Apple WWDC 2016: What Apple Has In Store For Us

At WWDC, Apple brings out all the new software it is planning to hit the market with soon.

Every year Apple holds a Worldwide Developers Conference. This year the conference was in San Francisco, from June 13th to June 17th, and the response to it was mixed.

As expected, the three major events at the WWDC were the showcasing of Apple’s updated operating system, in addition to showcasing Siri, their personal assistant, for Mac laptops, and a new and improvised iMessage.

Further details on that are as follows:

iOS 10:

The mobile software, iOS 10, is softer and more aesthetic, with an interactive lock screen which has been enabled with 3D Touch-enabled notifications that offer more information, and personalised home screen widgets. It includes a revamp of Music, News, Maps, and HomeKit. The camera has been made more accessible as well.

The personal assistant Siri on the new OS has been made more efficient. Developers have now been enabled to build Siri’s support system into their apps. This will enable Developers to create apps that do things like call you an Uber cab or send a message for you on Whatsapp, right from Siri itself.

Music and Maps on the OS have been redesigned, and now have a cleaner interface. The maps themselves now have more proactive suggestions and third party app integration, while the Music app now focuses on lyrics in addition to enabling better content discovery.
As for the News app — Apple has fixed it up with with subscriptions, breaking news notifications, and a better organisation overall.

What will make this new operating system special is not a whole hoard of new features, but improvisation of older features. The stars shall nevertheless remain the app integration of Siri, and the interactive lock screen, and easier camera accessibility.

MacOS Sierra

Mac computers now have a new operating system by the name of Sierra, and the most important thing about it is that it has Siri integration for laptops. This is the first time that Siri appears on Mac laptops.

The functionality of Siri on the laptop would be pretty similar to that on other devices, expect it will have some Mac-specific features. For example, it will have the ability to search through and for documents, pin the said searches to the notifications or add them to documents to provide well-updated information. It will also be able to search through Photos, set reminders, initiate FaceTime calls, amongst other things.

Another important feature would be the Photos, which would use facial, object and scenic recognition to recognise people, places, and things in your images.
This will enable intelligent collections, with features such as ‘Memories’ which would bring curated collections of past photos, and ‘Places’ that would display your photos on a world map.

The OS also has deeper cloud integration, which enables the files stored on the desktop or the documents folder to be available on all the other devices within the network, including other Macs, iPhones, and iPads. This will work via the iCloud Drive app.

Swinging an Apple Watch on your wrist? You can now unlock your Mac just by bringing the watch into the vicinity of the computer!

The OS for the Mac laptop, MacOS Sierra shall be remembered for having brought Siri to laptops. Other features to be remembered have more to do with the integration of Siri, rather than anything specific for themselves. Better photo galleries and deeper cloud integration shall definititely be appreciated.

iMessage

The iMessage has newer and cooler features that are mostly aesthetically enhancing and, to be frank, do make it more ‘cool’.
It now has background animations, bubble effects, rich links and Digital Touch, which enables users to draw and annotate their pictures and videos. This last feature was first launched on the Apple Watch.

iMessage also has Handwritten notes, hidden “invisible ink” messages, quick “Tap back” replies, and bigger emojis.

To support the growth of iMessage (and make it catch up in a way, with Facebook Messenger), it now also has its own Message App Store, which enables developers to develop their own additions to it, which might later enable users to do things like sending stickers and GIFs to making payments to making collaborative dinner orders.

Just one thing to say about iMessage: The thing just turned bloody damn cool!

WatchOS 3

A better OS has also been made available for the Apple Watch. This has better device navigation flows and an improved Control Centre. Activity sharing will now allow users to share things like workouts and other activities, and even allow you to communicate with friends and family over activity achievements.
There is a Breathe App for help you through deep breathing session in addition to a new Reminders app and Find my Friends app. There is even an added SOS feature to dial emergency contact numbers.

Star features include a quick reply button for pre-written reply texts and a scribble feature for handwritten replies There is a new dock feature as well.

With the smartwatch being the latest pillar in the market, the company is certainly and obviously paying attention to making the experience better and taking it to the next level.

tvOS 10

The operating system meant for smart Apple TVs has been improvised as well. The newer on has expanded Siri capabilities, single sign-on authentication, and a dedicated Apple TV Remote app for iOS devices.

Siri can now search for shows by topics, can help with your YouTube searches and help manage your HomeKit accessories. It also has the capability of connecting with a phone for better typing options, in addition to a ‘dark mode’ for a darker shaded interface.

tvOS: Back in the day Apple predicted that apps will be the future of TV. They certainly have stoo by that and now the channel provided via apps on the Apple TV have increaded to 1,300 from 80, since the last WWDC.

Better Siri integration and a tad bit of cool features added. Not much going on there to boast about, but since smart TVs aren’t really that big a deal in the market right now, we can maybe expect more, a lot more, in the future.

Other important announcements:

• Apple Pay is now available on the web, via MacOS Sierra, enabling users to pay for purchases made on the web via Apple Pay. The OS shall use a connected iPhone for the touch verification, or an unlocked Apple Watch, to authenticate the payment made.
• On iOS 10, Quicktype keyboard is smarter, with more contextual predictions
• On iOS 10, the ‘Raise-to-wake’ feature wakes up the smartphone by you having to simply raise your wrist.
• Notes, Clock, and Phone have been updated with newer versions.
• A new feature on the iOS 10 will automatically transcribe an answer phone message left by a caller on your phone.
• HomeKit gets a Home app for you to control all your internet-of-things gear. Say hi to Siri in the morning, and it can now set your house ready for you to get going.
• The SwiftPlay Playground is a new app on the iPad which enables kids to learn how to code in swift using their iPad. “The game-like app lets you learn different principles, like loops or turning specific features (such as gravity or gyroscoping) on and off,” as explained on TheNextWeb. It is all ready to turn your kids into tiny coders with iPads.

WWDC conferences are held by Apple every year and traditionally the focus of the conference is to showcase the software that the company has been working on. This gives us an idea of what we can expect from the company in the near future, and from the looks of it, most of it is pretty damn cool.

Originally published at Chip-Monks.