Apple is busy selling new iPhones and is about to unveil refreshed iPads, but that doesn't mean that the next major version of iPhone and iPad mobile operating system, iOS 13, is not being worked on as we speak. In fact, Bloomberg broke in the summer that iOS 13 would bring an overhauled Home screen, tabs in all apps, multitasking enhancements and other perks.
With Apple's high-end iPhone 8 rumored to feature a notch in the middle of the iOS status bar at the top of its seamless screen, Max Rudberg has come up with some thought-provoking mockups that highlight how the Cupertino firm could own that pesky break in the OLED display.
His mockups are also full of smart ideas regarding potential changes to the iOS user interface on iPhone 8 that would afford a much more convenient bottom-oriented navigation.
Apple is going to preview iOS 11 along with other OS updates at its annual developers conference next month and we fully expect the mobile operating system to include advances that should make the Apple tablet a better laptop replacement than it currently is.
In the meantime, Federico Viticci and Sam Beckett of MacStories have put together an incredibly detailed concept of iPad-specific features that could be part of iOS 11, including the Finder, a new Shelf feature, drag-and-drop available system-wide and other perks.
With the Shelf feature, you would be able to clip pretty much anything with a simple drag-and-drop gesture. Sitting above apps both in full-screen or Split View mode, it would reveal itself automatically when you're dragging an item towards the top of the screen.
The Shelf would display your previously saved items as thumbnail previews and you'd be able to drop an item on top of another item to create a folder in the Shelf.
“The idea behind the Shelf is to make it as effortless as possible to hold something for later without the cognitive load of deciding which app or extension should receive it right away.”
The Shelf would be paginated and local to each iPad.
You'd be permitted to drop almost anything in it: from text selections and images to phone numbers and even songs. Tapping an item in the Shelf would pull up a custom Quick Look preview with additional information and actions relevant to the selected item.
And here's the concept video.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UyFUDQ5LLZw
Next up: file management.
As you know, Apple currently offers the iCloud Drive app for browsing your iCloud files.
MacStories has envisioned a Finder for iOS because the argument that iPad doesn't need to expose its filesystem to the user “lost its validity when Apple introduced document providers in iOS 8 and the iCloud Drive app in iOS 9.”
Unlike Finder for macOS, its iOS counterpart would not expose system information beyond the actual files. You'd be able to browse your files in column and grid views, shared items via iCloud with full permission controls, apply tags, use the Versions feature and even take advantage of Siri integration to search across your files.
“All the pieces of the current system—iCloud Drive, the document picker and document providers—should be unified into a single Finder app and system-wide layer available everywhere,” said MacStories.
Instead of having files stored within app-specific folders on iCloud Drive, users would be able to create files in a top-level iCloud Drive view.
As a bonus, rather than list a bunch of installed document provider extensions in a popup, you'd get a full-blown Finder dialog to open files from any folder or app.
MacStories notes:
With a new set of APIs and user permissions, iOS 11 could allow apps to more easily open each other's documents in complex (but intuitive) workflows that aren't possible today.
And, obviously, automation could play a role in this down the road, opening the door to ideas such as folder-monitoring utilities and file automation either via Workflow or Hazel-like apps.
Finder for iOS would integrate with other features that MacStories has envisioned, such as the Shelf and system-wide drag-and-drop, but without the complexity of macOS.
But wouldn't drag-and-drop clash with iOS's standard gestures?
In a word, no. As MacStories explains:
Because drag-and-drop would be fully multitouch-enabled, it wouldn't block the iOS interface: another finger could be used to navigate in a different "drop area" of an app, or a user could keep dragging until the Split View app picker is shown and drop an item onto an app's icon, opening a contextual action menu.
App Store could be redesigned around Apple Music-inspired redesign, as show below.
Apple could even bring aspects of the watchOS interface to iOS and move beyond the static, inexpressive nature of its interface. “Touch-down states for icons and buttons would add useful context to iOS toolbar icons and menus as well,” reads the article.
A better Split View implementation is one of my favorite concepts proposed by MacStories for iOS 11. In addition to supporting drag-and-drop between the apps in Split View mode, you'd gain the ability to quickly select an app for Split View by choosing it from a Home screen like view complete with Spotlight integration for surfacing Split View-enabled apps.
Be sure to visit the MacStories concept for additional high-resolution mockups and detailed descriptions of other proposed enhancements, such as improvements to Notes and Control Center, better extension support in Safari and more.
Feel free to let us know your thoughts on this concept by posting a comment below.
Various iPhone 8 and iOS 11 concepts have been proliferating lately, with app developer Matt Birchler jumping on the bandwagon with mockups of his own. We're liking some of the smart ideas presented in his batch of thoughtfully done renderings that envision a much more useful Lock screen on iOS 11.
Going beyond simple things like checking the date and time, launching the camera, accessing your favorite widgets and seeing notifications that have arrived since your last unlock, Birchler is proposing a Lock screen with Apple Watch-like complications, user-selectable app shortcuts, alert bundles, smart notifications that could be augmented further with optional location information and so forth.
Following a concept video from Polish blog My Apple imagining what a system-wide Dark Mode in iOS 11 (along with a few other sought-after rumored features) might look like, user interface designer Vianney le Masne has taken it upon himself to put together some great-looking mockups depicting how iPhone 8's rumored OLED screen and the handset's bezel-less design could be leveraged to implement Dark Mode across iOS and in apps.
“With Dark Mode in iOS for the next iPhone, 2017 could be all about killing the four sides of your screen and making it all about your thumb,” said le Masne.
Unused resources for a dark theme in apps like Messages and Settings were discovered previously in iOS 10 code, fueling speculation that Apple could be laying the groundwork for a full Dark Mode in iOS 11 to coincide with an upcoming iPhone 8 release. A dark interface should help iPhone 8 conserve power because the organic light-emitting diode (OLED) display technology illuminates the individual pixels and doesn't require a power-hungry backlight.
Polish blog My Apple has put together a stunning video concept that attempts to imagine what a system-wide Dark Mode and some other sought-after rumored features of iOS 11 might look like.
KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, along with other analysts, told clients that iPhone 8 would most likely feature a 5.8-inch OLED screen with an active display area of 5.1 inches.
It's now becoming clear that Apple's upcoming handset will probably adopt an almost bezel-less full-screen front face design by ditching the physical Home and Touch ID button.
Its function would be supplanted by a set of dynamic virtual controls sitting in a new “function area” at the bottom of the display. That, in turn, would allow for a range of time-saving shortcuts without degrading the experience, as evidenced in a batch of nicely done renderings created by a MacRumors Forum member “deuxani”.
I've been a huge fan of OS X's dark theme which debuted with the release of OS X Yosemite back in October 2014. I also like to multitask on my iPad using OS 9's new Split View and Slide Over modes because they definitely increase productivity for me. But how cool would it be if Apple brought Split View to the iPhone 7 and OS X's dark mode to iOS 10?
A detailed conceptual renderings, created by Brazilian magazine iHelpBR imagine precisely this future playing out.
MacStories founder and editor Federico Viticci has joined forces with user interface designer Sam Beckett on giving us their take on some of the features that Apple may or may not implement in iOS 10, the next major revision of the mobile operating system powering the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch.
The stunning renderings and an accompanying video imagine many features that Apple fans have been craving for, such as a brand new dark mode for iOS 10, an updated Control Center which lets you move around and customize the icons, an official Siri app for implementing voice-activated features in third-party apps and more.
How will Apple improve upon Control Center in the next major iteration of iOS? Sam Beckett has attempted to imagine tight 3D Touch integration for Control Center in iOS 10, and his concept video does a very fine job at that. It shows off some ideas that Apple could take advantage of in order to allow for greater customization of hardware toggles and app shortcuts in Control Center.
A user could press on toggles to enter the edit mode to rearrange the icons, turn off the toggles they use rarely, add new switches for things such as Low Power Mode and Cellular Data and so forth. In addition, Control Center could benefit from 3D Touch by allowing users to quickly access additional options from the contextual menu for a specific toggle.
Ahead of Apple's big unveiling tomorrow, 3D artist Martin Hajek has posted a batch of sexy concept renderings which imagine Apple's rumored iPhone 6c and a next-generation Apple TV with iPhone 6 and Apple Watch design cues plus iOS 9-powered UI.
Contrary to the rumors, Apple won't be unveiling the iPhone 6c tomorrow after all though some tipsters claim the device is coming in time for Thanksgiving.
I'm very displeased and unhappy (and I'm putting it mildly) that innovation in the iOS Contacts department has stalled out.
Argue as much as you want, but there's no denying that integration of contacts in Apple's mobile software is a convoluted mess, one that lacks consistency and completely eschews any reasonable expectations of a unified communications solution.
Product designer Frank Costa felt the same way so he went about creating a smart concept that tries to reimagine the address book experience on iOS, by envisioning an Invisible Address Book of sorts.
The ideas he proposes are quite intriguing. His Medium post, for example, describes profile pictures of frequently accessed contacts right in Spotlight for effortless one-tap interactions. From there, a list of apps that use your address book would be one swipe away, along with a handy log of your interactions with a friend.