Thursday, June 23, 2016

Apple WWDC 2016 iOS 10, Mac OS X 10.12/macOS Sierra, tvOS 10, watchOS 3

WWDC 2016 as it happened: iOS 10, Mac OS X 10.12/macOS Sierra, tvOS 10, watchOS 3 and redesigned Apple Music all announced at WWDC 2016

WWDC 2016 announcements: iOS 10, macOS Sierra, watchOS 3 and tvOS

There were four main areas in Apple's WWDC 2016 press conference - tvOS, macOS (formerly known as OS X), watchOS and, of course, iOS. There were updates across the board, but the most impressive updates come in the form of iOS 10 - but we'll get to that. 

watchOS 3

Arguably the biggest feature announcement of watchOS 3 was Instant Launch which, as the name suggests, launches and loads an app as soon as you tap on it - a godsend for many Apple Watch users. Dock is also a new feature of watchOS 3, allowing you to multi-task on the Apple Watch in a similar windowed fashion to the multi-tasking window on iOS. 
There's a flurry of new watch faces including a Minnie Mouse watch face and an Activity watch face that displays your exercise tracking data on-screen at all times. Activity Sharing is now a thing, too - simply swipe to the left within the Activity app to see updates on your friends' progress and hopefully motivate you to exercise. 
watchOS 3 is set to launch in Autumn 2016, and is available to download today for developers.

tvOS 10

Out of the bunch, we have to admit that tvOS 10 features the least impressive updates - but that's not to say they're not needed. First up, the Remote app for iOS is being completely redesigned to mimic the Siri Remote for the fourth generation Apple TV, and can perform all tasks including using Siri and playing games. 
Siri has had a bit of an update too - you'll be able to search for movies by genre i.e. "Find High School Comedies from the 80s" via iTunes, Netflix and other service providers, but that's not all. You can also use Siri to search for a video on YouTube! 
There's also a dark mode for those that need it, and will be available to download this autumn. For more information on the latest tvOS update, take a look here: tvOS 10 release date and new features

macOS Sierra (formerly OS X 10.12)

Next up is OS X, which got rebranded to macOS - more specifically, macOS Sierra. It features Auto Unlock, which allows you to quickly unlock your Mac without typing in a password simply by using your Apple Watch. We were also introduced to Universal Clipboard, which allows you to copy something on one Apple device and paste it on another. This allows users to, for example, draw a picture on an iPad, copy it and paste it directly into a document on a Mac.
Optimised Storage will make room for new files by keeping old files in the cloud - files like high-res images, watched movies, old email attachments, etc. Apple claims that a laptop with only 20GB of free storage increased to 150GB after the optimisation process, which if true is impressive. 
Apple Pay is also headed to the Mac via Safari, and will require authentication via Touch ID on your iPhone whenever used. There's a Picture-in-Picture mode coming soon too. For more information on the macOS update, take a look at this: macOS Sierra announced at WWDC - features and UK release date
However, the biggest announcement was of course Siri. Siri is now available on the Mac, and wants to help you in a variety of ways - from searching for specific files on your computer to playing your favourite Apple Music playlist when in full-screen mode. You can find out more about Siri on a Mac by heading here: Siri for Mac release date and features

iOS 10

Last, but by no means least, is iOS 10. Because it's such a big milestone for Apple, the presentation concentrated on ten new features of iOS 10. These include a completely redesigned lock screen and notification system along with enhanced 3D Touch shortcuts that impliment widgets. That's not all though - oh, no.
The Music app (or should we say Apple Music app?) has had a complete redesign, bringing a much simpler design that is easier to navigate and use.
Siri's intelligence has taken a step up in iOS 10 as the virtual assistant is now baked into QuickType, providing better predictive text as well as prompts to required information like your current location or a recent email address. Developers can now make use of Siri too, allowing users to reply to messages via WhatsApp or perform an action within the Tumblr app, for example. 


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