Apple announced new features in its upcoming iOS 17 including adding SharePlay to CarPlay.
This lets other iPhone users in the car get a seamless CarPlay connection so they can share music. Any iPhone user in the car can get a connection to CarPlay to control and share music once the driver’s phone is connected.
Apple also announced a number of general iPhone iOS 17 updates.
A new call screening feature starts transcribing an incoming caller’s message in real time directly on your screen, so you can decide whether to take the call.
If you want to exchange phone numbers with another iPhone user, you can bring the phones close together to exchange numbers and selected information such as contacts and photos in a feature called NameDrop (pictured above).
Recently, Apple let users “lift” a subject from the background. Now users can create live stickers with these images that can be rotated and resized and applied to any bubble in a text conversation.
Apple has effectively turned the phone into a clock when it’s charging. The feature is called StandBy. When you turn the phone on its side while charging it reverts to a huge time display that can be seen at night. With a swipe you get info such as weather. It can also show timely data such as your next appointment. At night, it switches to red lighting so it won’t disturb sleep.
iPhones now get “Contact Posters,” large images that you create that appear on a recipient’s screen when you call.
A new Check In feature can be launched, say if you are about to go for a run, to let a friend know if you got home safely. The friend can see your route and battery level (in case you are not answering the phone due to dead battery).
In FaceTime you can record a video ‘voice mail’ if the recipient doesn’t answer.
Apple said it improved Autocorrect making it more accurate. If Apple corrects to the wrong word, you can tap on that word, and it reverts to the original. Users now get grayed in text predictions in the line of type.
There’s a new Journal app that cues you to add writing to your photos for an online diary that gets its own privacy lock (that Apple can’t see).
You can now just say “Siri,” instead of “Hey Siri,” and you can stack commands so you don’t have to repeat “Siri.”
Finally, the search feature in photos has been improved so it’s better at spotting your favorite people.
AirPods now get Adaptive Audio that automatically adjusts the the level of background noise to your surroundings.
Oh yeah, there were announcements on new MacBooks and a little announcement 🙂 about an AR headset called Apple Vision Pro. (Click the link for a quick video).
