WWDC 2024 →

A quick rundown of all my most-anticipated announcements (and unannounced tidbits) from WWDC 2024:

visionOS

  • Mac Virtual DisplayHuge updates for productivity!
    • Mouse Support — This makes working with Vision apps and Mac Virtual Display way more seamless.
    • Wide and Ultra Wide Screen Options — YES. I can easily see myself downgrading from the 16-inch screen to 14-inch for my next MacBook Pro.
  • New GestureWay easier and efficient to invoke Home View and Control Center! Also alleviates my annoyance with how inefficient it was to see the time.
  • Create Spatial PhotosFucking. Awesome. All of my food photos can be transformed with AI into Spatial Photos. I've already done a few and this is just mind-blowing. It's hard to describe, but the experience is somewhere between looking at a two-dimensional photo and actually being there in the moment.
  • Rearrangeable Home View
  • New Bora Bora Environment — Great addition! These immersive environments are going to be such delightful additions like getting new watch faces in watchOS.
  • AirPlay Receiver — Not sure exactly how I will use this but I appreciate any feature that let's me bring non-AVP things into my AVP.
  • Improved Hand Tracking — Upgraded from 30Hz to 90Hz to make my hands feel more realistic when immersed. (For context, Meta Quest is 60Hz.)
  • Improved Full Screen Videos in SafariHuge improvement for watching videos on YouTube, Hulu, and other streaming services that can only be played on AVP via Safari. This gets the YouTube experience from completely unbearable to totally doable. Nothing will beat a native app but this is good enough to significantly increase my AVP usage.

Apps

  • New Passwords AppGoodbye, 1Password! For me, this will be a game-changer for helping me manage my parents' passwords.
  • Messages Improvements — Some of these are catch-ups but some are also enhancements to subtly keep iMessage blue bubbles positioned above SMS/RCS green bubbles.
    • Scheduled MessagesFinally. I constantly find funny links that I want to send to certain friends but know it's inappropriate to text late at night.
    • Easier Tapbacks — Love to see iMessage adopt this from Slack/Discord.
    • Text Effects — This will be fun to play around with.
    • Messaging via SatelliteWow. Maybe I can start doing more outdoorsy, off-the-grid type things when I travel?? Very curious to see how this evolves.
  • Reminders in CalendarGoodbye, Fantastical! This alone will save me $57/year.
  • Math NotesGoodbye, Soulver! (Assuming this works as I hope it does.)
  • Highlights in Safari — A welcomed enhancement for browsing websites. I like how Apple is using AI to enhance the web instead of trying to replace it like Open AI and Google.
  • Redesigned Photos — The navigation is controversial but customizable so we'll see how this pans out.

iOS & iPadOS

  • Home Screen and Control Center CustomizationsFinally. Not sure how much I will personally use these new options but this should've been implemented years ago.
  • Customizable Lock Screen Buttons — I'm looking forward to replacing the bottom-left Flashlight button with Camera and the bottom-right Camera button with Overcast. This just makes so much sense for me when I'm taking food photos with my left hand or opening Overcast when I get in my car.
  • Lock/Hide AppsFinally. Also, this will be awesome for parents who let their kids play with their phones.
  • Remote Screen Control during Screen ShareHuge for being our parents' tech support.
  • Vocal Shortcuts — Custom voice trigger words!
  • Custom Charging Limits — A nice little improvement for maintaining battery health.
  • T9 Dialing for iOS — A nice little quality-of-life improvement that is a welcomed copy from Android.
  • Calculator App for iPadHoly. Shit. A basic calculator app should've been added over a decade ago but they just dropped this bomb like Taylor Swift.
  • Smart Script for iPad — As someone who has struggled with chicken-scratch handwriting all my life, this thing is absolutely mind-blowing.

AirPods

  • Head GesturesWow. Such a brilliant feature to answer/reject voice calls.

tvOS

  • Subtitles on Mute — A delightful enhancement for such a common use-case.
  • InSight for Apple Originals — This won't replace Callsheet for me because it won't have actor ages and heights, but this is a welcomed enhancement that I could see being added to to any video played in the TV app.

watchOS

  • Double Tap for Third-Party Apps
  • Live Activities
  • Distance and Route Maps for More Workouts
  • Vitals App
  • Custom Ringtones and Text TonesFinally.

macOS

  • iPhone MirroringWow. Apple's Continuity continues to be the gift that keeps on giving! I totally expect this to come to Apple Vision Pro but I'm also curious to see if this will eventually evolve into something like Samsung DeX.
  • iOS Notifications on MacFuck yeah. Back in 2011, I wrote about how redundant push notifications will be a problem. Apple went a different route than I proposed but I'm here for it!
  • Window SnappingFinally. Not sure if I will personally use this but this is a welcomed copy from Windows.
  • Keep Downloaded for iCloud Files — Big quality-of-life improvement for managing offline assets that are hosted on iCloud Drive.

Apple Intelligence

  • Onscreen Awareness and Personal Context — Because the system has an understanding of what you're looking at, what your tendencies are, and what actions your apps can do, Siri can take action inside and across apps. Fucking amazing and I'm dying to play around with it.
  • ChatGPT Integration — It's here! It's free! And it's private. (Love how it'll seamless upgrade to ChatGPT Pro too.)
  • Priority Notifications — Curious to see how this pans out, especially with the auto-summaries.
  • Reduce Interruptions Focus Mode
  • Clean Up in PhotosFinally we'll be able to remove people and things from our photos in the native Photos app.
  • Smarter Search in Photos — I just want to be able to say, "Siri, show me everything shot on this day."
  • "Siri, how do I…?"Huge for my parents.
  • Genmoji — This honestly might replace GIF reactions for me in my daily interactions. Can't wait!

Overall, this would have to be one of the best WWDCs I've seen. It had an excellent variety of quality-of-life improvements, nice catch-ups from Android, meeting AI expectations, and a few mind-blowing announcements. Can't wait to get my hands on the public betas!

WWDC 2019

Here's a quick rundown of my favorite updates announced at Apple's annual WWDC.

tvOS

  • Xbox One and PS4 controller support for games

watchOS 6

  • watchOS App Store => Apple Watch Independence!
  • streaming support
  • menstrual cycle tracking

iOS 13

  • system-wide dark mode
  • built-in swipe typing
  • Maps: favorites, collections, street view
  • up to 30% faster Face ID
  • up to 2x faster app launch
  • Sign in with Apple button — privacy-focused version of "Sign in with Facebook/Twitter/Google"
  • HomeKit Secure Video — store videos from HomeKit cameras to iCloud
  • HomeKit support for routers
  • iMessage Profiles — add your own display name, avatar. Only people in your contacts can see this.
  • Memoji — makeup, hats, piercings
  • Memoji stickers — automatically turns your memoji into a sticker pack with all standard emoji facial expressions
  • Video editing in Photos app
  • dual iCloud accounts per device (for personal and work)
  • smaller volume HUD — changing volume doesn't bring the stupid dialog in the middle of the screen

Siri

  • auto-announce messages on AirPods
  • audio sharing — play your music on a friend's AirPods
  • Music HandOff to HomePod — music on your iPhone will continue on your HomePod with a physical tap
  • live radio stations on HomePod
  • Siri Shortcut Events — automatically run shortcuts based on an event
  • Voice ID for HomePod => multi-user support

iPadOS 13

  • multiple windows for the same app
  • easily switching Slide Over apps
  • App Exposé
  • Safari: download manager
  • third-party font management
  • built in Zip/Unzip files
  • three-finger swipe gesture to undo/redo
  • mouse support (hidden as accessibility option)
  • iCloud Folder Sharing
  • network drives support in Files app
  • USB/SD drives support in Files app

Mac Pro

  • starts at $5,999
  • $4,999 - $5,999 for 32" monitor
  • $999 for monitor stand (LOL)

macOS Catalina

  • Project Catalyst and SwiftUI— an easy way for developers to make apps for ALL of Apple's platforms! The future of the Apple ecosystem.
  • SideCar — wirelessly use your iPad as a second monitor
  • full voice control
  • Find My - combines Find My iPhone, Find My Friends into one app. WORKS WITH OFFLINE DEVICES
  • Activation Lock — like iOS, if someone steals your MacBook, you can lock it down so they cannot format your computer.
  • approve with Apple Watch — like Unlock with Apple Watch but for EVERYTHING

ARKit 3

  • people inclusion — people are detected in real-time and AR elements can visibly work around people
  • motion capture for people

Why watchOS 2 Was So Slow →

Jason Snell:

You may not remember this, but before the Apple Watch came out, there were many rumors that it wasn’t able to get through a day without a charge. It’s clear that Apple made battery life a top priority, perhaps even the top priority: This thing better last all day. And so everyone was incredibly conservative with power and memory.

The result: They overshot. Most of the people I know now report that they end their day with their Apple Watches reporting 40 or 50 percent of remaining battery life. Fegerighi admitted that there was a lot of extra memory and battery life available to them when building watchOS 3, because they overshot so much. And that’s why watchOS seems almost impossibly better than watchOS 2, given that it’s running on the same hardware.

Classic approach by Apple — starting too restricted but loosen up over time instead of starting too open and tightening up over time.

Huge props to Apple for showing their ability to correct course.