MacStories Weekly: Issue 37
App Launching on Apple Watch→
Conrad Stoll:
The significance of complications being the best way to launch apps is why swiping between watch faces is so valuable. It allows users to literally switch their context on the Apple Watch. One day this could presumably happen automatically, but at least it only takes one swipe to switch from your primary daily watch face to one with the type of information you want to have at a glance in another context.
[…]
I love using the Stopwatch and Timer apps while I’m cooking or brewing coffee, but I don’t want their complications visible during the rest of the day. The ability to swipe left and bring up an entire watch face devoted to them and any other complications relevant to cooking is a game changer for me.
Prescient realization by Stoll about the implications of the new Apple Watch swipe-to-change-face feature. While Apple emphasized the Dock during the keynote as the new best way to switch between apps, maybe that crown will really go to Complications on various watch faces.
iOS 10: Our Complete Overview
At yesterday morning’s keynote event in the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium, Apple took the wraps off of the latest revision of their mobile operating system. The tenth version of iOS opens up the system to a bold new world of integrations, APIs, and surprising customizability. It modernizes core apps that were growing long in the tooth, takes ambitious leaps forward with computer vision and contextual predictions, and enriches the user experience of such system tentpoles as notifications and the lock screen.
iOS 10 marks the beginning of a new era of iOS in many different ways. With a solid, mature core to build on, Apple is now feeling free to reach out into new areas that it has never before explored with its most popular operating system. We’ll have to wait for real world testing and future betas to see if they’ve truly delivered, but the promises of iOS 10 are some of the most ambitious Apple has ever pursued with “the world’s most advanced mobile operating system.”
So let’s take a look at the features Apple has planned for hundreds of millions of users next Fall.
Netflix for iOS Updated with Picture in Picture Support
I’ll give this one a “finally”. It’s been months since Netflix competitors like Hulu and HBO Now have been updated to support iOS 9’s excellent picture in picture feature, and now the most popular streaming service has followed suit on the day after iOS 10 was announced.
Better late than never though, so I’m pleased that I’ll be able to take advantage of PiP in another place after updating to the latest version of Netflix for iOS.
Now I can keep binging American Horror Story while collecting screenshots for my iOS 10 overview.
App Review Guidelines: The Comic Book→
Well this is an odd one. Yesterday after the 2016 Apple Design Awards, Apple handed out to attendees a physical comic book titled “App Review Guidelines: The Comic Book”. The comic is 36 pages long, and presumably is being used to try to drum up interest in reading through Apple’s freshly rewritten App Store Review guidelines.
The comic book is available in PDF form here, and reportedly will be followed up by a motion comic book coming later. The motion comic will be available through the Madefire Comics & Motion Books app.
Apple is certainly starting to get creative in its efforts to get developers to read through the review guidelines before submitting apps. When you’re reviewing over 100,000 apps per week, I guess you do what you can to try to stop time-consuming, guideline-breaking apps before they even get started.
You can follow @MacStoriesNet on Twitter or our WWDC 2016 news hub for updates.
Safari 10 Will Disable Flash and Other Legacy Plug-Ins by Default→
Announced this morning on WebKit.org, the new version of Safari shipping with macOS Sierra this Fall is going to disable legacy plug-ins such as Flash, Java, Silverlight, and QuickTime by default.
From the WebKit blog post:
The WebKit project in particular emphasizes security, performance, and battery life when evaluating and implementing web standards. These standards now include most of the functionality needed to support rich media and interactive experiences that used to require legacy plug-ins like Adobe Flash. When Safari 10 ships this fall, by default, Safari will behave as though common legacy plug-ins on users’ Macs are not installed.
Connected, Episode 95: RelayCon WWDC 2016→
The Relay FM family comes together in San Francisco to discuss the WWDC announcements, in front of a live audience.
Last night in San Francisco, we recorded a very special episode of Connected featuring multiple segments – with some fantastic co-hosts – on the announcements from WWDC and more. You can listen here.
RelayCon San Francisco wouldn’t have been possible without our amazing sponsors. Thanks to Cards Against Humanity, Textexpander, from Smile, MacMiniColo, Dash, and MacPaw.
Apple Announces macOS Sierra
In yesterday’s keynote to kick off this year’s WWDC, Apple announced the newest version of their Mac operating system. The most obvious change here is in the name, which, for the first time in over a decade, no longer includes OS X. Instead, rebranded to match the rest of Apple’s modern line of operating systems, their desktop version is now dubbed macOS.
The company has not, however, dropped the famous locations in California naming scheme, this year choosing to go with the Sierra Nevada mountain range.
Apple Announces watchOS 3
Apple this morning announced watchOS 3, the next version of the Apple Watch’s operating system, at their WWDC keynote event. A big focus of the release revolved around much needed speed improvements throughout the system, but the announcements also emphasized improvements in health and fitness, accessibility, and messaging. There was also a pretty large overhaul of some of the main functions of previous versions of watchOS, including a complete change in the features tied to the Watch’s Side Button.