From iOS 12 to watchOS 5, from macOS Mojave to tvOS 12, here’s everything that was announced at WWDC 2018.
“This year’s WWDC event was characterised by new software updates”
Apple’s annual WWDC 2018 event is finally underway at San Jose in California. The five day event took off with the keynote on June 4th, and will wrap things up on June 8th. Although the event is centred around developers, there are still a few key announcements that are made for the general public. Most of these happen during the two hour keynote itself. As is usually the case, no new hardware product was announced at WWDC this year. In fact, in the beginning of the presentation, Tim Cook went ahead and told everyone present that “it’s all about software this time”.
The company announced updates to its range of operating systems, including new features, new improvements, and new iterations. In case you missed any of the action, we’re here to the rescue. Here’s our bite-sized overview of everything Apple announced at WWDC 2018.
The first major software announcement was about the new iteration of Apple’s mobile operating system – iOS 12. The new update will bring with itself not only a host of new features, but also many under-the-hood performance enhancements.
Apple claims it has worked on providing a noticeable bump in performance in iOS 12. The company claims the new OS would be able to open up the camera application up to 70 percent faster, while the keyboard will be up and running up to 50 percent faster than previous iterations. These performance enhancements will also affect third-party applications.
Apple introduced support for AR Kit 2.0 on iOS 12, and went ahead and introduced a new AR format called USDZ in association with Pixar. Meanwhile, Animojis now offer the options of a koala, T-rex, ghost and a tiger while also bringing in support for tongue detection. Lastly, much like Samsung, Apple has also added the ability to create a custom Animoji resembling the user, and has dubbed this feature as Memoji.
With iOS 12, Apple is bringing the ability to have group FaceTime video calls with not two or three, but up to 32 participants at once. Moreover, talking about groups, there is another area in the OS which is going to see more of them – notifications (finally!). The new OS will group notifications according to app and type, and will allow users to view or dismiss an entire group of notifications at once.
Third-party apps will now be able to add custom responses to the Siri interface, allowing users to perform certain actions by just invoking Siri and asking it to do so. Additionally, users can also create custom shortcuts using the new Shortcuts app. A simple phrase like “I’m heading home” may perform a set of actions like setting the thermostat, giving you directions and what not.
Apple has also announced a new app called Measure, which allows you to take measurements in real life using AI. Then there are updates to the Photos app, Apple News, Stocks, DND, as well as new features like Screen Time control.
The developer preview for iOS 12 is already out, while a public beta will be available later this month. Interestingly, all devices which supported iOS 11 will be updated to iOS 12.
The Apple Watch is right up there when it comes to popularity in smartwatches. Since Apple announced watchOS a few year ago, it has kept it updated regularly with new features. The newest version is called watchOS 5, and here’s a look at its top features.
Looks like it’s time we had some walkie-talkie fun again with this new feature in watchOS. The feature allows users to talk to other Apple Watch users by just tapping the “Talk” icon and speaking. All you need is a Wi-Fi or cellular (on Apple Watch 3 Cellular) connection.
With watchOS 5, you no longer need to start an activity on the watch every time you want to track your workouts. The Apple Watch will intelligently detect that you’ve started a workout and start tracking after a confirmation. Interestingly, it will also give retroactive credit, meaning you’ll get the tracking details of the time before you tapped start. And just like it started, the Apple Watch can also automatically stop tracking once you’ve completed the session.
Apple announced the Siri watch face last year and it was well received by the public. This time around, the company has brought numerous updates to the watch face, including Siri shortcuts, machine learning and other information like heart rate after a workout.
There are quite a few other features in the update as well, including enhanced notifications, and activity competitions, among others. The OS will be available for Apple Watch Series 1 and later, and requires an iOS 12-running iPhone. The original Apple Watch will not be updated to the newest iteration of watchOS.
The new Apple TV now supports 4K content, and comes with support for both Dolby ATMOS for audio improvements and Dolby Vision for the visuals. Do note that you’d require a Dolby ATMOS compatible speaker to make use of the new technology. On the other hand, tvOS 12 brings a feature known as zero sign-on, which detects a user’s broadband network and automatically signs them in to all the subscribed apps. That said, this feature will not be available in India at the moment. Apple has already released the developer preview of the new OS after the keynote.
The macOS Mojave update is probably one of the biggest updates to the macOS in recent times. It brings with itself a wide range of new features, including our favourite…
While the Dark Mode on High Sierra was quite limited, the one of macOS Mojave brings the effects to almost every part of the new OS, including Messages, Mail, Photos and Apple Music, among others.
With the new Dynamic Desktop, the wallpaper of your device will automatically change according to the time of the day. Additionally, Apple has also announced a feature called Desktop Stacks which helps unclutter a messy desktop by grouping icons by kind, date and tags.
There have been a number of minor improvements to the Finder, including the introduction of a Gallery view, as well as a sidebar for more information about a selected file and a group of quick actions.
Taking normal screenshots is way too mainstream. With macOS Mojave, you’d be able to capture video screenshots and quickly add them to files like work documents. Apple has also improved the mark-up facilities to help edit your screenshots.
Adding more substance to its Continuity feature between iOS and Mac, Apple announced something it calls as Continuity Camera.
