Apple WWDC 2018 – D-Day – The Keynote
Want to feel the atmosphere during this special week? Come here!
During this WWDC, I will try to share with you the details of a WWDC. The conference, the tips, the food, the goodies, new frameworks & features, etc. What is it? How is the atmosphere? What’s new technically or not? What you have to do when this experience happens to you, etc. I hope you’ll enjoy it! Let’s go!
Previous part:
⏰ Wake up!
Well, the night before the Keynote, if you are a fanboy like I do, you do not sleep well. Especially if you are jet-lagged! It’s like the day before Christmas when you were a kid. It’s a good point because you will wake up early to join the queue at 4 am.
🤩 The euphoria (bis)
After having the ticket months before, it’s time for the euphoria return. More than 5000 developers during the Keynote. The music playlist makes the atmosphere tremandous & exciting!
After less than an hour, lights switch off. Like groupies, the “woohoo” guys clap their ends at the Tim Cook entrance. So cliché 😀, but a great moment!
The Keynote
As in many WWDC beginning, a developer tribute opens the Keynote. This year, it was hilarious (but so true 😆!).
I’ve enjoyed the Keynote and features that were announced by Apple. For me, it was better than 2017 and 2016 for many reasons.
Stability, maturity & performance
Making iOS 12 compatible with the same devices as iOS 11 is sweet attention to the Apple users. We’ve talked a lot this year, about planned obsolescence or battery performance. Apple took it into account.
The actual ecosystem on iOS 11 will be up-to-date to iOS 12 before the end of this year, with better performance. Drop the mic.
Consistency
The Apple ecosystem is stronger than ever before:
- System apps have been updated, improved and now compatible with the iPad and macOS: Stocks, Voice Memo, Apple News, Apple Books & Home. Now, the iPad will receive the same gestures as the iPhone X for notifications & control center displays.
- How about the Marzipan announcement, that everyone else was waiting for? The answer is simple: NO. But we’ll be able to use the same iOS UIKit APIs on macOS in 2019. Good one!
- Waze or Google Maps will be available on CarPlay. It’s a huge announcement for drivers (also for Uber or Lyft drivers) who are using this system!
Life & user experiences
Apple works a lot on it. Taking care of notifications or smartphone terrible habits will be now part of iOS users via dedicated system apps:
- Do Not Disturb improvement, like when going to bed to not be tempted to read your notifications;
- Digital health dashboard (Screen Time) & features to limit your time on specific app, per day, or for your kids.
Although I’ve talked a lot about it in my series Become a human again, you can read the details & tips here:
Here some key features of user experience improvements:
- The power of Animoji extended with Memoji. Customizing your Animoji is now possible: hair, eyes, skin, accessory, etc. It’s like Sims or Nintendo Mii on iOS 😅. Notice that Animoji improved with tongue detection.
- FaceTime group, with an innovated user experience up to 32 people, with Memojis indeed!
- Automatic workout detection & walkie-talkie mode on watchOS.
- Apple TV Dolby Atmos support.
- macOS Mojave with dark mode support for apps, new App Store application. Xcode in dark mode will be better for our fragile developer eyes.
- Autofill for SMS two-factor codes, iCloud Keychain auto-fill improvements, no more boring time on sign-up forms.
- Notifications will now be grouped by apps or categories (like in Message with conversations).
- Search was better in Photos and the sharing suggestions is a good one to share photos with your friends. It will be better than iCloud albums.
One more thing is about privacy, with the Web-tracking disabling option on Safari. It will be a bad thing for advertisers and cookies tracking, but a good one for users. More details here:
Special mention for ARKit 2 & Siri intents
One of the new features I’ve really appreciate is the new features on and around ARKit 2:
- The Measure app, efficient and straightforward to measure objects in the real world.
- Multi-player and ARKit scene synchronization.
- In collaboration with Adobe & Pixar, the new USDZ file format for an ARKit object. It can be shared via Messages, mail, into Websites on Safari, etc.
With the release of the HomePod, Apple had no choice but to make Siri integration better in the ecosystem. This is it: SiriKit Shortcuts & intents.
Make your app better integrated with Siri will be possible, with Siri suggestions, or making life workflow routines. It’s not a killer feature but it’s a beginning on doing more with Siri.
For all illustrated iOS 12 preview features, visit the Apple Website page:
Next: sessions!
Here the next part: some code & feedback on sessions about iOS 12, App Store, In-app purchase, APIs, etc. from the best sessions I attended during this WWDC 2018.
Did I take a selfie with Craig, like in 2016 as below, near the restrooms 😅😂 ? The answer here.
