June 13, 2016 by lallouslab

The Apple Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) 2016 – Highlights

In this blog post, I am going to over the highlights and takeaways from Apple’s WWDC 2016 event that took place on June 13, 2016.

The following topics will be covered:

watchOS 3
tvOS
macOS Sierra
iOS 10

Let’s get started!

watchOS 3

Highlights

New version: watch OS 3.0
- Free upgrade this fall
Serious acceleration
- App launch time (7x faster)
Side button triggers the new Dock screen (faster access to apps)
Control center like interface
- Triggered by scrolling up from the bottom of the watch screen
- Useful for Quick interactions
Replying to messages is faster
- Smart replies
- Scribble
  - Write the message on the screen of the watch (English and Chinese)
New watch faces
- Watch face for activity rings
- Numerals face
- Switch faces (by swiping left or right)
- More complications to the faces
- Quick start workout from the watch face
SOS functionality on the watch
- Press and hold the side button
- Notify the emergency contacts + send the location information + Medical ID
- Works internationally (knows the emergency number from the world)
New health app
Fitness features for Wheelchair users
- Time to roll (ala “Time to stand up”)
- New movement algorithms
Apple health additions and apps
- Breathe app for deep breathing exercises
  - Integrated as a reminder (like the “Time to stand”)
  - Beautiful visuals
  - Haptic feedback with gentle taps (when used with eyes closed)
Apple pay support for in watch apps
- Pay within the apps (pay for Lyft from the app)

Gallery

tvOS

Highlights

Support for molotov.tv
Support for up to four split screens
Single Sign-on feature
- To sign on to all the TV apps
Dark mode
ReplayKit
Live Tune-in

Gallery

macOS Sierra

Highlights

OS name change
- No more “Mac OS X” name
- New release name is “macOS Sierra”
Continuity feature improvements
- Secure P2P protocol to move tasks seamlessly from a device to others
Auto Unlock
- With the Apple Watch, open the MacBook -> unlocks automatically
  - Checks if your are close to the MacBook and opens it
Universal Clipboard
- Copy from iPhone and paste on the macOS
- Completely automatic
iCloud improvements and features
- iCloud Drive now synchs the desktop contents, making it available on other devices as well
- Optimized Storage feature
  - Make space for new files by moving old files to iCloud
Apple Pay support in the web
- A big number of web stores front will support Apple Pay
- Uses the Continuity feature to verify with the iPhone’s TouchID (or the Apple Watch)
- Apple Pay is expanding geographically into more countries
Tabs support in the OS
- Tabs functionality will apply to all multi-window apps automatically
- Works out of the box with existing apps
Picture in Picture
- Ala iPad Picture-in-Picture but also in macOS
Siri on the Mac
- Access from the dock (click on it)
- Let Siri search for your files and do other tasks intelligently
- Pin the result from Siri to notification center
- Let Siri send SMSes (using your iPhone)

Gallery

iOS 10

Highlights

Biggest iOS release ever
- iOS 10
- 10 big features
Overall User experience improvement
Lock screen improvement
- Raise to wake: Wake the iPhone up and see the notifications by raising the phone
- 3D touch to interact with the notifications and messages from the lock screen
Search results screen improvements
- More interactivity
- Interact with various items directly from the search results
- Live rendering in the Search Results (play video clips, etc.)
Siri improvements
- Much smarter (understands the context and domains)
- Now Siri is accessible to app developers
- Siri can now do messaging with Slack, Weechat, etc.
- Siri can now interact with ride sharing apps: Uber, Lyft, etc..
- Siri can now deal with payments (Send money, etc.)
- Do Voip calling: Skype, WhatApp, etc.
QuickType keyboard
- Smarter keyboard with relevant and contextual suggestions
- Siri helps the QuickType keyboard intelligence
- Uses deep learning technologies
- Multilanguage support without having to switch keyboards
Photos
- Places : See all the photos on a map
- Face recognition from the photos
  - Advanced deep learning techniques
  - Face recognition happens on the phone itself (and not the cloud)
- Object and scene recognition
- Live Photos editing
- Memories feature
  - Analyze all photos and creates a nice scenario / stories
Maps
- All new design
- Proactive and gives smarts suggestions
  - Slide up from the bottom to show suggestions
  - For example, Maps can learn your usual routes and travel times (going to work suggestion) ala Google Now
  - Nearby restaurants suggestions
- Easier navigation
  - Automatic zoom in and out
  - Pan and zoom
  - Route details (restaurants, stations, etc…)
  - Live traffic on route display
- Maps is now programmable
  - ex: OpenTables app now integrates with Maps
Music
- Easier navigations between recently added, my music, suggested music, etc.
- Lyrics: show lyrics when supported
Apple News
- 2000 publications
- 60 million monthly users reading in news
- All new design
HomeKit
- Control various accessories from within a single interface
- Major makers has announced or shipped support for HomeKit
- New app called “Home”
- Apple Watch “Home” app to control the appliances
Phone
- Voicemail transcription
- Phone app is now programmable
  - Tencent security integration to help identify spam
- Voip API
  - Get call notifications from the lock screen
  - Call using a VoIP app of your choice
Messages
- Highly improved and lots of features added
- Rich links
- Videos play right inline
- Camera and Photos integrated into the message composer
  - ex: Live rendering from the messages app
- Emoji -> 3x bigger
- Bubble effects
  - Say it loud
  - Say it gently
- Invisible ink
  - Share a surprise picture or message
  - The receiver has to swipe on the garbled message to reveal the contents or media
- Quick thumbs up interaction
- Handwritten messages
- Digital touch (ala Watch)
- Full-screen effects
- Conversation view
Other features
- Notes collaboration and live edition
- Split View in Safari on iPad
- Privacy and end-to-end encryption
  - On-device intelligence (don’t send private information to the cloud)
  - No user profiling
  - Differential privacy technology

Gallery

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