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Apple Announces That WWDC 2021 Will Be Online-Only Again from June 7 - 11

Apple has decided to make WWDC an online-only event again for 2021, which is no surprise given the on-going global pandemic. Before going online-only last year, WWDC was held at the San Jose McEnery Convention Center in San Jose, California, from 2017 - 2019. The event has been scheduled for June 7-11, 2021. Submissions for the Swift Student Challenge are open now through April 18th.

In a press release issued by the company today, Susan Prescott, Apple’s Vice President of Worldwide Developer Relations and Enterprise and Education Marketing said:

We love bringing our developers together each year at WWDC to learn about our latest technologies and to connect them with Apple engineers. We are working to make WWDC21 our biggest and best yet, and are excited to offer Apple developers new tools to support them as they create apps that change the way we live, work, and play.

Although there are benefits to an in-person event that cannot be replicated online, last year’s WWDC was widely considered to be a success. Apple released dozens of excellent videos about its latest APIs and conducted online lab sessions for developers that received high marks from participants. Although Apple hasn’t released details about this year’s format yet, it’s a safe bet that it will be similar to 2020.

I miss in-person WWDC a lot. Last year’s online version was excellent, but it’s impossible to replace the chance to get together with friends who I often only see at WWDC and meet with the developers whose apps we write about all year long. I expect there’s a chance that even after the pandemic recedes, WWDC will remain online-only, but I sure hope not.

Of course, MacStories readers can expect the same kind of comprehensive WWDC coverage we do every year. In 2020, we tried a few new things that worked well, and we’ll continue to experiment again this year, so stay tuned.

MacStories Unwind: Mac OS X Turns 20, Shortcuts Links Temporarily Break, and a Big Reflector Update

AppStories+ Deeper into the world of apps
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Sponsored by: Ulysses – The Ultimate Writing App for Mac, iPad and iPhone

This week on MacStories Unwind:

MacStories

Club MacStories

  • MacStories Weekly
    • Federico experiments with Firefox on iOS
    • John builds PDF-based read later workflow with three-shortcuts
    • MacStories Recommends: Calendar 366 

AppStories

Unwind

Recently-Created Shortcuts Links Are Currently Broken

iCloud links to shortcuts broke sometime in the past 24 hours. Instead of opening the Shortcuts app and allowing users to install a shared shortcut, tapping a shortcut link displays an alert with the message ‘Shortcut Not Found,’ explaining that the link may be invalid or the shortcut may have been deleted. Based on our internal testing, the issue appears to affect all shortcut links created before yesterday.

The problem with shortcut links first surfaced in the Shortcuts subreddit late yesterday and early today on Twitter. Yesterday also saw the release of OS betas by Apple, but there is currently no evidence that the two events are linked. It’s also unknown whether the change was intentional or not. However, given that URLs can still be created and shared for new shortcuts, it seems more likely that the issue is related to a bug. We have contacted Apple seeking clarification about the situation but haven’t received a statement from the company.

The issue affects everyone who has shared shortcuts, from individual users to publications like MacStories that have shared shortcuts online. As a result, none of the shortcuts shared in the MacStories Shortcuts Archive currently work. That’s also true for other sites like RoutineHub and the shortcuts subreddit and writers and YouTubers like Chris Lawley and Matthew Cassinelli who have shared many of their own shortcuts.

Unfortunately, as this story is published, we don’t yet know if or when shortcuts links will begin working again. We will update this post as new information surfaces.

Update: Late yesterday, we received the following statement from Apple about the problem with previously-shared shortcuts links:

We are aware of an issue where previously shared shortcuts are currently unavailable. Newly shared shortcuts are available, and we are working to restore previously shared shortcuts as quickly as possible.

This is great news for shortcuts users. We don’t know yet when previously-shared shortcuts will be available, but we’ll let you know as soon as they are, so keep an eye on MacStories for further updates.

MacStories Unwind: Federico Test Drives a High-End iPad Dock, We Recap Reviews of Panic’s Nova and Sofa, and the Sad, Perplexing HomePod News

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Sponsored by: Raycast – Goodbye Spotlight, Hello Raycast

This week on MacStories Unwind:

MacStories

Club MacStories

  • MacStories Weekly
    * Federico shares three more Taio automations
    * John on CleanShot X
    * An Interview with Sawyer Blatz, developer of Nudget

AppStories

Unwind

Apple Maps Adds COVID-19 Vaccination Sites in the US

In a press release today, Apple announced that its Maps app has been updated to include the COVID-19 vaccination locations. According to the company:

Apple today updated Apple Maps with COVID-19 vaccination locations from VaccineFinder, a free, online service developed by Boston Children’s Hospital that provides the latest vaccine availability for those eligible at providers and pharmacies throughout the US. Users can find nearby COVID-19 vaccination locations from the Search bar in Apple Maps by selecting COVID-19 Vaccines in the Find Nearby menu or by asking Siri, “Where can I get a COVID vaccination?”

Apple says that the feature currently includes over 20,000 locations and lists operating hours, address information, telephone numbers, and links to vaccine providers’ websites. The company will continue to update the list as new locations become available. Apple has also opened up a registry process for businesses that provide COVID-19 testing and vaccinations to submit their information, which will be added to Maps after it is validated.

With vaccinations being offered at a wide variety of locations run by a combination of governmental entities and private companies, this is a terrific resource that I know I’ll be using when I’m eligible to be vaccinated.

MacStories Unwind: Adobe Fresco, a New Portable Sonos Speaker, The Fitness+ Studio, and Podcast News

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Sponsored by: DEVONthink – Get Organized to Conquer the World

This week on MacStories Unwind:

MacStories

Club MacStories

  • MacStories Weekly
    • Federico shares three Taio automations
    • John on how to incorporate Twitter into your RSS reader
    • IINA Mac media player
  • MacStories Unplugged
    • Breaking dishes and other pandemic phenomena
    • Apple Arcade check-in

AppStories

Unwind

Sonos Announces the AirPlay 2-Compatible Roam Portable Speaker

Sonos has officially announced the Sonos Roam, a battery-powered, portable speaker that supports AirPlay 2 and several other interesting features. The speaker, which comes in white and black, doesn’t ship until April 20th, but you can preorder it now.

It remains to be seen how the Roam sounds, but the specs are interesting. The $169 speaker is a small, portable speaker at 6.61 x 2.44 x 2.36 inches and weighs in at just under one pound. The Roam is also designed for outdoor listening with its IP67 water resistance rating and can be paired with a second Roam speaker for stereo sound when connected over WiFi.

Sonos is claiming 10 hours of playback on one charge and 10 days of standby time. The speaker can be charged wirelessly with an optional Qi charging accessory or any other Qi charger that is large enough to accommodate it. The speaker can also be charged using a USB-C cable.

The Roam supports both WiFi and Bluetooth, switching automatically between the two depending on the type of connection available. Using a technique similar to Apple’s original HomePod, the Roam uses Sonos’ Trueplay technology to adjust audio output depending on the acoustics of its surroundings. The speaker also supports AirPlay 2 and Sonos’ Sound Swap, a feature that uses inaudible, high-frequency sound to pass the music off to another nearby Sonos speaker. The Roam also works with Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant, as well as Siri if you’re using AirPlay 2.

I’ve used Libratone’s Zipp 2 portable speaker in the past, which also supports AirPlay 2, and I loved using it outdoors last summer. If Sonos can deliver the quality of sound that it’s known for at a reasonable volume, the Roam could play a similar role in a smaller package than the Zipp.

Apple Launches Kid-Friendly Podcast Collections

Apple has partnered with Common Sense Media to curate collections of podcasts for kids in the US. The shows are picked by Common Sense Media, an organization whose editors have a long history of helping parents and educators find age-appropriate media for children.

The shows currently highlighted in Apple Podcasts’ new collections are from a wide variety of creators like Tinkercast, American Public Media, Gen-Z Media, Pinna, Tumble, Highlights, WNYC Studios, Rebel Girls, and Nickelodeon. The collections will be updated monthly and will feature podcasts organized by age groups and themes. Currently, there are four themed collections available:

  • Common Sense Media Picks, a collection of some of the organization’s all-time favorite podcasts
  • One More!, a collection of mysteries and action-packed stories
  • Kids Know Best, shows picked by kids themselves
  • Story Time, which includes stories designed to spark kids’ imaginations
Some of the shows spotlighted in the One More! collection in Apple Podcasts.

Some of the shows spotlighted in the One More! collection in Apple Podcasts.

With the large number of podcasts available today, the guidance provided by these new collections is a terrific resource for families. There are a lot of shows here that I know my kids would have enjoyed when they were younger.