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Announcement: MacStories’ WWDC 2021 Coverage

Source:Apple.

Source:Apple.

WWDC will kick off online later today, and the MacStories team has been busy preparing.

As always, our coverage will begin with Apple’s keynote presentation. On MacStories, you’ll find in-depth coverage of Apple’s announcements, overviews of OS updates and any new hardware, and roundups of everything happening throughout the week. You’ll also get the kind of details that aren’t widely reported as the team combs through session videos, product pages, social media, and other sources.

Last year’s expanded coverage on AppStories was a big hit, so we’ll be back again this year with daily episodes beginning tomorrow. Tomorrow, Federico and I will cover the keynote and State of the Union presentations, followed by episodes Wednesday through Friday that dig into each of Apple’s big announcements, session videos, and more. On Friday, we’ll also release our usual episode of MacStories Unwind where we’ll wrap up the week’s most important stories and discuss what it all means.

You can follow along with all of the MacStories, AppStories, and Unwind coverage on our WWDC 2021 hub, or subscribe to the dedicated WWDC 2021 RSS feed.

Finally, we’ll send a special issue of MacStories Weekly to Club MacStories members one day later than usual on Saturday, June 12th. The issue will be packed with WWDC-themed features and our thoughts on everything revealed.

If you’re not a member of Club MacStories, you can join here.

To recap, stay tuned to MacStories, our shows, and the Club for a full week of WWDC coverage:

Monday - Friday

  • Continuous Keynote, State of the Union, and session coverage on MacStories

Tuesday - Friday

  • Daily episodes of AppStories covering all of Apple’s announcements big and small

Friday

Saturday

We’re all excited for next week and hope you’ll join us for the festivities.

You can follow all of our WWDC coverage through our WWDC 2021 hub, or subscribe to the dedicated WWDC 2021 RSS feed.

MacStories Unwind: A WWDC Preview, Timery and HomeRun Updates, ADAs, Swift Student Challenge Winners, and a Design Concept

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Sponsored by: Genius Scan – A Scanner in Your Pocket

This week, Federico and John preview MacStories’ and AppStories’ upcoming WWDC coverage and recap updates to Timery and HomeRun, along with news of ADA finalists, Swift Student Challenge Winners, an iPadOS design concept, and link posts about the App Store and AirTags along with two music Unwind picks for the weekend.

MacStories

Club MacStories

  • MacStories Unplugged
    • John has an update on his cul-de-sac, we preview MacStories’ upcoming WWDC coverage, and Federico lifts the veil on Apple’s restoration of historic Palazzo Marignoli, home of the company’s latest flagship retail store.
  • MacStories Weekly
    • ReadKit
    • A collection of iOS apps for Readers
    • A tip for removing Home hubs
    • Lots of App Debuts
    • A Timery giveaway

AppStories

Unwind

Vidit Bhargava’s Design Concept for a Menu Bar and Multitasking on iPadOS→

Vidit Bhargava, the developer behind the excellent dictionary app LookUp, has published a compelling design concept on Pixel Posts for bringing a menu bar to the iPad and modifying how its multitasking works.

Complex apps like Adobe Illustrator hide functionality behind multiple layers of obscure icons using floating palettes that can be hard to learn. As Bhargava explains:

They are powerful utility apps that some how [sic] struggle with providing a simple, easy to use and understand navigation for their actions. Actions are often hidden behind modes, strips of complicated icons or simply not available for the lack of space.

As a result, there’s no single location you can go to find all of the functionality an iPad app offers.

Bhargava makes a good case for a menu system on the iPad, using what he calls an Extended Status Bar that includes an app’s menu and a customizable control tray to access OS actions like Spotlight search and shortcuts. In addition to the Extended Status Bar, Bhargava imagines the App Library coming to the dock and the addition of floating windows for apps like Calculator.

I’m not convinced that Apple would adopt a system so similar to macOS, but I think Bhargava’s on the right track. As more complex apps are brought to the iPad, the lack of a universal way to organize their features means users have to learn a new system for every app, which hinders pro app adoption. If Apple brought Final Cut Pro or Xcode to the iPad, I think its engineers would quickly feel the same pain points with which other developers of pro apps are already grappling.

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Apple Design Award Finalists Announced

Source: Apple

Source: Apple

For the first time, Apple has announced the finalists in the running for its annual Apple Design Awards. The awards ceremony revealing the winners will be held during WWDC at 2:00 pm Pacific on June 10th.

The finalists have been divided into six categories that include six finalists each:

Inclusivity

Delight and Fun

Interaction

Social Impact

Visuals and Graphics

Innovation

The selections include a lot of games and entertainment apps, including several Apple Arcade titles, and a mix of apps from smaller developers like CARROT Weather, Craft, Nova, and Pok Pok Playroom as well as bigger publishers. Panic’s Nova also stands out from the rest of the finalists as the sole app that is not available in one of Apple’s stores.

I like that Apple has announced the finalists in advance. Winning an ADA is a big achievement for any developer, but it’s also nice to know who the finalists are because it, too, is quite an honor among the many apps that could be chosen.

Apple Announces the Winners of the WWDC Swift Student Challenge

Apple has announced the winners of its annual WWDC Swift Student Challenge. This year, the group includes 350 students from 35 countries and regions.

Susan Prescott, Apple’s vice president of Worldwide Developer Relations and Enterprise and Education Marketing said of this year’s participants:

Every year, we are inspired by the talent and ingenuity that we see from our Swift Student Challenge applicants. This year, we are incredibly proud that more young women applied and won than ever before, and we are committed to doing everything we can to nurture this progress and reach true gender parity.

Of the many winners this year, Apple chose three sets of winners to spotlight in its press release:

  • Sisters Gianna and Shannon Yan, whose app Feed Fleet matches volunteers with at-risk people for free grocery during the pandemic
  • 15-year-old Abinaya Dinesh, whose app Gastro at Home helps people with gastrointestinal disorders, access information and resources about their conditions
  • Damilola Awofisayo, who created TecHacks, a non-profit with the mission of “creating a supportive environment for girls everywhere to create, problem-solve, and showcase their talents alongside like-minded females to compete and work with.” Awofisayo is also working on an American Sign Language app

Apple’s WWDC Student Challenge has changed over the years, most recently focusing on the Swift programming language, but it’s been a mainstay of the conference for years now. The competition is one of my favorite parts of the conference, too, having had one of my own kids participate in it in 2013 and seeing how it inspired him to pursue a career as a developer. Since then, I’ve had the chance to meet many past winners and cover their apps on MacStories, which has made it clear to me just how big an impact the program has had in many students’ lives.

MacStories Unwind: A Palazzo Reborn, WWDC News, iOS Updates, an Apple TV 4K Review, and the iMac’s Evolution

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Sponsored by: HabitMinder – Change Your Habits, Change Your Life

This week, Federico and John look back at Federico’s exclusive tour of the Via del Corso Apple store in Rome, iOS and iPadOS 14.6, WWDC news, an Apple TV 4K review, and the evolution of the iMac, plus movie and TV show Unwind picks.

MacStories

Club MacStories

  • MacStories Weekly
    • Federico’s lossless music streaming experiments continue with a new DAC
    • John considers the impact of Apple’s unclear home entertainment message on his AV setup
    • A tip on scanning to your Mac from an iPhone or iPad
    • A preview of next week’s MacStories Unplugged episode

AppStories

Unwind

Apple’s Developer Forums Gain Tagging Tools, RSS Feeds, and More Ahead of WWDC

Apple has updated its developer forums in the lead-up to WWDC with several new features. Last year, the developer forums got a complete overhaul just before the annual conference, improving developers’ ability to ask questions, interact with other developers and Apple engineers, and follow topics that interest them. This year, the company is adding the ability to:

  • Post comments on questions or answers to provide context or ask for clarification.
  • Search for content across multiple tags.
  • Add and manage favorite tags.
  • Upload images to your question or answer to provide supporting visual details.
  • See tag descriptions when choosing tags for your question so you can quickly select the most appropriate ones.
  • Subscribe to RSS feeds for tags you’re interested in.
  • See your authored and watched content, favorite tags, and trending tags on the newly designed home page.

I expect I’ll use the new tagging tools a lot this summer as I work on my macOS review. The developer forums have always been an excellent resource but haven’t always been the easiest to navigate. Armed with a collection of tags and RSS feeds delivering updates automatically, I’ll be using the forums a lot more than I did in the past. There’s still room for improvement, though. For example, as nice as the addition of RSS feeds is, they only apply to individual tags, not search results.

iOS and iPadOS 14.6 Released with Apple Card Family, Podcasts Subscriptions, Updates to AirTags and Find My, and More

Apple has released iOS and iPadOS 14.6 today with a handful of new features, including Apple Card Family and Podcasts Subscriptions, along with Updates to AirTags and the Find My app.

Announced during Apple’s spring event, Apple Card Family is now available in iOS 14.6. Up to five people over the age of 13 can share an Apple Card, allowing them to track expenses and manage spending. All family members on an Apple Card will build credit histories, and parents can set spending limits for their children too.

iOS and iPadOS 14.6 also includes Podcasts Subscriptions, which allows podcasters to offer paid versions of their shows. Shows can be offered as paid-only subscriptions or enhanced versions of free shows that add a combination of bonus features like extended, ad-free, and early-release episodes. The new subscription service is baked directly into the Podcasts app, allowing users to access paid subscriptions alongside free shows.

One of the features of AirTags at launch was the ability to add a phone number to call if a tagged item was lost somewhere. With iOS and iPadOS 14.6, users can add an email address. Also, Apple release notes say that when an AirTag is tapped with an NFC-compatible device, it will show a partially masked phone number.

Apple has also added the ability to unlock an iPhone for the first time after a restart using their voice, which is a Voice Control feature.

Not released with the update today is anything related to Spatial Audio or Lossless streaming of Apple Music content, which is not unexpected since Apple previously said the feature is coming in June.

Apple Announces WWDC 2021 Schedule

Apple has announced the schedule for WWDC. As we previously reported, the developer conference will run from Monday, June 7th, 2021 through Friday, June 11th. Today, the company said the conference’s opening keynote presentation at 10:00 am Pacific time on the 7th. The Platforms State of the Union will begin at 2:00 pm Pacific the same day. Apple also announced that the Apple Design Awards will be held at 2:00 pm Pacific on June 10th.

There will be over 200 sessions available for developers to learn about Apple’s latest APIs along with one-on-one online labs covered by ‘over 1000 experts.’ Apple engineers will also be available in the Apple Developer Forums to answer questions during the conference. The company will also offer special events like coding and design challenges and guest speakers too.

New this year are Pavilions, which Apple says:

provide an easy way for developers to explore relevant sessions, labs, and special activities for a given topic. Conference attendees can customize their WWDC experience and check out content organized around specific areas like SwiftUI, Developer Tools, Accessibility & Inclusion, and more — exclusively within the Apple Developer app.

Finally, the Swift Student Challenge winners will be announced by Apple on June first, six days before WWDC begins.