FaceTime for Apple TV is long overdue and will be very welcomed. As someone with two children who often FaceTime grandparents and aunts/uncles, it’ll be supremely nice to be able to toss an old iPhone atop the TV and FaceTime w/o worrying about holding a device in hand.
The ability to make Webb apps from any website in Safari will be fantastic. Too many native apps lack feature parity with their web versions (or are far behind), particularly enterprise-grade services used for work.
Standby mode for iPhone is also long overdue. I was never sure why Apple didn’t drop this when its AOD was introduced. Seemed like a no-brainer, given the Apple Watch had/has a similar mode.
Live Voicemail and FaceTime Messages are going to be a favorite of mine. I’m a slightly anxious and introverted-ass human who doesn’t like talking on the phone or picking up unless I absolutely have to. Let me see what someone wants before I pick up the phone.
Autofill passwords from mail. Auto-fill from messages is already one of the greatest features of macOS/iPhOS/iPadOS. Seeing it come to Mail just improves upon it.
Check-in is going to be great for those times when we’re leaving family’s house and traveling back home. I always tell them I’ll text them when we get home, but I always forget to do so. I have set up geofence reminders in the past, but this is more elegant.
AirDrop improvements are nice. AirDrop is one of my favorite Apple ecosystem features and the new tap-to-drop feature will be a nice improvement, particularly when sharing photos and videos of the kids with family.
I’m more of a paper journaler, but I’m inconsistent and don’t always take the time to document my days (quite frequently, unfortunately). My hope is the Journal app will be able to let me at least get down a few key notes of each day alongside any photos and other data to refresh my mind should I want to come back and document a particular day.
Safari Profiles look nice. Curious to see how they feel when using them on a regular basis. Seems like Apple is taking a little nod from Arc Browser on this one.
Love the iPad Lockscreen upgrades as well. I would’ve liked to see Apple introduce a proper media center-like mode to turn old iPads into Home Hubs of sorts like many Android Smart Displays, but I guess we’ll have to wait for that.
Interactive widgets will be a nice addition as well. As always, the usefulness of these will likely come down quite a bit to developer creativity. I have no doubt many will create impressive little widgets. And I’m sure many more will make apps that are designed to almost be invisible, designed only to be used in the form of a widget.
Bringing proper Preview-like PDF support and editing to iPad is so long overdue it’s not even worth praising. This should’ve happened the day the Apple Pencil came out.
Apple says (supported) iPads will soon be able to ‘Use the built-in camera in your external display for FaceTime and conference calls.’ Apple doesn’t specify whether or not this is only for the Pro Display XDR and/or Studio Display, but that seems to be the case. I’d love to see Apple include third-party webcam support.
As for hardware, the 15" MacBook Air is a great addition to the lineup and will sell like hotcakes. Especially starting at $1199. Mac Studio and Mac Pro are both nice pieces of hardware but are so far out of anything I would need it’s not worth my commenting on them at all.
Apple Vision Pro is an intriguing proposition. I’ve used both the Nreal Air and Rokid glasses, and while neat, real-world use was less than impressive. These are far better made, but the value proposition seems to be more or less the same, which isn’t compelling.
Maybe new apps and better integrations could change that, but as it stands, I can’t imagine myself getting this first-gen version. At $2499, I might consider forgoing my next iPhone or iPad for it and shelling out. But at its MSRP? Not happening, barring a lottery win.
This list may or may not be updated in the future.