WWDC 2018: Apple reveals major Apple Watch, iPhone, iPad and Mac updates – as it happened
Augmented reality, Siri updates and new apps
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Your support makes all the difference.Apple CEO Tim Cook has taken to the stage at his company's annual Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC) to unveil iOS 12 – the next major software update for the iPhone – as well as new apps and features for Apple Watch, iPad, iPhone and Mac.
"We now have over 20 million Apple developers worldwide," Mr Cook said as he opened the keynote, which paid tribute to them through a video in the style of a nature documentary.
The Independent covered all of the event and the fallout live from San Jose, where the event is being hosted.
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One thing that will be important throughout today is that it's probably going to be a bit more tepid of an affair than usual: Apple is expected to have fewer big features to unveil, and to address criticism of itself and the tech industry more generally.
That's probably no bad thing. It would be tone deaf for Apple to avoid the fact that something has changed in the way the public think about tech over the last year or so (and sometimes in ways that are beneficial to Apple, like an increased focus on privacy), and the fact that some of its big headline-grabbing products have failed to ship on time or run into other problems.
A slower, more considered keynote might make for slightly less exciting viewing. But it will probably make for a better Apple.
About two and a half hours till everything kicks off.
That's 10am local pacific time, or 6pm in the UK. But it's probably easiest just to look at this tweet, which explains everything in emoji.
So here's something very strange: the Apple Store hasn't gone down yet. That almost always happens, ostensibly so that Apple can put the new products live – continuing even after the site was redesigned, updated and modernised in 2015, despite an expectation that Apple surely wouldn't need to take its site offline to add new products if it was using modern web standards.
The fact that it hasn't happened yet would seem to suggest one of a few things, though one is more likely than the other:
- Apple hasn't got round to it yet. (But it normally happens a few hours before the press conference.)
- Apple doesn't need to do take the website offline anymore. (But it's not clear that anything has changed with the underlying technology in recent months, and it went down for the last few events.)
- There's not going to be any hardware, so it doesn't need to go offline. This certainly feels like the most likely explanation, especially given all of the other clues.
Here's an interesting fact from a recent WSJ report, which suggests that Apple's focus will be on improving performance and squishing bugs this time around:
Since September, Apple has issued 14 software updates for its mobile operating system, known as iOS, and fixed 67 software flaws—a 46% rise from the 46 bugs addressed in the same period a year earlier, according to a tabulation of Apple’s software-update notes, which offer a publicly available snapshot of software issues.
Of course, it's hard to say whether that means there's more bugs, or Apple is just getting better at fixing them. But either way it does show that a focus on improving reliability and ironing out wrinkles in the software wouldn't be a bad thing, even if it might be a slightly boring thing.
Yesterday, Apple's WWDC scholars – promising young developers who the company sponsors to come to the conference – met Tim Cook as part the opening proceedings. One question was particularly notable, according to Business Insider's Kif Leswing.
"One teen asked Tim Cook to 'dab on the haters' today during a q&a at Steve Jobs theater. His answer? 'I’m not going to do that," he wrote on Twitter.
There are some rumours around that Apple will be launching new AirPods. The company has long been said to have been working on an updated version – featuring a case with wireless charging, always-on 'Hey Siri' and other features – but it's not been clear when it's coming out.
The new rumours are based largely on the fact that many stores seem to be running low on supply of the existing AirPods. That can sometimes be an indication that stock is being cleared out before it is refreshed. But it can also be an indication that lots of people are buying them – and that's entirely possible, given it has just been Mothers' Day.
(The aforementioned WWDC scholars might be disappointed with that: they were each given a pair as a welcome gift. But that wouldn't be so strange, since last year they were all given Apple TVs, and then the new version was unveiled the following September.)
Here's one thing we know for almost certain will launch today (or tomorrow): the new pride Watch face. That was detailed by 9to5mac last week after code indicating it was discovered. The Watch face appears to be set to turn live on 5 June – some people have tricked it into appearing by changing the date and time on their watch – and is lying dormant until then.
It is made up of a load of strings that assemble into rainbow lines when you turn you Watch face. The nature of that process seems to be different each time.
It's not clear that this will be announced in the WWDC event – it's hardly a big feature. But it is almost certain that it will arrive soon, given it's already lurking in the Watch.
People are filing into the building ahead of the big launch. (But there’s still 90 minutes or so left.)
An interesting bit of tech is already on show here, according to attendees: Apple is using NFC to allow people to check in and get around. That means, for instance, that they can open up their WWDC invite on their phone, confirm it’s really them with their face or thumbprint, and then use it to open doors.That’s cool! But what’s even cooler is the fact that Apple has been rumoured to be enabling that more generally: so that anyone can create an app that allows people to open doors with their phone, for instance.
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