MacRumors

Apple announced macOS Monterey this week, and one small but convenient feature that went unmentioned during the WWDC keynote is automatic window resizing.

As explained on the macOS Monterey features page, windows now automatically resize when they are moved from a Mac's built-in display to a secondary display, including an external monitor, another Mac, or an iPad using Sidecar.

This feature should prove to be particularly useful when moving windows between a smaller MacBook display and a larger external monitor.

Another new window management feature in macOS Monterey is the option to display the menu bar at all times when an app is in full-screen mode, making it easy to view an app's various menus and other glanceable information at any time.

macOS Monterey is available now in beta for developers, with a public release likely to occur at some point between September and November.

In iOS 15 and macOS Monterey betas, Apple has quietly included a new audio feature called "Spatialize Stereo" that takes any non-Dolby stereo mix and creates a virtual spatial audio environment out of it.

The addition was first discovered by a Reddit user, who had this to say about it:

I assumed that if they ever did this it would warrant at the very least a mention in a Keynote, but unless I completely missed it today I don't think they said anything about it!

The greatest thing about this is that it supports EVERY audio track. Sure I'd pick Atmos Spatial Audio mixes over Spatialized Stereo every time, but for the moment there are only a dozen or so options for Atmos available on Apple Music, so this is such an amazing feature to have!

It's worth reiterating that Spatialize Stereo is different from Spatial Audio, which Apple brought to Apple Music subscribers earlier this week. Spatial Audio with support for Dolby Atmos creates a three-dimensional experience by moving sound all around you.

Spatialize Stereo meanwhile appears to be Apple's attempt to simulate the effect of having sound coming at you from different directions in a virtual environment. It doesn't utilize Dolby Atmos, but on the other hand it works with basically any content, although you do need AirPods Pro or AirPods Max headphones to access it. Here's how it works in the latest iOS 15 beta:

1. Connect your ‌AirPods Pro‌ or ‌AirPods Max‌ to your iPhone or iPad.
2. Play some non-Dolby audio content on your iOS device.
3. Bring up the Control Center.
4. Long press on the volume slider.
5. Tap the Spatialize Stereo button to enable it.

The same option can be found in macOS Monterey in the Control Center's Sound pane. In terms of sound quality, your mileage may vary, but it at least allows users to enjoy some of the benefits of spatialized sound on anything they listen to, and not just content that officially supports Spatial Audio. If you've been able to compare the two different modes, let us know what you think in the comments.

Apple this week released the first iOS 15 beta to developers, and away from the brouhaha surrounding its many tentpole features, many notable tweaks and improvements are continuing to be uncovered. Here, we've pulled out a few that we think are worth highlighting.

Bear in mind that Apple hasn't mentioned all of these changes in its iOS 15 marketing, and there's no guarantee that they'll make the final cut when iOS 15 is released to the public in the fall.

Original Wheel Picker Returns

In iOS 14, Apple removed the original large wheel-style dial picker used for selecting times, and replaced it with a smaller dial picker that's sort of hidden behind a boxed number input field. This new design was supposed to unify the two selection modes, but it also made it somewhat slower to wheel through numbers.

Happily, iOS 15 sees the return of the larger dial picker, but with a neater, more modern design. You can also tap the wheel to input digits with the number pad, so it basically retains the added functionality of the less-coveted version seen in iOS 14.

Custom Text Size Per App

In iOS 14, you can add a button to the Control Center that allows you to change the text size on the screen on the fly. Any change that you make is reflected systemwide regardless of your preference, but in iOS 15 that's no longer the case.

Bring up the Text Size selector in Control Center, and you'll see new options to apply the text size adjustment to the system, or just the app that's currently open. iOS 15 will also remember your selection, so you can exit out of the app to do something else and then return to it with your chosen text size for that particular app intact.

Text Selection Magnifier Returns

After its removal in iOS 13, Apple has reintroduced a new version of the magnifying glass for text selection. The new magnifier is a little smaller than the original one, but the fact that it has reappeared is likely to be welcomed.

From a user perspective, removing the loupe felt like an odd decision on Apple's part, as it makes it harder to see where the cursor is situated under your finger. Fortunately, this tweak is likely to stay, since Apple lists it as a feature on its iOS 15 page.

Drag Apps From Spotlight to Home Screen

In iOS 14, the functionality of app icons that appear in Siri Suggestions and Spotlight search results is limited to opening the app. In iOS 15, however, it's possible to drag an app from Spotlight and place it right onto the Home Screen, which means you no longer need to continually drag app icons between ‌Home Screen‌ pages to rearrange them.

You can also now directly delete apps from within Spotlight via a long-press Quick Action that wasn't available in previous versions of iOS, meaning you can make short work of any apps that have lain forgotten in your App Library.

HBO Max has updated its Apple TV app to fix problems with its video playback interface that came to the fore last week following its introduction of a custom video player.

The new update reinstates the native tvOS video player UI, which means users should no longer face the issues with fast-forwarding and rewinding video that the custom player was seemingly responsible for.

"We just released an update to our ‌Apple TV‌ app, restoring the native tvOS video playback experience you know and love, with more improvements to come," HBO Max announced in a tweet. "Ensuring HBO Max viewers have a quality experience is our top priority and we missed the mark here. Thank you for your patience."

As pointed out by The Verge, some users on the HBO Max subreddit are still reporting some other issues to do with subtitles and thumbnail previews after updating, but the general consensus is that reverting to the native video player interface has made the app a lot more responsive to ‌Apple TV‌ Siri Remote inputs.

A shortage of mini-LED components has reportedly been the cause of delays to the production of the redesigned 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pros, according to a published report today by DigiTimes.

Yesterday, ‌DigiTimes‌ provided a snippet of today's reporting outlining that shipments of the redesigned Apple silicon MacBook Pros are forecasted to begin in the third quarter of the year. According to the full report published today, Apple had planned to produce these new MacBook Pros in the second quarter of 2021, but a shortage of mini-LED display components forced it to push it into the next quarter.

The sources revealed that Apple originally planned to mass-produce the two notebooks in the second quarter, but has pushed the schedule back due to the weaker-than-expected yield rates for miniLED modules.

Apple on Monday held its annual Worldwide Developers Conference keynote, and despite some rumors suggesting the new MacBook Pros could be announced, no hardware at all debuted during the event. Reliable Bloomberg journalist Mark Gurman continues to report that these new MacBook Pros could launch as soon as early this summer.

The redesigned MacBook Pros are expected to come in 14-inch and 16-inch sizes and will feature an Apple silicon chip with improved performance and energy efficiency over the M1, announced this past November. They'll also feature updated designs, including removing the Touch Bar, more squared-off edges, and a mini-LED display which recently launched in the ‌M1‌ 12.9-inch iPad Pro.

Apple on Monday previewed iOS 15 as the next major update to iOS, and already, despite the new software being in the hands of developers for just a few days, a plethora of hidden features continue to be discovered. One new hidden tweak is a change in behavior in the App Store, where now screenshots for already installed apps are hidden in ‌App Store‌ search results.

The new change, spotted on Twitter, will make it easier for users to discover new or currently uninstalled apps on their device. Previously, all apps would display their screenshots inline within the ‌App Store‌ search page. On iOS 15, that's been changed only to show the app name, icon, and "Open" button for installed apps. As a result, apps that were previously only seen by scrolling are now visible right away due to the new compact format.

iOS 15 includes several noteworthy features, including completely redesigned notifications, a new Focus mode, improvements to Maps, significant new FaceTime features, and more. Learn more about everything new in iOS 15 using our guide.

Major camera upgrades coming to the iPhone 13 series are putting increased pressure on suppliers to meet Apple's demand for key lens components, according to a new DigiTimes report.

Apple has reportedly put Taiwan-based makers of voice coil motor (VCM) components on notice to increase their capacity by 30-40% in order to meet the company's demand, which is expected to outstrip the entire Android market this year.

The sources pointed out that the next-generation iPhones are expected to have upgrades in camera modules and 3D sensors for Face ID, resulting in increasing use of VCMs, said the sources adding that Apple has also asked related component suppliers to increase their capacities by 30-40% in order to meet its demand.

Apple's order pull-ins for VCMs are expected to turn strong as soon as this month and begin surging in July. Meanwhile, the reduced demand from Android makers for VCMs is partly due to the impact of Huawei's US-imposed sanctions. That said, successive ‌iPhone‌ models have required more and more VCM components, which are involved in camera lens focus functions, because Apple keeps increasing the number and quality of lenses in its camera modules.

This year, Apple is expected to make several notable camera improvements in the ‌iPhone‌ 13. The new "Pro" models are likely to feature an upgraded Ultra Wide camera lens with a wider f/1.8 aperture and a six-element lens, with some rumors suggesting that the Ultra Wide upgrade could come to all four iPhone 13 models.

Sensor-shift stabilization is expected to be expanded across the entire iPhone lineup, introducing improvements in low light performance and stabilization by reducing camera shake, with the feature rumored to be available for the Wide lens and the Ultra Wide lens of the Pro models. One rumor claims the new ‌iPhone‌ models will also be able to take Portrait Mode videos.

In addition, there are also claims that the ‌iPhone‌ 13 models will have astrophotography camera capabilities for capturing the sky. This could involve a special mode that activates when the ‌iPhone‌ is pointed at the sky, allowing the device to detect the moon, stars, and other artifacts and adjust exposure.

If the rumors are accurate, all of these improvements are likely to require a slightly larger camera bump, although individual lenses may protrude less from the device's body, according to one source.

Apple's ‌iPhone‌ 13 lineup will be unveiled in the fall of 2021, with the company likely aiming to return to its traditional September launch timeline.

Apple's new iOS 15, iPadOS 15, and macOS Monterey software updates unveiled this week introduce the ability to capture and save the last 15 seconds of gameplay at any time by long pressing a designated button on a supported game controller.

Instead of having to remember to start and stop a screen recording while playing a game, this optional new feature allows iPhone, iPad, and Mac users to capture 15-second highlight videos by simply long pressing the Share (or Create) button on a supported game controller, such as the Xbox Series X/S controller or the PS5 DualSense controller.

Apple describes the feature as "an awesome way to let gamers capture a great boss battle, an amazing combo move, or an epic fail."

This is just one of many small but useful new features added in Apple's latest software updates. iOS 15, iPadOS 15, and macOS Monterey are available now in beta for developers and will be publicly released in the fall.

Apple's watchOS 8 updates often come with new watch faces, but this year, Apple only announced a single watch face for Portrait Mode photos. There may be another in the works, however, as an unreleased "World Timer" watch face was spotted in a UIKit developer session.

There were no details provided on this watch face, and it was accidentally pictured in a slide with multiple other iPhone screenshots.

The analog watch face has a world map with a 24-hour clock that has the names of major cities around it, allowing users to determine the current time in different worldwide time zones.

Design wise, the World Timer watch face is similar to some high-end watches that offer multiple time zone functionality, and it's also somewhat similar to the GMT watch face that lets you track two time zones.

The World Timer watch face is not in watchOS 8 at the current time, so unless it was scrapped, it's something that Apple could be planning to add in a later beta update.

Apple yesterday unveiled iOS 15, the newest version of the iOS operating system that runs on the iPhone (and the iPad with iPadOS 15). iOS 15 is a significant update that introduces many important new features, and we thought we'd give MacRumors readers a first look at the new software.

Not everything that was announced yesterday is functional right now, with Apple planning to roll out and refine features over the beta testing period, but there are quite a few changes that you can see right now after installing iOS 15.

There are major updates to FaceTime and Messages with a new SharePlay feature for listening to music and watching videos with friends, plus a new Focus mode that lets you focus on the task at hand whether that's work, personal time, or something else.

Maps has been overhauled with an updated design and more detail in select cities, plus it supports AR walking directions for the first time. Safari supports Tab Groups for improved organization, and later this year, you'll be able to add your ID card to the Wallet app in some U.S. states. Photos can now read written text and translate it to typed text, and the app can also identify landmarks, plants, pets, and more.

Make sure to watch the video up above to see iOS 15 in action, and for a more complete look at everything that's new in iOS 15, we have a dedicated roundup that walks through all of the new features.

The keynote event for Apple's digital Worldwide Developers Conference was yesterday, but WWDC spans an entire week and features all kinds of labs and engineering sessions for developers.

Apple offers dozens of different sessions available in the Apple Developer app or the Apple Developer website, so Apple is providing short daily recaps with the most important highlights.

The day two video focuses on developer tools like analyzing and classifying sounds, ShazamKit, the Screen Time API, Accessibility, StoreKit, Nearby Interactions for third-party accessories, tvOS Face ID sign on, and more.

Apple yesterday shared a summary video focused on the keynote announcements, highlighting new features in iOS 15, iPadOS 15, macOS Monterey, and watchOS 8.

Apple plans to continue releasing these quick recap videos for each day of WWDC to cover the highlights, so we'll update this article throughout the week.

Update: Day three of the daily recap focuses on developer sessions covering augmented reality, Shortcuts, user interfaces, button systems, Apple Watch accessibility features, and more.

Update 2: The day four WWDC recap highlighted the Apple Design Awards, the importance of privacy, using the Vision framework, designing for spatial interaction, and more.

Apple has rolled out a new spatial audio feature for Apple Music subscribers that uses Dolby Atmos to create a richer, more immersive soundstage when listening to songs in the Apple Music catalog.

With Spatial Audio and Dolby Atmos enabled, the subjective experience is that musical notes are coming from all around you. The steps below show you how to control the new audio feature on any iOS device with an Apple Music subscription.

1. Launch the Settings app on your iPhone or iPad.
2. Tap Music.
3. Under "Audio," tap Dolby Atmos.
4. Select from Automatic, Always On, and Off.

Now that you've enabled Dolby Atmos, you'll be able to enjoy a more immersive audio experience. Apple Music will play Dolby Atmos tracks on all AirPods and Beats headphones with an H1 or W1 chip, as will the built-in speakers of the newest iPhones, iPads, and Macs. Just make sure that you have Spatial Audio enabled on capable headphones.

You can check which tracks in Apple Music support the audio effect by looking for the logo in the app interface. Apple plans to add new Dolby Atmos tracks on a regular basis, and will offer up a curated selection of Dolby Atmos playlists. At launch, there are thousands of Dolby Atmos-enabled songs that are available to listen to.

As part of WWDC this week, Apple has released a draft specification of its Nearby Interaction Accessory Protocol, allowing third-party accessory manufacturers to review preliminary hardware and software requirements for developing accessories that interact with the U1 chip in supported Apple devices, like iPhone 11 and iPhone 12 models.

Third-party accessories that are designed to be interoperable with the U1 chip will be able to provide precise and directionally-aware experiences, just like Apple accessories can. For example, users can bring a U1-equipped iPhone close to a HomePod mini to hand off music playback, complete with visual, audible, and haptic effects, or access a Precision Finding feature when an AirTag is near a U1-equipped iPhone.

NXP Semiconductors and Qorvo are now offering development kits for designing third-party accessories that are interoperable with the U1 chip. However, it's unclear when the first U1-enabled third-party accessories will be released.

Apple first opened up the U1 chip to app developers with the release of the Nearby Interaction framework at WWDC 2020, allowing for precise, directionally aware app experiences, and now it is expanding this Ultra Wideband integration to hardware accessories. Apple has a WWDC 2021 session on the topic with more details.

Apple is planning to bring the new Spatial Audio with Dolby Atmos feature to Android devices in the near future, according to a brief mention on the Spatial Audio intro page available in the Apple Music app.

All Apple Music subscribers using the latest version of Apple Music on iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Apple TV can listen to thousands of Dolby Atmos Music tracks using any headphones. When listening with compatible Apple or Beats headphones, Dolby Atmos Music will play back automatically when available for a song. For other headphones, go to Settings > Music > Audio and set the Dolby Atmos switch to "Always On. " You can also hear Dolby Atmos Music using the built- in speakers on compatible iPhones, iPads, and MacBook Pros, or by connecting your Apple TV 4K to a compatible TV or AV receiver. Android is coming soon.

Since debuting ‌Apple Music‌ Spatial Audio, Apple has only mentioned availability on Apple devices and did not previously make it clear that the feature will also be available to Android users. TechCrunch first noticed the mention earlier today following the late night launch of the feature yesterday.

Apple did not provide word on which Android devices might be compatible, but a wide range of Apple devices can access the feature including the iPhone 7 and later, all iPad Pro models, the 6th-generation iPad or later, the iPad Air 3 and later, the fifth-generation iPad mini and later, the 2018 or later MacBook Pro/MacBook Air, and the 2020 or later iMac.

With iOS 15, Apple is introducing a new Digital Legacy program that designates people as Legacy Contacts to let them access your Apple ID account and personal information in the event of your death.

This feature does not appear to be live at the current time, but based on Apple's description, it will give your friends or family members access to your photos and other important data after your death. This is an important new addition to iOS because right now, if someone passes away with a locked iPhone, iPad, or Mac, it's difficult if not impossible to get access to the device, even with access to a death certificate.

Digital Legacy will let your loved ones manage your data to get access to key accounts and personal items like photos that would otherwise be lost.

Management of digital data after death is something that Apple has been lacking, and with so much data online, it's become an increasingly important topic. Social networks like Twitter and Facebook have tools for setting legacy contacts that can archive an account, and Google maintains an Inactive Account Manager that releases control of an account to a designated person after a set period of time.

Alongside the Digital Legacy program, Apple is also letting users set Account Recovery Contacts. People set as an Account Recovery Contact will be able to help you regain access to your ‌Apple ID‌ should you forget your password.

Both of these features will be available when iOS 15 launches this fall.

New Intel chips appropriate for a refreshed Mac Pro have been spotted in the Xcode 13 beta, and Bloomberg's Mark Gurman has confirmed that Apple is indeed preparing an updated version of the Intel-based ‌Mac Pro‌.

The chip data added to the beta is for Intel's third-generation Xeon Scalable processor, Ice Lake SP, which Intel announced back in April. According to Intel, the chip offers "advanced performance, security, efficiency, and built-in AI acceleration to handle IoT workloads and more powerful AI."

Bloomberg in January said that Apple is developing two versions of the new ‌Mac Pro‌, one that's a direct successor to the 2019 ‌Mac Pro‌ and one that offers a smaller form factor that's about half the size.

Apple is working to transition its entire Mac lineup to Apple silicon, and the smaller ‌Mac Pro‌ will feature Apple silicon chips, but it appears Apple is planning to keep at least one Intel ‌Mac Pro‌ available for the time being.

Some of the high-end Apple silicon chips that Apple is developing feature 20 or 40 computing cores with 64 or 128 core GPUs, but it is not clear if the earliest versions of ‌Mac Pro‌ chips will be able to compete with Intel's Xeon processors for heavy duty professional workloads.

This Intel-based ‌Mac Pro‌ may be one of the last Intel machines as Apple has already started transitioning the iMac, MacBook Pro, Mac mini, and MacBook Air lines to Apple silicon. Apple this year plans to release 14 and 16-inch ‌MacBook Pro‌ models with higher-end "M2" Apple silicon chips, and there's also a larger Apple silicon ‌iMac‌ in development.

To help new iPhone owners transition from an Android device, Apple uses the "Move to iOS" Android app for transferring content like contacts, message history, photos and videos, web bookmarks, mail account information, calendars, DRM-free songs, wallpapers, and more.

This app has been around since 2015, but with the release of iOS 15, Apple is improving the Move to iOS experience.

With iOS 15, Apple will also allow Android users to transfer photo albums, files, folders, and Accessibility settings from their Android devices to their iPhones to allow for a more personalized ‌iPhone‌ usage experience right from the start.

Apple is also making it easier to get the Move to iOS app by implementing a QR code that Android users can scan to be taken to the download link in the Google Play Store.

The new transfer options will be available when setting up a new device running iOS 15 from an Android phone, so the transfer process likely won't be available in full until iOS 15 launches to the public this fall. Apple may also need to release a new version of the Move to iOS app, which is not out as of yet.