At WWDC, Apple announced that they would finally be adding multi-user support to one of their mobile operating systems. Unfortunately, it wasn’t the one most of us have been asking for. The first round goes to the tvOS and the Apple TV, which will now have separate recommendations and favorites for different users. An honorary mention also goes to the HomePod, which will now be able to recognize voice commands from multiple users and respond with information from their iCloud account.
While there is no denying that the Apple Watch is a hit, even if getting there has been a little bit of a slow burn. However humble its beginnings were, the device is the current standard by which all other smartwatches are judged. However, while its health and wellness features coupled with notifications are big strengths, the app situation has always been mixed, at best.
According to both Bloomberg and the Wall Street Journal, Foxconn has gone on the record saying that they can shift US iPhone production out of China so that Apple can avoid a hit on tariffs, if necessary. While it was made clear that Apple hasn’t yet asked them to do this yet, these comments were calculated and aimed directly at Beijing.
The rumors that Apple was killing off iTunes and replacing it with multiple apps for Music, Podcasts and TV made the rounds in the weeks leading up to WWDC. Because of this, the actual reveal of the new apps was expected during the Keynote and drew minimal fanfare.
Apple has been doing a lot of talking about privacy over the last three years and it just keeps ramping up. It seemed to fall largely on deaf ears at first, but that has changed dramatically. The narrative on privacy has shifted due to a deluge of stories about large-scale hacks, user data abuse and lax online security. Where people once trusted the online services they are using and didn’t make their personal digital privacy a high priority, that has all changed fairly quickly.
One of the sneaky cool Apple announcements at yesterday’s WWDC Keynote was the new Look Around feature for Apple Maps. Mixed in with some nice, but rather routine upgrades like Favorites and Collections, Look Around stood out as a potentially huge change for Maps that could help Apple take on one of Google Maps’ biggest advantages: Street View.
Apple has had a problem with game controllers for a long time now. They just never seemed to get the fact that, while touch is great, it isn’t great for everything. Anyone who has ever tried to play games with on-screen controllers knows what I’m talking about.
Ok, so that was a full 2.25 hours of very fast-paced updates on all Apple software, with a little hardware thrown in for good measure. Information overload is putting it lightly. Here are the themes that stood out to me in the immediate aftermath.
