Apple kicked off its Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) in San Francisco today. So far, WWDC 2014 seems to focus heavily on new software, including the iOS 8 and the next version of OS X (Yosemite).
Apparently, the WWDC can only be streamed live on Apple devices, so I’d try as much as possible to highlight the important points from TechCrunch’s live blog updates.
- Craig Federighi, Apple’s Senior VP of Software Engineering, gave the preview of the OS X [Yosemite]: All the icons look different. Design changes feature a new Preview, a new iTunes icon, new App Store icon and a Settings icon that matches iOS. There are also new Contacts, calendar, notes, even the dock itself. OS X also shows a lot of transparency, bright colours and simple lines here, still echoing the iOS. OS X Yosemite arrives in the fall for free for everyone else, but developers present at the conference got a free preview.
- iOS 8: You can now swipe across on lock screen notifications to take actions, sending 90% of jailbreak tweaks out of business; The multitasking screen now shows you the last people that you texted. You can now minimize an email message to get access to your inbox. Of course, the biggest drawback of iOS is that it is NOT cross-platform like almost all of the third-party messaging apps are, which means the ‘tap to talk’ on iMessage is well, restricted to apple devices. There are also time-limited iMessages that will ‘self destruct’ (Sound familiar?). iOS 8 is available in beta today.
- Improvements to the iOS 8 Keyboard: Quicktype. App that offers predictive typing suggestions above the keyboard, just like Android but with additional personalization at play. Like if someone asks you a question like ‘dinner or a movie’ it will pre-fill ‘dinner’ or ‘a movie’. Quicktype will also learn how you talk with certain people and give you suggestions based on those conversations. Like ‘epic’ or ‘awesome’ for more casual conversations. All of these calculations are done locally on the device, not on Apple’s servers — addressing the obvious privacy problems.
- HealthKit: The Health app and Healthkit framework are a way to integrate and compile all of the hundreds of health-related apps and metrics into one composite view of your body’s health. Apple introduces integration with the Mayo Clinic that lets them connect with the Health app (with permission) to monitor a patients vitals.
- There is also the debut of the iCloud Drive, a new file storage system for iCloud. Essentially this is a Dropbox-like folder that links iCloud, iOS and OS X together, showing you all of your files with a traditional folder interface. Mail Drop is encrypted; iCloud supports attachments up to 5GB. Apple is going HAM on iCloud expansion and support.
- SWIFT: A new programming language debuted by Apple. Swift language is said to be faster, clearer and more computationally effective than Objective-C.
- Handoff, a new feature that lets you jump back and forth from iOS to the Mac and continue working on a document, email message or more on both platforms. So, you’re writing an email on iOS and you switch to your Mac, you can click on an icon and continue writing there. You can also now use your Mac to make or take phone calls coming from your iOS device, or use your Mac as a speakerphone.
- Third-party Apps: Third party developers can now define widgets, which will appear in Notification Centre. Third-party apps can now use TouchID as well. Apple is giving third party photo apps the ability to use more editing controls like white-balance and non-destructive editing. Basically, Apple has overhauled typing in iOS 8 with support for 3rd party keyboards and native next-word prediction.
- Tim Cook, Apple CEO, is not afraid to throw shade at Windows and the PC industry in general. Just saying. *shade on android*
Apple, Cook said, is benefitting from Android users switched to iOS. “They sought a better experience and a better life, and decided to switch to iOS,”
“Green bubble friends…they have inferior devices…but we don’t want to hold it against them” – Federighi on Android text messages.
Other apps and functionalities were introduced, like Family sharing, Snapchat-like iMessage, Photoediting [yay selfies!]. So far, Apple is dropping bombs on Android, Dropbox, Google and Firefox. I’m not very surprised, Apple is big on software, always has been. But I am certainly impressed.
Read the full transcript here.
