Apple CEO Tim Cook kicked off the company’s first ever virtual Worldwide Developers Conference with comments on the world’s biggest issues—racism and inequality and the Covid-19 pandemic—and then passed the baton to other execs with a flurry of iOS updates.
iOS Updates
Craig Federighi, Apple’s senior vice president of Software Engineering, provided a look at iOS 14, the new version of the iPhone operating system. There’s a new feature called App Library, to make it easier to automatically find and organize apps. You can hide some pages if you want to simplify your experience. There are suggestion features—and a set of recently downloaded apps.
Another new feature is an updated set of widgets, which now come in a variety of sizes. You can shift widgets from your “day view” page on to your home page. You can also have a “smart stack” of widgets on the top of the home page, and the stack will update automatically over the course of the day.
Apple is also adding a “picture-in-picture” feature, so you can keep watching video while using other apps. You can also swipe the video to the side, while continuing to listen to the audio from the same video.
Siri is also getting a new update, with a new video design that doesn’t block out your view when you ask a question. There’s a new feature that allows Siri to send audio messages. Apple is launching Translate, a new application on divide that allows you to translate among 11 different languages. In landscape mode, you can see both side of the conversations.
Messages is also getting an update, with the ability to pin important conversations to the top of the pages. They are also adding a mentions” feature similar to the functionality in Slack that notifies you when you ‘re cited in the discussion.
Apple has been holding the annual event in San Francisco or San Jose every year since 1987, typically in front of an adoring crowd of cheering developers, who come to learn about new developments on the company’s various software platforms. Cook delivered his opening remarks from the stage at the Steve Jobs Theater on the Apple Park campus in Cupertino; It’s a little hard to tell if the address was live or delivered on video.
Apple has now has separate operating systems for iPhones, iPads, Macs, Apple Watch and Apple TV, and continually updates all of them to provide new opportunities for developers to create new experiences and to take advantage of updates to the underlying hardware.
MacOS
The new version of Mac OS will be called Big Sur. It gets a new design for almost every element, including updated versions of Mail, Photos, Calendar, and a Control Center app adopted from iOS. There’s also an updated version of Notifications Center. Widgets are redesigned, echoing the update to widgets in iOS. Messages is updated with new search and photo-picking features.
There will also be a new version of Maps for the Mac, including indoor maps for airports, to make it easier to find your gate.
Apple Maps
Apple Maps is adding new cycling directions, taking elevation into account.They are adding cycling routes in multiple cities initially including the San Francisco Bay Area, New York City, Los Angeles, Beijing and Shanghai.
They are also doing an update designed for electric vehicle routing, including information on where to find relevant chargers.
Apple plans to add digital car keys to CarPlay, allowing you to start your car with your phone. And you can share a digital key to others which can set geofencing parameters. The first car to support them will be the 2021 BMW 5 Series.
AppStore
AppStore is getting an update with a new feature called App Clips, so you can use a small portion of an app without opening or downloading full apps. The idea is to get to the part of an app you want without the full app. They can be launched in messages, from QR codes, in maps, or other places. Yelp for instance can create App Clips for all of the businesses they serve. They have sign-in with Apple and Apple Pay for payments built in.
iPad
iPad OS is also getting an update, iPad OS 14. There are a range of updates, including compact notifications for calls, and a redesigned search design, that allows you to search without leaving your apps. Search includes a new universal search capability that allows you to easily look deep inside apps as well as searching the Web. Apple is also updating the software for Apple Pencil, including Scribble, a feature that converts handwriting into text—and free-form drawing into standard geometric shapes. You can use pencil to write in any text field, including search windows. Scribble recognizes multiple languages, including English and Chinese.
AirPods is getting an update, including seamlessly switching among devices. More impressively, AirPods Pro will add Spatial Audio, creating an immersive experience like the surround sound found in cutting edge movie theaters, including the Dolby Atmos audio standard.
Apple Watch
Watch OS 7 adds a feature called “complications,” which allows you to pull information from multiple sources, and to create your own data-rich watch faces. There’s also a new feature called Face Sharing, which allows you to share watch faces with others. Apple Watch will have turn-by-turn cycling route information, taking advantage of the updates the company is adding to Apple Maps for cyclists. The Apple workout app is adding a feature that tracks dance activity. What has been called the Activity app will be renamed Fitness. Watch OS is also adding a sleep app, which includes a feature called Wind Down feature that is supposed to help you get ready to go to bed. You can see sleep information in the Health app. Apple also has a new hand washing detection feature—to make sure you wash long enough. Really.
Privacy
Apple announced some new privacy features. You can now share approximate rather specific locations with apps. Apps tracking your online activity will need to ask for permission before tracking you across apps and web locations. Apple also plans to launch the equivalent of a nutrition label for privacy—to know what data apps track, and whether they share that information with third parties. The privacy policy date will be included in the App Store.
Apple TV
Apple TV + is creating a new series based on the classic Isaac Asimov science fiction series Foundation. The series arrives in 2021.
Safari
The Safari browser also gets an update. Safari has a new customizable start page, including curated wall paper, or any photo you choose. Apple also is adding new extensions to Safari, including controllable privacy settings on each extension. Safari gives you information on any trackers that web sites are trying to apply to your session–and blocks them. Tabs offer preview windows without clicking on them. The new Safari also has built-in web page language translation in line.
Chips
Tim Cook returned to the presentation about 90 minutes in, to announce that the Mac is transitioning to Apple designed customer chips, as has been widely reported in recent weeks, replacing Intel processors. Apple already designs chips for the iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch. They have shipped over 2 billion processors over 10 years for these three products.
Big Sur apps are all designed to work natively on Apple designed silicon. Microsoft is working on a new version of Office for the new Macs, and Adobe also is working on versions of their applications for the new Macs.
Apple plans to make it easy for developers to produce code that can run on both new Macs based on the new processors and older Macs that use Intel processors.
The new Macs will include a feature called Rosetta 2 that will allow them to handle apps written for Intel Macs that have not been modified for the new processors–this is a successor to an older feature called Rosetta that Apple offered when switched Macs to Intel processors from PowerPC chips in 2005.
The new Macs can run iPhone and iPad apps. Those apps will be in the Mac app store.
Cook said the first Macs with Apple silicon will ship by the end of this year, and the transition will take about two years to complete. There are still some Intel-based Macs in the pipeline, he said. The public betas for the new OS versions will be out in July, and the final versions will ship in the fall.
The Backdrop
For obvious reasons, this year’s edition lacks the hooting, cheering and clapping that typically accompanies even the smallest updates to the Apple platforms. This year, actually, not all of them would be cheering, even if they could. Some developers for the iPhone have been pushing back against Apple’s longstanding policy of taking a 30% cut from advertising and in-app purchases, as well as from the direct sale of paid apps.
Last week, Apple released a new study showing that the App Store ecosystem supported $519 billion in billings and sales in 2019 alone. The study casts a wide net and includes apps like ride sharing and food delivery, in addition to in-app ads and the sale of physical goods via apps. Not coincidentally, the European Union last week launched an investigation of the App Store, with European Commission Executive Vice President Margrethe Vestager asserting a need to “ensure that Apple’s rules do not distort competition in markets where Apple is competing with other app developers.”
This year’s WWDC comes with Apple shares flirting with yet another new all-time high, and a market cap that has pushed past the $1.5 trillion level. Year to date, Apple shares are up more than 20%. Since the end of 2018, the stock has rallied 126%, or just shy of $200 a share.
Write to Eric J. Savitz at eric.savitz@barrons.com
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