SAN JOSE: Making its software easier to use and with more functionality has been Apple’s top mission over the past year and today (Monday) at its Worldwide Developers Conference 2019 (WWDC 2019), the Cupertino-based company raised its silver cloche dome, revealing all the major updates it has for its iPhone, iPad, Macs, Apple TV and Apple Watch.
As usual, Apple CEO Tim Cook took the centre stage to announce what the company has been working on for the past months.
The keynote address started with a black and white video on how Apple app developers from all over the world and with different background work hard, burning the midnight oil to come out with the best and meaningful apps for people to use.
“You make the world a better place, and that is why we're here this morning,” said Cook to about 5,000 excited and cheering developers that filled up the entire massive hall of the San Jose McEnery Convention Center.
He continued by recapping and updating what Apple had launched during its March special event, which include Apple News, Apple Arcade and Apple Card.
Apple TV
Cook started the first announcement with the update on the Apple tvOS, previewing the tvOS 13.
Apple wanted to make its Apple TV more appealing to users and this time Apple previewed its tvOS 13, the operating system that makes Apple TV 4K the easiest and most personalised entertainment device for enjoying TV shows, movies, music, photos, games and apps on the biggest screen in the home.
With tvOS 13, Apple TV 4K gains an immersive new Home screen; multi-user support for customers to access their own TV shows, movies, music and recommendations; support for Apple Arcade; expanded game controller support; and new 4K HDR screen savers filmed under the sea.
Cook received huge cheers when he announced that the Apple TV now supports Xbox and PS4 controllers.
WatchOS 6
Another major announcement made by Apple is the WatchOS update, with new features such as Period Cycle Tracking, Noise app, Activity Trends and App Store on the Watch.
The watchOS empowers Apple Watch users to better manage their health and fitness, and gives access to dynamic new watch faces and the App Store directly on Apple Watch.
“Apple Watch has become an indispensable part of our customers’ everyday lives, from helping users stay connected to the people and information they care about, to inspiring them to live a better and more active day,” said vice president of technology Kevin Lynch.
He started by giving participants a new look on the watch faces, namely a gradient face, a big numerals face, a new digital face, a "California" dial, and solar face.
Next, Apple brought in Dr Sumbul Desai to talk about health features on the Apple Watch.
She explained that the new Cycle Tracking app gives women the ability to log important information related to their menstrual cycles and see predicted timing for their next period and fertile window using the convenience of Apple Watch.
The daily log function enables the quick addition of information related to the menstrual cycle, including current period, flow, symptoms, results from ovulation prediction kits and other elements of fertility tracking. The new Cycle Tracking feature is also available in the Health app on iPhone with iOS 13.
App Store is also coming to Apple Watch, where users can install them directly from the Watch. They can install apps by double-clicking the bottom button.
iOS 13
Apple senior vice-president of software engineering, Craig Federighi was on stage to give a preview of Apple’s new iOS 13.
The new OS features a dramatic new look for iPhone with Dark Mode and new ways to browse and edit photos, sign in to apps and websites, and navigate the world with an all-new map. iOS 13 is faster and more responsive with optimisations across the system that improve app launch, reduce app download sizes and make Face ID even faster.
“iOS 13 brings new capabilities to the apps you use every day, with rich updates to Photos and Maps, and p
rivacy-protecting features like Sign In with Apple, all while delivering faster performance,” said Federighi. “We’re excited for customers to experience what’s coming to iPhone this fall and can’t wait for them to see how great everything looks in Dark Mode,” he said while showing how beautiful the dark mode is on the iPhones.
Dark mode is a new dark colour scheme that works system-wide and across all native apps to deliver a great viewing experience, especially in low-light environments. It is available to third-party app developers for integration into their own apps and can be scheduled to turn on automatically at sunset or at a certain time.
Besides that, Federighi also talked about new updates win photos, where by using on-device machine learning, Photos curates the entire library to highlight the best images, automatically hiding clutter and similar photos to showcase significant events from the past day, month or year.
“Photos and videos are intelligently organised, making it easier to browse, discover and relive favourite memories, with auto play videos to bring the library to life,” he said.
With iOS 13 also, Portrait Lighting adjustments can be made right in the Camera app to virtually move the light closer to sharpen eyes and brighten and smooth facial features, or push the light farther away to create a subtle, refined look. A new High-Key Mono effect creates a beautiful, monochromatic look for Portrait mode photos.
More secure sign-in
To protect users identity and data, Apple is introducing a new, more private way to simply and quickly sign into apps and websites via Sign In with Apple.
Instead of using a social account or filling out forms, verifying email addresses or choosing passwords, customers can simply use their Apple ID to authenticate and Apple will protect users’ privacy by providing developers with a unique random ID. Even in cases where developers choose to ask for a name and email address, users have the option to keep their email address private and share a unique random email address instead.
Sign In with Apple makes it easy for users to authenticate with Face ID or Touch ID and has two-factor authentication built in for an added layer of security. Apple does not use Sign In with Apple to profile users or their activity in apps.
New Map experience
Apple Maps also got an update with broader road coverage, better pedestrian data, more precise addresses and more detailed landcover.
The new map is available now in select cities and states, and will roll out across the US by the end of 2019 and to more countries in 2020.
Powered by the new base map and high-resolution 3D photography, a new Look Around feature delivers beautiful street-level imagery of a city with smooth and seamless transitions.
iOS 13 brings additional new features to the Maps app, including Collections to easily share favourite restaurants, travel destinations or places to shop with friends, and Favourites for navigating to frequent destinations, such as home, work, the gym or school, with a simple tap from the launch screen.
iPadOS
Apple has decided it’s time for iPad to have its own OS to give it a better capability.
The powerful OS with a new name to recognise the distinctive experience of iPad. iPadOS builds on the same foundation as iOS, adding powerful new capabilities and intuitive features specific to the large display and versatility of iPad.
Introducing new ways to work with apps in multiple windows, more information at a glance on a redesigned Home screen and more natural ways to useApple Pencil, iPadOS also benefits from the great new updates in iOS 13, making it the perfect device for consumers and creative pros alike.
“iPad transforms how people work and express their creativity, and with iPadOS, we’re taking it even further by delivering exciting capabilities that take advantage of its large canvas and versatility,” said Federighi.
The Home screen has been redesigned with a new layout to show more apps on each page. Today View can now be added to the Home screen, allowing quick access to
widgets for at-a-glance information, including headlines, weather, calendar, events, tips and more.
Besides that, iPad users can now work with multiple files and documents from the same app simultaneously with updates to Split View, or can quickly view and switch between multiple apps in Slide Over.
Federighi said Apple Pencil is even more integrated into the iPad experience.
“Customers can now mark up and send entire webpages, documents or emails on iPad by swiping Apple Pencil from the corner of the screen,” he said.
A redesigned tool palette gives quick access to tools, colour palettes, shapes, object eraser, a new pixel eraser for removing any part of a stroke and a ruler for drawing perfectly straight lines. Apple Pencil feels even more natural, using advanced prediction algorithms and optimisations to reduce its industry-leading latency to as low as 9 milliseconds.
Catalina is here
The latest version of the world’s most advanced desktop OS is MacOS Catalina.
Packed with cool new features, fresh new apps and powerful new technology for developers. With macOS Catalina, Apple is replacing iTunes with its popular entertainment apps — Apple Music, Apple Podcasts and the Apple TV app. The all-new Sidecar feature enables users to extend their Mac desktop by using their iPad as a second display or as a high-precision input device across creative Mac apps. New security features keep users better protected and Voice Control lets users control their Mac entirely with their voice.
“With macOS Catalina, we’re bringing fresh new apps to the Mac, starting with new standalone versions of Apple Music, Apple Podcasts and the Apple TV app,” said Federighi.
“Users will appreciate how they can expand their workspace with Sidecar, enabling new ways of interacting with Mac apps using iPad and Apple Pencil. And with new developer technologies, users will see more great third-party apps arrive on the Mac this fall,” he said.
New Mac Pro
WWDC is known as a software event for Apple, but this time, Apple has decided to introduce its most powerful computer ever - the Mac Pro.
It’s a completely redesigned, breakthrough workstation for pros who push the limits of what a Mac can do, and unveiled Apple Pro Display XDR, the world’s best pro display.
Designed for maximum performance, expansion and configurability, the all-new Mac Pro features workstation-class Xeon processors up to 28 cores, a high-performance memory system with a massive 1.5TB capacity, eight PCIe expansion slots and a graphics architecture featuring the world’s most powerful graphics card.
It also introduces Apple Afterburner, a game-changing accelerator card that enables playback of three streams of 8K ProRes RAW video simultaneously.
The Pro Display XDR features a massive 32-inch Retina 6K display with gorgeous P3 wide and 10-bit colour, an extreme 1,600 nits of peak brightness, an incredible 1,000,000:1 contrast ratio and a superwide viewing angle, all at a breakthrough price point. Together, the new Mac Pro and Pro Display XDR are the most powerful tools Apple has ever put in the hands of pro customers and will change pro workflows forever.
“We designed Mac Pro for users who require a modular system with extreme performance, expansion and configurability. With its powerful Xeon processors, massive memory capacity, groundbreaking GPU architecture, PCIe expansion, Afterburner accelerator card and jaw-dropping design, the new Mac Pro is a monster that will enable pros to do their life’s best work,” said Phil Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing.
Tools for developers
Apple also unveiled several innovative technologies that make it dramatically easier and faster for developers to create powerful new apps.
SwiftUI is a revolutionary development framework that makes building powerful user interfaces easier than ever before.
ARKit3, RealityKit and Reality Composer are advanced tools designed to make it even easier for developers to create compelling AR experiences for consumer and business apps.
New tools and APIs greatly simp
lify the process of bringing iPad apps to Mac. And updates to Core ML and Create ML allow for more powerful and streamlined on-device machine learning apps.
“The new app development technologies unveiled today make app development faster, easier and more fun for developers, and represent the future of app creation across all Apple platforms,” said Federighi.
“SwiftUI truly transforms user interface creation by automating large portions of the process and providing real-time previews of how UI code looks and behaves in-app. We think developers are going to love it,” he said.