wwdc2018
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Apple's Podcasts app is coming to watchOS
If you love Serial or This American Life, good news: Apple is bringing its homegrown podcasts app to watchOS. That means if you're cycling, or out on a run, you can stay safe and control everything from your wrist. If you have an Apple Watch with LTE connectivity, it should also mean that you can leave your phone at home. That could be the useful if you're the type of person that uses podcasts to take a break from work and study -- and don't want to be distracted by a glowing or vibrating iPhone in your pocket.
Apple watchOS 5 focuses on fitness and Siri
The Apple Watch is about to get another big tune-up, and it won't surprise you to hear that the focus is on fitness. Apple has unveiled watchOS 5, and there's a slew of updates for more competitive types. There's now automatic workout detection -- not a new feature on smartwatches, but helpful if you've ever forgotten to tap your watch before starting a run. You'll also have week-long competitions with friends, hiking and yoga workouts, a rolling mile pace and cadence (steps per minute) tracking.
Apple watchOS 5 will automatically detect your workouts
Apple introduced HealthKit during its WWDC 2014 keynote and since then the company has continued to add more health-focused tools to its devices. The release of iOS 11.3, for example, brought along the capability to view official medical records on your iPhone while the Apple Watch can monitor your heart rate. Today, Apple announced more features for the Apple Watch including automatic workout detection and more measures for runners.
Apple is fixing iOS notifications
Apple is finally trying to fix notifications. As part of an overhaul to Do Not Disturb mode, now notifications will be grouped together and can be pushed away with a single swipe. You can delay notifications until the end of the event you're in the middle of, and you can even set an app to not push notifications to the lock screen. Instead, they'll exist in the notification center itself. If any of this sounds familiar, it's because Google did a bunch of it first. This update goes hand in hand with the rest of Apple's initiatives to fight mobile device addiction -- something it's also playing catch-up to Google on.
Apple's FaceTime offers group chats for up to 32 people
During its rundown of updates for iOS at WWDC, Apple revealed that FaceTime will soon support group video calls. But that's not the best part. Inside those group chats, the app will allow you to coordinate meetups with up to 32 people. That's one hell of a conference call.
iOS 12 will help you fight your phone addiction
Apple is making good on its promise to fight iPhone addiction. It's introducing a suite of features in iOS 12 that curb the deluge of notifications and alerts that keep you hooked. To start, it's much smarter about how and when it displays notifications. You'll finally, finally see grouped notifications (no more wading through 10 alerts for the same app), for one thing. Do Not Disturb mode can silence all your notifications, too, so you're not tempted to check updates if you wake up in the middle of the night. You can also quickly manage notifications for an app, including an option to "deliver quietly" so that your device won't ping you every single time.
iOS 12 lets parents limit kids’ screen time
Amid attention that kids are spending more and more time on screens, cutely termed "smartphone addiction, Apple made parental controls a priority this year. In March, the company launched a website containing all of them across its platform. At WWDC today, Apple introduced a new center coming to iOS 12 called Screen Time to assist folks in limiting their own usage -- but also introduced a slew of settings to help them manage their kids' app time, too.
Lego is basically building AR ‘Sims’ for its playsets
Lego is infusing its bricks with digital magic in a series of new augmented reality experiences using Apple's updated ARKit 2. The Lego AR experiences, due out later this year, combine real-world Lego buildings with digital landscapes. Build a physical Lego structure, such as the Assembly Square building that appeared on-stage at Apple's WWDC 2018 conference, and hold up a tablet or phone running the AR app to see the entire thing come to life. Streets appear at its base, alongside trees, grass, digital buildings, little Lego people and cars.
Apple lets you create your own personalized Animoji
Animoji were a surprisingly fun part of the iPhone X experience, and Apple just stepped things up significantly with the announcement of Memoji. As you might expect, this lets users create their own Animoji characters based on your own look. It's a pretty huge addition that users will likely have a blast with.
iBooks reading app has been renamed Apple Books in iOS 12
Apple's iBooks app may not have buried the Kindle, but it's still one of the most prominent digital bookstores out there. Today at WWDC, Apple announced a total redesign of iBooks, complete with a new name. Apple Books will replace iBooks; it now has a naming scheme in sync with Apple Music and Apple News. More importantly, the app looks a lot nicer -- there's a new "reading now" area that you'll see when you first open an app. That makes it a little easier to jump back into the book you were reading. It's a good bit of context for when you haven't picked up that book in a little bit.
Apple CarPlay will add Google Maps and Waze support with iOS 12
Other than a few small updates over the years, Apple's CarPlay infotainment system hasn't changed much. Fortunately, for fans of plugging their iPhone into their cars, CarPlay is getting the number one requested feature; the ability to use third-party navigation apps.
Apple improves Photo search and sharing in iOS 12
Since our smartphones are now the main way we document the world, it's important that all those photos of your world are easy to find. At WWDC Apple unveiled upgraded and new features coming to the Photos app in iOS. Search has been supercharged and your device will now collect and offer to share the best photos from an event.
Apple's Shortcuts app lets Siri do everything
It's no secret that Apple's virtual assistant, Siri, doesn't have the best reputation -- especially when you compare it to Google's incredibly smart counterpart. But, the company has been working hard recently to make Siri more useful for those of you with an iOS or Mac device. And today, Apple announced that Siri is getting smarter thanks to a new app called Shortcuts, which will let you build your own commands with any application. With the Tile app, for example, you can say "Hey Siri, I lost my keys," and that will then alert the tiny gadget attached to your keys.
Apple’s augmented reality is shared and persistent
Apple has been flirting with augmented reality for a bit. Now, the company is ready to take it to the next level. ARKit 2.0 is just that. Apple even tapped Pixar for a special file format, USDZ. Cupertino's plans for AR go beyond just file formats, though. Using the new Measure app, you can take full measurements of an object using nothing but your iPhone's camera. Lowe's and Mercedes are probably frothing at the mouth for this update. Senior Vice President Craig Federighi used it to measure his college suitcase and a photo of him as a baby.
Apple, Pixar and Adobe back a standardized AR file format
Apple announced at the WWDC 2018 keynote in San Jose on Monday that sharing AR files across will be much easier under iOS12 thanks to a new file format the company has developed in conjunction with Pixar. The Universal Scene Description file, or USDZ for short, will offer the ability to display 3D rendered AR objects within a single "zero compression, unencrypted zip archive" file, optimized for sharing.
Apple’s iOS 12 improves performance, even on your old iPhone
As expected from Apple's developer-focused showcase here at WWDC, here's your first glimpse of iOS 12. Previewing what's headed to your iPhone (and iPad) later this year, you might be surprised that it doesn't look all that different. CEO Tim Cook teased that the customer is at the center of everything -- and perhaps nothing illustrates that better than its updated mobile OS. Apple's senior vice president of Software Engineering, Craig Federighi, noted that iOS 12 will be supported by all the same devices that iOS 11 ran on -- it's the biggest range of supported devices yet.
Live from WWDC 2018!
Hello there! You must be really excited about Apple's annual developer conference, because you've arrived a little early. The company kicks off WWDC on Monday in typical fashion: with a livestreamed keynote helmed by CEO Tim Cook. As per usual, I'll be among the thousands watching live, bringing you breaking news and bad jokes in liveblog form. Also as per usual, I'll be joined by my colleague, senior editor and resident iDevice reviewer, Chris Velazco. Keep this page bookmarked and come back around or slightly before 10AM Pacific/1PM Eastern on Monday, June 4th. We'll be reporting and commenting on everything Apple has to say about iOS, macOS, watchOS, tvOS, HealthKit, ARKit and who knows what else. Oh, and if you want to keep the livestream open in a second window, you can find that here.
How to watch Apple's WWDC keynote
It's already that time of year again: WWDC, Apple's annual developer conference. You can peep it live, as it happens, right here from wherever you are at 1PM Eastern/10AM Pacific. New this year? You'll be able to watch the keynote in Chrome and Firefox in addition to Safari and Microsoft Edge. It's like the future! Now, Apple says that for the "best" experience you should use one of its own devices (or Microsoft Edge). Of course, you can still watch on your Apple TV if you feel so inclined.
Apple Music's web player now streams whole songs
To date, playing full songs on Apple Music has meant firing up iTunes or the mobile app. You could listen to samples on the web, but that wasn't much different than playing iTunes Store clips years ago. This appears to be changing, though. Reddit users have discovered that Apple Music's embeddable web player now plays complete songs as long as you sign in to your account. You can even add albums and playlists to your library without having to leave your browser.
We're liveblogging Apple's WWDC 2018 event tomorrow at 10AM PT
Oh, hey! Did you enjoy this short holiday work week? Having a relaxing weekend? Good -- because things are about to get busy. First thing tomorrow, Apple kicks off its annual developer conference, and Engadget will be doing what it always does: reporting live from a packed auditorium. We already have our liveblog page timed up here -- bookmark that and be sure to tune in at 10AM Pacific / 1PM Eastern. As usual, I'll be joined by my colleague, senior editor Chris Velazco (you might know him from all of our iPhone, iPad an Apple Watch reviews). Also as usual, we expect Apple to spend at least a few minutes on each of its major platforms and initiatives: iOS, macOS, watchOS, tvOS, HealthKit and ARKit, among many other things, we're sure. But will this be a hardware year as well? It's always tough to say. Last year's WWDC saw us getting a demo of the HomePod, an iPad Pro and some iMacs immediately after the keynote ended. Other years, we finish the keynote and go eat lunch. What will this year's event bring? Only one way to find out.
