World Wide Developers' Conference 2020

The World Wide Developers Conference happened at Apple Park, Cupertino in California from 22nd - 26th June 2020. Some of the Important Updates of the Conference have been covered here.

The first day began with the keynote which was simply amazing to watch. The event kicked off with some energetic music by Aurora along with an animation of the Earth, with Memojis popping out everywhere, just in the way signalling for some cool new changes. Then, we saw some impressive drone action with the camera zooming into Apple Park and the Steve Jobs Theatre.

Apple CEO Tim Cook first moved on to the Black Lives Matter movement, and pledged a hundred million dollars to the cause, and launched the Apple Racial equality programme. Then, we were joined by Craig Federighi, the Senior Vice President of Software engineering at Apple. He told us about iOS 14, and it was phenomenal. iOS 14 has been bundled by many new features including an app library, that groups all your apps together, based on their purpose and new widgets as well, are more data-rich than ever and come in a variety of sizes. They are accessible via the Today View but can also be dragged out of Today View and onto the home screen. Apps move out of the way automatically to make room for the widgets.

iOS 14 also provides support for picture in picture, which works very similar to the iPad experience. Also, Siri now has a new interface which does not overtake the entire screen. A new translate app in iOS 14 has been designed for conversations and works completely offline. All you have to do is tap on the microphone icon and the app will translate to your chosen language. There will be 11 languages supported at launch.

iOS 14 also adds a new App Clip feature to easily access applications quickly without downloading the full version from the App Store. The users can also now pin important Messages on top with 20+ new Memojis. New features were added to Maps as well which can help the user discover new places and guides. A host of new features were also added for cyclists. Apple improved its Apple Car Play so that now you can Order food from your car and unlock cars with your phone with the first car being the BMW 540i!

Apple also unveiled the iPadOS 14 with similar awesome features. The previous features were mind-blowing but there were many more dynamic and exciting improvements as well. Federighi started on iPadOS 14, building on the already announced iOS 14 features like home screen widgets. Apple is now expanding stock apps with unique iPad design elements like sidebars in Photos and Apple Music. Interfaces like Siri and incoming phone calls are now modal experiences rather than full-screen overlays. There is also a new search experience, system-wide handwriting recognition, and other changes designed to make the iPad experience work better with Apple Pencil and the Magic Keyboard.

Apple has made significant changes to all of its commodities adding many more user-friendly features, and have also updated WatchOS 14, and have included Sleep Tracking, Automatic hand washing Detection and new workout types and watch faces.

For all the MacOS Users, who were desperately waiting for some upgradation to the already existing features, Apple did not fail to try to make their lives easier. Apple went big this year, by ARMing Macs, which basically means that Apple computers (MacBook's and iMacs) will use Apple made chips, instead of Intel based ones. This will give users better performance and more battery life. Apple also released MacOS Big Sur, with major upgrades to the desk icons, accessibility, and a control centre.

As if the revelations on Day 1 were not mind-blowing enough, Apple moved on to add a lot more features on the other days as well.

Like Day 1, the second day was also filled with surprises and major new features including a Widget kit which provides Automatic relevant glance-able personal attractions. You can generate this entire configuration UI from your intent without much work. Apple also announced Dynamic and responsive interfaces in your iPad apps where content can be organized easily by using fluid swipe gestures.

Apple also moved to improve accessibility in apps. The App Clip now contains all necessary code and assets for your app. There was also a new feature through which you can use Hand landmarks to interact with screen.

One thing a bit unique about this Conference was, as aforementioned, the variety of updates which changed the dynamics for all Apple Devices ranging from iPhones to MacOS. On Day 3 of the Conference, Apple moved on to introduce new features for gaming which included some Game Centre updates and Haptics on game controllers. They also went through a rundown of ARMed Macs and introduced more features with regards to App Clips.

Apple, on Day 4, introduced features which would add to the user's convenience including Troubleshooting Siri queries by syncing additional vocabulary to Siri. They also introduced an Action vision app and Keyboard and mouse support for iPad games. A Swift UI, Outline and disclosure groups and a new feature to Tailor progressive display of information that is right for your app were some of the amazing updates. Some other features which were announced were Health Kit, Augmented Reality toolkit and Swift playgrounds.

On Day 5, Apple talked about and introduced some features regarding Location privacy on Macs and LIDAR Scanners. This well sums up all the major software updates to Apple Devices. All these features have been introduced for user convenience, but it is yet to be seen how it plays into the interest of the millions of Apple Users across the world. These features will surely serve beneficial to most Apple users and must be kept in mind by those who intend to buy a new Smartphone soon.