Hello WWDC16: Apple Special Event in a nutshell
Yesterday’s Apple Worldwide Developers Conference, followed a familiar script, with a focus on software applications, operating system, and apps development. In the previous weeks, there have been rumors hinting to Macbook announcements, but, as it turned out, no mention of any new Macs, or iOS devices were made, during the presentation.
With that said, there have been a few noteworthy announcements:
Mac OS X becomes macOS, with just a hint of Windows 10.
In the past months, we have noticed a few hints from some of the Apple support pages, in which the macOS name has surfaced, most likely with a teasing purpose. During yesterday’s keynote, the rumor has been confirmed, with the official announcement of macOS Sierra.
Apple macOS Sierra includes some big changes, that are not entirely unexpected, such as Siri, which is now part of macOS, and greatly enhanced compared to its former iteration. Siri on the Mac hasn’t lost any of the familiar sass we know from iOS. When asked how she feels about being on the Mac, Siri responded with: “...Lots of space, aluminum unibody walls, no complaint about the lack of Windows...“. With that said, Sierra seems to take a few hints from Apple’s rival operating system, Microsoft Windows 10, starting from the Notification Center, which seems somehow inspired by Windows 10’s Action Center, with the difference that the notification center on macOS Sierra looks like a merge between functionalities included in Windows 10’s Action Center and Cortana’s search bar, with the added bonus of being able to pin searches to the notification center for future reference.
Picture-in-picture video playback is also part of the reinvented macOS. Video playing from the web, or from other applications is now able to break out of its host application and play in its separate overlay on screen, while accessing other apps and multitasking, with fullscreen support as well.
Safari and Apple Pay
Apple has been rumored to integrate Apple Pay on the web for some time, and it now official, with a few caveats. Yes, users will be able to make purchases using Apple Pay, from websites, and they will even be able to authenticate using Touch-ID from their iPhones, using near-field communication with their Macs, but unless we get confirmation of the opposite, websites that elect to enable the technology at checkout, can be assumed to be able to let users pay with Apple Pay, from within macOS Sierra, and Safari only. This means that users of other browsers, such as Microsoft Edge, Google Chrome or Firefox won’t get into the action.
On one hand, this makes sense as the technology that enables Touch-ID to function, and make Apple Pay transactions secure, is proprietary and exclusive to Apple, and expanding support of something that is supposed to communicate with third-party hardware, can only go so far in ensuring that the security of transactions is maintained across all platforms, including Windows 10.
Unlock the Mac with your Watch
Apple macOS Sierra is now able to detect the proximity of an authorized Apple Watch, and unlock automatically. This is also one of the ongoing rumors finally confirmed during the conference.
iOS, tvOS, watchOS
“Raise to wake” is a new feature of iOS 10, which borrows from the Apple Watch. As of this Fall, iPhone users will be able to wake their lock screens, by simply raising the iPhone to their faces, in the same way as the Apple Watch screen turns on when raising the wrist to look at the time.
Speaking of lock screen, a whole range of apps will be available without unlocking the iPhone, including Messaging, and the Music App. Third party apps will also get into the action, including Uber and Skype.
With the next version of tvOS, Apple TV users get a dark mode, and the ability to let Siri search YouTube videos, but the one feature grabbing attention, is the single sign-on, which allows Apple TV users to register apps while bypassing the steps normally required to register a device. More specifically, if you have never registered an app on a device like Apple TV or Chromecast, each new service accessed through an app will provide a code that must be entered on a desktop website, which is needed to register the service through the cable provider, or to a subscription service. This process has been streamlined in Apple TV down to a one-step action with single sign-on at the heart of it.
Apple Watch users will also gain some important, and welcome updates, such as an SOS function, which allows the wearer of an Apple Watch to long-press the side button on the Watch, which will trigger the Watch to call emergency services automatically, and at the same time, send a message out with the current geographical position, and medical information, in a similar way as the “Send SOS Messages” on the Samsung Galaxy Gear S2 smartwatch.
Siri and deep learning
As mentioned earlier, Siri has been upgraded and can use deep-learning algorithms such as face and object recognition, as demonstrated during the keynote, where the virtual assistant was able to generate slideshows and galleries from images, and create “memories”, complete with location and contextual information.
Differential Privacy
Apple has invested a great deal into working on methods to allow iOS and Mac users to keep their information private. According to Tim Cook, Apple has worked extensively on what is known as “differential privacy”, which takes into account the handling of private information, and ways to let users access and use that information, without sharing it online.
Many technologies managing private data, process it on cloud servers, to relieve local hardware from the burden of processing it itself, which may lead to slower performance. Tim Cook seems confident that the processing of information can be done reliably and safely, using the internal hardware of Apple devices.
Fighting phone spam
Apple’s collaboration with Chinese telecoms has lead to a feature which could solve a huge problem here in the US too, which is “phone spam”. Spam phone calls can originate from several sources, such as collection agencies, telemarketers, and even con artists. Phone spam is extremely rampant in China, which has created a need for such services.