Apple’s WWDC- World Worldwide Developers Conference- is the first chance we get to see what will be coming in the next versions of iOS and OS X. As usual we expect to get updates on sales numbers, store performance and more. We might even see new hardware today but… Who knows. We’ll have a summary of the news and more.Much has been made of the ho-hum quality of Cupertino’s keynotes since the death of Steve Jobs. And while it would be hard for anyone to follow Jobs and his charismatic showmanship, the critics do have a point. The excitement just hasn’t been there the past few events. Will this year’s break that trend and serve up something exciting? We’ll summarize the news in this post and invite you to join with us in the comments discussing what it all means.
What is going to “Wow!” people? What will make them take a nap? We’ll know shortly.
The event began with a variety of people describing their favorite app on video. A very odd start imo- although the app-controlled hand was pretty amazing. Ultimately a nice hat-tip to the developers creating awesome apps.
Cook is on stage and thanking all the developers.
This is the 25th year of WWDC. The first has under 1500 developers.
9 million registered developers. That’s up 50% over last year.
OX X
Industry declined by 5% but Mac was up 12%.
Mavericks- Released in October. Over 40 million installs since then. Over 50% of Apple install base is on Mavericks.
Now taking a dig at Windows. Windows 8 shipped a year before Mavericks and its install base is 15%.
Craig Federighi
The new OS X name is… OS X Yosemite
New interface, app enhancements and “Continuity”
Yosemite is going “Flat” the way iOS 7 did.
New Dark Mode for Dock.
Notifications has been more deeply developed and customizable.
Spotlight is stealing a few tricks from Launchbar and may replace it for many… including me.
- Search field in center of screen. Type a few letters and launch an app… or find a person.
- Type “Numbers” and it shows you the app AND recent documents.
Calendar has a new day view with appointment details in one glance.
Notification can let you add informational widgets.
iCloud Drive
All your folders that are in iCloud will be shown in Finder.
You can store all your own files in iCloud, use tags and synchronize across Mac- Dropbox Killer?
Uses new UI
Mail Drop- Sends attachments through iCloud and shows up as the file on a Mac or as an attachment link on other devices. The files can be up to 5GB
Markup- Images or PDFs using the iSight camera or the trackpad.
Safari
Everything is condensed into a single bar at the top. Much more powerful, faster and more functions than ever.
Subscribe to an RSS feed right in Safari and it shows up
New private browsing windows
HTML5 Premium- lets you stream video without needing plugins
Continuity
Airdrop now works between iOS and the Mac (YAY!)
Handoff- If working on your Mac, swipe up on your iPad and the document will be there on the iPad. If working on your iPhone writing a message, click on the Mac and the email is on the Mac
Hotsport activation is now one tap
SMS- Non-iMessage messages will show up on all devices
Phone Calls- When you receive a call your Mac shows you caller ID AND you can use the Mac as a speakerphone. It even works when the phone is a distance away.
If you see a number on your browser you can click it and call from your Mac
The switching between iPhone, iPad and Mac is pretty amazing and really locks down the reason you will want to be on one platform/ecosystem.
Yosemite will be free!
And they will have a public Beta program.
iOS 8.0
500 million iPhones sold
130 million people who bought an iOS device in the last year bought their first Apple device.
“Now many of these customers were switchers from Android. They had bought an Android device… by mistake… and then they decided they wanted a better device… and life.”
97% overall customer satisfaction with iOS 7
Almost 90% of people are running the current version of iOS. (Less than 10% of Android users are using KitKat)
Apple does as much as they can to get updates to as many users as possible.
“iOS 8 is a giant release.”
iOS 8 builds on the design of iOS 7.
Refined Notification Center with interactive notifications. Pull down to respond to a new notification. Also works in the lock screen.
Double tap will also let you contact people you most recently contacted.
On iPad Safari gets the sidebar from Yosemite.
Swipe to delete in email.
Swipe down to put current message at the bottom and access the rest of your email.
Mail offers intelligent suggestions for what to do with an email.
Spotlight- much more powerful
Quicktype Keyboard- Predictive suggestions as you type
Continuity also comes to iOS 8
iMessage- Name a thread, add or remove people in a group thread, leave a thread, Mute a thread etc. You can also share your location with a tap.
New tap to talk feature.
iCloud Drive
Lets you work across applications. That means you can share files between applications.
Health
Lots of devices and accompanying applications but up to now the information grabbed by those devices all lived in their own silo.
HealthKit lets applications work together. Health app lets you monitor it all.
Working closely with the Mayo Clinic.
Family sharing of photos, devices, calendar etc.
You can now get at all the purchases of your family. You can have up to six family members sharing the same credit card.
Photo + iCloud means every picture you take will be available on every device.
Enhanced search features in Photos
iCVoud
First 5GB free
20GB for 2.99 a month.
200GB for $3.99 a month.
Siri-
“Hey Siri” is the iOS version of “Hi Google Now” and Siri shows transcription as you speak.
iOS 8 will allow extensions in Safari
And a unique app-connected keyboard will not be permitted.
3rd Party apps will be able to use TouchID