Apple’s World Wide Developer Conference 2019 Round-Up

Yesterday in Sunny San Jose Apple kicked off their annual World Wide Developer Conference showcasing everything we can expect to see from them in the coming months.

Here’s a quick run through of everything that was announced at this year’s WWDC…

Software

iOS13

Apple’s newest software upgrade for iPhones has a range of new features from minor tweaks to functionality to some big UX and privacy changes. Apple kicked off the conference by announcing a number of new functions featuring in the OS including – a new swipe-style keyboard called QuickPath, a refresh for the Photos app to help organise images better, new Maps tools, more complex Siri Shortcuts functionality and enhanced security features. Oh and not forgetting you now have further functionality to customize your Memoji avatars!

However, the most exciting and eagerly anticipated change to iOS13 (well the one the SixPorts team were most excited by) is Apple’s biggest visual update since the last iOS – a system-wide dark mode!

The iOS13 developer beta is available from today, with the final version being released this fall. You can download the iOS13 beta now here.

MacOS Catalina

Apple also announced a brand-new Mac OS which has been unveiled as Catalina (named after the Californian island!). The OS has finally killed off iTunes and most notably introduces a new Music, Podcasts and TV app.

One of the most significant changes to the new MacOS is in Apple’s UIKit framework named Project Catalyst (Previously Marzipan) – This means that only one development team is required to develop apps for the iPhone, iPad and Mac.

“One development team, for the first time, can create a single app that spans from the iPhone, to the iPad to the Mac,” said Federighi.

A real game changer.

Catalyst will be available to developers today on MacOS Catalina.

WatchOS 6

The Apple Watch software also got a small bump of upgrades with new first-party apps such as Voice Memos, Audiobooks and a dedicated Calculator app. The upgrade also includes a new range of watch faces and complications with new health and fitness features such as new Trends, Highlights and Favourite views. No groundbreaking announcements here.

tvOS 13

Surprisingly tvOS got some great functionality improvements. Including an “up next queue, a new Control Centre which lets viewers switch between profiles (yes, just like Netflix).

Another cool feature that tvOS 13 got was support for PlayStation and Xbox One controllers which allows functionality for gaming.

Hardware

All-New Mac Pro

Apple’s biggest announcement, cheered by the audience was the unveiling of the all-new modular Mac Pro. The stainless steel and aluminium tower boasting a 28 -core Intel Xeon processors, 1.5TB of RAM, 4TB worth of SSF storage with modular configuration allowing for 8 PCI expansion slots and a brand-new custom Apple card called Afterburner. Oh, and it…looks strangely like a giant cheese grater.

The Mac Pro will start at $5,999, but the top spec is estimated to be much greater. Available in the fall.

Pro Display XDR

Alongside the Mac Pro, Apple revealed a 32-inch, 6K display screen called the Pro Display XDR which has more than 20 million pixels!

The Pro Display XDR will also be available in the fall and starts at $5,000.

Privacy

Apple has put a great emphasis to address privacy issues this year, changing the way apps use location data and the methods you log into apps. This began with the announcement that you can now choose to give information about your location to an app “just once”, stopping it from constantly being able to know your location when using it.

Apple also launched a new “Sign in with Apple” feature which allows users to log into apps and services masking your personal details. It will utilise Face ID allowing users to log in but not share any personal information (a rival to using Facebook or Google single sign-on).

There’re tons of other features announced which we will be discussing in the coming weeks. But it’s clear Apple really pulled out all the stops at this WWDC!

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