Apple iPhone users who have a tough time remembering where they last parked their vehicle in a crowded parking lot could be getting some built-in help from a find-your-car feature that may be built into the upcoming release of Apple’s iOS 10 operating system in the fall.
Though the apparent feature wasn’t brought up by Apple executives and developers as they outlined the coming highlights of iOS 10 during the opening keynote at Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco on June 13, the parking feature was noted by an Apple developer in a June 14 Reddit post that touted its presence.
The Reddit user, MaGNeTiX, wrote in the post that after parking his vehicle at home a notification popped up on his device screen with details about where the car was being parked.
“Tapping it takes me to Maps with a parked car icon and a sheet allowing me to add details such as a photo of the location, a note, or rename the location,” wrote MaGNeTiX. “Nice touch Apple! Can see this being useful for festivals, shopping and more!”
More than 469 comments were added to the original post, which is titled “iOS 10 Now Remembers Where You Parked Automatically.”
While iOS 10 won’t be available for downloads until the fall, a test version is available now to registered developers and a beta version is expected to be released in July. Apple is cautioning that not all features in the early versions of iOS 10 will definitely be included in the final version when it is eventually released.
No additional details of the parking helper feature were revealed by MaGNeTiX.
Meanwhile, at the Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC 2016), Apple announced many other coming features and updates in iOS 10 and in the company’s other operating systems, including previews of the macOS Sierra operating systems and the unveiling of the new watchOS 3 operating system.
Among the key announcements is a new user interface for its year-old Apple Music streaming service and some key innovations for its Photos app, including the use of artificial intelligence to accurately search for photos by topic, according to a June 13 eWEEK story.
The Apple Music redesign includes an all-new design that Apple expects will be easier for users to navigate as they search for music. The Library, For You, Browse and Radio tabs inside Apple Music have been redesigned for ease of use, while a new Search tab has been added. Also new is the addition of visible lyrics when listening in Apple Music.
The changes are aimed at helping Apple further grow the size of its Apple Music subscription service, which now has 15 million users. Some users complained that the original user interface was hard to navigate and not user-friendly.
The Apple Photos app in iOS 10 is getting advanced search tools to make it easier for avid digital photographers to make their way through their images when they have thousands and thousands of photos to peruse for just the right shot. The new search capabilities use artificial intelligence to scour images and identify them based on search terms chosen by users. For example, a user could search for beach photos, taxi photos, dog photos or photos of horses to display images of those subjects. In addition, the search capabilities will be able to find images using facial recognition and scene recognition, based on searches such as a person’s name or terms such as beaches, cities or farms.
Also included in the new photo app capabilities is a feature called “Memories,” which scans a user’s photos and videos and automatically organizes them into collections of memories that include old, forgotten images of people, places and things. Also coming is a Memory Movie feature that will automatically edit the images into a movie with theme music, titles and cinematic transitions, according to Apple.
In addition, Apple announced a new iPad-based Swift Playgrounds app that incorporates puzzles, games and other fun tasks all designed to encourage children and teens to learn to code using the Swift programming language, according to another eWEEK report. The idea is to help create an interest in software coding in young people so Apple can find the next generation of software developers with the skills to develop apps for its iPhones, iPads, Macs, Apple Watches and other devices.
Swift Playgrounds uses an interactive interface to bring coding to life by helping users guide onscreen characters through an immersive graphical world where they solve puzzles and master myriad coding challenges. Built into Swift Playgrounds are templates that are designed to encourage users to express their creativity and create programs that can be shared with friends in Web postings or using Apple’s Mail or Messages apps.