Today on AppStories, we cover the highlights of Apple’s keynote, including widgets, the App Library, App Clips, and design changes in iOS 14, system-wide sidebars and Apple Pencil updates in iPadOS 14, sleep tracking and the Fitness app in watchOS 7, and macOS Big Sur’s big redesign, Safari, and the transition to Apple Silicon.
https://staging.macstories.net/podcasts/appstories/episodes/169/embed/
Today as part of the Discover section of Apple’s Developer app, the company shared three playlists and interviews with developers about the role music plays in their lives. Among the interviews is one with Federico, who was asked about MusicBot, the Apple Music shortcut that he created, and shared on MacStories, last December.
Sam Rosenthal, the developer behind the excellent Apple Arcade game Where Cards Fall, was interviewed too. He explains how his love of music informs his company’s approach to game development:
“A lot of the bands that I really loved… They didn’t stick with one sound,” he said. Rosenthal has carried that philosophy into his work: “Every time we make something, it should be different from the last. It should surprise people.”
In addition to interviews with developers, Apple shared three playlists: WWDC20 Power Up, WWDC20 Coding Energy, and WWDC20 Coding Focus.
With WWDC forced to be held remotely due to the pandemic and other troubles in the world, I really appreciate the sentiment shared by Federico at the conclusion of Apple’s story:
“Music transcends our differences and has the power to unite us,” Viticci said. “To make us feel connected no matter what’s going on in the world.”
Be sure to check out the playlists above, I’ve only had a chance to scroll through them so far, but they look like excellent collections to enjoy as you catch up on the latest WWDC developments.
Echoes of the past were woven throughout Apple’s announcement that it is transitioning the Mac from Intel-based chips to its own architecture. During the keynote yesterday, Senior Vice President of Hardware Technologies Johny Srouji kicked things off by explaining the balance between performance and power consumption, something that drove the transition to Intel chips nearly 15 years go. Then, Craig Federighi introduced Universal 2 and Rosetta 2, software solutions that originated with the transition to Intel Macs.
It would be a mistake to conclude that the transition to Apple Silicon will be just like the last switch, though. The computing world is very different from 2006, and so is Apple’s lineup of products. The transition carries the promise of powerful, low-power Macs, but it also foreshadows a fundamental change in the relationship among Apple’s platforms that began with the introduction of Mac Catalyst, SwiftUI, and related initiatives. Where precisely these changes lead is not entirely clear yet, but one thing is for certain: the Mac is changing dramatically.
Yesterday, I covered macOS 11.0, known as Big Sur, which is as much a part of this transition as the Mac’s new system-on-a-chip (SoC) will be. Today, however, it’s worth taking a closer look at the hardware that was announced. It won’t be available to consumers until later this year, and the transition is expected to take two years. However, within a week or so, developers will begin receiving test kits that will allow them to start working on supporting the new hardware when the new Macs start shipping.
WWDC 2020: Keynote Overview and Reactions 
In today’s first WWDC 2020 episode, Federico and John cover the highlights of Apple’s keynote, including widgets, the App Library, App Clips, and design changes in iOS 14, system-wide sidebars and Apple Pencil updates in iPadOS 14, sleep tracking and the Fitness app in watchOS 7, and macOS Big Sur’s big redesign, Safari, and the transition to Apple Silicon.
It was a big day for the Mac. At WWDC’s opening keynote, Apple announced that the platform will transition to Apple-designed chips dubbed Apple Silicon. That switch was highly anticipated, and I’ll cover it in a separate story tomorrow. What was a bigger surprise, though, was the complete makeover of macOS that was revealed.
The latest version of macOS, which has been incremented to version 11.0 and is known as Big Sur, ushers in a new design language that reduces chrome and takes cues from aspects of iPadOS. The design changes to macOS weren’t the only big change announced today, though. Safari got what Apple describes as its biggest update ever, which includes under-the-hood performance enhancements, design tweaks, and all-new features. Big Sur will gain many of the features coming to iOS and iPadOS, too, bringing feature parity across platforms to more apps than ever.
Every time Apple holds a keynote event, the company shares a variety of numbers related to things like user counts for certain products, software performance improvements, and customer satisfaction. With the company announcing the future of key platforms like iOS, iPadOS, macOS, watchOS, and tvOS, there was unsurprisingly a lot of data mentioned at today’s WWDC event.
We’ve collected some of the most interesting numbers shared on-stage during the keynote and on Apple’s product pages:
You can also follow all of our WWDC coverage through our WWDC 2020 hub, or subscribe to the dedicated WWDC 2020 RSS feed.
Despite moving to an online format this year, Apple kicked off WWDC as usual with a keynote announcing details on the latest versions of iOS, iPadOS, macOS, watchOS, and more. This year’s keynote brought a bunch of big announcements and some surprises too, like ARM Macs, a redesigned macOS, iOS and iPadOS widgets, the App Library, App Clips, new Pencil and AirPods features, watchOS face sharing, sleep tracking, and new workouts, and a lot more.
The full keynote video is available now on Apple’s website, Apple’s TV app, and in its Developer app. If you missed the live stream or want to re-watch certain segments you’ve got more ways to do that than ever before.
You can also follow all of our WWDC coverage through our WWDC 2020 hub, or subscribe to the dedicated WWDC 2020 RSS feed.
This week on MacStories Unwind:
Pixelmator Pro 
Federico
