WWDC 2019 Keynote Impressions – macOS

June 8, 2019
5 min read

This was a surprisingly powerful part of the keynote. All the talk before the WWDC was about iPad improvements and Mac Pro, so I wasn’t expecting such a strong showing from macOS. First, the name – Catalina, sounds beautiful and I don’t even know where to start, there was so much. 

Screen Time for macOS – logical addition. It helped me to realize how much time I’ve spent on social media, but after that didn’t use it almost at all, hope with some improvements and macOS version will use it more.

The break-up of iTunes, the end of the era. It was arguably the iTunes and the Music Store which helped Apple to reach the position it has right now. Instead there are three new apps and iPhone synchronization moved to the finder. The two apps I probably won’t use – TV and Podcasts. One of them, Podcasts, is made using the new developers tools I’ll mention later, but I will wait for Marco Arment to port Overcast app to the Mac, as his sound engine is superior and synchronization between devices is a key feature.

The one app I intend on using more is Apple Music. Right now, even when I’m working on my MacBook and with ease that you can switch AirPods to the Mac I listen to the music from my iPhone. iTunes for using Apple Music just sucks. It’s so big an clunky. 

The one feature I liked the idea of during the presentation – Sidecar. I’ve also heard only good things about the app after the keynote, but then I’ve found out I won’t be able to run it on my Mac, because it’s too old. So maybe I’ll have to buy Luna Display after all. This actually is very representative of something that everyone calls Sherlocking – Apple copying something that 3rd parties do already. They do some part of it, but not all, so developers can still sell their devices or software to those who need something more powerful or, like in this case, to those who have older computers.

I loved the presentation of Voice Control, fortunately I don’t need it, but the video looked very lovely. It’s nice that Apple tries to provide the way for everyone to use their devices.

Again, one of those things that has been tried before, but probably can only be delivered by the company of Apple scale – MacBook private Bluetooth beacon. When someone steels your laptop it sends Bluetooth signal (very low power, so battery won’t drain) to the nearest Apple devices and this creates mesh network which in the end provides you with the location of the stolen device. Amazing, with the amount of Apple devices in the world, this solution is the one that can definitely work.

As I’ve mentioned before I have an older Mac, which doesn’t have Touch ID, I love how my MacBook unlocks itself when my Apple Watch is near, now it will be possible to do even more, that is the promise of Approve with Apple Watch. Hopefully it will work on my MacBook and Apple Watch and will help me everyday, so I won’t have to type my passwords all the time.

One of the biggest additions this year – Project Catalyst, that is continuation of last year mentioned Sneak Peak, which everyone called Project Marzipan. Let’s not dwell on the name Catalyst in macOS Catalina. I’m sure it will be a bit of a struggle to remember which is which, but the macOS name will change in a year, so the problem won’t stay for long.

The idea behind it is helping iOS developers to port their apps to the macOS. From what Apple showed us it looks good and right at home on the Mac. Again, Podcasts app was written using Project Catalyst and from the looks it’s hard to tell it apart from Apple Music. I love that at least some of my favorite iOS apps will come to the Mac, like Overcast for example. 

The apps Apple decided to show off on stage were a bit odd. Calling Asphalt 9 Legends and Amazing Mac App, was a bit much. Although it’s a developers conference, but Jira is not the most beloved software in the world, but it proved the point, now you could move your iOS app to the Mac.

The last big thing that got mentioned and I will discuss it here was SwiftUI. It’s a new framework which makes making an app so much easier. It will work on Mac, iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch and Apple TV. And looking at the demo, I wanted to again try to learn coding. 

So as you can see, pretty strong keynote for macOS. I think it shows that Apple is still serious about Mac and there is hope that this OS will have bright future.

WWDC 2019 Keynote Impressions – watchOS

June 5, 2019
3 min read

Don’t have a lot of time for writing today, so it’s very fitting that watchOS is next in my series of posts about WWDC. There were not a lot of changes and most of them might seem minor at first glance, but could have some big implications. 

Watch Faces

The most noticeable thing for the users are new Watch Faces. They look good on the big screen, but I’m not sure they will be functional and will they be available to the older watches? Also, we didn’t get any information on old watch faces – will they be updated? In my opinion, after Apple focused mostly on Health features of the Watch, watch faces became the worst “feature” of the device. It’s hard to find the best one, especially if you don’t have Series 4 Apple Watch.

Chimes and Silent Taps

If I started with the negative aspect, let’s get all out of the way. Chimes and silent tap every hour. I don’t think I imagine myself using silent tap like ever, but maybe someone needs this function, but chimes? Who would need their watch to sing every hour? Just … why?

More personal Health app

One of the most interesting features that got presented was – Activity Trends. This is one of those features that shines on the iPhone, but you still need Apple Watch to gather all the information. Apple Watch gathers so much data, but there is no story behind it. This year Activity Trends brings much needed analysis of the data.

A couple of health related features are very welcome additions. Not for me personally, but I could see how helpful Cycle Tracking would be for women. I know there are apps on the AppStore, but with Apple stance on privacy, this is great addition. 

Hearing Health – this could help a lot of people. I could see being at the concert and moving somewhere farther away from the sound source if the watch tells me it’s too loud. 

App Store and independence

Probably the biggest feature of this years release of the watchOS – App Store. Sure, at first it looks funny, how you search and scroll, look at screenshots on such a tiny screen, but this is just another step towards independence of the Watch. I can see how in 2-3 years you would be able to buy cellular Apple Watch and set it up without ever needing to connect to the iPhone. 

From the development point of view Independent apps, App Store, Streaming Audio and SwiftUI – all those things will help to untie the Watch from the iPhone.

And this last bit is what I meant in the very beginning. Every one of those features by itself may seem minor, but bring them all together and you’ve got a strong contender for the future.

WWDC 2019 Keynote Impressions – tvOS

June 4, 2019
2 min read

It’s that time of the year again, Apple announces a lot of new stuff, there are millions of hot takes on the Internet (including mines) and nobody is satisfied. This year though, there was so much for everyone it’s hard to write one summary. During the presentation I’ve made bullet list of the most interesting things and it is miles long. I will try to mention only the things that matter the most to me.

I will focus today on the very beginning of the Keynote and mostly on tvOS.

The video from the beginning showing the struggle of the developers, was very believable and not only applicable to the developers. Comparing to the previous years it was very “safe”, but not worse because of that.

I still can’t find the reason to buy pretty expensive Apple TV. But Apple tries more and more to give me that reason. Most of the changes to the tvOS are similar to the changes to other operating systems. They showed the TV+ service and Apple Arcade. What made me believe a bit more into the idea was the support for DualShock and Xbox One controllers. This is pretty great, as I have one and I believe there will be some interesting games I would want to play on Apple TV. The segment was very fast paced (like almost all of the keynote), but I thought in the room fool of developers and such a full packed keynote, it was not very fitting to spend the time on the trailer for the new TV show. Although now, when I hear or read opinions – at least the press loved it. There was also a moment when Tim Cook was showing some “amazing” feature and waited for the applause, but there was silence, it felt like a Samsung conference, but it got only better and better after that.

Right now on the Apple website there are previews of everything they showed in the keynote – iOS, iPad OS, watchOS and macOS, but nothing about tvOS. This seems very telling. There were almost no changes to the OS itself, mostly the presentation about the services that were added on top.

iPhone 6: First Impressions

September 10, 2014
3 min read
Maybe you don’t know, but Apple had an announcement yesterday. I’ve poured myself whiskey, opened Twitter on my laptop and Live Keynote on the iPad. If you were watching the event live, you’ve probably noticed how bad the streaming was. I’ve rewatched the begging of the keynote today before writing my thoughts on the new iPhone.
So, two new phones – 6 and 6 Plus. Naming is better than the iPhone 6 Pro, or whatever adjective they could have used regarding the size, so that’s a plus. 
The rumors were true regarding screen sizes – 4.7’’ and 5.5’’, that is logical change, after using 4.7 inch phone for a year, iPhone 5 feels like a toy in my hand. Interesting choices in resolution – 750p in iPhone 6 and 1080p in iPhone 6 Plus. Apple didn’t get in the race with Android phone manufacturers with latest QuadHD screens and I think it was a right choice. iPhone 5S screen looks great and 6s screen in terms of ppi is the same. Name for the new screens is a bit odd – Retina HD Display – something Samsung could have come up with. Great use of a bigger screen with Plus being more like an iPad with two column view and additional keys on a keyboard (I’m actually not sure about that, my first reaction was – they’ll surely be in the way, but I’ll have to try it out, for sure). Reachability – interesting function, after Hands-on many are saying implementation is not that good, you have to toggle it every time you tap on the screen. I also think Back button (regardless of the controversy around it) is the better option. Also double touching vs double tapping – two very similar gestures, which do very different things. 
The all new A8 – 2 billion transistors, I think Murdoch’s tweet pretty much sums it up, I still don’t get why he would write that:

The camera has the same 8-megapixel sensor with some things improved. The IPhone 5Ss camera is one of the best on the market, so why fix something that isn’t broken. Nice call. Photos shown in the Keynote were beautiful, but those are made by professional photographers, still I’m sure it will produce great pictures for everyone else. A lot of focus (no pun intended) on Video capabilities, I don’t shoot a lot of videos, so not so interesting to me. While Android vendors make shooting 4K videos with the phone a reality, Apple doesn’t do it and in my opinion, that’s the right choice, no need in 4K video recording. OIS in iPhone 6 Plus definitely the thing to consider choosing one of the phones. 
Battery life is the same for iPhone 6 and even better for the iPhone 6 Plus. I’m not sure the same battery life is enough for heavy users, so again, something to consider choosing between two phones.
Otherwise, both are great phones, smarter, faster, better, thinner, larger. Everything got better and they look good (except the camera bump, but you will get used to it, I guess). 
Last observation – Beats music is now on the second screen of every iPhone, at least in all the Hands-on pictures.