Week 21

A11y. Apple previewed a range of new accessibility features. The new features include Door Detection for visually impaired users, Apple Watch Mirroring for those with physical and motor disabilities, and Live Captions for the hearing impaired. LiDAR, Voice Control, advanced gestures, and other on-device technologies will power the new tools and will be released later this year. See also: Global Accessibility Awareness Day

Fire 7. Amazon announced an all-new Fire 7 tablet. The update will include a USB-C port, a processor and RAM upgrade, but also a bump up in price. The previous version was released back in 2019, so the refresh is well overdue and the move away from the Micro-USB — which was super wobbly — is a welcome change. Still no access to Google Play Store, which means your app choices are limited… on top of the already limited ecosystem when comparing Android to iPadOS.

Huawei Foldable. The global launch event for the Huawei Mate XS 2 was held. A book-style foldable, the most notable feature is its outward fold design. The external display, which is smaller in its folded state, doubles in size once unfolded and has no internal display. Yes, I know. It will never arrive in the US market, but I still like to ogle the various iterations of foldables being released. Read a detailed hands-on preview here.

Smartphone Stats. iPhone drove half of the North American smartphone shipments during Q1. 19.9M units were shipped total, resulting in a 45% increase YoY for Apple and contributing to a 4% increase across OEMs. With their new focus on consumer devices, Google also experienced a 380% increase in market share due largely to the Pixel 6. At the OS level, Android 11 has taken the top spot in the distribution charts.

App Roundup. YouTube Music on Wear OS gets streaming support. Apple is testing Tap to Pay at Apple Park. Now in Android app aims to help developers stay up to date. Google TV app is revamped and rolling out. Lumen iOS app, a metabolic analyzer, gets overhauled.

Articles

• Apple previews innovative accessibility features combining the power of hardware, software, and machine learning (Apple Newsroom)
• Amazon refreshes its Fire 7 tablets with faster CPUs, longer battery life and USB-C (Engadget)
• Huawei shows-off latest foldable (Mobile World Live)
• Apple nabs half of North American smartphone shipments in https://tcrn.ch/3sLDoY9Q1 (TechCrunch)
• App Round Up
  • YouTube Music on Wear OS finally gets streaming support (Android Authority)
  • Apple is testing Tap to Pay at Apple Park, and it works beautifully (Mashable)
  • Google’s ‘Now in Android’ app aims to help app developers build better apps (XDA)
  • Revamped Google TV app with new ‘Highlights’ feed is now rolling out widely (XDA)
  • Lumen metabolic analyzer iOS app gets overhauled food logging and macro tracking (9to5Mac)

Events

• [Jun 6–10] WWDC 2022 (Apple)
• [Jun 15–16] VOICE Global 2022 (Modev)

Resources

• Personas vs. Archetypes (NN/g)
• Two Tips for Better UX Storytelling (NN/g)
• This Week in Apps #114 - Lots of Turbulence Ahead (AppFigures)