Apple Announcement Day — New Software But No New Tech or Everything Old Is Fast Again

A quick round-up of today’s Apple announcements from the WWDC18 address

8 min readJun 4, 2018

2018 has definitely been a mellower year for Apple and this year’s World Wide Developer Conference event was on trend. With a focus on improved performance instead of mind-blowing features and new gadgets, this year’s June announcement was geared towards developers rather than the wider user base we’ve seen in the past. That being said, there were some fun new features we’ll be seeing in the Fall as Apple moves from the high mountain ranges to the sandy Californian desert.

iOS 12

With 81% of the billion active devices having been updated to iOS 11 (and a 95% overall customer satisfaction rating), Apple is aiming for 100% with iOS 12. The update (coming Fall 2018) will be available on the full range of devices that were available with iOS 11. This is unusual as we typically see at least one set of devices fall of the compatibility list. Instead, Apple is promising speed improvements across the board so your old iPhone 6S should actually get faster instead of slowing down.

Other iOS 12 announcements include:

Processor performance boosts that occur instantly, rather than a gradual increase over time
A new file format for AR Kit (.USDZ) that was created in conjunction with Pixar that can be used system wide. Companies like Adobe have already signed on to provide native support for this new format. It will bring AR capabilities to things like new articles and shopping sites on the web making them more interactive.
A new app called Measure which uses the phone’s sensors to precisely measure real life objects — Goodbye ruler apps!
The launch of ARKit 2 with improved face tracking, realistic rendering and 3D object detection
The Photos app will gain improved search capabilities with in-photo face and object recognition to provide search suggestions (both multiple terms and search refinements). There will be a new For You tab with Memories, Featured Photos, and suggested effects for lie photos and Portrait-mode pics. Sharing suggestions for people who might want to see the pictures and even share-back suggestions for when others share pictures with you will also be found in this tab.
There was a claim about Siri being the most used digital assistant (though perhaps not the most helpful). Siri gains a new feature called Shortcuts where customized Siri shortcuts can be created by the user for various uses (i.e. “I lost my keys” can automatically turn on a Tile tracking device attached to your key chain and provide a location). This new feature will also have an accompanying app to help you create your shortcuts using a series of steps to accomplish whatever you want. This will include the ability to use 3rd party apps. This will be pretty useful, especially if you have a lot of daily routine uses for your phone, and will become quite popular for developers in integrate into their apps.
Changes to some of the Apple standard apps including a new browse tab and sidebar on the News app, a rebuilt Stocks app with news articles and live stock tickers, iCloud support for Voice Memos, a rebranding/redesign of iBooks as Apple Books, and 3rd party options for Carplay (including Google Maps and Waze). Phone-only Stocks and Voice Memos apps will also be coming to iPads for the first time.
For those struggling with excessive phone use, Apple announced some new features including Do Not Disturb at Bedtime where you can customize the Do Not Disturb feature to block certain notifications during a specified period of time and Screentime which provides your screen time usage on a particular device (how much you’re using it, how you’re using it, which apps you’re using most, what’s sending the most notifications, etc.). Screentime also allows for App Limits which lets you set daily timers that send notifications to use a particular app less or even to block the app all together (with an ignore option).
At the same time, in what seems like a move to get you to use your phone more, Apple announced tongue detection for Animoji for new and improved expressions and four new options (ghost, koala, tiger, and T-Rex).
Even better, they’ve launched a whole new option with Memoji (RIP Bitmoji!) which allow you to create your own personalized animoji face based on what you look like or how you want to look if you want to get creative. There are a variety of skin tones, facial feature sizes and shapes, hair colours, and accessories to choose from (yay diversity!).

Apple also will be adding new stickers, filters, and effects for these Memojis that can also be used on your real face when taking selfies as an attempt to take on social media apps.
Facetime is also getting an update with Group FaceTime which can handle up to 32 people on a call at one time. I hate talking to even one person on FaceTime so this sounds like a nightmare to me but I’m sure welcome news to others. The app will work intelligently to make sure active participants appear more prominently with the person talking as the largest view while the passive participants appear in a row at the bottom.

Don’t worry, you can also use stickers, animoji/memojis, and filters in Facetime as well so I guess that could make me hate it less. Group Facetime will be automatically integrated into Messages so your group messages can switch to video conferences with the press of a button. FaceTime audio will also be available on the AppleWatch as well.

watchOS 5

While there are other smartwatches in the market, Apple continues it’s reign as king with their offering being #1 in customer satisfaction every year since its launch. 2017 alone saw 60% growth and that will likely continue through 2018 as the Apple Watch moves beyond the early-adopter stage.

watchOS 5 announcements include:

The Activity app introduces Competitions where you can start a contest between a friend with an AppleWatch and compete to see who can get the most points, most calories burned, etc.
The Workout app adds new modes including Hiking and Yoga, new complications including Rolling Mile Pace, Pace Alerts and Cadence tracking, and automatic workout detection if it senses you’ve begun or finished a workout.
There’s a fun new Walkie Talkie feature for having short audio message conversations that works on both wifi and cellular versions.

The Siri watch face gains the new shortcut feature and now accepts 3rd party apps.
You’ll no longer need to say Hey Siri to activate voice commands — lifting your watch and speaking will accomplish the same (though it’s a bit unclear how it will know you’re speaking to the watch)/
Notifications become interactive instead of simply dismissing them and watchOS will be integrated with WebKit to allow web content to be viewed directly on the watch.
In addition, watchOS 5 will also include a native Apple Podcasts app, an improved Workout API, increase control centre customization options, and the ability to use your watch as a Student ID on select campuses (which would be great if launched to users at large — as in no more building fobs to carry around)

tvOS

This particular section was pretty boring and not a whole lot to report here:

Support for Dolby Atmos sound (all previously purchased movies and tv will automatically receive a free upgrade to this format).
Live news, sports providers, and even channels will be coming to Apple TV.
Instead of Single Sign-on for content providers, supporting networks will be capable of Zero Sign-on where being on your tv provider’s broadband network will automatically allow access without having to sign-in
Additional aerials with accessible location via Apple TV remote.

macOS

No longer being named after mountain ranges, Apple unveiled today that it’s newest macOS will take on the name Mojave. With a similar focus on performance improvement that we saw in the iOS segment, Mojave will offer a few new features as well:

It will now feature a proper Dark Mode which will create a viewing atmosphere more suited to using your computer at night or in dimly lit spaces. This new mode will be integrated into all areas of the OS including all Apple apps, menus, menu bars, etc.
There will be the ability to use dynamic desktop wallpapers similar to the iPhone
The Mac’s desktop will gain several new features such as Stacks will let you arrange the contents of your desktop by kind, date, tag, etc., a new Finder view called Gallery for seeing a large preview with a sidebar that hold additional details about files as well as a host of quick actions for simple tasks done right in the folder (customizable quick actions can also be created), Integrated Markup and editing abilities in Quick Look, new controls and actions for apps like Safari with regards to screenshots (including video screen capping), and a neat (and useful) feature called Continuity Camera which allows you to use your phone to capture images directly on your Mac that can also be used for PDFs or anything that offers a scan option.
Apple News, Stocks, Voice Memos, and Home apps will now be available for use on the Mac.
Improved security and privacy features will be introduced (i.e. added default protections, consent pop-ups and warnings, and anti-fingerprinting features).
The macOS App Store will be getting a re-design and rebuild similar to the iOS version. It will offer new tabs to help find new apps and tips and tutorials for apps you might already have. Several apps previously unavailable for download through the App Store will now be joining (Microsoft Office 365).

While there were no new computers or iPads announced nor any crazy features announced, this is not a surprise. Over the last few years, the WWDC conference announcements have been focusing less on hardware and more on software. Plus, the rumours were already swirling that this year’s iOS/MacOS update would focus less on bells and whistles and more on system improvements (especially in light of the battery slowdown reveal). That being said, iOS12 will definitely be a welcome update for most users that might see that 81% adoption rate tick even higher and Tim Cook did address one thing that people have been wondering about — Is Apple planning on amalgamating iOS and MacOS into one singular OS?

It was a resounding no.

I wouldn’t be upset if they did but it sounds like they believe that a better route is to introduce tools that make it easier for developers to move their apps from iOS to MacOS so maybe next year we’ll see something new there.