by Just connect, as EM Forster said. Maybe he wasn’t thinking about the iPhone and the Mac, because they weren’t around then, but Apple seems to be adopting the mantra. Many of the latest features of both products come to life when they meet another Apple device – the new iMac may look the same on the outside, but it has new powers on the inside.
Apple executives Colleen Novielli of Mac Product Marketing and Stephen Tonna of Platform Product Marketing sat with them The Independent to talk about how the ability to combine different Apple products with the latest software has become even more useful.
Last month, an updated iMac arrived, with the same 24-inch display and seven different color options as its predecessor, but a much more powerful Apple processor at its heart. In addition came new software for the Mac, iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch, with features that help these disparate devices work as one.
Continuity is the umbrella term for ways you can share content, for example, between different widgets. If you have widgets – those certain types of apps that display additional information or have better interactivity than most app icons – on your iPhone or iPad, you can now have them on your Mac desktop too . Even, and this is the new element introduced with the latest software, called macOS Sonoma, if you don’t have those apps on your Mac.
Apple has built Continuity features for years, with AirDrop as an early example. It means you can easily transfer documents between devices. Stephen Tonna, who manages to be intense and almost relaxed at the same time, explains how he came to be.
“If you remember, when we first introduced AirDrop, it was because we were in that transition as an industry to go completely wireless and replace the USB drive. We have long since moved on. AirDrop is the easiest, fastest and easiest way to transfer content between devices and when you have an iPhone with a lot of photos and you want to share them quickly, it’s the best way to do.” AirDrop works wherever you are – no need to set up devices, pair, check you’re on the same network or any other faff. In fact, you don’t need to be anywhere near a WiFi network, because it creates its own connection.
Continuity works with other types of links too. “As long as you’re signed in with the same Apple ID, things start working. You can use your iPad and Apple Pencil to be creative on your iMac,” Tonna explains. That works because you can set up devices so that scribbling on your iPad with Apple Pencil can be displayed on your Mac screen. You can also unlock your Mac when it sees your Apple Watch is nearby, play content from your iPhone on the Mac’s larger display, send and receive SMS messages on your Mac as well as your phone, and more.
“Continuity is really about this rich set of features that allow you to move seamlessly between your devices, helping you be even more creative with the things you do in your everyday life. Our main strength is that we can blend these things together so that there is no complex arrangement.”
For the iMac, the new processor helps, too. Colleen Novielli describes the new computer with joy and pride, saying “It’s the best, and best-selling, all-in-one in the world.” The iMac and Continuity, she says, “Just bring Mac to life for all the devices and users in a home or small business. Continuity works across all our Macs but the iMac is great because the huge 24-inch display gives you a lot of space. Users say it makes them extremely productive.”
As Tonna adds, you can use it to make FaceTime calls more convenient. “I start a FaceTime call when I’m out for a walk, say, and I come back home, so I want to continue that FaceTime on my iMac. One click transfers everything to iMac.”
A new feature called NameDrop has been in the news lately, with a police department thinking it was dangerous (it’s not). You bring two iPhones together and it allows you to share your contact details. No more “I’ll call you and you’ll have my number” and then having to enter their name. I wonder how important that element of surprise is to Apple?
Tonna says, “Some contact, when you met a new person, was very difficult before. We deliver this in a unique way, and the wow factor is that the animation is simply beautiful. But it’s also a very functional animation. It really lets you know what’s happening. Your contacts, if you choose to share them, are literally swapping between devices. It’s always nice to get the wow factor. But at the end of the day, we create these features so that users get more value from their products.”
Apple is not alone in this seamless connectivity. Samsung already lets you transfer things between different products bearing its name, and Huawei does the same. Chipmaker Qualcomm announced Qualcomm Seamless, which will work across products from different brands, with different operating systems. Why is Continuity something Apple thinks it can do best?
“The reason we can do it better is the core values at Apple, the fact that we make the hardware, the software and the services. The services piece is critical because iCloud is the connector that helps you move seamlessly between devices in a secure and private way. The hardware and software components come together in our ability to blend technologies like Wi-Fi and Bluetooth together to do things, like understand when your devices are close to each other and enable features like Handoff.”
Handoff lets you transfer calls from phone to Mac, or copy and paste between devices. Find a document on your iPhone, say, select Copy, and then press Paste on your iMac and watch it appear. As Novielli says, it’s a way to make things better. “People have ingrained behaviours, certain ways of doing things that have been enabled by technology for a long time. So if someone needs to get a file from here to there, they think they have to open an email, the attach a file, maybe zip the file. And then, go to the other device. Our philosophy is that people should do things better.”
And as Tonna says, the initial ability of a Continuity element is rarely in the final iteration. “We’re always thinking beyond what we can do, but it really comes back to solving an immediate user need and then listening to the feedback.”
Which means we can expect more things to come from Continuity in the future. Novielli sums it up like this: “Continuity is one of those things that allows technology to get out of the way and not disrupt your productive flow. So you can be the most productive person you can be, throughout your day.”
