Apple holds two events every year in which they’re expected to bring out new products, with the last one being in March and the second one of this year expected to be in September. In addition, they also hold an annual Worldwide Developers Conference, or WWDC for short, in which they announce all the new software developments and what’s in store for their products.
This year’s WWDC took place from the 13th-17th June in San Francisco, and those interested in the products definitely should have been paying attention to what Apple’s announcing.
Here are five things that Apple announced in this year’s WWDC that I think you need to know about.
Siri, meet Mac
Siri is coming to the Mac. Whilst Apple didn’t announce any new Mac computers, they did announce that the next edition of the operating system will be called macOS Sierra, and with that, Siri is coming to the Mac, and will be able to complete tasks like searching documents, searching web images and starting FaceTime calls. The new macOS Sierra debuts later this year, with the developers edition available now and the beta version being made available in July.
[video:https://youtu.be/nFUc6EC4hmY]Siri, reimagined
There was another key announcement about Siri. Siri is being opened up to developers. It’s not just Siri making a debut on the Mac that got a lot of people pretty excited. Siri is being opened up to developers to enable integration. For example, it will soon be possible to ask Siri to book a ride for you using Uber.
A brand new iOS
iOS 10 is coming this autumn. The new iOS sees a huge range of additions to the operating system, including the new Home app to control smart home devices, a redesign of Apple Music and the News app. Photos are also gaining new features, like Memories, to help you remember old photos, plus the addition of Apple Pay to shopping online (not just in app and in store anymore).
[video:https://youtu.be/PERPpFWHnDM]New messages
But one of the biggest new additions in iOS 10 is possibly the redesign of Messages.
The app is getting a lot of new features when the new version of the operating system arrives. New additions include the ability to send full screen animations to celebrate occasions (for example, if you send ‘Happy Birthday,’ balloons will float up across the screen), the ability to hide a message and only make it visible when the recipient swipes over it, as well as handwritten notes and automatic suggestions to replace words with emoji.
In addition, Messages is getting the power of the App Store, so developers will now be able to allow users to send different types of messages within Messages, which possibly will include stickers, GIFs and even payments.
Coding app
Finally, Apple is launching an app to teach students how to code, known as Swift.
Swift is Apple’s programming language that is used by developers to make apps for Apple devices. The new app, called Swift Playground, will be made available for iPad, and the app will include programming lessons developed by Apple, where learners will code graphical characters to do certain things.
It’s already available in the iOS 10 Developer Preview, and will be made available in the public iOS 10 beta in July, before finally being released on the App Store in the autumn.
What were your takeaways from WWDC? What are you looking forward to? Have your say in the comments section below.
