Apple WWDC 2014 Live Blog: Follow All The News As It Happened

Apple started Developer Conference season with a bang this morning at the 2014 WWDC keynote. We were there with all the news as it happened. Check out all the minute-by-minute coverage, and all the screengrabs you can handle.

All times below are in AEST.

We have added headings so you can browse the live blog more easily.

Pre-Show

12:30pm, 2 June
What do you want to see from WWDC 2014? Tell us in the comments!

1:15am, 3 June

It’s ON!

1:18am

People are already lining up for the WWDC keynote, a whole two hours before it starts.

Good seats are important, folks!

1:22am

Looks like we’re going to be hearing about Carplay today. There’s a goddamn Ferrari California in the lobby!

1:23am

Here’s another.

1:24am

Remember, we’re officially kicking off the live blog at 3am AEST. You can follow along here and leave comments below on what you want to see or what you like (or dislike!) so far.

1:24am

If you want, you can head over here and check out how to live stream the event for yourself!

1:25am

This guy’s dog is pretty keen. Wonder what he’s hoping to see.

1:26am

We’re hearing rumours that OS X 10.10 will look a lot like iOS in the Keynote today. Read the full story.

1:27

Here’s what we’d love to see in today’s Keynote. What are you looking for?

2:20

40 minutes and counting!

2:23

Here’s your first look at the new Mac OS X 10.10, reportedly named ‘Yosemite’ after the national park.

2:45

15 minutes and counting!

2:50

The live stream is up! Time to get into it.

2:55

2:57

Time for another Coldplay song before the press conference kicks off, says Apple. So far we’ve had everything from Bastille to Haim to entertain the masses of developers. It’s huge!

WWDC 2014 Kicks-Off

3:00am

Here we go!

3:01am

And we start with a video about what people think a developer looks like. Treé hipster.

3:03

The moral of the story? No matter what a developer looks like, everyone uses apps and stuff.

3:04

3:05

Holy crap. There’s a kid on the live stream controlling his bionic arm with an iOS app…insane.

3:06

Tim Cook is up!

3:07

Tim Cook’s annual thanks to developers. Now he’s talking about the 25th anniversary of the conference.

It started in 1990 with 1300 developers to talk about the System 7.

3:09

“This morning, we’re talking about two platforms. OS X and iOS.”

3:10

We’re now talking about year-on-year growth of the Mac versus the industry. There are now 80 million Mac installs out there.

Mavericks is also doing well. 40 million copies have been installed since October.

3:11

Time for the annual dig at Windows: 51 per cent of people are updated to Mavericks, while only 14 per cent have Windows 8 upgraded despite a longer lead time.

Mac OS X 10.10 Yosemite

3:12

Time for Craig Federighi to talk about “the future of Mac”!

3:13

Craig reveals the new name, based as ever on a cool place in California.

OS X Oxnard? OS X Rancho Cucamonga? OS X Weed (big cheers for that one from stoner devs!).

Nope. The new OS X is called Yosemite!

3:14

There’s a new design, new interface and something new called Continuity. Wonder what that includes…

3:15

Time for a video on the design of Yosemite.

There’s a new font, new Dock icons, transparent sidebars, a better Notification Center and loads more. Massive applause.

3:16

It’s super-flat, very iOS 7-esque.

3:18

There’s also now a “Dark Mode” with black toolbars and a black dock.

3:19

The new Notification Center includes the “Today” view as in iOS 7. Going to come in very handy for lovers of iCal.

3:20

Spotlight search is also changing. Instead of a small toolbar at the top right of the screen, you get a GIANT toolbar in the middle of your screen for searching and launching apps.

3:22

We’re now getting a demo of Yosemite! It’s quite purdy.

3:25

New feature: iCloud Drive!

Basically, it syncs all of your iWork documents to iCloud, and gives you access to the documents across all of your Macs and iOS devices, as well as Windows!

3:26

Apple is also allowing Mail users to encrypt and store their Attachments in iCloud in a new feature called Mail Drop.

Rather than bounce large attachments to another person, you can have them download it safely from iCloud.

3:27

Mail users are also going to get a new feature called Markup which allows you to scribble on your trackpad to circle stuff and sign documents and whatnot.

3:28

Safari in Yosemite is also getting some work done, with the top Bar getting all shrunk-down and compact. Favourites are now hidden inside your address bar, and the search bar allows you to include Spotlight and web results.

Safari now also has sharing options that allow you to subscribe to RSS feeds and send stuff to different people who will now appear in your menu.

Tab View is a new feature that stacks all of your tabs in the one area so you can see your full workspace.

Private Browsing (aka Porn Mode) allows you to break one particular tab out in

You’ve also got WebGL and HTML5 Premium Video which allows you to stream Netflix without a plugin, leading to a claimed 2 hour boost in battery life when streaming.

3:31

Time for a demo of Safari!

Continuity

3:36

Onto Continuity. Just what the hell is it?

3:37

Apple wants you to sync all of your stuff seamlessly, so Airdrop now works between the Mac and iOS.

There’s also a new feature called Handoff. Basically, your iPad knows what you were doing on your Mac, and allows you to seamlessly swipe up to get your Mac view on your tablet.

It goes vice-versa too: if you’re finishing an email on your iPhone, you can swipe up on your Mac and get your email on the desktop too.

You’ve also got something called Instant Hotspot now too. Your Mac now figures out what your iPhone is and sets up a hotspot automatically so you can quickly jump online. You don’t have to touch it.

Messages for Mac is also getting a tune-up, with the iMessage service now allowing you to get your text messages onto the desktop using your phone as a relay.

Your iPhone will also now be relaying calls to your Mac so you can use it as a speaker phone to make and receive calls.

You can also now call numbers from your Mac either from Contacts or on the Web.

3:40

Time for a demo of Continuity!

3:42

Craig just dumped a call from his Mum! What a douche. Always take time for your Mum kids. (Except for right now. Because it’s 3am.)

3:42

Hey look. It’s Dr Dre’s phone number.

OS X Yosemite Release Date

3:44

Of course, there’s a developer preview of Yosemite today, but us regular people get it for Free in the (Australian) spring.

There’s also a public beta program coming for non-developers at apple.com/osx/preview.

iOS Versus Android

3:45

Tim Cook is back, and we’re talking iOS!

3:46

130 million customers have joined Apple in the last year thanks to iOS alone, Tim says.

Many of these customers were switchers from Android.

“They bought an Android phone…by mistake.”

3:48

Tim Cook bringing the smug amazement hard to the hoop today.

3:49

Here’s the Android dig: less than 1 out of 10 customers are on the latest Android software compared to 9 out of 10 for Apple’s iOS.

3:50

Tim Cook says that Android users are crazy insecure as Android plays host to 99 per cent of mobile malware. The fandroids are about to storm San Francisco…

iOS 8: What Users Get

3:50

iOS 8 is here, and Craig is back to talk about features for us.

3:51

Notification Center now has interactive notifications that let you pull down and respond to the event or message right in the notification.

It’s worth noting that BlackBerry 10.3 introduced that too.

Apple is also letting you pin the top 10 people you talk to on your notification screen when you double tap the Home Button.

3:52

Tab View for Safari is also coming to Safari for iPad.

3:53

Swiping down when composing a new message in Mail now allows you to tuck that draft message away, giving you access to the rest of your inbox.

3:57

App Store and iTunes Store recommendations are now included in Spotlight, as are movie listings, business listings and contacts. You’ve also got Google Now-style cards to give you info.

3:58

Here comes a new feature called QuickType for the keyboard. Do iOS users finally get Swype?

3:59

Nope. Looks like Quicktype is another element borrowed from BlackBerry: it’s a predictive keyboard that learns how you type, and goes further to look at the context of a conversation to answer questions.

Time to reteach my iPhone all of my favourite swear words.

Apple is keen to point out that none of your keystrokes ever leave the device, and there’s Australian language support out of the box!

4:00

You can now remove yourself from Group Messages, name a thread, add Do Not Disturb to each individual thread to tell it to shut up and share your location within the Messages app.

You’re also getting an Attachments view.

Tap-to-Talk is a new feature, which lets you capture voice or video and then send it within Messages.

Time for a demo!

Those messages — be they either Voice or photo or video — now self-destruct when you want. Much like Snapchat’s new update.

4:06

Now Craig’s back talking again about iCloud Drive for iOS 8.

iOS 8 In The Enterprise

4:07

Time to talk Enterprise. You know. Business stuff.

4:08

Take a moment right now and have a look at the many faces of Craig Federighi throughout this press conference. He looks like a Pixar character.

4:09

iOS 8 will have expanded security mode, VIP threads for Mail that notifies you for specific messages and Automatic Reply for Exchange, Free/Busy information in Calendar and 3rd-Party document provider support.

One enterprise guy claps at the back of the room.

Health

4:10

Health time! Ready to get your lunch cut, developers?

4:10

It’s called HealthKit for developers. It’s a single place that applications can use to contribute to a single compiled repository of your metrics. You’ve also got a new app called Health for end users that can be fed by Nike+ and other walking and sleeping information.

4:11

Apple is also working with the Mayo Clinic to get stuff like Blood Pressure readings and push it back to the device’s Wellness Plan to make sure that doctors and patients are more closely connected when readings are taken. (Rather more use in the States than elsewhere.)

4:12

RUN AWAY

Family Sharing

4:13

There’s a new mode for people with kids called Family Sharing.

That allows you to set up your family unit on iOS, giving you shared calendars, shared Photo Streams, Find My Friends and find devices.

It also repackages Home Sharing to let you share your purchases across your family unit.

You can have up to six family members on the system that share the same credit card.

No more accidental in-app purchases either: whenever little Jimmy wants to buy something, he has to ask you for your permission before it goes through.

Photos

4:14

Photos and iCloud are now working together to push your photos to every device.

iOS 8 Photos also has beefed up Search which lets you find snaps by time, date, months, locations and albums.

There’s a new Smart Editing control panel to fix up light and colour, as well as auto-straightening and cropping.

4:19

There’s a new photo app for the Mac coming soon with iCloud in mind. Helps you get all the photos from your mobile device onto your PC.

New iCloud Pricing

4:21

There’s new iCloud prices on the way, too. $US0.99 for 20GB.

4:22

Siri is also getting an update, mercifully with a new Shazam function.

iOS 8: What Devs Get

4:23

Back to Tim for more info on what’s new for developers in iOS 8.

There are now 1.2 million apps on the App Store with 300 million customers a day who have downloaded 75 billion apps so far.

The store is getting better: there’s continuous scrolling lists now, related searches, top search terms, Editor’s Choice apps and a new Explore tab.

Developers can also have App Bundles so users can buy multiple apps at once.

The TestFlight beta distribution service is now built into the App Store to make beta testing way easier.

4:27

The SDK is getting a massive update for developers. It’s the “biggest update since the release of the App Store”, according to Tim Cook.

4:28

Craig is back to talk more about the SDK.

There are 4000 new developer APIs (!!!!)

4:29

Extensibility is one that allows apps to hand off stuff to other services. Extensions now live in Application Sandboxes, and use iOS’ security mechanisms to get data shared from other apps.

Third-party apps can now also define widgets in Notification Center.

Time for a demo!

4:32

We just saw a great way to use Widgets in Notification Center with an eBay widget that allows you to place a winning bid without opening the app itself.

4:33

System-wide third-party keyboards can now be installed. Hellooooooo Swype for iOS!

4:34

Third-party apps will now be allowed to take advantage of TouchID. Basically, it allows apps to unlock items stored in the Keychain password repository.

Apple is quick to say that the TouchID data is never exposed outside of the Secure Enclave of the processor.

4:35

Camera APIs are also being updated for people to get access to advanced camera features.

4:36

HomeKit is a new API that will control smart home gadgets centrally.

With one Siri command for example like “get ready for bed”, Homekit turns down your lights, closes your doors and turns down your thermostat.

Gaming With Metal

4:38

Onto new gaming facilites. It’s called Metal. *guitar twang*

4:38

Metal reduces the overhead taken up by OpenGL and lets the game use more compute power from the A7 chip for faster end-user gaming.

EA, Unity, Crytek and Epic Games have also been working with Apple for a few weeks. They’re bringing console-level games to iOS.

We’re watching a demo of Plants Vs. Zombies. EA’s Frostbite engine is working on an iPad!

4:40

Tim Sweeney, founder of Epic Games is here to talk about Metal.

We’re getting a demo of a Zen Garden game demo on an iPad, which is rendering thousands of objects at once with no lag or delay.

That Zen Garden app will be available with iOS 8 in the Store as soon as it ships.

4:44

For casual game developers, there’s a new piece of kit called SpriteKit with better light sources, field forces and per pixel physics.

Apple is also bringing SceneKit to the SDK for 3D scene rendering in casual games.

Apple’s New Programming Language: Swift

4:45

Onto Xcode and Objective-C, the Apple programming language of choice.

4:46

Apple is dropping Objective-C and moving to a new programming language called Swift.

It’s faster than Objective-C and Python.

It sits right next to C code and Objective-C in the same application, and reduces coding time with a simplified language.

Swift also allows a huge amount of interactivity as you write it. We’re getting a demo of that right now.

As developers start typing, Xcode runs the code as you type build it.

4:54

Good to see that Apple kept the “Developer” in the Worldwide Developer Conference this year.

iOS 8 Release Date

4:55

iOS 8 is available to everyone in our Spring, and there’s a Developer Beta out…you guessed it…today.

4:56

Tim Cook is back wrapping it up.

4:56

IMMA LET YOU FINISH

End Of Support For iPhone 4

4:55

Apple just killed the iPhone 4…

Wrap-Up

4:56

Tim has his preachy-pose on.

4:57

Tim invites all the Apple employees to stand up at WWDC, everyone gives them a big hand. Thanks you guys!

4:58

And that’s all she wrote! Thanks for joining us this morning at Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference 2014.


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