Do you really like shiny new Apple laptops? Are you a night owl? Does the Swift programming language get you all hot and bothered? Well, have we got the treat for you: Apple’s WWDC 2016 keynote ran today from 3AM to 5AM. Now that you’re awake (and we’re still awake), come take a look.
21:00, 13/6: Hello folks! You can check back in from 2:30AM AEST — that’s when we’ll be kicking off our coverage in this post. If you’re going to be sleeping and then waking up — like us, fingers crossed — then about now is the time you really should be going to bed. G’night!
By the way: If you’re thinking of watching the WWDC keynote, you’ll either need some kind of Mac or iDevice with access to Safari, or a Windows 10 PC with Microsoft Edge. (No luck, Chrome fans!) Apple’s HTTP Live Streaming protocol only works on these two browsers. — Cam
Here’s what our US cousins are expecting from this year’s WWDC announcements. Here’s what our UK cousins think, too!
Apple Is Reportedly Building An Echo Rival And Opening Siri To Developers
Get Ready For Siri On Your Mac
The general consensus is that we’ll almost certainly get a new MacBook Pro — hopefully with some kind of innovative new technology on board, possibly a new Nvidia or AMD mobile GPU on those companies’ new, efficient process architectures. The MacBook Air is well overdue for a refresh, too — did you know the 2016 model still uses the exact same LCD as the 2010 one?
Beyond that kind of serious, developer-focused hardware, we might see more on the Apple Watch front — if not a brand new Apple Watch 2, then maybe at least some kind of serious overhaul or adjustment to WatchOS. The Apple TV’s tvOS, too, seems in line for some small amount of refreshing, although the 4th gen box already has all the streaming apps we need.
iPhone is Apple’s poster child, and it’d be a weird WWDC without a major iOS version number change. iOS 10, if it comes about, is rumoured to be a relatively small update — but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Siri could be opened up to developers, and we might see Siri make her debut on OSX too, to challenge Microsoft’s Cortana.
Apple has also been doing a little bit behind the scenes on HomeKit, too — its nascent smart home network, mostly tied around the Apple TV as the central smart home hub to control your smart locks and Philips’ new Hue 2.0 lighting. If there’s not some kind of announcement of a widening of the program or new hardware, I’ll eat my hat. By the way, my hat is a delicious croissant.
See you all some time around 3AM!
Scroll down from here to read this morning’s live blog in chronological order.
2:45AM: Morning guys and girls! Who’s awake? It sure is cold.
2:50AM: OK, so I’m actually at my PC now instead of posting from my phone in bed. Warmth being brought to you live by a little Dyson AM09. I’m typing on a mechanical keyboard, too, so here’s hoping I don’t wake up the entire house. The presentation will begin shortly, we’re told!
If you haven’t hit the livestream up already, now is the time:
High five to whoever else in Australia is awake to watch #WWDC2016
— Campbell Simpson (@csimps0n) June 13, 2016
3:00AM: The livestream’s hold music fades down and… we’re off! Apple CEO Tim Cook takes the stage.
Cook is taking a moment before the keynote to honour the victims of the Orlando, Florida mass shooting.
With that done, we’re off to talk about the conference. 70 per cent of the conference attendees are there for the first time. 100 people are under eighteen, and one is only 9 years old. We’re getting a bit of background about the App Store, which started with only 500 apps but now has 2 million. $50 billion has been paid to developers through App Store purchases and in-app purchases.
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“Our north star has always been improving the world.” This is what Apple (and Cook) says the company’s rationale behind changing and updating its devices and communicating with devs and users alike.
3:05AM: Apple is going to talk about four platforms today — the Macintosh, the iPhone, the iPad, and Apple Watch, and Apple TV. I count five platforms, but I guess you can stack both iOS devices together.
WatchOS is up first, and Apple’s Kevin Lynch is first up on stage to talk about it.
3:10AM: Lynch is talking about WatchOS 3, the latest update that brings along instant app launches by retaining the favourite ones in memory. Launching an app from WatchOS takes “a few seconds”, while WatchOS 3 is literally as instant as the screen animation transition. That’s great. Seven times faster, apparently.
WatchOS now has a quickly accessible dock using the side button, and it’s designed to make things much smarter and simpler to get to. There’s also now a control centre accessible by swiping up from the bottom of the screen, just like iOS — a great improvement.
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Apple has had Mickey Mouse as a watch face for a while, but now there’s Minnie, too. There’s a new watch face just for activity, too — and it looks really nice — marking Apple’s intention for watch to be a fitness tracker as much as it is a, y’know, watch.
Apple is also making switching watch faces and customising those faces much quicker.
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3:15AM: Having all the frequently-used apps be live, and instantly accessible, is a huge difference to the way WatchOS used to be; it’s the kind of thing that makes me so much more likely to use my Watch for quick interactions.
We’re now getting a quick run-through of how WatchOS works now, including the new Scribble feature for quick, handwritten responses and inputs.
PS: in case you aren’t already, watch Apple’s WWDC 2016 keynote live.
There’s also a new SOS version where, at the (long) press of a button you’ll be connected to a 911 (000) call, where you can talk with an operator. After that, the Watch will notify your emergency contacts and share your location, and then bring up your Medical ID with personal info to whoever wants to see it.
3:20AM: We’re now getting a run-through of a new Activity Sharing app on WatchOS, which lets you compete — in a Fitbit-esque way — against your Apple Watch-toting friends and family. Aussie personal trainer Kayla Itsines’ Sweat With Kayla WatchOS app is getting a bunch of name-checks throughout the keynote so far, by the way!
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WatchOS is getting a mode specifically for wheelchair users — activity rings optimised for different methods of wheelchair pushes, two dedicated fitness routines for wheelchair exercise, and the option to change “time to stand” to “time to roll”.
Apple’s #WWDC2016 discussion of WatchOS so far has been almost exclusively focused on making things easier for everyone, not just gimmicks.
— Campbell Simpson (@csimps0n) June 13, 2016
There’s a brand new meditative deep breathing app on WatchOS called Breathe. It looks like a great way to take a few minutes out of your day to keep yourself calm and centred.
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3:27AM: Apple is introducing new APIs, including support for Apple Pay and real-time access to fitness apps running in the background, to Apple Watch.
There’s a preview release of Apple WatchOS 3 out today, with a widespread consumer release “this fall”.
Apple’s own Eddy Cue is up on stage next to talk about tvOS. “The future of TV is *apps*.”
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6000 native apps on tvOS in just six months. We usually get a bit left out of the loop with streaming announcements at WWDC, because it’s a US conference for a US audience, but that’s fine. Most importantly so far, Minecraft’s story mode is being added in to tvOS.
Apple is overhauling the Remote app in iOS to suit the Apple TV’s Siri Remote controller, making it so much more convenient to interact with your TV if you can’t find your remote but you have your iPhone handy.
Siri can now search YouTube for relevant voice results. This is awesome. You can also jump straight to specific channels within live, multi-channel streaming apps.
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Single sign-on is coming to tvOS. Oh, thank god. And a dark mode!
3:35AM: “There’s never been a better time for all of you to build apps for the big screen.”… drink.
Apple’s Craig Federighi is on stage to talk OS X. Oh, wow, OS X is getting a new name — it’s now called macOS! We’re going to have to update all our tags.
OSX is now called macOS. We’re going to need a new tag page. #WWDC2016
— Campbell Simpson (@csimps0n) June 13, 2016
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3:38AM: Apple is bringing Apple Watch-based secure automatic sign-on to macOS, eliminating the need for a password if you’re wearing your Watch; it uses “time of flight” networking to ensure that it’s actually you near your MacBook.
Universal desktop — across all your Macs and your iPhone — is a very smart improvement, and it looks like the kind of thing that I’d use across my devices.
Apple’s new Optimised Storage feature is going to offload a bunch of data to iCloud and let you access it on a as-needs-be basis, as long as you have a network connection.
Apple Pay is coming to the Web — the kind of thing that you’d almost assume was already available if you didn’t already know that it wasn’t. When you’re using Apple Pay on the web, with a bunch of different retailers, you’ll be able to use your iPhone’s TouchID fingerprint sensor to safely sign in.
Apple Pay is also coming to Switzerland, France, and Hong Kong.
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MacOS Sierra — that’s the next iteration, by the way — is looking pretty damn refined, but it’s all small changes, which is what OSX macOS needs.
3:45AM: Oh, hi! Siri is on the Mac. She’s been a long time coming, but here she is. She’ll be living on the dock in MacOS Sierra.
Siri results can index files, and you can refine that search, and you can also search the Web (using Safari) and launch specific features within first-party apps (like iTunes).
Some touchscreen replacement features are coming to macOS, using an iPad as a writing tablet. Wireless copy-and-paste from an iPad seems like a pretty nifty, if niche, feature.
Picture-in-picture looks really useful. Here’s hoping it works with Netflix.
Sierra is coming in developer preview mode today, as a public beta in July, and out in wider release “this fall”.
3:50AM: Bam, that was quick, we’re straight on to iOS. And here’s iOS 10!
PREPARE YOUR CRIPPLED ANDROID BODIES
iOS 10 IS HERE
— SecuriTay (@SwiftOnSecurity) June 13, 2016
iOS 10 is getting “raise to wake”, a feature that’ll power on your iPhone and show your lock screen notifications as soon as you pick the phone up and raise your wrist — one of those simple, intuitive things that makes perfect sense once you see it in action.
Slide to the left on your lock screen to launch the camera now, slide right to look at your widgets. We’ve tried this from different phones and it’s a bit janky, but it’s all about smooth animations and we can usually trust Apple to knock it out of the park on that one.
This is pretty much the death of slide to unlock. Good riddance, I guess?
Sliding across to to launch the camera from the lock screen is not good on other phones. Here’s hoping Apple does it smarter #WWDC2016
— Campbell Simpson (@csimps0n) June 13, 2016
First genuinely big applause of the morning: developers are getting access to the Siri SDK. Because Siri understands different modes of language, it’ll make app-specific messaging work smoothly. God, you’re now able to message on Slack and order a ride on Uber using Siri — this is the way it should have been from the start!
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Apple’s QuickType is getting an overhaul with a bit of Siri love, although it’s more about branding than it is voice recognition — something called “LSTM” means you’ll be able to directly share your location when someone asks “where are you?”, and it knows the difference between “the Orioles are playing in the playoffs” and “the children are playing in the park”.
4:00AM: One hour into the keynote, we’re getting some more updates to Photos on iOS.
Memories are location-specific, “beatifully laid out” moments on your Photo Roll, with quick links to photos of specific people and a map of the location of the photos themselves, and a quick link to other related memories with the same people in them. Photos will now automatically build you a movie — using photos, Live Photos and video — of your capital-M Memories.
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Memories can now also dynamically re-build your movie based on a few key words with bespoke music, including… “Epic”.
4:06AM: Eddy Cue is back and we’re talking about Maps.
You can make a reservation through Maps using popular booking apps like OpenTable or Zomato, and you can book a ride through Uber within the Maps app. These extensions are open to all devs, too.
On to six out of 10 cool things about iOS 10: Apple Music! It has 15 million subscribers in its first year, and that makes it the fastest-growing service of its kind. It’s also getting a complete overhaul, which none of its competitors have had in their first year…
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Oh, god, there’s a clap-along to Rapper’s Delight.
Apple Music now has integrated, scrolling lyrics. Not that these devs are going to sing along, but anyway.
New Apple Music looks so much more refined. The original was more than a little clunky, but I did love it. The new interface looks pretty damn slick.
This new version of Apple Music looks *so* much more refined. Why didn’t it launch with this? #WWDC2016
— Campbell Simpson (@csimps0n) June 13, 2016
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4:15AM: Now we’re talking about Apple News. Hey, we’re on Apple News!
News has 60 million monthly active users. It’s getting an overhaul like everything else, making it a little clearer.
Apple News is also getting subscriptions, for mags like National Geographic. Apple News is also getting breaking news integration, with push notifications straight to your lock screen.
4:18AM: Bam, we’re on a roll and we’re straight on to Apple’s HomeKit. The “next big step for iOS in the home” is a great new app called Home, right on your iOS home screen.
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Philips may have started this a little while ago, but now Apple is on board with new Scenes directly accessible from the Home app, and that Home app integrating itself into your phone’s control center and notifications appearing on your lock screen. Everything revolves around your Apple TV, which is your HomeKit’s smart hub.
4:23AM: Phew, that was quick! We’re now on to Phone. Doesn’t Apple know that no-one uses the phone part of the iPhone any more?
We’re now on to Messages. Rich links are coming to Messages, woohoo! Are we about to hear about iMessage for Android? GET HYPE.
Emoji are three times bigger in your iMessage transcript, and there’s now emoji prediction, and emojification — yep that’s a word — for all the emojifiable words. “The children of tomorrow will have no understanding of the English language.” And we blame you, Craig.
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There’s also customisable bubbles, handwriting and simple thumbs-up/thumbs-down responses.
4:30AM: We’re getting a demo of the emoji replacement feature. I’m not sure I’d use it, but plenty of people will.
OH GOD THIS IS TERRIFYING THEY HAVE SET OFF THE EMOJIPOCALYPSE
— mcc (@mcclure111) June 13, 2016
You’re not wrong.
Again, I’m not sure I’d use them, but I really like the look of the different bubble effects on iMessage chat windows.
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Rich links are going to really change the way that iMessage works. You can launch Apple Music songs from within the app, for example — as long as you and your mate both use Apple Music…
4:34AM: Technical difficulties! First of the day, which is laudable.
iMessage users are only ever going to use the invisible ink bubble to send the word “BUTTS” to each other #WWDC2016
— Campbell Simpson (@csimps0n) June 13, 2016
These full screen emoji are dope.
“We thought when you’re expressing yourselves, there’s so much more we could do” — so Apple is opening up iMessage to developers, and there’s a bunch of different apps (including stickers, yeech) with full iOS SDK support.
This is cool — Square Pay, you can send someone cash through iOS’s iMessage app itself, and they can redeem it as long as they have the appropriate Square account.
4:39AM: Ah, I looked away for a second to talk crap on Twitter and now everyone’s ordering food? And something called JibJab.
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No announcement of iMessage on Android. Maybe it’s not happening? Maybe Apple’s too proud to talk about it? Anyway, there’s a lot more to talk about that Craig Federighi doesn’t have time for.
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4:42AM: We’re now getting a run-through on privacy. Apple doesn’t build profiles on its users as they search the Web for directions and locations, apparently, although that sits at odds with the way that Siri seems to work…
4:45AM: One more thing! What is it? Oh, it’s a video:
Looked like fun, though.
iOS 10 developer preview today, public beta in July, all users “this Fall”.
We’re now on to talking about Swift, Apple’s native programming language. 100,000 apps like Twitter and Strava and Lyft have adopted Apple’s recently-open-sourced Swift code.
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Tim Cook is really selling me on Swift. Maybe I’ll take some classes.
Oh, well, there you go! There’s a new app called Swift Playgrounds on iOS that runs on iPad and is “a completely new way to learn to code”. Sign me up, then…
It “transforms how kids learn to code”. F**k it, I’m not proud, I don’t mind being called a kid if it means I can learn something new. I’m still keen.
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4:50AM: Goddamn it, I missed the first lesson. Now I have some homework to catch up on, and it’s not even 5AM.
Swift Playgrounds looks like something that I’ll use, and I don’t say that just because I’ve been live-blogging for two hours now without a sip of water. Back soon.
Swift Playgrounds looks fantastic. It’s something that I’ll try myself, because all I can write is normal boring English words #WWDC2016
— Campbell Simpson (@csimps0n) June 13, 2016
Tim Cook: “We believe coding should be a required language in all schools.” That’s why Swift Playgrounds is free… although you do need an iPad.
4:56AM: We’re now getting a video about how so many different programmers learned to code.
This video is long enough that I’m starting to fall asleep. It’s inspiring in that it makes me want to learn Swift, but I need a nap first.
5:00AM: And we’re back on stage. Tim Cook is talking about all the updates we’ve seen so far today to Apple’s various platforms.
“At Apple, we believe technology should lift humanity.” That’s a big statement, but when you’re talking to developers I guess it makes sense to inspire them to do amazing things.
5:02AM: Phew, well, without further ado, that’s it! No new hardware announcements at this keynote. There’s still a chance those might come in the next few days, although that’s looking increasingly unlikely.
We did learn about a lot of different software on its way for developers today, for public beta in July, and for mainstream release in September.
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As much as I would of loved to have seen hardware at the event today, it was really great to just focus on software for a few hours.
???✌?
— Jack Alexander (@jackalexander_) June 13, 2016