Apple Updates

Apple's annual software upgrade this fall will offer users plenty
of new features: enabling a single set of apps to work across
iPhones, iPads and Macs, a Digital Health tool to show parents
how much time their children have been staring at their screen
and improvements to Animojis, those cartoon characters
controlled by the iPhone X's facial recognition sensor.

But just as important this year will be what Apple doesn't
introduce: redesigned home screens for the iPhone, iPad
and CarPlay, and a revamped Photos app that can suggest
which images to view.

These features were delayed after Apple Inc. concluded it
needed its own major upgrade in the way the company
develops and introduces new products. Instead of keeping
engineers on a relentless annual schedule and cramming
features into a single update, Apple will start focusing on the
next two years of updates for its iPhone and iPad operating
system, according to people familiar with the change. The
company will continue to update its software annually, but
internally engineers will have more discretion to push back
features that aren't as polished to the following year.