In keeping with its annual calendar, Apple at its WWDC 2020 developer-focused event made some really major announcements.?
This was Apple¡¯s first online-only WWDC announcement that involved some innovative ways to showcase their newest offerings.?
From newer operating systems on its devices to bringing in features to help better productivity along with some major changes under the hood for some devices. Here¡¯s everything that Apple unveiled at its WWDC event.
iOS 14 brings minimal but noteworthy features and changes to its user interface. Apple has finally embraced the idea of widgets, taking its own take that look really cool on an iOS home screen.?
Along with widgets, iOS 14 brings changes to iMessage, with the ability to pin and reply to specific messages -- something WhatsApp had since a while, but it¡¯s cool to see iMessage finally joining the bandwagon.
Apple also introduced App Clips (similar to Android¡¯s Instant apps) which are essentially a small part of the apps that you won¡¯t need to download to use them. The feature not only helps in consuming less storage space but also declutter home screen.?
iOS also gets picture-in-picture that allows users to watch videos while multitasking. Android has had this feature since a while too, but where iOS¡¯s interpretation shines is that it¡¯s a lot more dynamic with the ability to make the screen larger or shorter and easy way to set it aside.
Another cool feature on iOS is compact notifications -- whether for Siri or Calls, which will show notifications taking as less space possible as opposed to full-screen that it took earlier.
Apple Maps got an update too with the ability to make commute simpler for cyclists in the city, while also improving their Maps network. It also includes EV routing to allow drivers to keep track of compatible EV stations along the way.?
Apple, with iOS 14 has also added the ability to add virtual CarKeys to iOS. It announced its collaboration with Ford and BMW to simply unlock the car with your iPhone, as well as the ability to share CarKeys with your friends for a limited time.?
iPadOS 14 gets the same design cues as iOS 14 including widgets, minimal notifications and App Clips and all the cool features on iMessage. You get a new Photo viewer to help you make the most of your big screen. However, along with this, it has introduced new features to truly embrace Apple Pencil.
A Scribble feature allows users to Scribble anywhere instead of typing. And this text scribbling feature is backed with handwriting detection (including other languages)to convert it into digital text, should the need arise. A new smart-selection tool allows for handwritten text to easily be selected, highlighted and pasted across apps.
A new shape recognition tool allows for note-taking or scribbling to look cleaner and neat.?
Search on iPadOS has also gotten minimal with just a simple search bar that hovers over instead of completely taking you off the app. And this search bar has now turned universal to help you look up things online easily.
MacOS Catalina has been upgraded to Big Sur and along with this is a fresh new look on MacOS. The icons have gotten a slight overhaul with translucent windows newer control buttons and subtle shadows. The bar on top now flushes beautifully with the wallpaper.
The right also gets a widgets bar, which looks something straight out of Windows Vista, albeit with the same translucent aesthetics.
Apple has brought some major changes to its browser Safari, claiming it is faster to load than Chrome while also bringing new privacy features to prevent trackers from peeping into your browsing patterns. It has also strengthened privacy for extensions to prevent them from snooping.
WatchOS 7 is also getting a bunch of aesthetic and feature upgrades starting with customisation for watch faces with the ability to add complications and make the watch face suit your lifestyle.
Apple has included dancing as a way to lose weight in its Fitness app (which was earlier called Activity), where it recognises dance moves. It has also included a hand-washing mode that uses gesture recognition to detect the action of washing hands and starts a timer to promote washing hands appropriately.?
Along with all the software announcements, Apple made a major hardware announcement, revealing that they will no longer be using Intel-based CPUs for its Mac lineup and instead rely on its custom silicon to have better hardware-software integration.
They showcased a Mac running on its A12Z Bionic CPU while boasting its productivity, performance and gaming capabilities. For developers, Apple has provided all the necessary tools in Xcode 12. For existing Intel apps to run on Macs, they¡¯re adopting Rosetta 2 that can translate code instantaneously with the ability to do virtualisation for Linux.
While Apple has announced that the first Apple silicon systems are likely to ship later this year, Apple will continue to making Intel-based Macs for now, though with ¡°exciting new Intel-based Macs in development¡± as quoted by Tim Cook.?