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Posts tagged with "WWDC 2019"

CarPlay Dashboard to Enable Displaying Multiple Apps in the Fall

According to Apple, CarPlay is currently available in 90% of all cars manufactured in the US and 75% worldwide, which explains why the company announced what it described as the biggest update to CarPlay since its introduction in 2014.

The update, which will be released in the fall with iOS 13, is dominated by a redesign of CarPlay’s interface. In the current version of CarPlay, only one app is displayed onscreen at a time and using Siri takes over the whole screen. The new UI, which Apple is calling CarPlay Dashboard, allows two apps plus Siri suggestions or the Siri interface to be displayed at one time.

During the demo, Apple showed off Maps side-by-side with Music and a Siri suggestion to open a garage door using a HomeKit shortcut. Although apps can coexist next to each other in the update, the demo also showed apps like Music being used full-screen. When Siri was activated while Music was displayed full-screen, Siri’s familiar stylized sound wave pattern appeared beneath the Music controls and artwork, which is a nice departure from the current system where Siri’s UI takes over the entire display.

In another nice Siri addition, the voice assistant will now work with third-party CarPlay-enabled apps like Waze and Pandora. Currently, Waze has a separate button in the app’s UI to trigger voice control. That makes voice control more difficult and frustrating in third-party apps because they all implement voice control a little differently. In the fall though, developers will be able to update their apps to take advantage of the same in-car Siri hardware buttons as Apple’s apps.

Apps will also be added and updated. Apple previewed a new CarPlay version of the iOS Calendar app, and Music has been redesigned to include album art.

Apple didn’t say whether the update will be backwards compatible with existing car entertainment systems, but because that’s historically been one of CarPlay’s selling points, I expect it will be. A revamped CarPlay was an unexpected surprise yesterday, and although I haven’t had a chance to try it yet, I like what was shown during the demo, especially the ability to keep Maps on the same screen as another app.

You can also follow all of our WWDC coverage through our WWDC 2019 hub, or subscribe to the dedicated WWDC 2019 RSS feed

macOS Catalina: The MacStories Overview

The Mac is experiencing a new season of change. Following up on last year’s Mojave, which positioned the Mac as a productivity-first platform, this year macOS Catalina ushers in what’s sure to be a flood of new apps on the platform thanks to Project Catalyst. At the same time as the Mac welcomes an influx of new third-party apps, it says goodbye to iTunes in favor of dedicated apps for Music, Podcasts, and TV. From a user-facing standpoint Catalina isn’t a huge release – at least not until the other shoe drops and iPad apps hit the Mac this fall – but it is an important defining moment for macOS: with Catalina, old things are reimagined, and integration with the growing ecosystem of other Apple products and platforms propels the Mac to new heights.

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HomePod Gaining Multi-Voice Support and Handoff, AirPods Add Audio Sharing and More

Amid yesterday’s packed WWDC keynote, where iOS 13, iPadOS, the new Mac Pro, and more were announced, Apple also shared a few exciting updates coming this fall for its music-focused accessory products: HomePod and AirPods. The HomePod will soon support multiple users, a new Handoff feature, and radio apps, while AirPods will gain audio sharing and a special Siri feature for messaging.

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Apple Publishes Video from WWDC 2019 Keynote

Yesterday Apple kicked off the week-long WWDC in the usual way: with a keynote announcing details on the latest versions of iOS, macOS, and more. This year’s keynote brought a handful of big surprises, like iPadOS, a new developer framework called SwiftUI, and pricing and release information for the new Mac Pro and pro display.

The full keynote video, spanning over two hours in length, is available now on Apple’s website. If you missed the livestream yesterday, or even if you just want to re-watch certain segments because Apple’s presenters blazed through their content at times, now you can do that.

You can also follow all of our WWDC coverage through our WWDC 2019 hub, or subscribe to the dedicated WWDC 2019 RSS feed.

iOS 13: The MacStories Overview

iOS 13 is the latest major version of Apple’s mobile software platform, unveiled earlier today during the company’s WWDC keynote. Contrasting with last year’s iOS 12, which focused largely on performance improvements and brought fewer new features than usual, iOS 13 promises to continue the theme of strong performance while also adding a wide array of enhancements across the board. From a systemwide dark mode, updates to Shortcuts, a long-awaited redesign for Reminders, enhancements to an unprecedented number of system apps, and much more, there is a lot to take in here.

What’s not included in iOS 13 is iPad-specific updates, but that’s because Apple has split off the iPad’s version of iOS into its own dedicated software platform: iPadOS, which you can read our complete overview of here.

As for iOS 13, despite not including the variety of iPad improvements Apple has built, it remains a substantial release meant to take the mobile computing experience to a whole new level. Let’s dive in.

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watchOS 6: The MacStories Overview

Today at Apple’s annual WWDC keynote address in San Jose, California, Tim Cook took the stage to announce the latest update to Apple’s smartwatch operating system. watchOS 6 is coming this fall, and boasts a number of big changes. Most significantly, watchOS 6 makes progress on the independence of the Apple Watch from the iPhone, adds a number of new APIs and health features, and includes an all-new native UI framework for developers.

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WWDC 2019 Keynote: By the Numbers

Every time Apple holds a keynote event, the company shares a variety of numbers related to things like user counts for certain products, software performance improvements, and customer satisfaction. With the company announcing the future of key platforms like iOS, macOS, watchOS, tvOS, and the all-new iPadOS today, there was unsurprisingly a lot of data mentioned at today’s WWDC event.

We’ve collected some of the most interesting numbers shared on-stage during the keynote and on Apple’s product pages:

iOS, iPadOS, and macOS

  • iOS has a 97% customer satisfaction rating
  • 85% of iOS users have updated to iOS 12 compared to 10% of Android users on the latest version
  • iOS devices will unlock 30% faster with Face ID on iOS 13
  • iOS 13 downloads will be up to 50% smaller and updates 60% smaller than previously
  • Apps will launch up to twice as fast as before
  • Apple Pencil latency will be reduced to 9 milliseconds
  • Sidecar will work wirelessly within 10 meters
  • 100,000 radio stations will be available on HomePod
  • There are over 450,000 apps on the App Store built using Swift

Mac Pro

  • Up to 28 cores
  • 8 expansion slots
  • 64 PCI Express lanes
  • Can handle 3 streams of 8K ProRes RAW video and 12 streams of ProRes 4K video
  • 1.4 kilowatt power supply
  • Up to 56 teraflops of graphics performance
  • Up to 1.5TB of system memory on 12 DIMMs
  • Up to 4TB of internal storage
  • Up to 6.3 billion pixels processed per second
  • Users can connect up to 6 Pro Display XDRs, which would cost up to $42,000

Pro Display XDR

  • Maximum 1,600 nits
  • 1,000,000:1 contrast ratio
  • 20 million pixels
  • 40% more screen real estate than 5K Retina display
  • 10-bit color
  • Over 1 billion colors

You can also follow all of our WWDC coverage through our WWDC 2019 hub, or subscribe to the dedicated WWDC 2019 RSS feed