Skip to main content

iOS 13 will let apps like Lightroom access photos directly from external storage, report claims

iOS 13 will let apps like Lightroom access photos directly from external storage, report claims

/

The iPad Pro will get a bit more professional

Share this story

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

With iOS 13, Apple will let third-party apps import photos directly from external storage, reports 9to5Mac. If true, this would bring an end one of our key frustrations with iOS on the iPad Pro which requires importing images into the system’s camera roll before you can move them into an app like Lightroom CC. Apple previously released a Siri Shortcut to automate the process, but the new feature will make this unnecessary on the USB-C tablet aimed at professionals.

Apple also reportedly plans to announce improvements to Marzipan apps, Siri, and ARKit — Apple’s augmented reality developer kit. The iOS and macOS changes, first reported by 9to5Mac, were compiled by Guilherme Rambo with an assist from Steve Troughton-Smith.

  • Marzipan, which is a framework for allowing iOS developers to port their apps to the Mac, will gain support for more Mac-specific features like the Touch Bar and menu bar. UIKit apps will be able to open multiple windows, and Split View apps will gain better resizing support.
  • Siri will get access to a host of new “Intents,” which are spoken commands that third-party apps can integrate with. 9to5Mac says that these new Intents will include media playback, search, and voice calling.
  • Augmented reality apps will be able to detect human poses thanks to improvements to ARKit, and will benefit from a new companion app for developers that will let them visually create AR experiences. Controller and headset support for AR is also set to expand with touch controllers and stereo headsets respectively.
  • Other miscellaneous improvements include giving developers more control over the iPhone’s Taptic Engine, broader NFC tag support, and letting developers update their machine learning models on the device itself rather than needing them to be pre-trained.

All these new features are due to be announced at Apple’s Worldwide Developer’s Conference in June, where the company is expected to unveil iOS 13, tvOS 13, macOS 10.15, and watchOS 6.