The much-awaited Apple’s WWDC 2016 event kicked off on June 13 with the CEO Tim Cook delivering the keynote address before a large audience at Bill Graham Civic Auditorium in San Francisco, United States, along with other members of the product team.
Apple unveiled refreshed watchOS, tvOS and iOS 10 including updates to Music, News, Maps, and HomeKit. Moreover, Apple also announced the launch of Siri on Mac and rebranded OS X to macOS Sierra, which will provide support for Siri, Apple Pay, and auto-unlock.
Before delivering the keynote speech, he asked the developers to observe a one minute silence to honor the victims of the horrific shooting at a nightclub in Orlando on Sunday night.
watchOS 3
Since Apple Watch is a premium flagship device, Tim Cook started the keynote by announcing the new features included with watchOS. Apple has completely redesigned the user interface in such a way to improve the loading speeds to up to seven times. Moreover, there is a new dock mechanism and control center like on iOS.
Among other features, there is a new quick reply button with built-in responses and the addition of scribble app, which provides handwriting support including Chinese. The SoS mode enables you to call 911 by holding the side button with support for International emergency numbers. Apple also introduced new health apps.
tvOS
Apple also released updates for tvOS by increasing the channels from 80 to 1300. You will be able to work with a new remote app in case you misplace the physical remote. The updated tvOS brings to the table a single sign-on mode that enables you to log in once to access all the channels.
OS X
As we predicted yesterday, Apple has rebranded OS X to macOS. However, the new macOS will be codenamed as “Sierra” and not ‘Fuji” as reported previously and will focus on continuity. Some of the other features of the macOS are the integration of a universal keyboard, Apple Pay, and Siri.
iOS 10
The new iOS 10, expected to be shipped with the upcoming iPhone 7, offers a new lock screen, which comes with a ‘raise to wake’ feature. You will be able to 3D Touch a notification to reply to messages including apps directly from the lock screen. If you swipe right, you will be able to access the camera.
In a major development, as we predicted, Apple has thrown open Siri for developers. This means the developers will be able to incorporate Siri into their apps. The company has released updates to Photos, Maps, Music, News, Home, and Phone. For example, you will be able to use facial recognition to sort through photos including the ability to create videos from Photos.
Apple also launched Swift Playground, which is a new iPad app, which enables your kids to easily learn the basic concepts of Swift programming language directly from the iPad.
