Five Highlights From the 2020 Apple WWDC Keynote

I’ve written several posts on this blog about Apple, my love of the company’s products, and the new streaming service Apple TV+. 

For me, each new announcement and presentation is something akin to Christmas Day. 

Because of COVID-19 global pandemic, Apple changed its annual World Wide Developers to a “virtual” gathering online — making the conference free this year. 

Because the company’s keynote is a stage-based production, I wasn’t sure how this year’s event would feel. 

As many pundits Tweeted during the keynote (including myself), the production value on the event was pretty slick, and very informative. 

Sadly, there weren’t any hardware reveals or teases this year (I was excited to see a redesigned iMac), but there were a number of details on upcoming software updates for iOS 14, iPadOS 14, TVOS 14, and macOS Big Sur. Along with the enhancements to the core software, Apple outlined its desktop/laptop transition from Intel’s x86 processors to their own custom processors, dubbed “Apple Silicon.”  

Here are my five favorite highlights from the event: 

WIDGETS ON THE HOME SCREEN IN IOS

A number of the Apple-focused rumor sites, YouTubers, and bloggers have had concept photos of the next iteration of iOS showing widgets of various shapes and sizes on the Home Screen of an iPhone (among the typical grid of apps). 

(This is where Android users make snarky comments about this feature being available on their phones for years.) 

Apple Senior Vice President of Software Engineering Craig Federighi demonstrated this new ability during his iOS 14 presentation at WWDC. 

Users will be able add things like Weather and Calendar widgets to their Home Screen and place them to their liking among the app icons — and they can be sized to a user’s preference. 

The Home Screen has long needed to be more useful and customizable (much in the way a user can customize the complications on various Apple Watch faces). 

Quite honestly, I haven’t spent a lot of time swiping to look at the Today View on my iPhone, so I’ll be happy to have the ability to use widgets in a more useful way. 

Apple has also implemented something called a Smart Stack that allows users to scroll through several widgets on the Home Screen. You can either do this manually, or the Smart Stack can change the widget automatically based on the time of day you’re looking at your iPhone.  

APP CLIPS 

I’m a person who doesn’t like to have a lot of apps on my iPhone. 

I like to limit it to those I use the most. Part of this mindset came a decade ago when I had phones like the HTC Droid Eris and the iPhone 4s. Both devices had fairly small hard drives, so I tried to keep my phones “fit” as I went along.   

Obviously, smartphones today have infinitely more storage, faster processors, and bigger batteries. 

Be that as it may, my “daily driver” is an iPhone 6S Plus (a device that was released in 2015), so process-hungry apps are still a focus for me as it regards battery life on an older device. 

In my mind, one of the more irritating side effects of app development is when you are “out and about” somewhere and find out you need to download an app to be able to do something. 

An example of this might be a parking meter that requires an app to pay the fee (the University of Nebraska at Omaha has this setup in front of Milo Bail Student Center). 

When we’ve eaten at Qdoba over the past year or so, we’ve been told that we can only use the reward programs if we download their app. 

To be perfectly honest, I don’t really relish installing software when I’m away from home. I don’t want to do it on public wifi, and I don’t like doing it using our cellular service. 

Apple has come up with a solution to appease people like me with its new App Clips feature in iOS 14. 

Federighi described the functionality as the right app you need at just the right moment. 

An App Clip is a small part of an app. It’s light and fast and easy to discover. 

So, if you are at a parking meter that requires an app for payment, App Clip will open and allow you to pay using a portion of the app (without requiring users to download and install the entire app). 

There will be a number of ways users can access App Clips. Apple has also developed what it calls App Clip Code (something akin to a QR code) that they’d like entities to have on display so people can scan them with their iPhones. 

APPLE TV+ ADAPTATION OF ISAAC ASIMOV’S “FOUNDATION” SERIES

I’ve been an Apple TV+ subscriber for a few months now, and have started reviewing a number of the service’s original programming offerings on this blog. 

So far, I’ve been pretty impressed. 

At WWDC, Apple showed a sizzle reel and teaser trailer for its upcoming adaptation of science fiction scribe Isaac Asimov’s “Foundation” series (an epic drama encompassing various stories and novels). 

I’ll admit, I’m not at all familiar with Asimov’s “Foundation” series (but it sounds amazing). 

The Apple TV+ adaptation is helmed by David S. Goyer. Goyer served as a screenwriter on Christopher Nolan’s “The Dark Knight Trilogy.”  

In the teaser, Goyer mentions that the “Foundation” series influenced “Star Wars.” The early images of Apple’s new series certainly look epic in scope. I’m very excited to see if the narrative matches the visuals. 

I’m hoping it turns out to be a “must see” program on the Apple TV+ service. The series won’t debut until 2021. 

In the meantime, here is the trailer that debuted at WWDC: 

INTERFACE ENHANCEMENTS TO MACOS 

The upcoming iteration of Apple’s venerable Mac operating system is called macOS Big Sur (sticking with names of scenic wonders around California). 

With this release, Apple has ditched the 10.x numbering scheme for the first time since the NeXTSTEP-based operating system (built from technologies acquired from Steve Jobs in 1996) debuted in 2001. Instead of being called macOS 10.16, this version will be MacOS 11. 

With Big Sur, Apple continues the trend of making the desktop interface look more like iOS. 

Interface tweaks and enhancements don’t normally get my heart racing, but the overall look and feel presented in Big Sur signals increased integration between macOS, iOS, and iPadOS. 

There is more translucency in Finder windows and the Menu Bar at the top of the screen. 

Moreover, they’ve added a Control Center to macOS 11 that is basically a thematic counterpart to the Control Center on iOS and iPadOS devices. 

It is interesting to see the new app icons in Big Sur. Apple has adopted the “squares with rounded corners” look from iOS for the built-in apps in macOS 11.

My friend Jason Combs Tweeted during the keynote that it is becoming harder and harder to distinguish between Apple’s various operating systems. That is indeed true, and macOS 11 takes things several steps further toward a unified experience. 

One other note: While it isn’t an interface change, per se, Apple has brought back the “startup chime” in macOS Big Sur (it was removed from macOS in a 2016 update). You’ll be able to toggle it on and off in System Preferences. 

APPLE’S TRANSITION TO ARM PROCESSORS IN UPCOMING LAPTOPS AND DESKTOPS

Speaking of efforts to create a “unified experiences” among its various product lines… 

Reports have swirled for years about Apple shifting its laptop and desktop lineup away from Intel’s x86 processors in favor of its own silicon (based on the “A” series chips powering iPhones and iPads) using ARM (Advanced RISC Machine) architecture.

They are referring to these new processors as “Apple Silicon” (lets hope they have a better name in the future). 

Despite strong indicators Apple was headed in this direction, some prognosticators wondered if it would ever happen. 

The rumors have finally come true. It is happening. 

I’ve solely used Apple computers throughout my life (the brief exceptions being a couple courses in college that used DOS terminals and desktops running Windows 3.11). 

My first experience using a personal computer was in 1982 when I took a summer school course that taught Applesoft’s BASIC programming language on Apple II computers. 

I was a 9-year-old at the time (weird to think I learned to program lines of code at that age). 

Over the years, I grew to love the Apple II and the various models of Macintosh computers I used (both personally and in my business).  

When Apple announced a shift from PowerPC processors in 2005, they outlined an aggressive roadmap to move the entire Mac lineup to Intel processors (an effort that was complete by the end of 2006). 

That transition saw software developers make what were called “Universal” apps (that ran on both PowerPC and Intel-based Macs) and introduced an emulation environment called “Rosetta” (that would run PowerPC apps — that had not recompiled — on the new Intel Macs).

Both technologies were designed the ease the transition between platforms. 

Here we are — 15 years later — and Apple has announced a new transition that feels oddly similar to the one that took place in 2005. 

In the coming months, developers will be able to make “Universal 2” apps (that will run on existing Intel-based Macs and the upcoming "Apple Silicon” Macs). 

Apple will also include emulation software in mac OS 11 Big Sur called “Rosetta 2” (that will run Intel apps that haven’t been recompiled on the new "Apple Silicon” Macs). 

As I watched the WWDC presentation on this switch, it was fascinating to hear Apple using similar messaging to the talking points Steve Jobs used during the 2005 transition. 

I’m pretty excited to see what Apple is able to do with its desktop-class computers once they control the entire software/hardware experience. I have a feeling that the power-to-performance ratio will improve dramatically with Apple using its own silicon to power these machines. 

Because Apple has been so dependent on Intel’s roadmap the past 15 years, it has becoming increasingly difficult for the engineers in Cupertino to create innovative machines for its pro users. 

Intel’s struggles in recent years have been widely publicized. Making matters worse for Intel have been the advances AMD (Advanced Micro Devices) has made with its processor technology (some Mac users were hoping Apple would switch to AMD processors in its Mac lineup). 

I know transitions like this can scare users, but I really think it is a positive development for Apple. Having lived through the previous transition (and having used PowerPC and Intel computers in our business during that time), it wasn’t as problematic as people have made it out to be. 

As long as software developers retool their apps in the new version of Xcode (creating apps that use the Universal 2 binaries), users on both platforms should be fine. 

Native versions of Microsoft Office and Adobe Photoshop were shown running on a new ARM-based Macintosh computer. Apple also showed a resource-intensive, Intel-based videogame (that hasn’t been rebuilt for the new architecture) running surprisingly well in the Rosetta 2 emulation environment. 

Since many software companies have shifted to a SaaS model (software as a service), a lot of us have to “rent” productivity suites, like Adobe’s Creative Cloud suite of applications. The days of purchasing software with “perpetual” licenses is quickly becoming a thing of the past. 

As a result, the idea of shifting to a new platform is a lot less intimidating than it was in 2005. 

When you pay a monthly fee for your software, you’re not worried about having to fork over a couple thousand dollars for an upgrade when you purchase a new computer. The upgrades are included in the subscription fee. 

Big players like Adobe and Microsoft have already been building new versions of their core software assets (as Universal 2 apps) that will run on existing Intel-based systems and Apple’s new ARM-based Macs. 

Apple says the first of these news Macs will be available later this year, and that the transition will be complete in two years. I’m intrigued to see where things go from here. 

FINAL THOUGHTS 

In addition to the five items I highlighted, there is a whole lot more that is worth unpacking from this year’s WWDC keynote. 

My post scratches the surface of the enhancements and refinements Apple is gearing up to offer in upcoming software and hardware releases. 

One of the technologies previewed (that I didn’t highlight) is the new handwriting feature in iPadOS 14 called Scribble. 

Scribble allows users to do more with the Apple Pencil on iPad devices that support it. 

For example, you can sketch a basic shape (like a star) and the underlying programming can create a “cleaned up” version of your rough sketch. 

Scribble allows you to use the Apple Pencil to input text in form fields outside of apps that typically support handwriting and drawing. 

Safari is one such app. Apple Pencil users will be able to write terms in the search bar in Safari. The browser will then convert that to typed text and complete your search. 

Another nice feature is the ability to take blocks of handwritten text in a note, highlight them, and select “Copy as Text” so you can paste the block into another application (such as Microsoft Word). 

It will be interesting to hear how this feature works as people test the beta releases of iPadOS 14.

I know this post was more technical and “jargony” than the content I normally write on this blog. Since Apple is such an integral part of my marketing communications business — and my daily life — I wanted to share my thoughts on the news from Apple’s 2020 WWDC. 

It’ll be fun to see where things go from here!

To learn more about the technologies and projects featured in this blog post, visit www.apple.com. 

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