Apple WWDC 2016 Keynote
by Joshua Ho on June 13, 2016 12:29 PM EST12:35PM EDT - Live from WWDC, it's the AnandTech Live Blog
12:37PM EDT - Josh is on photos and Ryan is on text
12:38PM EDT - The show doesn't start for another 20 minutes, but Apple has a large crowd here, so seating started early
12:39PM EDT - This year Apple has expaded the keynote from Moscone to the larger Search Results Bill Graham Civic Auditorium, where they've held previous iDevice events
12:39PM EDT - While not really about the keynote, it's worth mentioning that this environment is really testing the limits of the WiFi/LTE systems in laptops and other mobile devices.
12:40PM EDT - The Razer Blade I'm using has noticeable reception issues at the edge compared to the HTC 10 and Apple Macbook. -Josh
12:43PM EDT - The HTC 10 is definitely faring far better here than the One M7 as well, which is a surprise. By about an extra 4-8 dBm which is a fairly enormous improvement.
12:45PM EDT - There have been rumblings of a focus on services this go around but I'm just sitting here wondering when we'll get new Macbook Pros -Josh
12:48PM EDT - WiFi here is also fairly slow, on the order of 500 Kbps symmetrical so we will be using lower quality images to try and keep things going smoothly here
12:48PM EDT - WiFi here is... tempermetal. So hopefully things calm down once the presentation starts
12:52PM EDT - Today is going to be a busy day. Along with the WWDC keynote, E3 is going on in LA
12:53PM EDT - Microsoft has already announced a new Xbox One hardware revision, and there are still PC and Sony shows to come: http://www.anandtech.com/show/10416/microsoft-announces-xbox-one-s-console-a-slimmer-design
12:56PM EDT - IT BEGINS
01:05PM EDT - Recap time. Tim is giving a brief overview of the success of the Apple developer ecosystem
01:06PM EDT - Apple is going to talk about four platforms today
01:07PM EDT - Mac, iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, and Apple TV
01:07PM EDT - (Yes, that was a 5 item list)
01:08PM EDT - watchOS, TV OS, OS X, and iOS are the four platforms
01:08PM EDT - First up, watchOS
01:09PM EDT - Developered cheered when app launch time was mentioned
01:09PM EDT - Diving right into new features. Discussing launch times on watchOS 2 vs. watchOS 3
01:10PM EDT - Apple's trying to take it all in stride, but launch times on watchOS 2 are legitimately poor
01:10PM EDT - watchOS 3 also adds a dock
01:11PM EDT - Reply options are now built into the message screen
01:13PM EDT - (Apple is blitzing through watchOS announcements very quickly)
01:13PM EDT - Reply options, new watch faces, "scribble" text input
01:13PM EDT - Now it's demo time
01:14PM EDT - Continuing to demonstrate the watchOS speed improvements
01:17PM EDT - Demoing that scribble supports Chinese characters as well as English characters
01:18PM EDT - Also demoing a new SOS mode for easier contacting of emergency services
01:19PM EDT - Now talking about watchOS workout functionality
01:19PM EDT - New feature: activity sharing
01:20PM EDT - Swipe to the right of activity entries to share them with others. Can see how you compare to your friends
01:21PM EDT - You can also smacktalk your friends, for those with a more competitive edge
01:22PM EDT - Now talking about disability accessibility and how to measure activity for wheelchair users
01:23PM EDT - There is now a wheelchair user setting that changes how activities work, and adding activities more suitable for wheelchair users
01:23PM EDT - "There's a lot more to health that just fitness"
01:23PM EDT - New health app: breathe
01:24PM EDT - Deep breathing exercise app
01:26PM EDT - WatchOS 3 will add a number of new APIs as well
01:26PM EDT - Fitness apps can run in the background
01:26PM EDT - SpriteKit and SceneKit are coming to watchOS, as are Game Center and CloudKit
01:27PM EDT - Preview release available today
01:27PM EDT - Final version released as a free upgrade to all users this fall
01:27PM EDT - Next up: tvOS
01:29PM EDT - Coming to Apple TV: Sling, Fox Sports, Molotov.tv (France), and a number of new apps
01:30PM EDT - Siri improvemnts for tvOS
01:30PM EDT - You can now search by topic
01:31PM EDT - Demoing "find high school comedies from the 80s"
01:32PM EDT - Now discussing cable TV provider authentication and how much of a pain it us
01:33PM EDT - New feature: single sign on. Do it once at the OS level, and apps can tap into that
01:33PM EDT - Coming to iOS as well
01:33PM EDT - New dark mode for dark rooms
01:33PM EDT - Auto app downloading to Apple TV is coming as well
01:34PM EDT - Coming over to tvOS from iOS: ReplayKit, PhotoKit, and HomeKit
01:34PM EDT - Dev preview today, final version in the fall
01:35PM EDT - Now up: OS X
01:35PM EDT - Talking about naming and how OS X has been in the name of the OSes since 2001
01:36PM EDT - OS X's name is finally being brought (back) in-line with the other OSes
01:36PM EDT - Say hello to macOS
01:36PM EDT - (What's old is new again)
01:36PM EDT - Next version of macOS: Sierra
01:36PM EDT - Focuses: continuity, iCloud, and the Mac experience
01:37PM EDT - New feature: auto unlock
01:38PM EDT - Automatic unlocking using the Apple Watch as a proximity token
01:38PM EDT - New Feature: Universal Clipboard
01:38PM EDT - (Crowd ooohs before it's even described)
01:38PM EDT - Copy & pasting between iOS and macOS devices
01:39PM EDT - Desktop files will now be available via iCloud as well
01:40PM EDT - Optimized storage: cloud storage of older files, be it photos, documents, mail attachments, or movies
01:40PM EDT - Also being added: a disk cleanup function to clear out caches, trashes, etc
01:41PM EDT - Apple Pay news
01:42PM EDT - ApplePay on the web
01:42PM EDT - Works in conunction with continuity
01:43PM EDT - Bringing on developers already, support in multiple countries
01:44PM EDT - Also new: picture-in-picture support
01:44PM EDT - Last and not least of course: Siri on the Mac
01:45PM EDT - Siri now on the dock
01:45PM EDT - (Sorry about the lack of photos for a bit. Josh broke a cable)
01:46PM EDT - Now demoing macOS Siri
01:46PM EDT - (Siri in Sierra, that can't be a coincidence)
01:46PM EDT - Showcasing photo drag & drop from Siri results
01:47PM EDT - Demoing how all of this works with the universal clipboard as well
01:49PM EDT - Picture-in-picture demo: going PiP with video sources other than video files, such as streaming video
01:50PM EDT - macOS Sierra dev preview today, a public beta later this summer, with a final release in the fall
01:50PM EDT - Now up: iOS 10
01:51PM EDT - Raise to Wake
01:51PM EDT - Also expanding the use of 3D Touch
01:52PM EDT - Demoing how additional 3D Touch actions interact with notifications
01:54PM EDT - (This presentation is very 3D Touch-centric. If you felt like it wasn't being used very often on iOS 9, iOS 10 will change how you feel)
01:54PM EDT - That was a very quick look at the new lockscreen and homescreens of iOS 10
01:55PM EDT - Now on to Siri on iOS
01:55PM EDT - Opening up Siri to developers
01:55PM EDT - Showing how Siri can interact with the WeChat app
01:56PM EDT - Using natural language processing alongside the name of the app
01:57PM EDT - QuickType
01:57PM EDT - "Bringing Siri intelligence to the keyboard"
01:57PM EDT - Better intelligent text suggestions based on context
01:58PM EDT - And better retrieval of contact and location data
01:59PM EDT - Photos
01:59PM EDT - Advanced Computer Vision for Photos
02:00PM EDT - Adding facial recognition, processed locally
02:00PM EDT - (This is where those Series 7XT GPUs will really come in handy)
02:00PM EDT - Can also ID scene types, water, outdoors, etc
02:01PM EDT - Photo clustering by IDing photos that are related
02:02PM EDT - Demo time
02:03PM EDT - Showcasing how iOS 10 is collating all of this information
02:03PM EDT - Identifying trips/vacations, etc
02:03PM EDT - (Josh: this is so HTC)
02:04PM EDT - Automatic video montages...
02:07PM EDT - macOS gets many of these features as well, including the image recognition
02:07PM EDT - Now on stage: Eddy Cue
02:08PM EDT - Showing off a new version of Maps
02:08PM EDT - Better searching, traffic en-route, etc
02:08PM EDT - Integration with car instrument panels; turn-by-turn on your instrument panel
02:08PM EDT - Adding developer integration for Maps as well
02:09PM EDT - Book an Uber inside of Maps
02:09PM EDT - Extensions open to all developers
02:10PM EDT - Demo time
02:12PM EDT - Overall this looks a lot like the old iPod/music app at times
02:12PM EDT - Lyrics support is now built in
02:14PM EDT - Artist Connect is still there
02:16PM EDT - Updated experience coming to all Apple Music platforms, including Android
02:16PM EDT - Apple News updates
02:17PM EDT - (Reminder: AT is on Apple News as well)
02:17PM EDT - News has been given a redesign as well
02:17PM EDT - Adding subscriptions
02:18PM EDT - Using National Geographic and the Wall Street Journal as an example
02:18PM EDT - Breaking news notifications as well
02:18PM EDT - HomeKit
02:19PM EDT - New HomeKit app: Home
02:21PM EDT - Home is built in to Control Center
02:22PM EDT - Home can also do geofencing/geo-aware actions
02:22PM EDT - Phone
02:22PM EDT - Voicemail transcription (in beta)
02:23PM EDT - Adding extension API to allow users to subscribe to services that can ID phone calls (i.e. spam)
02:24PM EDT - VoIP API so that incoming VoIP calls in other apps behave like the Phone application
02:24PM EDT - You can also call out via VoIP-capable apps, which will now show up as options under Contact entries
02:24PM EDT - Messages
02:24PM EDT - Adding rich links
02:25PM EDT - Demoing inline video playing
02:25PM EDT - Bigger Emoji
02:25PM EDT - 3x bigger
02:26PM EDT - Highlighting emoji-able words
02:26PM EDT - Bubble effects
02:27PM EDT - Tapbacks as well
02:28PM EDT - Handwritten messages, sketches
02:29PM EDT - Demo time
02:36PM EDT - Back to announcemnts. Like many other apps, Messages is being opened up to developers
02:38PM EDT - Showing extensions. Stickers, placing lunch orders (group collab), etc
02:40PM EDT - Notes collaboration, conversation view in Mail, image stabilization in live photos, and Safari split view on iPad
02:40PM EDT - Now a word on privacy
02:41PM EDT - Apple is reiterating their stance on privacy and using end-to-end encryption
02:41PM EDT - And how all deep learning takes place locally, instead of on a centralized server
02:41PM EDT - (Apple is, if nothing else, in the business of selling hardware, not data)
02:42PM EDT - Differential privacy
02:42PM EDT - "One More Thing"
02:43PM EDT - A promo video
02:44PM EDT - Dev preview today
02:44PM EDT - Public beta in July
02:44PM EDT - Final version in the fall
02:44PM EDT - Back to Tim
02:46PM EDT - Talking Swift adoption
02:46PM EDT - New iPad app: Swift Playgrounds
02:47PM EDT - Trying to make Swift programming more accessible than ever
02:47PM EDT - Demo time
02:48PM EDT - (This is very LOGO-ish or other click & build coding environments, at first glance)
02:49PM EDT - Very youth-oriented
02:54PM EDT - Dev preview today, public beta next month, and will be in the app store when iOS 10 ships in the fall
02:54PM EDT - Free
02:55PM EDT - Video reel time
02:56PM EDT - (Hypercard, anyone?)
02:59PM EDT - Tim said it would be jam packed and he didn't lie. Apple's needed to go through all of this at warp speed
03:01PM EDT - And that's a wrap
36 Comments
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fanofanand - Monday, June 13, 2016 - link
I can't stand that you post these in reverse chronological order. How does the engineer in you get away with this?Daniel Egger - Monday, June 13, 2016 - link
Agree, especially if you're trying to catch up from the bottom and the page erratically jumps up half a page like a rat on Dr. Pepper...mkozakewich - Monday, June 13, 2016 - link
It's one way or the other. If the posted at the bottom, people would have to continuously scroll instead of just letting it sit. They're giving precedence to the people watching the stream.It's annoying having the page jump down as I'm typing this, though.
Daniel Egger - Monday, June 13, 2016 - link
So? There're easy fixes for all the problems: the top-update, the jumping and the lack of interest in manual scrolling.fanofanand - Monday, June 13, 2016 - link
Or a button to pause live updates like WaPo has in their comments section? Surely the minds at Anandtech could figure this out....Daniel Egger - Monday, June 13, 2016 - link
Oh shit. If my mother-in-law hears about the new messaging gimmicks that's going to be a long session until she knows how to use all of them by heart...name99 - Monday, June 13, 2016 - link
Ah, the good old "Search Results Bill Graham Civic Auditorium"! (12:39pm)Is that like "AT&T Park" or "Citi Field", only with Google as the naming rights sponsor :-)
Spoony - Monday, June 13, 2016 - link
Meanwhile my iMessages can't seem to arrive reliably, or in the correct order.I was not sure if that keynote was a troll or not. I guess it's over to Android for me.
Spoony - Monday, June 13, 2016 - link
APFS?!?!?! There is hope!name99 - Monday, June 13, 2016 - link
Are you SURE that you have the same (full set) of Apple monickers enabled on all your devices?The most common case is that you don't configure your iPhone and iMac to share your phone number, so messages sent to an email address go to the Mac and phone, but those sent to the phone don't go to the mac.