Apple getting into home automation with HomeKit; a unified platform for locks, lights, webcams, etc. Integrated with Siri--"Get ready for bed..."
@AustinCarr: So they won't use TouchID fingerprint recognition on stage but... it's getting some love here in the keynote.
Homekit with Siri is a nice way to leapfrog the voice recognition work being done by Amazon and Microsoft right now.
Indeed, spoke too soon. But yes! Still not using it on stage. And I was one of those who turned on Passcode to use Touch ID...and kept it on even when my fingerprint sensor stopped working, frustratingly. But I disagree with Craig that people "love Touch ID."
With extensions, Apple is making it easier to use your favorite third-party apps throughout the entire OS, which makes iOS a bit more flexible. With widgets, it seems like a case of Apple caving to user demand, but hopefully keeping them confined to the highly-structured UI of Notification Center will prevent them from getting unruly.
I wonder if Homekit will work with a Nest thermostat?
It's interesting, we barely heard about how Homekit will work, but we heard a LOT about its backend Cloudkit. It seems like Apple really wants to sell developers on this, then they'll worry about all of us consumers.
Craig made vague reference to industry standard support in HomeKit.
@MarkWilson: That helps explain CloudKit, because taking on Amazon in this space would be unwise.
A new graphics technology called Metal can reduce the "thick layer of overhead between the game and hardware" to take full advantage of the A7 chip, Federighi says. It can also tap the compute power of the GPU and supports precompiled shaders and efficient multithreading, he adds. Metal results in 10 time faster draw-card rates.
@Noah. Indeed. I'm just shocked, we didn't even see any screens of Homekit. Isn't being the central platform for all of our home devices a big deal--and a huge design challenge no one has solved yet?
A lot of ambitious stuff is being quickly glossed over here.
All this talk of the draw rate of "Metal" video games reminds me of E3, which is only a couple weeks away. Tons of demos like this whenever new consoles are introduced.
I'm feeling like Apple's biggest announcements in terms of impact--like Health and Homekit--have been largely glossed over in terms of what the entire user experience will feel and look like. There was a bit on Health, but nothing approaching the walkthrough we got on, say, the new Mail. Have cherry-picked partners, just not built out the necessary experiences to simulate yet? Does Apple not want to tip its entire design hand fully just yet to competitors? I guess, does Apple really know how this stuff will work yet?
Apple is introducing a successor to Objective-C, a language called Swift. BIG news.
For the casual gamers, Apple said SpriteKit has been updated to support light sources, field forces, per-pixel physics (automatically interact with proper physics based on drawn shapes), and inverse kinematics. Federighi also introduces SceneKit, a 3D scene renderer for casual games.
@Mark Assuming it wants to wait until they reveal their new hardware to fully show off what Health and HomeKit can do.
@Adrian--is that today? Or the new iPhone event coming in late summer/early fall? Or...
Swift is a new programming language "without the baggage of C," Federighi says. In regard to complex object sort, Swift is 3.9 times faster than Python (Objective C, its language of choice until now, is 2.8 times faster than Py). Swift code can run alongside Objective C and C code.
Keynote has suddenly gotten extremely geeky, but the developers here seem to be loving it.
Swift is indeed a major surprise here today.
Surprised they haven't made a joke about how the Swift logo is based on Craig's hair. YOU'RE LOSING YOUR TOUCH, APPLE.
Swift runs code as it's being typed, displaying the result in the sidebar to the right. It can also show the history of a value over time as an application runs--eg. to see the trajectory of an object's path.
Federighi is the star of this keynote, no question.
The tweet below is from Box CEO Aaron Levie
Another needless-to-say-takeaway from WWDC: developers are damn smart. I feel like I'm in my college astronomy class all over again right now.
Swift language guide and reference documents available in iBooks now.
iOS 8 will be available as a beta today. Complete version coming in the fall.
Looks like Cook is summarizing and wrapping up.
"Apple engineers platforms, devices, and services together," says Cook, capping the keynote. "We do this so we can create a seamless experience for our users that is unparalleled in the industry. This is something only Apple can do.
This was fun--thanks for the invitation.
The majority of us won't ever interact with graphics engines like metal, or programming languages like Swift, but theoretically, they should make it easier for developers to create more powerful apps and games, which means a better experience for us.
Lots and lots and lots of things to chew on.
What we didn't see today: Hardware and Phil Schiller, senior vice president of worldwide marketing who is usually a fixture at these announcements.
There was no "one more thing..." right?
Craig is the new Phil, at least for today. But Phil is more of a hardware guy, demo-wise.
Indeed, spoke too soon. But yes! Still not using it on stage. And I was one of those who turned on Passcode to use Touch ID...and kept it on even when my fingerprint sensor stopped working, frustratingly. But I disagree with Craig that people "love Touch ID."
With extensions, Apple is making it easier to use your favorite third-party apps throughout the entire OS, which makes iOS a bit more flexible. With widgets, it seems like a case of Apple caving to user demand, but hopefully keeping them confined to the highly-structured UI of Notification Center will prevent them from getting unruly.
All of the features that Apple is opening up for developers is going to result in some fantastic apps that Apple will copy in a few years.by Farhad Manjoo via twitter 6/2/2014 6:40:13 PM
A new graphics technology called Metal can reduce the "thick layer of overhead between the game and hardware" to take full advantage of the A7 chip, Federighi says. It can also tap the compute power of the GPU and supports precompiled shaders and efficient multithreading, he adds. Metal results in 10 time faster draw-card rates.
Craig Federighi, future Apple CEO.by fromedome via twitter 6/2/2014 6:50:51 PM
Apple just reasserted dominance of the developer ecosystem. Which means better apps. Which drives more device sales. And so forth.by levie via twitter 6/2/2014 6:51:27 PM
They didn’t need new hardware today, and they knew it.by marcoarment via twitter 6/2/2014 6:59:36 PM
Did you miss today's event? Here's a roundup of the keynote announcements, a look at the main design features of Apple's new OS X, a closer look at HomeKit and a smart take on the Health app and HealthKit.