Thoughts on WWDC
Reception
This year's WWDC has been the most well received in the media and amongst Apple fans and critics that I have experienced, since I started following Apple closely in 2009. Everyone from geeks to consumers to journalists and even Android fans have expressed overwhelmingly positive thoughts about what Apple showed us on Monday.
Many have called it the "new Apple" and a "fresher and younger Apple", and the presenters have been uniformly complimented for being secure and in a good spirit on stage. It was like they knew that we'd like, what they had to announce. And it showed.
This is a more relaxed, less control-freaky, younger and funnier post-Jobs Apple. The company is moving ahead, and they are moving in a very good direction. Developers were given 4000 new API's and Apple is giving back so much control to the developers that it's almost unbelievable. Users can now download and install third party keyboards on their iOS devices! Who had seen that coming?
I haven’t ever been this excited by a software announcement from Apple.
I'll go through some of the announcements in this post.
OS X Yosemite with iOS 7 design
Apple chose my favorite name for the new OS X. I think it's a great name, and I really like the new theme of Californian places. I can't help but think of this as a way of reminding everybody that Apple is like home while Samsung, on the other hand, is not (for Americans that is). It's a tough game in tech industry and Apple is playing it.
The new design for OS X Yosemite is pretty cool. I have installed the beta, and I must admit, it takes some time getting used to. The system font (I think it’s actually not Helvetica Neue but Apple Sans) and the iconic red, yellow and green buttons on windows have been changed. I think I like it. The translucency is cool and not over the top. My first thought was that this would really shine on a Retina Display (I have it installed on an Air).
Like many others have pointed out, it's more of an evolution than a revolution. OS X still had shadows around the windows and most things are where they used to be. And that's a good thing. OS X is not a mobile operating system and thus shouldn't mimic iOS too much.
'Continuity' between iOS 8 and OS X
'Continuity' was by far the most surprising feature for me. I had heard no rumors about this at all, which is impressive, considering how big of a deal this is. Continuity does what I have always wanted my Apple devices to do: Integrate seamlessly with one another.
Since getting an iPhone and a MacBook in 2009, I have seen this as a huge opportunity for Apple. The more their devices integrate, the more powerful the so-called "halo effect" will be (ownership of one device leads to the purchase of more devices).
I use iMessages on my Mac every single day, and I absolutely love it. I’m also getting more and more fond of the iWork apps (Pages, Numbers and Keynote), which I have used quite a lot in the past couple of months. I love that I can just work, without ever saving any documents, and continue working on any of my devices at any time. It’s a great experience. Apple is now adding regular SMS messages to iMessages, which make it even more powerful. You can also now make and answer calls from your Mac, when your iPhone is nearby. These are features that I have been longing for since 2009. I rely heavily on everything staying in sync and being able to do everything from everywhere. Now I can make a call for a dinner reservation, while browsing for restaurants on my Mac - even while my iPhone is charging in another room. That's just awesome.
As if that wasn’t enough, continuity will also help you continue your work when switching from device to device. It will prompt you with an icon of your home screen (that you can chose to ignore if you want) if you leave an open email or document on your mac. Start writing on the Mac, and swipe up on the home screen on your iPad or iPhone to continue. Simple and powerful.
Extensions and Kind of an iOS File System
Apple announced a new API called Extensions. Basically, it allows an app to call in a feature or "Extension" from another app. That means that you can work on one file in different apps without having to duplicate the file. The whole underlying way of handling files have been changed. When you work on a document in Pages, you can choose to open that very same document in another app. You'll be able to put effects from Camera+ on a photo in your camera roll. And you'll be able to share a photo directly on Instagram, Path or Foursquare at the press of a button, without ever switching apps. Imagine the possibilities. Apple must have been working on this for a long, long time. And in many ways, this is a much bigger deal than last year's visual overhaul of iOS was.
Photos On Steroids
This year's WWDC announcements show that Apple cares a lot about photography. Actually, I think photography is the new "music" for Apple; something they want to be recognized for and that attract a certain demography of users. Like musicians, photographers are in the creative business, and that has always been an important target group for apple. The changes to iOS and OSX this year make it a heck of a lot easier and more fun to be a photographer using Apple devices than ever before.
The Photos app will get a good update on iOS, but even better; it’s coming to OS X as well. This is exactly what I was hoping for. Apple didn’t mention iPhoto or Aperture, which means that they are betting all their resources on the new Photos app. As i wrote in my WWDC expectations post, Apple should let Adobe handle the professionals and instead focus solely on consumers and photo enthusiasts. This move is so clever and so much what I hoped for that I can’t even believe they did it.
The new Photos app is getting loads of powerful editing features but at the same time it will be simple and easy to use for most people. You can easily apply filters or change things such as brightness, contrast and colors. And the best thing is that you can dive deeper into the editing and adjust really advanced things such as shadows and highlights and exposure. All editing is of course non destructive and synced between all your devices. Edit a photo on iOS and those edits will be immediately available on your Mac and iPad as well. And as I mentioned earlier, you can even apply filters from other apps without ever leaving your camera roll. Almost too good to be true.
Which brings us to the other really big deal with Photos: It's all in the cloud! Everything, from photos to videos and even RAW images from a DSLR camera is stored in iCloud. One central storage location accessed and editable from all devices. This was my number one wish for iOS and OS X. It will make it such a joy to edit photos on an iPad Air with that amazing screen. The caveat is that you'll only get 5 GB for free, which is not enough for many users. Prices for bigger cloud storage plans are reasonable, though, with 20 GB coming in at $1/mo and 200 GB for $4/mo. Most people will probably opt for the $1/mo option or none at all. And that's a shame, because that one dollar a month will make life as an iPhoneopgrapher so much easier. People should think of it as more on an insurance. Personal data is becoming increasingly important to us, and I can't say enough great things about having everything backed up in the cloud. Compare to other "physical" insurances and those 12 bucks are suddenly minuscule. And your data is probably irreplaceable unlike many things covered by your home insurance. But that's a topic for another day.
Messages On Steroids
A great update to iMessage was announced as well. And it is one of my most used apps, so I'm very happy to see Apple put so much work into improving it. You'll get an improved keyboard that's even better at autocorrecting and has an extra row of buttons for word suggestions in the top. Even better, we'll now be able to "walkie talkie" each other by simply holding down and releasing on the new microphone button in iMessage. This is SO great when you only have one hand free, or when driving or bicycling. You can send short video clips in the same way. Just hold down and release.
iMessage will now also sync regular SMS messages across all of your devices. Your iPhone simply pushes the green bubble to the cloud, which then pushes it to your Macs and iPads. And of course you can reply to green bubble messages from any device as well. This is such a useful feature. iMessages also now lets you share your current location, browse through attachments in a thread, name group messages, leave or mute threads and reply directly to messages without ever leaving the home screen or currently active app. So many great enhancements for a heavy iMessage user like myself.
Other New OS X Stuff
There’s a new Notification Center that’s better than the old one, and it lets you install widgets. Safari is also improved with better usability and faster speed. You can now scroll between tabs, if you have too many open to show on one bar. This works unbelievable well; even in the developer preview. Mail has supposedly gotten an overhaul too. Apple has focused on better sync and “the basics", they say. I don’t notice much of a difference in on my beta installation, but it’s way too early to tell.
Spotlight has become awesome in Yosemite. You can do unit conversions, Wikipedia lookups and much more. It’s Spotlight on steroids. I’m really happy to see Apple improving basic stuff like this. They are not afraid to leave the old behind, and that’s fantastic. Another important improvement is the new iCloud drive that works across Apple devices. It’s like Dropbox with 5 gb for free and 200 gb for $4/mo. A pretty reasonable price. I will probably get this, since I’m already paying for the current iCloud upgrade of 15 gb for $3/mo.
Other cool stuff and features (some that weren’t even mentioned)
AirPlay doesn’t required a wifi connection. Yes, it is now able to beam the audio via a peer-to-peer connection. This is quite a big deal, but Apple didn’t have time to mention it on stage. This makes AirPlay awesome for car radios, headphones and other gear that aren’t stationary and connected to wifi all the time.
Siri is always listening, when your phone is charging. That is, you can say “hey, Siri” and it will beep and start listening to commands. You don’t have to touch the phone; it will automatically wake up as soon as it hears those words. Do I have to mention that iPhone 6 will not have to be plugged in? It’s almost too obvious that the software is ready, but the current Apple devices suck too much power, because they lack some dedicated always-on-microphone like the one in the Moto X smartphone.
Location based easy-acccess to apps on the home screen. Several users have reported that iOS 8 have been showing the Starbucks app, when they visit Starbucks. The app icon appears on the home screen similar to the camera icon but on the left side. Another user is reporting that he saw his local train app appear in this same way. It looks like those “location services” are starting to work some magic. This is one step closer to a Google Now.
Instant HotSpot is a new feature that again ties iOS and OS X devices closer together. No longer will you have to manually enable internet sharing on your iOS device. Your Mac will be aware of your iPhone when it is in proximity and be able to connect to it without you ever touching your iPhone. That is, you can leave it in your pocket. While Bluetooth has always been able to do this, Apple is taking this to WiFi, which is way faster.
A new programming language. Apple announced the successor to Objective C, the language that have been with us for 15 years. It’s called swift, and developers are going nuts over it. It’s supposed to be really simple and awesome. This is such a big announcement in itself.