MacRumors

Hey Siri, play Old Town Road on Spotify.

Ask that now and Siri will tell you that it cannot play songs from Spotify, but that could change soon. Apple is opening up its SiriKit framework to third-party music, podcasts, audiobooks, and radio apps in iOS 13 and iPadOS, enabling users to use Siri to control audio playback in supported apps.

It will be up to developers to enable this functionality in their apps. We've reached out to Spotify, Amazon, Google, Pandora, Tidal, Overcast, Castro, and several other popular music and podcasts app developers to see if they have plans to support Siri, and we'll update this story if we hear back.

Spotify recently accused Apple of anticompetitive business practices, and its inability to integrate with Siri was one of its complaints. "Apple won't allow us to be on HomePod and they definitely won't let us connect with Siri to play your jams," said Spotify. Going forward, the latter is no longer the case.

The first betas of iOS 13 and iPadOS were seeded to developers on Monday, with public betas to follow in July. The software updates will be widely released in the fall, likely alongside new iPhones in September as usual.

Apple this week announced that iOS 13 and iPadOS will introduce full support for Sony's DualShock 4 controller, which is the main game controller for the PlayStation 4. This announcement, along with confirmation of Xbox One S controller support, is great for iOS gamers, but even more enticing thanks to Sony's existing Remote Play app for iOS.

Released in March, the Remote Play app [Direct Link] lets you connect your iPhone or iPad to your PS4 to stream and play games while away from your living room (but still on a Wi-Fi network, because the app doesn't support cellular connectivity). At launch, the app worked well and provided a sample of what it would be like to play games like Overwatch and Assassin's Creed: Odyssey on your ‌iPhone‌, but the touchscreen controls and lack of full support for certain buttons on existing MFi controllers left many games nearly unplayable.

Now, with iOS 13 and DualShock 4 support, your ‌iPhone‌ or ‌iPad‌ will essentially be a portable PS4. You'll encounter all of the usual PS4-related controls, including full support for the console's dashboard, store, and user profiles. You can even allow it access to your iOS microphone to talk to your friends in a party or through game chat.

There are some downsides to the Remote Play app, including the fact that some games are not compatible with it and won't let you stream or control the game from your iOS device. But, for the games that do support Remote Play, users will have a chance to play full console titles right from their ‌iPhone‌.

DualShock 4 and Xbox One S controller support also have the ability to enhance other gaming apps, like the recently released Steam Link app for iOS. Valve's app lets you stream your Steam games to ‌iPhone‌ or ‌iPad‌, as long as your mobile device and PC are on the same Wi-Fi network. Once connected, you can use your iOS device to play Steam games, many of which already support DualShock 4 and Xbox controllers.

Microsoft is working on a mobile streaming app of its own, which could come to iOS devices as well. But, as of now, Xbox One gamers have to look into third-party options for streaming to an ‌iPhone‌ or ‌iPad‌, like the $11.99 OneCast app [Direct Link]. Similar to Sony Remote Play, OneCast streams Xbox One games to iOS devices that are connected to a Wi-Fi network.

Besides iOS 13 and iPadOS, tvOS 13 is gaining support for the DualShock 4 and Xbox One S controller as well. Apple's support for these controllers will be timed alongside the release of Apple Arcade, an all-new subscription service for iOS, iPadOS, and tvOS that will present users with high-quality games that they can play on-demand while subscribing to the platform.

Apple CEO Tim Cook believes that when it comes to big business, scrutiny is a good thing, but he has denied claims that Apple is a monopoly.

In an extended interview with CBS News, Cook said that because of Apple's size he thought it was "fair" to scrutinize its business practices, but the CEO pushed back hard against claims that the company had a dominant position in any market.

Apple has recently become the target of regulator inquiries and class action lawsuits that have variously questioned its business practices. In the United States, for example, the Supreme Court recently ruled that a class action accusing Apple of operating an App Store monopoly can proceed to trial in a lower court.

Asked about Elizabeth Warren's presidential campaign and her position that Apple should break up its App Store and other parts of its business, Cook said:

I strongly disagree with that. I think some people would argue, if you are selling a good, then you can't have a product that competes with that good. And I-- I think that's part of what is being argued there. But that-- that's an argument that takes you down the path that, Walmart shouldn't be stocking alternative or house brand. And so this is decades of-- of-- U.S. law here. But I think scrutiny is good, and we'll tell our story to anybody that we need to or that-- that wants to hear it. I-- I feel very confident in-- in our position.

Cook went on to underline the company's user-centric position and claimed that when it comes to privacy and fake news, "we're on the user's side," which is why it curates content on its stores and services.

Asked whether he thought Facebook is an amplifier for fake news, Cook said that he worried about any platform that delivered news in a feed and relied on algorithms to differentiate genuine journalism from fake news.

I don't really believe personally that A.I. has the power today to differentiate between what is fake and what is not. And so I worry about any property that today pushes news in a feed. What we do with Apple News product is we pick top stories, we have people doing it. And so I do worry about people thinking like machines. Not machines thinking like people.

Cook's extended interview covered several other topics, including the potential impact of Chinese tariffs on Apple, his relationship with President Trump, and current U.S. administration polices. You can watch the full interview above and read the full transcript here.

Note: Due to the political nature of the discussion regarding this topic, the discussion thread is located in our Politics, Religion, Social Issues forum. All forum members and site visitors are welcome to read and follow the thread, but posting is limited to forum members with at least 100 posts.

Apple yesterday unveiled iOS 13, the newest version of the operating system designed to run on the iPhone (and the iPad, though the ‌iPad‌ version has been renamed to iPadOS). iOS 13 is an update that introduces a long list of new features and some changes that are quite exciting.

Check out the video below, where we walk through all of the major features that you can expect to see when you upgrade to iOS 13 this fall.

First and foremost, iOS 13, like iOS 12, is an update that brings some much needed under-the-hood performance improvements. Apple has reduced app download sizes by up to 50 percent, leading to improved app update times, and apps launch up to twice as fast. On devices that use Face ID, unlocking with ‌Face ID‌ is 30 percent faster than before.

iOS 13 looks a lot like iOS 12 when it comes to design, with the exception of a new systemwide Dark Mode that turns the entire OS, apps included, dark. ‌Dark Mode‌ can be toggled on at will or set to activate on a schedule.

Many apps got updates, but Photos is the app that got the most significant overhaul. There's a new main view that organizes and curates your ‌Photos‌ library to show you a selection of highlights by day, month, or year. It's a neat way to get a look back at your favorite memories, and you'll notice that videos in this view autoplay.

The image editing interface in ‌Photos‌ has been overhauled to make it easier to make quick tweaks to your images, and there are new Portrait Lighting adjustments for moving the light closer or further away depending on the look you're going for.

The volume HUD has been overhauled and the new volume up/down indicator is less obtrusive, located either at the side of the ‌iPhone‌ or the top depending on the orientation of your device.

Right now, iOS 13 is limited to developers, and Apple warns those who aren't risk takers to wait for the public beta, coming in July, before installing the update. It is indeed riddled with bugs right now and does not offer the best usage experience. It's best to install it on a secondary device.

A new Find My app combines ‌Find My‌ ‌iPhone‌ and ‌Find My‌ Friends, and it is equipped with one of the best new features Apple announced - an option to track your devices even when they're offline by leveraging other nearby iOS devices.

A new Sign In with Apple feature is also a major privacy-protecting change, offering up a convenient way to sign into apps and websites. Your Apple ID authenticates your account with Touch ID or ‌Face ID‌, and apps are even able to generate single-use randomized email addresses so developers and companies never get your real info.

The Maps app features broader road coverage, updated pedestrian data, and more detailed landcover, but the coolest new Maps feature is Look Around, which is basically Apple's version of Google's Street View.

Apple made the Reminders app more useful in iOS 13 with a total revamp, and Messages has a new Profile feature for sharing your name and photo with people. There are a ton of new Memoji customization options, and three new Animoji: a cow, octopus, and mouse. Animoji/Memoji stickers have been added so you can use your Memoji in Messages, Mail, and other apps.

Siri has a new voice, but it doesn't seem super different, and there are updates to CarPlay, AirPods, HomePod, and more. ‌CarPlay‌ has a new interface, ‌HomePod‌ supports Handoff so you can transfer music from an iOS device to the ‌HomePod‌, and with AirPods, you can connect two to a single ‌iPhone‌ to share what you're listening to with a friend.

HomeKit is coming to routers in iOS 13, plus there's a neat new Secure Video feature that makes sure video recorded is analyzed right on your device and then sent in an encrypted stream to iCloud, so you can be sure no one is spying on your in-home cameras.

A new swipe-based QuickPath keyboard option has been added, and Apple made it easier to edit text with scrolling improvements and smoother cursor movement.

The Health app has a new feature for monitoring hearing health, and there's a new Cycle Tracking option for tracking menstrual cycles. There are also tons of iPad-specific changes, but we'll go over those in a separate iPadOS video coming later this week, now that iOS and iPadOS are somewhat separate operating systems.

Following months of beta testing to work out bugs and refine features, iOS 13 will launch in the fall alongside new iPhones. Make sure to stay tuned to MacRumors because we're going to delve further into iOS later this week, along with Apple's other operating systems for Mac, Apple TV, Apple Watch, and ‌iPad‌.

Dashboard, a longtime Mac feature that Apple has been phasing out for the last few years, has been eliminated in macOS Catalina and it is no longer available for use.

The Dashboard option, first introduced in OS X 10.4 Tiger, used to be a prominent Mac feature, housing sticky notes, a weather interface, a clock, a calculator, and other customizable widgets.

It was disabled by default starting in macOS 10.10 Yosemite, and in the current version of macOS, Mojave, it's still disabled unless you seek it out, enabling it as part of Mission Control or adding it to the Dock.

In Catalina, there is no more Dashboard app at all, as pointed out by Appleosophy. It can't be enabled via Mission Control and there's no sign of it in the operating system, marking its official demise.

While the Mac and iPad remain distinct products, Apple continues to bridge the gap between its desktop and mobile platforms. In 2014, for example, it introduced Continuity features like Handoff and Universal Clipboard that enable more seamless experiences across the Mac, ‌iPad‌, and other Apple devices.

The next step in this process is Project Catalyst, which makes it much easier for developers to extend iPad apps to the Mac.

Starting with macOS Catalina and Xcode 11, developers can create a Mac version of an ‌iPad‌ app using UIKit, an Apple framework that until now was intended solely for iOS apps. Adding macOS support to an ‌iPad‌ app is as easy as opening an Xcode project and clicking the Mac checkbox under General > Deployment Info.

While the Mac version of the app should run after the box is checked, this is not always the case, as the Xcode project may contain code that no longer compiles due to frameworks, APIs, or embeddable content that is incompatible with the Mac, according to Apple's developer documentation:

Most iPad apps are great candidates for adaptation, but a few rely on iPad features that don’t exist on a Mac. For example, if your app's essential features require iPad capabilities like gyroscope, accelerometer, or rear camera, iOS frameworks like HealthKit or ARKit, or the app's main function is something like navigation, it might not be suited for the Mac.

Apple has instructions on how to remedy these compatibility issues.

‌iPad‌ apps ported to macOS run natively on the Mac, utilizing the same frameworks, resources, and runtime environment as traditional Mac apps, according to Apple's developer documentation:

The Mac version of your iPad app supports many system features found in macOS without requiring any effort from you…

- A default menu bar for your app.
- Support for trackpad, mouse, and keyboard input.
- Support for window resizing and full-screen display.
- Mac-style scroll bars.
- Copy-and-paste support.
- Drag-and-drop support.
- Support for system Touch Bar controls.

Apple's updated Human Interface Guidelines are a helpful resource for designing and coding the ideal ‌iPad‌ app for Mac.

If this all sounds familiar, it is because Project Catalyst is Apple's public-facing name for this initiative, which has been referred to by its internal name of Marzipan until now. Apple's plans to allow iOS apps to easily run on Mac were first reported by Bloomberg's Mark Gurman over 18 months ago.

Apple provided us with a first glimpse of Project Catalyst when it brought the ‌iPad‌ versions of its Apple News, Home, Stocks, and Voice Memos apps to the Mac last year in macOS Mojave. Third-party developers are now able to follow suit in macOS Catalina, which will be released to the public in the fall.

In macOS Catalina, Apple is sunsetting the iTunes app and has split it into three apps instead: Music, Podcasts, and TV, which has left questions about what's happening to iTunes on other platforms.

Apple told Ars Technica that on Windows, there will be no changes. Those who use iTunes on a PC to manage their devices, listen to music, and make iTunes purchases will be able to continue to do so.

There were no details provided, however, on what's going to happen when the Music, Podcasts, and TV apps gain new features over time. Whether those features will also come to iTunes on Windows remains to be seen.

For now, though, Windows users will see no changes to iTunes on the Windows platform.

As for Mac users, installing Catalina removes iTunes and replaces it with Music and Podcasts (TV is coming this fall). Device management is still present in macOS Catalina, and you'll see an iPhone or an iPad plugged into your Mac listed as a device in the Finder sidebar.

Following the reveal of its much-anticipated Mac Pro redesign at WWDC 2019 on Monday, a handful of reporters met with Apple's marketing chief Phil Schiller and other executives to learn a bit more about the powerhouse machine.

Ina Fried of Axios has provided a few key takeaways from the conversation:

• Apple's vision for the new ‌Mac Pro‌'s design changed some and it took somewhat longer than it was anticipating.
  

• The circular cutouts on the front and back of the new ‌Mac Pro‌ are made by machining out spheres from the solid aluminum chassis. This particular aspect of the design was floating around in Apple's design labs before the new ‌Mac Pro‌ was even on its roadmap.
  

• For those who missed the news, Apple is planning a rack-mounted version of the ‌Mac Pro‌ with a different chassis appropriate for a data center. Apple says this version will be available in the fall.
  

• The new Pro Display XDR was "front and center" to Apple and is designed to rival so-called reference monitors that can cost over $10,000.

Other tidbits may surface from other reporters who attended this press briefing, in which case we'll update this post.

Earlier this month, it was reported that 3D Touch will not be supported by 2019 iPhones. This rumor was surfaced by a team of Barclays analysts after they traveled to Asia and spoke with multiple Apple suppliers, likely meaning that there is evidence of 3D Touch being removed at the hardware level.

Now, on the software side, there are changes that suggest the rumor is accurate. It really looks like pressure-sensitive ‌3D Touch‌ is going away.

Apple has confirmed that both "Quick Actions" menus that float above app icons on the home screen and "Peek" previews of emails, links, messages, and more are now supported on any iPhone or iPad that can run iOS 13 or iPadOS. These features were previously exclusive to iPhones with ‌3D Touch‌.

Both features rely on a long press, aka pressing and holding, meaning this is effectively an expansion of the Haptic Touch functionality that debuted on the iPhone XR last year. Haptic Touch is simply a marketing term for a long press combined with haptic feedback from the Taptic Engine.

Notably, this means Quick Actions menus and Peek previews are now supported on the ‌iPhone‌ XR and the iPad Air 2 or newer for the first time ever.

The ability to invoke Quick Actions menus and Peek previews with a long press in iOS 13 is even supported on iPhones with ‌3D Touch‌, including the ‌iPhone‌ XS models, likely foreshadowing the removal of ‌3D Touch‌ from 2019 iPhones.

‌3D Touch‌ can still be used in iOS 13 on iPhones that support the feature, resulting in two ways to invoke Quick Actions menus. This includes the ‌iPhone‌ 6s through ‌iPhone‌ XS Max, excluding the iPhone SE. However, some users are unable to access ‌3D Touch‌ settings in the first iOS 13 beta, which is likely a bug.

The transition from ‌3D Touch‌ to ‌Haptic Touch‌ for Peek previews was hinted at a few weeks ago. As noted by developer Radek Pietruszewski, open source WebKit commits revealed that the APIs for the feature, previously known as Peek and Pop, would be deprecated in a future iOS version.

All in all, there is a strong possibility that 2019 iPhones will feature ‌Haptic Touch‌ instead of ‌3D Touch‌ when they are released later this year.

(Screenshots: RayFirefist, BitVoiceFM)