9to5Mac Concepts

When Apple introduced iOS 14 last year, it unleashed a whole new rush of amazing widgets, both from third-party developers and Apple itself. Apple’s own apps and now its own widgets are supposed to serve as examples for other developers to be inspired by. But many of Apple’s stock apps don’t actually have widgets yet. Meanwhile, widgets are still static and can’t be made interactive. We’re hoping both of those things change in just under two weeks when Apple unveils iOS 15 at WWDC.

The original iPod is celebrating its 20th anniversary in 2021. As for now, the only iPod being sold by Apple is the seventh-generation touch model. With the company introducing Apple Music Lossless, an iPod with this focus could be a great way to celebrate this anniversary.

iOS 14 saw the introduction of Home Screen widgets on the iPhone, and that alone was expected to cause a tsunami of creative customization on the platform. But that was just the tip of the iceberg. Even though it’s been possible for a few years now, regular consumers discovered that they could create custom icons using the Shortcuts app. We saw an explosion of custom icon packs, widget designer apps, and tutorials on how to make your iPhone look a very specific way. If Apple wants to lean into customization, it could do it in a few ways that still allow it to keep control of the platform’s core design.

I can’t believe we’re almost there, but WWDC 2021 will start in less than one month. On June 7, we’ll finally get a first look at the next generations of Apple’s five core platforms: iOS, macOS, iPadOS, watchOS, and tvOS. Over the past several months, we’ve worked on a series of concepts for each of these operating systems. We’ve tried to carefully balance what we want to see in these updates with what’s reasonable realistic by Apple standards. While very few rumors have been floating around about these new releases, it’s even more fun to speculate what might be in store for us.

tvOS is missing a lot of tent pole features of the Apple ecosystem. It’s an excellent foundation, but it could use a lot of work. It often feels like tvOS gets left behind when Apple is working on its annual platform updates. It’s time for it to get a chance to shine.

Now that we’ve all spent time with AirTag, it’s time to start thinking about ways to make the product even better. There are several obvious ways to do this that many have noted over the past couple of days. AirTag is an incredibly powerful tool for tracking items, but lots of us would like to allow our friends and family to track important items or ask for their help in finding lost ones. Family sharing is just the tip of the iceberg.

Apple Podcasts is the AM to Apple Music’s FM. The two apps should be almost on par at all times, particularly now that the company is turning podcasts into an app that includes paid subscriptions. The app hasn’t always gotten the love it deserves, but that’s starting to change. There are lots of ways Apple could take the podcasts app to the next level as it enters into a new era. Here are some of my ideas…

After the original iMac took the world by storm with its gorgeous and unconventional colorful design, Apple decided to package an iMac-to-go and call it the iBook. It was indeed everything the iMac was, in a laptop form factor, and it was available in a range of equally fun vibrant colors. It became the de facto student notebook, the approachable and fun machine for the average user, and it went where other notebooks weren’t willing to go. With the launch of the completely reinvented M1 iMac, I think and certainly hope we’ll see a reinvention of the MacBook Air that acts very much like the iBook. It should be the newest iMac, only to go.

Designing for iPadOS is really difficult. I imagine there are countless battles among the Apple human interface team over what the right direction is for the platform. Apple set out on a path with iOS 11 and they’ve stuck to it since then, building on top of it every year. It’s become a house of cards that could come crumbling down with a single added idea. There are lots of folks who would like Apple to burn it all down and start over. I really can’t see Apple doing that. Imagining something seemingly as simple as adding widgets to the entire Home Screen is a monumental task, but it can totally be done.

As my colleague Zac Hall noted yesterday, the Apple home strategy is kind of a mess. It truly warrants a conversation around what the company wants to accomplish in customers’ homes. Because Apple TV and HomePod are both in weird states, it occurred to me that it might be valuable to imagine how the two product lines could come together. Enter HomePod TV…

With the discontinuation of the original HomePod on Friday, everyone is wondering what’s next for the HomePod family? Apple plans to now focus on the single $99 HomePod mini. It hits a sweet spot, being affordable and reasonably sized for any space. Apple might still have a larger- or medium-sized HomePod in the works, but I think the answer lies in portability and displays.

AirPods were introduced nearly 5 years ago and since then they’ve become a mainstay of Apple’s product family. They’re an essential tool that makes the Apple ecosystem infinitely better. But along the way, they’ve become less of an accessory and more of a flagship product, as evident from the top-of-the-line AirPods Max at $549. That’s no accessory. That’s a computer for your head that just so happens to talk to your other devices.

Apple makes great accessories, even for other accessories. Why doesn’t Apple make its own accessories for AirPods?

It’s been two years since Apple unveiled Apple TV+ for the first time in spring of 2019. It’s taken some time, but it seems as though the service has finally hit its stride with hits like “Ted Lasso” and “Dickinson.” Other shows have developed cult-like followings, such as “For All Mankind,” and major events like the new Billie Eilish documentary have been quite popular. It’s clear that fans are ready for Apple to make some official merchandise for their shows. One of the creators of “Ted Lasso” tweeted a few days ago that merch is indeed on the way. Here’s what that might look like.

As Apple adds more emoji with each subsequent iOS update, it’s getting harder and harder to sift through all them just to find the emoji you want to use. The “frequently used” emoji panel helps with this to some extent, but it is dynamic and only “remembers” so many. Typing descriptors to search for emoji can be tedious, and what if you don’t know the proper search terms to bring up the emoji you want? Or, if you are like me, you tend to frequently use just a select few emoji? The solution is the implementation of “favorite emoji.”

Apple has faced lots of criticism over the past few years because of the way its services get special treatment on iOS devices. They’ve also gotten lots of heat as of late over the way in which they allow customers to get sucked into service subscriptions.

Each year, Apple becomes more involved in the health and fitness industry. It’s become a major player with products like Apple Watch and AirPods and services like Fitness+ and Research. Currently, Apple has working out, mental health, women’s health, heart health, blood oxygen measurements, and even hearing covered. But they’re missing one very important component of the healthy life story, and that’s nutrition and cooking.

Over the next few months we’ll be sharing concepts of each major Apple platform. Last month, we shared our concept for watchOS 8, and today we’re sharing the next one, in this case for macOS. It includes all new apps, improved privacy controls, clearer notifications, and more. But before I dove into designing this macOS concept, I wanted to figure out what Apple might call this year’s release.

Earlier today, reports came out saying that Apple plans to include blood sugar measurements as a flagship feature of this year’s Apple Watch Series 7. Later this year, Apple Watch could gain the ability to measure an incredibly important health metric for millions of people. With blood sugar measurements, diabetics could use their watch to stay healthy without finger pricks. This, of course, is contingent on the watch measurements being accurate. Apple wouldn’t ship a feature like this if it wasn’t accurate though.

It’s no secret that the Apple TV Siri Remote is controversial. It’s a powerful remote that many believe is poorly designed. It’s not easy to use in the dark, and it has very few distinct buttons. Lots of folks turn to their iPhone or Apple Watch to use as an alternate remote. That’s in part because the user interface can change. So this had us wondering what a better stand-alone Apple TV remote could look like. Turns out, the solution was in front of us all along.

We’re about six months away from the unveiling of the next version of watchOS. We haven’t heard any rumors yet, so all of these ideas are based purely on conjecture. But at the end of the day, there are lots of ways that watchOS could be improved. From more detailed health data metrics to even more glanceable information, Apple has plenty of opportunities to make watchOS more powerful.

With iPadOS 13, Apple introduced the ability for apps to have multiple instances. In other words, you can have multiple Safari windows open or multiple notes, for example. It’s an incredibly useful feature and it turned the iPad into a much more powerful computer. We think it would turn the iPhone into a much more powerful phone, too.