Swipe to type!
Improved multi–touch keyboard
Control your
Mac, iPhone or
iPad by voice
Accessibility aid or a tantalizing
taste of the future?
The default on–screen keyboard will finally accept
swiping between letters for faster typing in iOS 13.
Third–party keyboards have enabled swipe–to–type
for years, but this is the first time it’s been standard.
Apple’s equivalent to Microsoft’s SwiftKey is called
QuickPath. iPadOS gets extra options to make its virtual
keyboard more flexible: rather than always filling a third
to half of the screen, it can float in a small panel for
one–handed typing, again with QuickPath.
The most striking demo video at WWDC showed user
Ian Mackay, who has impaired movement, carrying out
a series of tasks on his Mac using his voice alone.
Impressively, Mackay was able to open apps, enter
text, select items, and navigate around Maps as quickly
as any mouse user could have managed it.
This comprehensive new voice command system
is coming to both macOS 10.15 and iOS 13 as an
accessibility feature, and processes input on the
device itself rather than through the cloud.
With the Apple TV+ streaming service coming soon, tvOS
is getting an update. This adds multiple user accounts,
reminiscent of Netflix profiles, so everyone will see their
own preferred content and recommendations. The Home
screen auto–plays previews as you slide over apps, titles
or episodes, and there are new nature screensavers made
by Apple with the BBC. The Music app gains features such
as synced lyrics display and HomeKit triggers.Despite offering an enormous choice of games in the
App Store, iOS and Apple TV have struggled to be taken
seriously as games platforms. This is partly because
there’s never been a decent official controller. Now
devices running iOS 13 or tvOS 13 will be able to connect
to Sony DualShock 4 (PS4) and Microsoft Xbox One S
controllers (now sold as Xbox One Wireless Controller
with Bluetooth).
Apple’s new game subscription service, Apple Arcade, is
also due to start in the autumn.Coming to your TV
Apple TV gets more personal
Use PlayStation and
Xbox controllers to play
They connect wirelessly to Apple gear
maclife.comAUG 2019 29WWDC 2019