Apple's confronting new iPhone feature
Tech giant Apple is set to roll out new software in a bid to tackle addictions to electronic devices.
As part of the annual Worldwide Developers Conference in San Jose beginning on Monday, the company will reveal its software strategy for the next 12 months, with a strong focus on reducing addictiveness in its devices expected, TIME reported.
The introduction of a new set of tools, dubbed ‘Digital Health’, may give some users a fright as it will allow them to monitor how much time they spend on their devices and which applications absorb most of their time.
“We need to have tools and data to allow us to understand how we consume digital media,” Tony Fadell, a former senior Apple executive who worked on the original iPhone and iPod, said in a recent interview.
“We need to get finer-grain language and start to understand that an iPhone is just a refrigerator, it’s not the addiction.”
According to Apple engineers working on the new addition, the tools will be placed in a menu accessible through the Settings app.
The news comes after intense scrutiny over the addictive nature of Apple devices with Apple investors Jana Partners LLC and the California State Teachers’ Retirement System leading the way with damning comments regarding children’s usage of the tech giant’s products.
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Apple insisted it would make significant changes and would add more “robust” parental controls to monitor the use of its products.
Google has also outlined similar plans with the company announcing last month a new dashboard for Android phones that allows users monitor how long they are using other apps while also reminding people to take a break.
