Apple's WWDC21 Keynote: thoughts

Hi All,

Apple's last event in April gave us AirTags, colourful new iMacs running the M1 chip (which was announced at Apple's One More Thing event last year), a new Apple TV, a new iPad Pro, and last and definitely least, the purple iPhone 12. I missed that event as I was on my honeymoon, but I'm back and just as excited as ever to bring you my thoughts on the keynote at WWDC21. Lots of people are waiting on the announcement of the rumoured MacBook Pro 14" and its 16" sibling, but will we see them today? iOS 15 is sure to be announced, along with updates to the various OSs that Apple owns (tvOS, macOS, iPadOS).

As I have said before, this is WWDC and so there are too many features to mention and review individually- I'll cover the highlights here. Let's get to it!

The event pre-introduction was a very cool animated version of the above banner image. Developers 'imagine' the introduction video to WWDC, sharing their ideas and Apple bringing their musings to life. Their ideas are, well, interesting, and the video ends with the statement 'Here's to crazy ideas'. Tim Cook is up first talking to a room full of Memojis (lol) about Apple's latest work in the community, and then he quickly passes to Craig to talk iOS.

iOS 15

Craig goes straight into ways that communication can be improved, seeing as virtual communication has become so much more important in the last year or so than it already was. Spatial audio is coming to FaceTime, along with two mic options (Voice Isolation to, well, isolate your voice, or Wide Spectrum, to pick up all ambient sound) . FaceTime calls now have links that can be joined from all devices, including Windows and Android devices! That's pretty big. SharePlay brings shared music, video, and screen-sharing to FaceTime. SharePlay has an API so that 3rd party content providers can also share content via FaceTime- it's not limited to Apple content. SharePlay looks very cool- although to be fair I don't use FaceTime very much, so not sure how often I'll use the new features. Seems to be Apple trying to find feature parity with other video-calling apps, but is it a bit late? Cool features nonetheless.

Craig introduces Mindy to talk Messages. Mindy introduces some new ways that images and links are shared on Messages, such that they are contextually presented to users with information as to who shared it- like presenting songs that were shared with you when you open Apple Music. Lastly, photos that are 'important to you' are automatically introduced to your photo library from Messages- not sure how I feel about this one but they're clearly marked so easy to fix if needed. Back to Craig.

Notifications are getting a fresh coat of paint. You can schedule a summary once a day, to get all your notifications, while not losing important notifications from people. New notification management tools are available, including Focus modes that will segment which notifications should or shouldn't come through. Focus modes can let people know that you're focusing, so that they understand why you might not respond straight away, but they can always force a message through if they need to get in touch. Focus can also reorganise your Home Screen to help you focus on the things you want to focus on. There are four default Focus modes, but you can also create your own custom ones at any time. This is pretty interesting- I'll definitely give it a go.

Photos gets updates as well. Live Text uses OCR to pull text out of live scenes in the moment and your library, so that you can select text from within pictures, including calling phone numbers, copying and pasting text, and pulling info from text in multiple languages. You can also lookup information on different objects, including dog breeds, landmarks, and other similar objects. This is very, very cool. Lots of applications where this will be super handy. Spotlight can find text in photos using this same technology. This is awesome. Moments get an update, and Apple Music has been integrated into Photos so that Moments have Apple Music songs instead of Apple's default songs. Moments are updated as you change songs, with photos and pace matching the music.

Apple Wallet is adding Ultra-Wideband support to car keys so that it's easier to open your car with your phone. Hyatt hotels are bringing your hotel key automatically to Wallet when it's time to check in, even if you're not at the hotel. In selected US states, you will soon be able to add your licence to Wallet- bring this to Australia please Apple! Or should I instead be asking Australian transport departments to go digital first?

Weather is getting a new design, with new, detailed graphics for more granular information. There are more weather backgrounds, and integrated weather maps for those interested. Hopefully Australia gets all of these changes too.

Maps is bringing a globe to Apple Maps, similar to what Google Earth looks like when zoomed out, as well as 3D-like versions of famous landmarks in some cities. New detail is coming to Maps, including clearer lane guidance, something that will be good once it's widespread. Let's be fair though- will it convert many people to Apple Maps? I still use Google Maps, and might give some of these features a go if/when they're available to me, but I'm not convinced.

AirPods are getting some airtime. Conversation Boost allows users to focus their hearing on the person in front of them while wearing AirPods, and Announce Notifications will announce notifications you choose straight through your AirPods. AirPods Pro and AirPods Max can now be found on the Find My Network, something lots of people will like. Spatial audio is coming to tvOS and macOS devices with the M1 chip. Dolby Atmos is available on Apple Music from today.

Verdict: See below- the keynote mixed lots of iOS features into the iPadOS announcement, so I've provided a verdict for both together.

iPadOS

The iPad Home Screen allows widgets to be placed anywhere on the iPad Home Screen, and iPads will get larger widgets that aren't available on iOS. App Library comes to iPad. Multitasking gets an update, with a dedicated multitasking menu that appears in apps, making enabling multitasking easier. The Shelf shows all open windows on iPad- this seems cool! You can create a Split View screen directly from the App Switcher as well, and new keyboard shortcuts allow for more flexible work.

Notes is getting Mentions, so that you can mention other people in your collaborative notes. Quick Notes allows users on iPad to write notes quickly and easily, without navigating to the Notes app. Quick Notes can be created on macOS and iPadOS, and can be viewed and edited on iOS. Translate is coming to iPad, and can now do system wide translation.

Swift Playgrounds is getting an update- now allowing users to build apps on iPad! It even works with Xcode on Mac- although I'm not sure how comprehensive this will be. It seems like a cool tool, but I'm not sure how much full-time developers will get out of this.

Privacy updates. On Mail you can now block invisible pixels in emails from tracking you. The App Privacy Report in Settings shows how often apps use a whole host of your information, making it easy to see what apps are snooping on your info- or not. Siri now does on-device speech recognition, meaning Siri can do some things offline, and that your voice is never recorded on servers.

You can now add iCloud Recovery Contacts so that people can help you get back into iCloud if you ever lock yourself out. Digital Legacy allows you to set a contact that can manage your information if/when a user passes away. iCloud+ is a new subscription service that brings several privacy features to users, including a Private Relay service that appears to be similar to a VPN, and a Hide My Email feature that creates a proxy address that forwards to your personal email- this seems similar to what we already have as a part of Sign in with Apple. These will be included with existing iCloud subscriptions at no extra cost.

Over to Health now. Walking Steadiness will advise you if there are any changes to your balance, stability, or gait that you should monitor. Health is also getting Trends, similar to what already exists in Fitness. Some Health data can, when you choose, also be shared with selected doctors. You can share your Health data with family.

Verdict: I'm excited about a few things in iOS 15/iPad OS, and I will be downloading the beta onto my iPhone this morning.

watch OS 8

Kevin Lynch up to talk about watchOS. Reflect is part of a new Mindfulness app, helping users focus and be more centred. As part of your sleep tracking, Apple Watch can now help you monitor your respiratory rate. Fitness+ has a few updates, including new workouts and the Artist Spotlight Series, putting a focus on certain musicians. watchOS 8 brings a new Portraits watch face to users- it's quite cool, so hopefully you have some portraits to use for it! Photos for watchOS has been redesigned, including making it easier to share photos from Apple Watch.

Verdict: Quite boring. Apple Watch does everything I need it to though, so I can't complain too much.

HomeKit

HomePod mini can now be used as the audio out for Apple TV 4K. Siri is coming to third party devices using HomeKit. Matter is a new industry standard for devices for the home, and support for Matter is coming to iOS 15.

Verdict: I can't comment much, as I don't really use HomeKit. Doesn't seem too big, although Siri on third party devices could be good, and the Matter could be great if the industry does truly adopt it widely.

macOS 12 Monterey

Craig is back to talk macOS. The latest version of macOS brings a lot of the same features that have been mentioned above in the iOS and iPadOS sections. Universal Control means you can move one mouse and one keyboard from your Mac to your iPad and vice versa. You can use the keyboard and trackpad on your MacBook to control your iPad when you're using them side by side, and even drag and drop files between the two devices! Universal Control works with more than two devices, so you can add an iMac into the mix as well if you're feeling productive, or just want to show off the feature because you can. macOS Monterey is bringing Airplay to Mac, so you can share from your devices to your Mac. Shortcuts is coming to Mac, and it looks like Apple has done a good job of integrating them in a seamless way.

Safari has had a redesign, and it looks great. Tab Groups is a nice, easy way to group your Tabs in ways that you can reopen them later. Seems similar to bookmarks- I'm not 100% clear on the difference. This redesigned Safari will propagate across iPadOS and iOS, bringing more consistency to all your devices. Web extensions are coming to Safari on iOS and iPadOS. I'm keen to have a play with this. The tab bar on iOS looks weird, so I'll be interested to see how it feels.

Verdict: Outside Safari, and maybe Airplay, not too much for the average user.

Developer Technologies

This is specifically for developers, so might not be too applicable if you're not interested in tech. Lots of new APIs, as well as Object Capture- a way to build 3D models automatically from just photos of said object. Swift is getting Concurrency. The App Store is getting some new features, allowing devs to target screenshots and icons, as well as displaying content on the App Product Page in new ways. Xcode Cloud is a new service that can automatically build your app, meaning your Mac is free for other tasks, and tests are completed in parallel. All developers working on the project can see commits quickly, and Xcode Cloud can automatically propagate new TestFlight releases. This is pretty cool! Xcode Cloud is coming to all developers next year, with pricing to be announced before then. TestFlight is also coming to the Mac.

Back to Tim to conclude. Developer beta out today and public beta in July.

Overall thoughts

WWDC 21's Keynote was alright, and another recorded event- I wonder if that will be the new norm or if it will go back to an in-person conference at some stage. I honestly expected some more major features, but there were some gems in there that will be quite handy. iOS 15 looks great and I'm looking forward to getting it on my iPhone (Dev Beta 1 here we come). Biggest disappointment? No new MacBook Pros- hopefully there's another event soon to fix that! Potential dark horse feature: iCloud+. Funniest moment of the event? Hmm, maybe the Memojis in the crowd at Steve Jobs Theater. Most underrated features? The way shared links are integrated with apps, that seems pretty well thought out. And Live Text seems awesome- I'm really keen to have a play with it.

Thanks for reading, and until the next Apple event, enjoy your Apple products! ?