac Pro, which will now have the M2 Ultra chip as a top-tier option and offer limited modularity. Apple may leave the Mac Studio without a hardware refresh for some time and could even discontinue the product line, similar to 2017’s iMac Pro, which served as a stop-gap device until the release of the 2019 Mac Pro.
If the Mac Studio is indeed discontinued sometime in the next several years, a post-2024 Mac mini may be even more likely to adopt a Mac Studio-like design, since there would no longer be a risk of further cannibalizing the Mac Studio with a similar design. Apple often introduces new designs and features on its high-end devices before slowly trickling them down to other products in the lineup, such as the squared-off industrial design of the 2018 iPad Pro, which finally came to dominate the whole latest-generation iPad lineup upon the release of the 10th-generation iPad last year.
What is in store for the Mac mini’s design after 2024 is unclear and likely has not even have been firmly decided upon by Apple yet, but considering how long the company has stuck with the aluminum unibody design, a redesign sometime in 2025 or beyond is highly plausible.
This article, “Imagined Mac Mini Redesign Argues Apple Should Borrow From Mac Studio” first appeared on MacRumors.com
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Mozilla Plans Ground-Up UI Redesign For Thunderbird Email Client
The Supernova release will include an overhaul of Thunderbird’s user interface. Castellani didn’t share screenshots, but he indicated that the new UI would be “simple and clean” and targeted mostly at new users. For “veteran users,” the interface will also be “flexible and adaptable” so that people who prefer the way Thunderbird looks now can “maintain that familiarity they love.” Supernova will also include several other big changes, including a redesigned calendar and support for Firefox Sync.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Apple TV Users Complain About tvOS 16.2 ‘Watch Now’ Redesign
Apple with tvOS 16.2 and its sister updates demoted the “Up Next” section in the “Watch Now” tab of the Apple TV app, instead adding a large featured content section with no option to disable it. The previews also autoplay content with audio, much to the annoyance of Apple TV users. From Reddit user Sean310:
I absolutely HATE the new format.
And they roll right into previews with audio. WTF Apple?
Up Next is tiny now & easily skipped over (on purpose).
And when you are on the Up Next row, the same Apple TV+ shows take up 85% of the screen below.
When tvOS 16.2 was being beta tested, there was a full “Featured” section that was shown above Up Next, but after a number of complaints, Apple changed the design. “Up Next” continues to be visible at the bottom of the Watch Now tab, but the majority of the interface is taken up by a rotating carousel featured shows and TV moves.
There is no way to toggle off the featured section or to revert to the interface that put more focus on Up Next, and as it transitions through content, Apple offers options to “Go to Show” or “Go to Movie” quick links. Though the interface change has been available since tvOS 16.2 was released on December 13, it appears the tvOS auto update function recently sent out the update on a more widespread basis. From Reddit user WikiWikiWhat:
Same, mine updated last night and it’s feels like a massive downstep. No longer feels like a premium product and more like a cheaper ad driven platform, would at least like the option to revert back to the old “up next” view at the very least
Apple TV users have been complaining about these design tweaks since tvOS 16.2 was in testing, and Apple has not made an effort to offer options to swap back to the old interface. It is not clear if the uptick in complaints will sway the company, and for now, the interface is here to stay. It’s also worth noting that these same design changes have also been implemented in the TV app for iPhones, iPads, and Macs.
This article, “Apple TV Users Complain About tvOS 16.2 ‘Watch Now’ Redesign” first appeared on MacRumors.com
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