Yesterday’s WWDC Keynote certainly wasn’t as exciting and feature packed as last year’s, especially thanks to the lack of new hardware announcements. However, it did bring us a pretty solid set of new software features and improvements. There were also some things that were oddly missing in action, but for this segment, I’m going to focus on the positives. Let’s take a quick look back at the Keynote.
When
The WWDC Keynote starts at 10 AM Pacific on Monday, June 4th. That translates to 11 AM Mountain, 12 PM Central, and 1 PM Eastern Times.
How to Watch
Streaming via the Web
If you are using a Mac or iOS device, you can livestream the video using Safari. Just go to this address and check it out live. It may also be possible to watch the stream on other platforms using a recent version of Firefox or Chrome. If you are running Windows 10, you can definitely use Microsoft Edge to get your live view.
Streaming via the WWDC app
If you prefer native apps to Safari on your iOS device, just download the free WWDC app in advance of the event, and the livestream will be available for you to stream.
Apple TV
If you have an Apple TV, the livestream of the Keynote will be available via the Events app.
Liveblogs
While live-blogging was necessary to follow Apple events before we had access to live video, they still remain quite popular. Many tech sites and Apple blogs still do this because there are plenty of Apple users who prefer the sense of community direct interaction you get with the live information and opinion from experts on site.
Here are a few notable liveblogs for your viewing pleasure:
The WWDC Keynote is tomorrow, and predictions are everywhere. Although, just like mine, most seem to be nothing more than guesses. Some may be more educated than others, but it feels like there is even less solid information out there this year than last, and that’s saying something. Apple may struggle keeping hardware a secret, but they seem to have the software side down on lockdown.
I’ve covered predictions relating to Siri, the iPad Pro, the Apple Watch, iOS 12, and Services over the last three weeks. Now, as we enter the final stretch toward the big event, here are some of the best of the rest that I hope we will see tomorrow.
The WWDC Keynote is closing fast now, and its time to bring this series toward a conclusion. In this next to last segment, it’s time to talk about one of the fastest-growing sources of revenue for Apple- Services. Just a few years ago, this segment was nothing but a trickle of profit from iCloud and the App Store. Now, thanks to the increased usage of iCloud from Drive and Photo Library and Apple Music, this trickle has become a rising tide.
Using your phone while driving can be a dangerous proposition. However, there are features, such as GPS and mapping, that can still be extremely beneficial to us on the road. It’s all about using them safely. One easy way to do this is to securely mount your smartphone while you’re behind the wheel, and there is no shortage of ways to do it.
Turn back the clock a year. We had all kinds of rumors about what the new iPhone would look like and the technology it would include. Remember when we were all sure that under-screen TouchID was coming? Then there were the crazy reports that Apple would put a TouchID sensor on the back of the phone, as if that would have ever happened. How about the fact that we were all sure the new iPhone would be called the iPhone 8? It seemed reasonable until the X moniker started making the rounds right before the iPhone 8 and X announcement last Fall.
Do you want to use your laptop on public WiFi networks? Do you want to feel completely secure even using your own without wondering who is peeking over your shoulder? How about 256-AES bit encryption? How about secure browsing on up to 5 devices at a time? How about a lifetime subscription?
We are now one week out from the WWDC Keynote, so the rumors should start to pick up a little in the coming days. As with all of the recent editions of this event, iOS is expected to be the star of the show. However, it’s a little harder to say how far the improvements will reach after Mark Gurman reported earlier this year that the bulk of new features have been pushed off until iOS 13, and that iOS 12 will be more centered on fixing bugs and increasing stability. According to this report, Apple will now focus on the next two years of iOS development at a time, rather than force-marching its engineers to meet constant and sometimes unrealistic one-year features delivery deadlines.
This move is disappointing in a way, because the report made reference to some BIG improvements that may have been on the roadmap for iOS 12 before Craig Federighi stepped in, including redesigned Home Screens for iPhone and the iPad. I’ve been wanting to see this for the last three years, so it was disappointing to see how close we were to finally getting them. However, in the long term, this is probably the right decision, and it should deliver us a consistently better and more stable iOS. So with this news from February fresh in our minds, what can we expect to see next week?
In case you haven’t already heard, earlier this week Apple reversed an earlier approval of Steam’s Steam Link app for iOS and tvOS, and has now rejected it based on what was initially termed as “business conflicts with app guidelines.” Well, whoever in marketing or PR at Apple dropped that line should think before they speak, because most of the controversy surrounding this decision is based on that poorly-worded quote.
I’ll start off by saying that I’m not writing this article to make any excuses for Apple. By being far less than transparent in how they handled the iPhone 6 Plus “bendgate” when it occurred in 2014, they set themselves up for PR problems now that details of what they knew in advance have been made public. They made their bed, and now they will take a few deserved lumps for it. I just don’t understand why people are surprised by what they did and why.
I guess I just don’t buy into the notion that Silicon Valley companies all work off of exceptions to the rules that govern the actions of publicly-traded companies in other industries. While Apple, Google, Facebook, Samsung, Amazon and the like may look and often act differently than their non-tech contemporaries in many ways, at their cores, they still play by most of the same rules. When it comes to the business side, they really aren’t that different from other Fortune 500s. Risk management is one such area, and we have plenty of examples of how Apple handles such issues on a very public stage before.
Whether you are a Windows or Mac user, USB-C is the way of the future. I just got my first Windows-based work laptop with USB-C ports, and I can attest to the challenge of adapting to the “dongle life.” However, I am also coming around to the power and versatility they bring to the table.