iOS 27 Hands-On: Top 5 New Features!

iOS 27 Overview00:02

iOS 27 is described as an update of refinement with no big sweeping changes, but many small improvements that users have been waiting for. The speaker has been running the latest beta since WWDC, and notes that the public beta is now available. This beta cycle has been among the most stable developer betas tested in a long time. The update officially drops in September. The speaker ranks the top five features in order of preference.

Number 5: New Photo Editing Features01:01

The Photos app gains two new tools when editing a photo. Cleanup was already present for erasing background items and has improved noticeably. Two new tools are Extend and Reframe.

Extend uses generative AI to extend the edges of a photo in any direction, regardless of the original camera. It works well for changing aspect ratios, such as converting a portrait shot to landscape. The tool reconstructs content at the outer edges of the frame. It performs best with consistent patterns and abstract subjects but is also effective with entire objects.

Spatial Reframe allows users to drag and morph the perspective from which a photo appears to have been taken. It generates new pixels for areas that were not originally visible. The quality of reframes degrades more quickly than extends. Practical uses include perfecting symmetrical shots that were nearly right when taken. The speaker notes that the result is no longer strictly a photo taken with the phone.

Both features require an internet connection because they rely on larger cloud models. The same photo cannot be extended or reframed more than once. Workarounds include taking screenshots to enable multiple operations.