Apple at WWDC 2019 today made a series of augmented reality announcements headlined by ARKit 3.
ARKit 3 features a new immersive "People Occlusion" feature that allows virtual objects to be placed in front and behind people in real time, as Mojang demonstrated on stage with a preview of its augmented reality game Minecraft Earth.
Apple's new RealityKit SDK provides developers with tools for photorealistic rendering, environment and camera effects, animation, physics, and more.
As part of its macOS Catalina and iOS 13 unveiling today at WWDC, Apple announced a new accessibility feature called Voice Control, allowing users to control their Mac and iOS devices entirely using vocal commands.
Voice Control supports dictation and editing in both operating systems, along with comprehensive menu navigation.
On iOS, the feature utilizes attention awareness to know when a user with physical motor limitations is interacting with their device.
To allay privacy concerns, Apple says that none of the audio processed by Voice Control can be accessed by anyone else, including Apple, thanks to built-in anonymity and encryption.
Apple today at WWDC 2019 unveiled a new Mac app named Sidecar that will allow an iPad to be used as a second display for a Mac, similar to existing third-party options like Duet Display and Luna Display.
Sidecar will work both wired and wirelessly and will support the Apple Pencil as an input device for the Mac. This functionality will be supported across all apps that support tablets.
Apple's WWDC 2019 keynote is underway. Stay tuned for updates…
Apple's "Find My Friends" app is being revamped in macOS Catalina and iOS 13, and will now be called simply "Find My." The new version of the app combines Find My iPhone and Find My Friends.
The major feature of the updated app is that it can now locate Apple devices that are offline, making it even easier to find your iPhone or MacBook if you ever happen to lose it.
Apple said that when a device is offline and sleeping, it sends out a secure Bluetooth beacon that can be detected by other Apple devices nearby, even the ones owned by other people. This results in a network that works to find lost Apple devices through a secure, encrypted, and anonymous signal relay.
As part of its iOS 13 unveiling today at WWDC, Apple announced what it called "the biggest update to CarPlay yet."
The new version of CarPlay will feature a new interactive dashboard to view music, maps and more in a single view. It also includes a new, more advanced in-vehicle version of Apple Maps.
The Calendar and Music apps have also been redesigned to improve the user experience, while Siri will be able to deliver directions and music from third-party apps like Pandora and Waze.
Apple today at WWDC 2019 announced that Apple News+ will be expanding to the United Kingdom and Australia in iOS 13.
Apple News+ is currently available in the United States for $9.99 per month and in Canada for $12.99 per month. The service, based on Apple's acquisition of Texture, provides unlimited access to hundreds of digital magazines and newspapers.
Apple at WWDC 2019 today announced that the HomePod is gaining Handoff support, allowing users to place an iPhone near the HomePod to hand over music, podcast, or a phone call.
Apple also announced that AirPods are getting a new Audio Sharing feature, allowing users to share a song or movie with a friend with just a tap.
Apple today announced new photography features coming to its native Camera and Photos app this fall with the release of iOS 13, including a redesigned UI and a more advanced version of Portrait Lighting.
The new photo editing features allow users to more easily see their settings at a glance and make adjustments by tapping and dragging. The changes are also coming to video, which will allow users to rotate a video in the edit screen.
Apple says Portrait Lightning has also been taken to a new level, by allowing users to adjust the intensity of the lighting effect to virtually move light closer or further from the subject.
In the Photos app, a new browsing interface allows you to organize and search your pictures more easily, and the app will employ advanced AI to create new layouts of multiple shots whenever you view them.
Videos will play automatically upon selection, while new Days and Years features let you see collections of images in a more organized and chronological manner.
The Messages app on iOS is gaining a new feature that will let you automatically share your name and photo, or custom Animoji/Memoji, so that your friends can easily identify who is in the thread.
The update comes with far more options for Memoji customization, including new makeup, accessories, eyeshadow, lipstick, piercings, teeth, earrings, hair, hats, glasses, and even AirPods.
You can now also turn your Memoji into stickers, which can then be used across numerous apps like Messages and Mail. Memoji stickers and the Memoji editor will also now be supported for all devices with an A9 chip or later, not just those with TrueDepth cameras.
Many home cameras today send video the the cloud to, for example, analyze the difference between a leaf blowing in the wind or someone at your door.
Apple aims to improve this with a new feature called HomeKit Secure Video with on-device analyzing. An encrypted stream is then sent to iCloud that no one, not even Apple, can see. You'll be alerted to activity and can review what's going on.
HomeKit is also coming to routers, effectively adding a firewall between smart home accessories and your network. Launch partners will include Linksys, Eero, and Charter/Spectrum.
Apple today announced Sign In With Apple at WWDC, allowing users to log in to apps and services using your Apple ID in a highly secure manner.
Apple is releasing a new API to allow developers to add the new sign-in function to their apps for a more convenient way of logging in using Face ID without revealing additional personal information
When logging in users can choose to reveal or hide their email address, or get Sign In With Apple to generate a unique random, anonymous email address that can be managed for specific apps, giving users more control of their data.
The new sign-in feature is coming with Apple's new operating systems this fall and will be available across macOS, iOS, and through websites.
During the iOS 13 section of the WWDC 2019 keynote today, Apple unveiled a completely revamped Reminders app. The app features an all-new user interface and advanced features that can intelligently detect what kind of reminder you're creating.
When you begin typing in a reminder, the app will provide smart suggestions regarding when and where you should be alerted. You can also tag people in any reminder, and the next time you begin a Messages thread with them you'll see a Reminders notification that suggests you bring up the topic with them.
There's also a new quick toolbar that makes it easier to add times, dates, locations and flags, or add attachments to any reminder.
Secondly, Apple Maps is being updated with enhanced mapping data and an all-new map. Apple said that it drove 4 million miles to rebuild the basemap from the ground up and offer broader road coverage, better pedestrian data, more precise addresses, and a more detailed landcover.
The updated Apple Maps in iOS 13 can be seen on the left
This new map is available now in select cities and states, and will expand to the entire United States by the end of 2019 and select other countries next year. Apple Maps also has a new "Look Around" window to check out ground level views of certain locations, and "Collections" to easily share favorite restaurants or stores with friends.
Apple today at WWDC 2019 announced that iPhones and iPads are getting a native swipe-based keyboard named QuickPath.
The new QuickPath keyboard enables allows you to swipe your finger from one letter to the next to type without removing your finger from the keyboard to enter a word, allowing for easier one-handed typing. Apple's website confirms that the keyboard is available in both iOS 13 and iPadOS.
"Simply swipe from one letter to the next without lifting your finger to enter a word," says Apple. "On‑device machine learning recognizes the path you draw and converts it for you, making one‑handed typing a breeze."
At launch, QuickPath supports English, Simplified Chinese, Spanish, German, French, Italian, and Portuguese keyboards.
Swipe-based keyboards have been available on the iPhone and iPad since iOS 8 added support for third-party keyboards from the App Store, such as SwiftKey, but this is the first native solution to come from Apple.
Apple today at WWDC 2019 announced that new health and fitness capabilities are coming to the Apple Watch in watchOS 6.
To start, the Activity app is getting a new Activity Trends feature so you can see your progress over time. It will compare trends over the last 90 days to the last 365 days so you can see if you're keeping on track.
A new Noise app uses the Apple Watch microphone to monitor environmental noise — users will receive a notification if the decibel level is too high. Apple says it doesn't record or save audio to protect your privacy.
There's also a new Cycle Tracking app for tracking menstrual cycles. It offers a simple, discreet way to visualize your cycle right on your wrist and can provide notifications when a period is about to begin.
Apple says menstrual cycle tracking is available without an Apple Watch, too, as it is also built into the Health app in iOS 13.
Apple today at WWDC 2019 announced that the iPhone, iPad, and Apple TV are gaining Xbox One S and PlayStation 4 DualShock controller support for games in iOS 13, iPadOS, and tvOS 13 respectively.
This much-welcomed news provides iPhone, iPad, and Apple TV gamers with additional options beyond MFi-certified controllers like the SteelSeries Nimbus and the Siri Remote for the Apple TV.
iOS 13, iPadOS, and tvOS 13 will be publicly released in the fall.
Apple today previewed iOS 13, which will introduce a new Dark Mode to iOS devices and several performance improvements across the board, including faster Face ID, slimmer downloads and updates, and quicker app launches.
Dark Mode has been implemented across the iPhone and iPad operating system and its native apps, including the appearance of notifications, widgets, calendar, and notes. Dark Mode is also available to third-party app developers for integration into their own apps, and can be scheduled to turn on automatically at sunset or at a certain time.
Apple has also added a swipe to type feature to the stock iOS keyboard called QuickPath, which brings easy one-hand typing to the iOS keyboard by continuously swiping through the letters of a word, and Memoji are automatically made into sticker packs built into the iOS keyboard, so they can be used in Messages, Mail and other apps.
iOS 13 will also bring new sharing suggestions for Messages – users can automatically share a user's name and photo, or customized Memoji or Animoji, to easily identify who is in the Messages thread.
Elsewhere, Siri has a new, more natural voice, and Siri Shortcuts now supports Suggested Automations that provide personalized routines for things like heading to work or going to the gym. And with AirPods, Siri can read incoming messages as soon as they arrive, from Messages or any SiriKit-enabled messaging app.
In addition, the Files app is gaining the ability to share folders with iCloud Drive and access files from external storage devices like SD cards and USB flash drives, while new Location Services options include a new one-time location option and more information on when apps are using location in the background.
On the performance front, Face ID is now 30 percent, downloads are 50 percent smaller, updates are 60 percent smaller, and app launches are twice as fast as iOS 12.
"iOS 13 brings new capabilities to the apps you use every day, with rich updates to Photos and Maps, and privacy-protecting features like Sign In with Apple, all while delivering faster performance," said Craig Federighi, Apple's senior vice president of Software Engineering. "We're excited for customers to experience what's coming to iPhone this fall and can’t wait for them to see how great everything looks in Dark Mode."
Developer betas of iOS 13 are already available, while the final public version will be released this fall.
Apple today revealed the next version of macOS, which is called macOS Catalina. The company started off by announcing that the "future of iTunes" will be divided into three apps: Apple Music, Apple Podcasts and Apple TV. This means that the traditional iTunes app will be going away in macOS Catalina.
Essentially, Apple is replacing iTunes with these media apps. According to the company, the apps will "greatly simplify and improve" the way that users discover media on the Mac.
To start, Apple Music will sync with your Apple Music account and provide full access to music streaming, playlists, music videos, Beats1 radio stations, downloaded songs, and more. The iTunes Music store will remain alive, located in the Apple Music app, for those users who still prefer to own their music.
The Apple TV app will be essentially the same as it is on tvOS and iOS, allowing you to sync your Up Next list across devices and easily jump directly into your favorite shows. Similarly, Apple Podcasts will offer more than 700,000 shows in its library and sync your content across devices.
Certain features previously seen in iTunes will be migrated elsewhere on macOS, like iPhone syncing and device storage management now located in Finder.
Apple also announced Sidecar, a way to use the iPad as an extended display for Mac. This gives artists the chance to use an Apple Pencil and draw on their iPad, and quickly jump into an editing program on their Mac for the same artwork.
macOS Catalina is also gaining an accessibility feature called Voice Control, which lets users control their Mac entirely with their voice. This is aimed at anyone who can't operate traditional input devices, and uses Siri speech recognition technology.
Other updates include improved security, Screen Time on macOS, and enhancements to apps like Photos, Safari, Mail, Notes, and Reminders. macOS Catalina is available to Apple Developer Program members from today, and a public beta program will launch later in June. A full public launch will follow in the fall.
Apple today revealed "iPadOS," a new version of iOS that Apple has designed specifically for the larger screens on the iPad family. Apple said that it renamed the OS to recognize the "distinctive experience" of iPad.
To start, the Home screen has been redesigned with a new layout that shows more apps on each page. The widget-based Today view can be added to the Home screen, providing quick access to news headlines, the weather, events, and more.
To enhance iPadOS even more, Apple updated Split View to allow users to work with multiple files and documents from the same app at the same time. For example, users can have two emails opened side by side in Mail, or two notes in Notes. Slide Over allows users to quickly view and switch between multiple apps, and App Exposé provides for a quick view of every open window.
iPadOS also overhauled Apple Pencil integration with the ability to mark up and send entire webpages, documents, or emails on iPad. Users can simply swipe the Apple Pencil from the corner of the display to enter mark up mode, quickly edit the document, and save it. Additionally, iPadOS has reduced Apple Pencil latency to as low as 9 milliseconds.
Another update centers on the Files app, which now has iCloud Drive support for folder sharing. Because iPadOS supports external drives, users can easily plug in a USB drive and transfer data all within the Files app. There's also a new Column View for easier navigation, Quick Actions for creating PDFs, and more.
To ensure all of the new parts of iPadOS could be controlled with ease, Apple is introducing new finger-based gestures for cut, copy, paste, and undo. Other updates include Dark Mode, custom fonts, a new floating keyboard, performance improvements, and updates to Maps and Photos apps.
iPadOS is available to Apple Developer Program members starting today, while the public beta will launch later this month. In the fall, iPadOS will be available as a free software update for the iPad Air 2 and later, all iPad Pro devices, the fifth-generation iPad and later, and the iPad mini 4 and later.
Biggest design overhaul since iOS 7 with Liquid Glass, plus new Apple Intelligence features and improvements to Messages, Phone, Safari, Shortcuts, and more. Developer beta available now ahead of public beta in July.
Biggest design overhaul since iOS 7 with Liquid Glass, plus new Apple Intelligence features and improvements to Messages, Phone, Safari, Shortcuts, and more. Developer beta available now ahead of public beta in July.
