Following on from John Gruber’s video podcast with Craig Federighi and Greg Joswiak, a Marques Brownlee podcast is next in line, talking through iOS 14, iPadOS 14, and macOS Big Sur with Federighi.

I’ve only had time to listen to parts of it so far, but it’s definitely an interesting discussion. Brownlee starts by sharing my view that the pre-recorded keynote format worked really well, and asking whether this might be a permanent change …

Federighi wouldn’t be drawn on the specifics of that, but did say that the company was very happy with it, and that it wanted to learn the lessons and then see what seems best for future keynotes.

Although you might have thought the format would allow plenty of time for Apple to review the whole thing, Federighi said that he actually only saw the complete presentation for the first time on Monday.

Brownlee then asked what Apple saw as the key theme or philosophy behind iOS 14. Federighi said that personalization and convenience are key.

He also explained why Apple is perhaps going a little slow when it comes to letting users set their preferred default apps for different things. iOS 14 currently limits this to email and web apps, and Federighi implied that this was because Apple wants to manually vet apps that make it into the list.

Email and web apps need Apple approval to be eligible to be set as the default apps: the company wanted to prevent abuse, like a random game including WebKit capabilities just for the visibility it would achieve to see them in the scroll list.

Brownlee raised one of my complaints about iPadOS 14: that widgets are limited to the sidebar, and therefore to only the first screen. Federighi suggested this might change over time.

Another common complaint has been the Siri visual interface. Federighi said Apple has actually coded two completely different approaches, one where you can scroll behind Siri, one where you can’t, and is open to feedback on this.

A long-running concern expressed by Mac enthusiasts is whether Apple is dumbing down the Mac, and making macOS more iOS-like. The macOS Big Sur design rings alarm bells for some, appearing to move further in this direction, but Federighi said that people should reserve judgment until they’ve used it for some time.

You can listen to the Marques Brownlee podcast here, and Brownlee promises ‘a deep dive video’ later in the day.