Apple WWDC 2020

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Overview

  • markdown documant for WWDC 2020.

This markdown might focus on the writer’s experience, prefered platforms, or the writer’s personal expressions.

WWDC 2020

iOS 14

Summary

New Features

New design for incomming calls

Incomming calls including the calls from third-party apps will now appear on the top of the screen like an general app notification.8

App Library

The additional screen at the end of the screens organizes all the instaled apps automatically by using folders and on-device intelligence. Users can also turn off the other app screens and keep only one page. The apps that are not reachable can be access from search.

Widgets on Home Screen

The widgets comes with variety of sizes. Users can add widgets by entering Edit Home Screen mode. There is a special widget called Smart Stack. Smart Stack is like a folder for widgets that users can swipe on the widgets to transfer from one to another. It also changes them automatically using on-device inteligence.

PiP (Picture in Picture)

Users can play videos wile using other apps. When the user presses the home button or swipe up to go to home screen, PiP will be enabled. Netflix on iPad already has similar thing, so if anyone is interested in using this function ahead without using a Beta software, can try it out.

Translate App

The translation app focused on conversations, not only prases. This app can work fully offline to enhance privacy. It uses neural engine and on-device machine learning to provide the best result between any supported languages. Personally, the best part of the app is supporting Korean, since Apple seemed to not care South Korean markets and also, I can translate to other languages offline when I’m traveling other countries using my first language.

Digital Carkeys

Apple added the digital car keys. It uses NFC to work, and it can fully replace the function of the carkeys. If you lose the digital carkey, they can be disabled via iCloud. It can be shared via iMessage with controlled access. Users can restrict driving profile. Apple is working on setting this to standards for digital carkeys. They are also using U1 chip included iPhone 11 series to give users ability to unlock the door and start the engine while their phones are not on the charging pad. For other iPhones that doesn’t have U1 chip, the phone has to be on the charging pad to start the engine of the car.

App Clips

App Clip is a small part of the app. It is a small-sized app (10MB or less) that can be instantly launched by tagging NFC tags, from webpage using Safari, App Clip Code, and in more ways. It does not require other apps to be pre-installed and it also supports Apple Pay for the payment method. It also uses Sign in with Apple, so users doesn’t have to loggin to the app. From newly added App Library, users can launch recently used App Clips. It is also a easy way to discover new apps that users might be interested in.

Updated Features

Updated UI for Siri

The new Siri UI does not launch as full-screen, but a small overlay on the screen. The result for the command also appears on the top of the screen.

On-device dictation

The dictation function got moore accurate and now uses on-device machine learning for better privacy.

Pinned conversation in Messages app

Users can now pin the most important conversations in Messages app.

Additional potential customizable Mimoji

Apple has added more than 20 choices to Mimoji in iOS 14.

New maps available in more Countries

The new style of map will be available in more counreies:

  • Canada
  • England
  • Ireland

Guids for Maps

The guids for places on map will be available for cities around the world. They will be automatically updated when new places are newly added.

New ways to get to the Destination on Maps

The new ways that can reduce carbon footprint when getting to destination is addedd; Cycling and EV routing. The map will show the summary of the path using inclines on the Cycling option as well. The Cycling will be available in New York City, Los Angeles, San Francisco Bay Area, Shanghai, and Beijing. If the user owns a electric car, the maps will automatically track the current battery level and add the suitable charging station on the way to the destination based on the model of the car that user has.

CarPlay

Ther are some new features added to CarPlay in iOS 14. From option to change wallpaper, split screen to re-thinking the car keys.

Supported Devices

  • iPhone 6S, iPhone 6S Plus and iPhone SE (First Generation)
  • iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus
  • iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus and iPhone X
  • iPhone XR, iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max
  • iPhone 11, iPhone 11 Pro and iPhone 11 Pro Max
  • iPhone SE (Second Generation)

iPadOS 14

Summary

iPadOS has all the features from iOS 14 and has some additional features.

New Features

Improved Apple Pencil usage

Note app now recognizes hand writting like an typed document. Users can select by word or line. iPad uses on-device machine learning for hand writting recognition. the hand writting detecter also converts phone number, addresses to appropreate data type so that users can easily use the information they have wrote.

Scribble for iPad

Users can handwrite into any text field using Apple Pencil. It automatically converts it into typed form. It is much easier to erase the error in the text field using Apple Pencil as well. Users can scratch on the word to erase it. Scripbble recognizes multiple languages at the same time.

Updated Features

On the newly added side bar, all the core functionality of the app is located on it. It helps to organize the materials as well. The new design is similar to the ones on macOS. To change the view options, there is a designated button on the top bar that also allows the quick changes between modes.

More new feature to Siri

The result of Siri interaction appears on down right corner off the screen, above the siri icon

Search screen that appears when the user flicks the screen down has been re-designed. It will not blur the background of it anymore, and will appear as an popup screen. It has become more similar to macOS’s Spotlight. It also has become Universal Search as well. It can search basically everything on the iPad storage and on the web.

Personal Thoughts

As Apple has announced the migration to ARM Architecture (Apple Silicon), they have used A12Z Chip for the prototype and runed full macOS on it. They also redesigned many of iPad Apps similar to macOS. I personally think apple will use Z serise of A Chips for future iPad Pro devices and Macs. Since Apple has been advertising their iPad Pros as their next computer, iPad Pros might come with two different forms. iPad Pro running custom macOS with many IO devices (They might introduce this as Apple’s new entry level Mac device), and iPad Pro running custom iOS(iPad OS) with Apple pencil. Everyone will know that processers in iPad Pro is very powerful and already shows better performance than some x86 chips. They have also added ability to use their Magic Mouse and Magic Keyboard directly with iPad OS. This might be totally wrong, but I think this is pretty much possible for Apple to do.

Supported Devices

  • iPad (5th Generation)
  • iPad (6th Generation)
  • iPad (7th Generation)
  • iPad Air 2
  • iPad Air (33rd Generation)
  • iPad mini 4
  • iPad mini (5th Generation)
  • iPad Pro 9.7-inch
  • iPad Pro 10.5-inch
  • iPad Pro 11-inch (1st Generation)
  • iPad Pro 11-inch (2nd Generation)
  • iPad Pro 12.9-inch (1st Generation)
  • iPad Pro 12.9-inch (2nd Generation)
  • iPad Pro 12.9-inch (3rd Generation)
  • iPad Pro 12.9-inch (4th Generation)

AirPods Software

Summary

Most of the updates were about AirPods Pro, but rest of the series also got some updates.

Automatic Switching

AirPods will automatically connect to Apple device that the user is using, without the user maually reconnect them. For example, if a user finishes listenign to music on their iPhone and start watching a show on their iPad, AirPod will automaticaly disconnect from the iPhone and connect to iPad. If the iPhone starts ringing, AirPods will automatically connect to the iPhone again.

Spatial audio for AirPods Pro

By using spatial audio algorithm that Apple has developed, Users can experience the surrounding audio from their AirPods Pro(Movie theatre-like experience). It uses the accelerometer and gyroscope inside AirPods Pro to keep the direction of the sound fixed even if the user moves their head. It also consideres the movement of iPad or iPhone that the show is being played from, so the sound stays in sync. The point of this new technology is to keep the users in the middle of the action, whereever the user goes. Spatial audio will be able to work with contents that are encoded to 5.1, 7.1 and Dolby Atmos.

macOS 11, Big Sur

Summary

New Features

Enhanced Privacy on Safari

The new tab on the top of Safari shows the trackers the current webpage has. The users can give each extensions for Safari permission to work on. For each extension, users can choose between Allow for One Day, Always Allow on This Website and Always Allow on Every Website

Customizable start page for Safari

  • Option to choose between original background, curated background image, and custom background images
  • Available to add new tabs

Extensions for Safari

  • Each extension has their individual buttons
  • Each extension won’t do anything without permission

Inteligent tracking prevention for Safari

  • You can check the number of known trackers that Safari has protected from the webpage
  • It also provides details for each trackers
  • Users can also see privacy report easily

Built-in Translation

If Safari detects that the language of the webpage is not the user’s language, it provides the button to translate the page on smart search bar.

Updated Features

New UI Design

This version of macOS has a whole different design from macOS Catalina. From the corner radius of the app icons, new symbols (similar to the ones in iOS and iPadOS), shadows, depth, transparency, and new material that can deliver better lighting experiences. The main concept of this version of macOS’s design seemed like reducing the complexity of the screen so the users can focus on the content better.

Control Center

They brought control center to mac on the top navigation bar of the OS so users can have access to all the controls without visiting to settings app.

Remastered Sounds

They have remastered and changed the sound effects in the macOS such as airDrop, notification, emptying trash can, and all other sounds.

New Embeded App icons

The icons for all embeded apps(maps, message, safari, facetime, etc) have been changed so it matches the concept of the icons from iOS and iPadOS. They are similar to each other, but Apple has added some details to macOS icons so it can still have unique look.

Mac Catalyst

Catalyst helps app developers to bring their apps from iPad to macOS. The apps created using Catalyst runs nativly on macOS and gives the developers more permissions to do thiings

Supported Devices

  • MacBook (20015 and later)
  • MacBook Air (2013 and later)
  • MacBook Pro (late 2013 and later)
  • Mac mini (2014 and later)
  • iMac (2014 and later)
  • iMac Pro (all models)
  • Mac Pro (2013 and later)

One More Thing

Apple Silicon

Summary

Apple has announced the migration from Intel cpu to ARM-based Apple Silicon. All previews of new macOS during WWDC2020 was running on A12Z based mac. They revived the software Rosetta 2 and binary called Universal 2. Rosetta 2 is the software that automatically translates existing Intel based programs to run on Apple Silicon and Universal 2 is the binary that runs on both Intel based Mac and Apple Silicon based Macs. The transition will take about two years.

For Developers

Developers all over the world can apply for DTK(Developer Transition Kit) hardware on developer.apple.com that has form of Mac mini, but runs on A12Z SoC with 16GB memory, 512GB SSD, and macOS Big Sur devoper beta + Xcode. Apple will be shipping the units this week(week of June 22nd, 2020). Apple Silicon DTK

For General Users

Apple’s first Mac with Apple Silicon will be shipped out by end of this year(2020). They will still support and release the new macOS(s) for next few years, but eventually macOS will fully migrate to Apple Silicon and stop the supports for Intel Macs like they did when they migrated from PowerPC to Intel.