Apple Inc, beset by falling iPhone sales, announced upcoming changes to its phone and computer software intended to highlight its increasing emphasis on digital services and to further position it as a fierce guardian of personal privacy.
The revisions previewed on Monday during a conference in San Jose, California, included a new feature that will let people log into apps and other services with an Apple ID instead of relying on similar sign-in options from Facebook and Google — two companies that mine data to sell advertising.
Apple said it will not collect tracking information about users from that service.
Photo: AFP
As part of that feature, Apple will also let users mask their true e-mail addresses when signing into apps and services. That will involve faux e-mail addresses that automatically forward to the user’s personal e-mail.
When the next version of the iPhone software comes out this fall, Apple is also promising to give people the option of limiting the time apps can follow their locations and prevent tracking through Bluetooth and Wi-Fi signals.
The revisions are part of Apple’s ongoing attempts to differentiate itself from other technology giants, many of whom offer free services in exchange for personal data such as whereabouts and personal interests, which in turn fuels the advertising that generates most of their revenue.
Apple, by contrast, makes virtually all its money selling devices and services, making it easier for CEO Tim Cook to embrace “privacy is a fundamental human right” as one of the company’s battle cries in an age of increasingly intrusive technology.
Monday’s software showcase is an annual rite that Apple holds for thousands of programmers at the end of spring. The company said the next version of its iPhone operating software, iOS 13, manages to offer both privacy features and an aesthetic “dark mode” for the screen — a feature already available on Macs.
Apple executives also claimed that iOS 13 will open apps faster and features a new version of the Face ID system will unlock phones 30 percent faster.
The software will also introduce more artificial intelligence to enable Apple’s digital assistant, Siri, to speak more like a human and, if so assigned, automatically tackle even more tasks, such as reading incoming messages out loud as Apple tries to catch up to the digital assistants made by Google and Amazon.
Apple Maps will get the biggest makeover of any of the company’s built-in apps.
Beginning with iOS 13 the maps will include granular street and place data that Apple says it collected with street and aerial footage — tactics that Google has been using for years.
Apple also unveiled several new apps for its smartwatch, including independent apps that do not rely on the iPhone, in another sign of the company’s determination to lessen its dependence on that product.
The iPad will also get its own operating system instead of piggybacking on the iPhone software as Apple tries to cater to consumers who would like the tablet to be able to do more of the things a laptop computer can do.
In its laptop and desktop businesses, Apple is breaking up its iTunes software for computers into three apps: Apple Music, Apple Podcasts and Apple TV.
However, iTunes will still be available on Macs using older versions of the operating system, as well on all machines running on Microsoft’s Windows.
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