*By Alisha Haridasani*
Apple unveiled one of its first built-in AR apps for the iPhone on Monday when it introduced updated AR software and operating systems at its annual developers conference.
The changes included in the iOS 12 operating system aim to streamline the user experience and indicate the company's priorities for the year ahead, which will focus on software that makes existing products more essential, rather than introducing game-changing new hardware.
At the World Wide Developers Conference in San Jose, Calif., Apple veered from tradition slightly and stuck only to software updates, said Gene Munster, managing partner at Loup Ventures.
“We went back and looked at the last 17 years, they’ve really never had a developers conference and it was entirely software related,” Munster said in an interview with Cheddar's Hope King.
Apple kicked things off by introducing a new AR file format ー .usdz ー that is compatible with creative software, like Adobe, and can easily be shared via email and text. The updated mobile operating system will also come with a tool, Measure, that lets a user measure the dimensions of objects through his or her device's camera, one of Apple's first native pushes into AR.
The company’s upgraded ARKit, the development platform for third party AR apps, will allow for Shared Experiences, a feature that will give Apple a boost in the AR gaming world.
“It may sound small but it’s a big deal in the AR world so they really moved that forward,” said Munster.
In addition to the AR fodder for the almost 6,000 assembled developers to nerd-out over, Apple also introduced new iOS updates designed to improve the way regular iPhone and iPad users interact with their Apple devices.
Munster said Apple was trying to hit hard the message, “that the user is always right.”
The most highly-anticipated reveal was Apple’s new tools to help users manage the amount of time they spend glued to their screens. The new Screen Time function in iOS 12 monitors how much time users spend with each app, how many times they pick up their phones, and which notifications catch their attention. It also lets users limit how much time they spend with a particular app, and will notify them when they near that threshold.
“Screen Time empowers you with both insight and control over how you spend your time,” said Craig Federighi, Apple’s senior vice president of software engineering.
The updated operating system will also group notifications by app, topic, and thread, making them less overwhelming. “With a single swipe, you can triage a whole group of notifications away,” said Federighi.
Apple’s push to wean users off their devices, even just a little, is unusual for a company that makes most of its revenue from selling devices. But it seems to be the company's response to criticism of the potential addictiveness of its iPhones and iPads.
“I thought it was an amazing moment, a real milestone,” said [Arianna Huffington](https://cheddar.com/videos/arianna-huffington-on-apples-ground-breaking-moment-at-wwdc), founder of the Huffington Post and the new health and wellness start-up Thrive. “The world is recognizing that being always on, becoming increasingly addicted to our phones, and all these apps and social media, makes us less productive.”
Last month, Google also announced similar tools to help its products' users manage their digital habits.
Apple announced changes to its voice assistant, Siri, as competition with other voice assistants heats up, and the appeal of Apple’s robot has [dipped.](https://techcrunch.com/2017/07/11/siri-usage-and-engagement-dropped-since-last-year-as-alexa-and-cortana-grew/)
Siri Shortcuts allow users to integrate more third-party apps into the voice assistant’s ecosystem. This would allow a user to create a voice activated shortcut for "Heading Home," for example, that will automatically text someone the user's estimated time of arrival, play a podcast for the journey, and bring up traffic updates.
The iOS 12 operating system, which will be rolled out later this year, will also include group FaceTime chats for up to 32 people at a time and animated emojis that look like a user, also called "Memojis."
For the full interview, [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/gene-munster-apple-quietly-called-out-facebook-google-at-wwdc).
Google’s philanthropy arm, Google.org, recently announced a $10 million grant for the AARP Foundation to aid in teaching digital skills to low income older workers. As the implementation of hybrid work expands, a greater emphasis is being placed on helping workers 50 years old and up — especially among women and people of color — to be digitally literate in order to keep the workplace generationally diverse. Lisa Marsh Ryerson, president of the AARP Foundation, joined Cheddar News to talk about the curriculum of the partnership. "Those of us who are 50 and older are not digital natives, so we do have a learning curve that we have to address," she noted.
AT&T announced earlier today it is spinning off its media properties in WarnerMedia in a merger with Discovery in a $43 billion deal.Scott Rostan, founder and CEO at Training The Street, joined Cheddar to talk about what the unwinding of the telecom giant's Time Warner media properties means for investors. "I think the investor sentiment is they're digesting the new information, and they're looking into the dividend, especially the reduction of the dividend," said Rostan, noting the transaction allows AT&T to focus on its core telecommunications business.
A 2021 report from UK Research and Innovation found that the shipping industry makes up at least 2.5 percent of the world's total CO2 emissions. It's a problem that energy solutions company, Leclanché, is trying to solve. Founded in 1909, the company has been developing and producing batteries for more than 100 years. Today, Leclanché's lithium-ion battery is used to electrify not just ships, but also railroad locomotives, trucks, and specialty vehicles. Cheddar News spoke with Pierre Blanc, chief technology and industrial officer of Leclanché, to discuss.
Amazon is betting that ammonia could be the fuel of the future, participating in a Series A round for the Brooklyn-based company Amogy in December. Amogy aims to de-carbonize transportation with a clean energy system that uses ammonia as a renewable fuel. Amogy is partnering with Amazon on its first commercial product - an ammonia-powered cargo-shipping vessel. Amogy CEO Seonghoon Woo joins Cheddar Climate to discuss.
Joseph Pallant, Founder and Executive Director for the Blockchain for Climate Foundation, joins Cheddar Climate, where he discusses the among of energy crypto mining consumes and explains how his organization is on a mission to make the crypto industry more environmentally sustainable.
One of the world's largest transport companies is kicking off Black History Month with a new initiative aimed at the next generation of business leaders. Today, FedEx announced the launch of its Student Ambassador Program. Participants selected from eight historically black colleges and universities will receive career guidance from FedEx executives. The program is part of FedEx's ongoing commitment to HBCUs and will also help the company expand its pipeline for diverse talent. Cheddar News welcomes senior vice president at FedEx, Jenny Robertson, and Jerryl Briggs, President of Mississippi Valley State University, to discuss.
Driver assistance monitoring systems are meant to keep the driver's eyes on the road, but according to a report from AAA, different ways of monitoring provide significantly different results. The study found that direct camera-based systems that scanned the driver's eye movements were faster and more reliable than those indirect systems that looked at steering-wheel input. Megan McKernan, the manager of automotive services for the Automobile Club of Southern California, joined Cheddar to discuss the findings. "Triple-A is recommending that automakers include both direct and indirect systems just to really prevent consumers from trying to misuse these systems," she said, noting that neither system on its own is not foolproof.
Pinterest recently added augmented reality to its portfolio. The image sharing and social media platform's new e-commerce tech will allow consumers to interact with retailers and visualize online products inside their homes.
Wave Neuroscience is a neurological health tech company that specializes in clinical and at-home personalized brain stimulation technology. Erik Won, president and chief medical officer and Fred Walke, CEO, joined Cheddar's Opening Bell to discuss their company's hopes for allowing patients to identify and treat unique brain disorders while empowering them to understand their unique neurological makeups — including for the high-stress positions of professional athletes. "We have a mobile device that provides a very light stimulation that gives them a therapy that gives them confidence so there's a just knowing that they're doing something for it," said Walke. "But it also helps them get back into a rhythm. It helps their brain synchronize around certain frequencies that that we target, and it helps them really understand that they've done everything they can to get to their highest level of success."
