Apple’s Announcements at WWDC 2017 – Keynotes

The 2017 Worldwide Developers Conference keynote was Apple’s biggest event in years, with the company introducing both new software platforms and a range of new hardware products.

As usual, the event began with the message for developers “Keep making apps, the world is depending on you”.

And as always, the event started with a keynote during which Apple announced dates (June 5–9, 2017 in San Jose) of updates for their iOS, OS X, watchOS, and tvOS platforms.

iOS 11

A Giant step for iPhone, A Monumental leap for iPad

Apple officially announced iOS 11 at WWDC 2017. The next major update to the operating system running on millions of iPhones and iPads will improve.

Messages App Syncs Across Multiple Devices

The first new iOS 11 feature: synchronized conversations across iCloud, iOS, and macOS. Messages are moving to iCloud.

If you erase a message on your iPhone or iPad, then it will also delete from the iPad and the Mac and vice-versa. Our conversations will be stored on iCloud, which will make them easier to retrieve your future Apple devices.

Apple Pay

There is also an update related to Apple Pay, which will now be able to pay people. Person-to-person payments let people pay directly from Messages as an iMessage app.

It uses the TouchID fingerprint sensor. And the money which received will go into your Apple Pay Cash Card, which you can use for further Apple Pay payments, or to transfer money back into your account.

It might be helpful to make payment through application and person can directly transfer money to his friends or family members or use as general. Hence, we can enhance our application to the next level in terms of eCommerce market.

SIRI

Aha, Apple has made improvements to Siri that makes assistant’s voice sound more natural when responding to users. Siri will now be able to perform translations from English to Chinese, French, German, Italian, or Spanish. Wow…

As a ios developers, we can definitely use this feature into multi-language application and give better user-interface as well as performance to our app users.

Siri is also getting smarter about suggestions. On-device, learning is synced across other Apple devices but kept completely private, readable only for you. Siri gives suggestions based on personal usage of Safari, News, Mail, Messages and more. For example, as Siri learns topics or places, a user is interested in while browsing Safari.

Camera

The camera also has lots of improvements, including improved image quality. Portrait Mode in the iPhone 7 Plus can be taken with Optical Image Stabilisation, True Tone flash and HDR.

Apple has also added a new technology called High Efficiency Image File Format (HEIF) that reduces the file size of your iPhone 7 or 7 Plus photos.

This can be helpful into the application where Image and its quality is considered as the core concept.

CONTROL CENTER

In iOS 11, Apple has redesigned Control Center, which is the thing that users can swipe up to access frequent and important settings or change songs when listening to music.

Drag And Drop For IPAD

Apple is specially focusing on productivity for the iPad with iOS 11.

A new drag-and-drop feature lets you quickly move info or media from one split-screen app into the other besides it. Drag and drop can also be used with apps on your dock or home screen.

Lock Screen Improvement

The Lock Screen in iOS 11 has been improved so that you can see all of your Notifications in one place.

You can see all of your Notifications, simply pull it down from the top of the screen. Then you will be able to see both your recent and missed notifications in one place.

Here, we should take care about sending an extra unnecessary notifications, as our users can’t get bored from such things. And only useful notifications should be seen to attract the user of our application.

Maps App

Apple announced that the Maps app in iOS 11 will support indoor mall and airport maps. The indoor maps will allow you to see which restaurants are past security at the airport. And you can also see which stores are on what levels in the malls.

Lane Guidance in Maps now encourages you to dodge missing a turn or an exit by showing which lane you should be in when you’re navigating. You can also check the speed limit of the road.

As a mobile app developer, we should think that whether this feature can put our application into an advanced level in terms of event organization kind of feature where our users can easily find the place/stall where he needs to go.

Do Not Disturb While Driving

Apple iOS 11 has a very useful safety called Do Not Disturb while Driving. This feature helps drivers stay focused on the road by automatically silencing notifications. And you can send auto-replies to your contacts in your favorites so that they know you are driving.

App Store App Improvements: A whole new design, A whole new perspective

The App Store has been redesigned from the ground to help you discover new apps and games you can’t live without. You’ll see daily stories by experts, a dedicated Games tab, lists for all kinds of apps, and much more. It’s the biggest thing to come to the App Store since apps. And now apps that are submitted to the Apple App Store are generally reviewed within 24 hours.

ARKIT

Apple is building augmented reality directly into the core of iOS, giving developers the tools they need to convincingly blend digital entertainment with the real world. So with help of this new framework, we can effectively introduce augmented reality into our application.

Now, it’s like behind-the-scenes stuff for iOS. It’s getting Metal 2, of course, and a new set of machine learning APIs letting developers use Apple’s natural language comprehension and facial recognition tools.

macOS High Sierra

Your Mac. Elevated

macOS High Sierra introduces new core technologies that improve the most important functions of your Mac. From re-architecting, it shows how it stores your data & how you watch videos to unleash the full power of the graphics processors.

Apple File System

To your Mac, everything you care about is data. And a file system is what organizes all that data into files and folders you can access with a click. Apple’s current file system was designed in the early days of Mac, and it has performed beautifully ever since. But today’s flash‑based Mac opens up new possibilities for innovation, so it’s time to lay a new foundation. With macOS High Sierra, Apple is introducing the Apple File System to Mac, with an advanced architecture that brings a new level of security and responsiveness.

Below are some bullet points about updates in macOS High Sierra:

- Modifies Safari by including autoplay video blocking
- Intelligent tracking prevention to prevent ad trackers
- Better Photos editing and organization
- A faster and new behind-the-scenes file system
- A stronger updated graphics engine that supports VR development
- Support for the Unity and Unreal gaming engines
- Using HEVC, video stream better and take up less space on your Mac, while preserving the same visual quality
- Now Metal 2 not only takes the visual experience to the next level, but also adds capabilities like machine learning, virtual reality, and external GPU support for entertainment and professional creative apps.
- Virtual reality for Mac. It’s a whole new world.

watchOS 4

More intuitive, More intelligent, More you

Apple announced a new version of watchOS. One of the most noticeable changes in watchOS 4 is the option of using a Siri watch face. This automatically displays contextual information on the Apple Watch, such as approaching appointments, and traffic reports if the wearer is going to work.

New fitness feature includes in controls, more prompts to set goals, and two-way workout data exchange with certain gym equipment. The Apple Watch will also be able to better connect with other hardware gadgets, such as continuous glucose monitors and smart tennis rackets, via NFC. This can be a useful feature where our application also interact with Watch OS.

watchOS 4 also includes a new Music app meant to improve the AirPods experience. Multiple playlists can now be synced including Apple Music-recommended playlists.

The Dock on watchOS 4 has a new look with a vertically scrolling interface with can lead to the UI Interface of the watch application. watchOS 4 can also automatically start when workouts are started, and music playback controls are integrated with the Workout app.

Control Center gains a new flashlight function using the display which also works during outdoor, night workouts as a safety feature.

tvOS

In WWDC 2017, one thing to say from apple about tvOS, The Apple TV is getting a big new content, as Amazon Prime Video is coming to Apple TV and Apple’s new TV app.

New Macs and the iMac Pro

Now faster across the line

Apple also upgraded its MacBook and MacBook Pro lineup with faster processors and SSDs. It also refreshed the MacBooks.

Apple’s 13-inch MacBook Pro without the Touch Bar on top now comes with Intel core i5 processor clocked at 2.3GHz, 128GB Storage and 8GB RAM. This also has two Thunderbolts 3.0 ports.

iMac Pro: The most powerful Mac ever

The all-new iMac Pro, with its gorgeous 27-inch Retina 5K display, up to 18-core Xeon processors and up to 22 Teraflops of graphics computation, is the most powerful Mac ever made. iMac Pro packs incredible performance for advanced graphics editing, virtual reality content creation and real-time 3D rendering.

iPad Pro

Any you can do, you can do better

The new version of the iPad Pro has a 10.5-inch display, 20 percent larger than the previous 9.7-inch model. Apple said that It features a better display with richer color and a new feature called ProMotion, which updates its content up to 120 times per second making it feel smoother and more responsive.

HomePod: Apple’s new Siri speaker

The HomePod has seven tweeters and four-inch woofer; it has an A8 chip living inside it. That’s a feature Sonos has too, letting the speakers adjust their output to, say, push the vocals down the centre of the room while bouncing the bass off the wall.

A feature will respond to “Hey, Siri,” play from your Apple Music account, and answer questions about the music it’s playing. It will also handle other Siri queries, such as weather, news, messages, podcasts, stocks, controlling smart home devices via HomeKit, etc.

Conclusion

Above are the announced points of Apple during WWDC 2017. Though we haven’t had a chance to look through everything yet, feel free to post any missing points or share your thoughts about these new features in iOS app development.