AUGUST 2021 MACWORLD 77The Weather
app now
displays
more types of
information.W E ATH E R
The Weather app gets new animated
backgrounds with thousands of variations
to better reflect the time of day, clouds,
and precipitation. The app’s layout has
been changed to surface more important
information, and includes new modules
for maps, 10-day forecast, and new
graphics to animate the weather data.
There are also new full-screen maps
with temperature, precipitation, and air
quality modes.WIDGETS
Widgets are one of the great triumphs of
iOS 14’s big home screen redesign. With
iOS 15, Apple is adding a host of new
widgets for its own popular apps, including
Find My, Contacts, Game Center, App
Store, Mail, and Sleep. Widget Smart
Stacks can dynamically add suggested
new widgets for apps you use often.iCLOUD
iCloud itself isn’t changing in iOS 15, but it’s
getting an upgrade. Apple introduced
iCloud+ alongside iOS 15, which brings
numerous privacy and security features
(fave.co/368GjyB) that normally cost a hefty
monthly fee, including iCloud Private Relay
(which hides your location, IP address, and
browsing activity), email aliases, and
HomeKit Secure Video support. It’s a free
benefit for anyone already paying formeasurement will use your iPhone’s
sensors to measure the pace, cadence,
stride, and other gait metrics to give you an
idea of how likely you are to suffer a fall.
SIRI
Finally, after years of requiring an internet
connection to do anything, Siri works offline
(fave.co/3dNqkKl). There’s a new on-device
voice recognition model that processes your
speech without sending it anywhere. If the
action you ask Siri to do doesn’t require data
from the internet, it can perform it entirely
offline. So setting timers or alarms, reading
recent Messages, turning on Dark Mode, and
lots more can be done without a connection.
This makes Siri a lot more private and
secure, but it’s a whole lot faster, too.