iOS 15 and Android 12: What is changing in the new generation of operating systems – link

With the pandemic receding in some places, a lot has changed in terms of the way we work and live. Some of us are now planning to go back to the offices, while others will continue to work from home. And many of us would do both.

The software on our mobile phones, which has been our most important tool in the pandemic, is also evolving into this new reality. Changes courtesy of an Apple e do The Google, who recently released their latest mobile software designed for this accelerated era of coronavirus and hybrid remote work.

last week , Apple introduced iOS 15, the company’s next operating system for the iPhone. The program gives owners of branded devices new tools to set restrictions on mixed work, such as a status message that lets others know you’re busy before sending a message.

FaceTime, Apple’s video conferencing software, will see its biggest change since it debuted more than a decade ago. The service will finally be available for non-Apple devices, Including android phonesand has been optimized to make video sessions look better.

Last month , Google released Android 12The latest operating system for mobile devices. The company has focused on updating its software design to help people do their jobs more efficiently, including a shortlist to access favorite tools faster.

For Carolina Milanesi, president and chief consumer technology analyst at Creative Strategies, the changes in iOS 15 and Android 12 — particularly in Apple’s tool for setting digital boundaries — reflect the way our lives and work are changing again as we try to leave the pandemic once again.

“That little notice saying people don’t want to be bothered is going to be very important,” he said. “Maybe you write a letter over the weekend, but don’t click ‘send’ until Monday morning, that way you don’t pressure others to work over the weekend. That relieves stress.”

Apple and Google showed me the highlights of the new operating systems, which also include new privacy controls and improvements for phones’ cameras. Both systems will be launched in the fall of the Northern Hemisphere.

Here is what you need to know.

Apple and Google want to be more productive

Stuck at home for most of the past year, many of us have been glued to our cell phone screens, video chatting and texting our loved ones while reading the news online. For some, this made it impossible to stay focused on a single task.

In response, Apple’s new program gives iPhone owners tools to reduce distractions, while Google has added buttons to help people get things done on their phones faster.

A new feature from Apple, called Focus, can be used to set dividing lines for different parts of your day. You can divide your day into categories such as personal life, work and sleep. For each of them, you have to decide which people and apps can appear as notifications on your phone.

Apple’s FaceTime app gets an update that makes it look similar to Zoom

Video conferencing has become a ubiquitous means of communication for office meetings, happy hours, and yoga sessions. Currently

Apple’s FaceTime app is undergoing an overhaul, with more features and the ability to work with non-Apple devices. These changes put it on a par with Zoom, the number one video conferencing app.

For the first time, with iOS 15, FaceTime can be accessed via an internet browser. This means that Android and Windows users can use their browsers to video chat with iPhone users in a FaceTime session by clicking a link.

But FaceTime’s most impressive new features remain exclusive to Apple customers. SharePlay will allow iPhone owners to use an app together during a FaceTime call. If you go to watch a movie and click the SharePlay button, the other person on the call can watch the movie at the same time. If an Android user is making a FaceTime call, the SharePlay function will not work at all.

Apple’s camera software is trying to catch up with Google

For years, Apple and Google have been competing head-to-head over a phone camera service to produce great photos. But Apple’s camera software has fallen behind Google’s, which is powered by artificial intelligence. In iOS 15, Apple is taking steps to make its camera software more diverse.

With Apple’s Live Text calling feature, iPhone owners will soon be able to do more with the camera option to double as a document scanner. If you take a picture of a restaurant receipt, for example, you can use Live Text to tap the phone number in the picture and call the restaurant. Or, if you point your camera at a tracking code, you can click the tracking number to instantly locate the package — without having to type anything.

Apple device owners will also be able to find this type of image later by searching for keywords. So if you take a picture of a handwritten recipe, you can open your photo album and type the name of the recipe into the image search field. At this point, you can also convert written notes from the handwritten recipe into text and transfer them to a digital notepad.

The technology behind this is known as optical image recognition, along with some artificial intelligence. The Android photo app has had a similar feature, Lens, for a few years now.

Google is trying to catch up with Apple in terms of privacyخصوص

Apple has made a strong impression in recent years with tools to protect user privacy, including a button that allows iPhone owners to request that apps not track their activities and share it with third parties, such as marketers.

Google, whose revenue primarily depends on serving digital ads, has not responded with a similar tool so that people can easily opt out of tracking. But Android 12 will give people more transparency about what data apps collect and will introduce new controls to restrict an app’s access to data.

The tool, which Google calls the Privacy Dashboard, displays a timeline of which apps have access to different parts of the phone throughout the day. This could show that a social networking app used the camera at 1 AM and the weather app used your location at 3 PM.

Google has also added some buttons like switches to disable the app’s access to the phone’s microphone and camera. This can come in handy in sensitive situations, such as when you go to the doctor and want to make sure the app isn’t listening to your conversation.

Apple also said this week that more privacy controls are coming for iPhones, including a so-called app privacy report that works similarly to Google’s privacy dashboard. In addition to revealing what data is being exploited by each app, a privacy report will show which domains or web addresses the apps connect to. This can provide information about the companies the app shares data with while you are using it. / ROMINA CACIA translation