The powerful iOS 11 features you haven’t heard of, this week on The CultCast

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iOS 11 WWDC Hero
This week we'll tell you about iOS 11's best lesser-known features.
Photo: Apple

This week on The CultCast: More of the powerful new iOS 11 features you’ve never heard of! Plus: The talented app that will harnesses the power of Apple’s new augmented reality features; Scott Forstall is back, and he’s sharing the bizarre story of how the original iPhone really came to be; and everything you need to know about HEIF, the JPEG-killing format Apple is adopting.

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This week’s links

Former iOS Chief Scott Forstall Discusses Creating the First iPhone

New Siri icon in iOS 11 may hint at iPhone 8’s virtual Home button

  • Apple may have left a big clue in iOS 11 that points to huge design changes coming later this year to the iPhone 8.
  • While doing some testing with the new Do Not Disturb When Driving feature, eagle-eyed Apple observers have spotted a new icon for Siri in iOS 11 that appears to be a perfect replacement for the Home button Apple is supposedly planning to ditch.
  • The pseudo-Home button, first noticed by AppleInsider, can be found at the bottom of iPhones and iPads. It’s about the same size as the physical Home button, but doesn’t have a Touch ID ring around it.

Apple and Ikea’s AR collab lets you test furniture before buying

  • Ikea has revealed a few new details about its augmented reality collaboration with Apple that lets customers test out virtual pieces of furniture in their homes before they buy them.
  • The app is scheduled to launch this fall alongside the official release of iOS 11. At launch, the app will boast 500-600 products that customers will be able to try out in their homes. This ultra-precise technology will allow them to be positioned on real backdrops in 3D with millimeter-accurate positioning.
  • In a recent interview, Michael Valdsgaard, digital transformation manager at Ikea
  • Ikea will aim to debut new products in the app before they arrive in store. He also said that Apple’s augmented reality platform was of interest to Ikea because of its guaranteed reach. “It will be the largest AR platform in the world overnight,” he said. “That’s super interesting to us.”


Everything you need to know about the JPEG-killing HEIF format Apple is adopting

  • JPEG was born in 1992
  • As of iOS 11, most iPhones will be switching from JPEG to HEIF.
  • HEIF is the new photo format that Apple is using to replace JPEG. And it probably will replace JPEGs, because the iPhone is the most popular, most-used camera in the world
  • HEIF — or High Efficiency Image File Format — is the still-image version of the HVEC — or H.265 — video format. Its main advantage for you and me is that photos saved in HEIF are roughly half the size of JPEGs, and of better quality
  • HEIF offers other advantages over JPEG. While a JPEG is a single image, HEIF can be a single image or a sequence of images.

Automatic setup

  • When setting up a new iOS device, there’s now an option to hold it near an existing device to automatically copy over settings, preferences, and iCloud Keychain.

How to use iOS 11’s new Automatic Setup

  • To use Automatic Setup in iOS 11, you need two devices running iOS 11To start the process, you aim the camera at the moving sphere on your old device’s screen. Just like Apple Watch.

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