Brian W. Davidson

My son and I watched WWDC together today, and it was a blast. Here are my thoughts on both watching it with Beau and the announcements.

Introduction

“Who’s that?”

“That’s Tim Cook, son, Apple’s CEO.” He cracked me up with that question. He is very tech savvy. He’s had an iPad for a few years, and he’s had a Mac for the past six months. We regularly talk about Apple news, but he didn’t recognize Tim Cook. I just didn’t expect that.

“Ok, Beau, Craig Federighi is up next!”

“Is that the guy from the podcast?”

He and I have been listening to Connected together for years. He thought I was talking about Federico Viticci.

iOS

My favorite in this category: iCloud shared photo library looks so good! But the Messages improvements will probably be used the most.

Lock Screen

The new Lock Screen customization looks great. I love the color filters, the widgets, and the fact that notifications are out of my face. Toward the end of the presentation, Beau and I were picking our favorite things, and the Lock Screen revamp was on his list.

They lost me on the Focus improvements. It seems like the Lock Screen can work as a sort of quick remote for switching between Focus modes, but I’ve never gotten into Focus modes apart from the Sleep mode associated with the Apple Watch.

Messages

Three major new features:

1. You can edit messages.
2. You can undo messages — I can’t believe they added this one. You can actually delete a text message after sending it? I love it, but it seems potentially problematic. I wonder if there will be a message history that can surface the edited/retracted messages.
3. You can mark messages unread to help you remember to come back to it and reply later.
   

I like that they are continuing to develop SharePlay and plan to integrate it into Messages.

Dictation

The new Dictation interface, which keeps the keyboard on the screen and allows you to alternate seamlessly between using your voice and fingers, looks very helpful.

Live Text and Visual Look Up

I’m interested in how Live Text is being integrated into the Translate app.

The way Visual Look Up allows you to lift objects from pictures looked incredible. I could see my family and I regularly using this to grab pictures of Penny (our cat) out of our images and texting them to each other. Federico demonstrated it here.

Wallet & Apple Pay

I regularly use both, and I like the idea of Pay Later and having easier access to my order history. I’ll use these features.

Maps

Beau and I both cheered out loud when we saw Atlanta on the list of cities that will get the newer Apple Maps features/interface.

When Beau saw that you will be able to add stops to your routes: “That’s actually pretty cool!” I agree. We’ll use it.

Craig Federighi

He really did have us laughing out loud. That basketball outfit was amazing. @BasicAppleGuy was spot on here.

Sports

Beau clapped when they mentioned Friday Night Baseball. We have really been enjoying watching this.

Family Sharing

Being able to respond to the kids’ Screen Time requests inside Messages will be cool.

But shared iCloud photo libraries looks amazing!

• You can share a library with up to five people
• You an pick what photos you want to share or share your whole library
• Most wow-feature: Within the camera app you can choose to send pictures straight to the shared library
• I’m assuming, based on the wording “iCloud photo libraries,” these will be full resolution, unlike the current shared albums feature.
  

Home

I’ve never used HomeKit accessories, but Beau was super interested in this. I’ve never heard anything but complaints about the Home app so I’m glad to hear it has been completely redesigned.

Beau just popped in to see what I was typing and commented, “Really, I want you to use the Home app.” Not happening any time soon.

Quick Note on iOS

There was a brief mention of Quick Note coming to iOS. That’s intriguing because I use it regularly on the Mac. It’s the bottom right hot corner.

CarPlay

I could have sworn I saw a slide that said 79% of us car buyers only consider cars that offer CarPlay. That seems utterly absurd. I would love to have CarPlay one of these days.

When we saw the way Apple intends CarPlay to completely replace the digital controls and electronic interface of cars, we were both surprised. Though they didn’t mention an Apple car, it seemed like we were getting a sneak peek.

watchOS

I’ve been an Apple Watch user for the past six months, and I like it a lot.

• I like pressing a button to track my workouts.
• Having access to heart rate data during workouts is helpful.
• I keep up with my resting heart rate.
• I earn gift cards through my insurance company by meeting my daily goals.
• The timers are very helpful for cooking.
• I just started sleep tracking.
  

The new Metropolitan watch face looks pretty cool.

Heart rate zones looks very useful.

Sleep stages and being able to see when you moved throughout REM, core, and deep sleep in really interesting.

Mac

The M2 seems to be the incremental update to the M1 that was expected. “18% greater performance than the M1.”

The M2 MacBook Air looks great. I’m sure I’ll get one of these within the next year or so and pass my M1 down to Beau. I’m still incredibly happy with my M1 Air. It’s my favorite piece of technology I have ever owned.

I’m surprised they are doing another 13” MacBook Pro. I don’t know why anyone would buy this machine in light of how good the Airs are.

macOS Ventura

Favorite feature in this section: Continuity Camera and seamlessly using my iPhone camera on my Mac.

Stage Manager

Stage Manager looks very helpful. When writing a blog post or a paper, it doesn’t take long to get lost in all the windows — PDF app, Safari, multiple Logos and Accordance windows, Notes, the desktop, Finder, etc. My first thought was that it seems Stage Manager organizes your open windows into a sort of second dock. I love it.

Spotlight

Enhanced Spotlight results looks helpful.

Mail

Improvements I found noteworthy:

• You can undo a sent email.
• Setting a “remind me” notification to respond to individual messages — I’ll use that.
• The search overhaul for Mail on all platforms is much needed.
  

Passkeys

Passkeys “intended to replace passwords” with Touch ID and Face ID? Sounds too good to be true, but I would love it.

Continuity

Handoff for FaceTime! No more “Hey, let me call you back on my computer.” Super cool.

Continuity Camera and using your iPhone camera as your Mac camera! I could have sworn I heard it said that you don’t even have to wake the phone to use it as the camera. The “desk view” using the wide angle lens might be really helpful in certain educational contexts.

iPadOS

Favorite feature here: display scaling + external monitor support + Stage Manager + overlapping windows — I don’t know which one to pick!

Live Collaboration

I look forward to live collaboration in Notes and Pages. I think this was announced in the iPadOS section, but it is a feature in the apps on all platforms.

Freeform

The new Freeform app (a digital whiteboard) integration with FaceTime has a lot of potential.

Display scaling

I think I would regularly use this if I were still iPad primary.

I don’t use an external monitor, but I know this has been wanted by many for a long time. It is a huge feature for anyone using an iPad as their primary computer.