With iOS 15, Apple wants to help you stay in the zone, be that at work or while relaxing. It does the same with iPadOS 15, with a few added productivity perks.
Apple Focus on iOS 15 and iPadOS 15 (Image: Apple) Apple today unleashed the next versions of its iOS and iPadOS mobile operating systems to developers, and both operating systems have an eye on productivity. With iOS 15, Apple wants to help you stay in the zone, be that a work or relaxation mindset. Focus features make notifications less obtrusive, while sharing options allow for more collboration between friends. That includes video chats between platforms; FaceTime is coming to Android and Windows —on the web, anyway. With iPadOS 15, Apple continues its quest to make the iPad Pro as useful as a laptop. The much-maligned Split View and Slide Over multi-tasking features get a makeover in a bid to make it easier to view two apps at once on the screen and switch between them. Both OSes will be released to developers today, a public beta is scheduled for July, and the rest of us will get our hands on them in the fall. Here’s what to expect when they arrive. iOS 15: FaceTime Gets an Audio Boost Portrait mode on FaceTime (Image: Apple) This past year has made many of us video chat experts, but we’ve all had a few audio pitfalls, from loud garbage trucks on the street to barking dogs. With iOS 15, FaceTime adds new microphone modes that separate the voice of the person you’re talking to from anyone background noise. For group calls, meanwhile, spatial audio will have sound come from the direction the person is placed on the screen. A grid view also lets people see more faces at once, while Portrait mode for FaceTime will blur your background.
