Apple’s big WWDC 2018 keynote is a wrap! Millions of Apple fans around the world tuned in to Apple’s live stream of the event because they couldn’t wait to see what Apple has in store for its various software platforms in 2018. Of course, some people have things like jobs and other pesky obligations that might prevent them from focusing on an Apple event for several hours. Don’t worry if you missed out on watching Apple’s big show on Monday though, because we’ve got you covered. In this post, you’ll find all of the biggest announcements from WWDC 2018 in one place.
What’s new for the iPhone and iPad in iOS 12? Does the next version of macOS pack any exciting and innovative features? Is watchOS 5 going to be the big upgrade everyone was hoping for? Will the upcoming new version of tvOS make you remember that the
iOS 12
Apple kicked off its big event with the star of the show, the newest version of Apple’s mobile software platform for the iPhone and iPad. This is the first modern iOS release that will be made available to all devices that currently support iOS 11. That’s a huge deal, and it’s just the tip of the iceberg for Apple’s new iOS 12 release. Check out all of the details right here in our earlier coverage.
ARKit 2
Apple’s second major ARKit release brings tons of big improvements to the company’s AR development kit. The big news here is multi-user support for augmented reality, which lets different users see the same AR objects from different perspectives with their devices. LEGO got up on stage to give a demo of some of the new ARKit 2 features using virtual LEGO toys in augmented reality, and it looked incredible.
Along with ARKit 2, Apple announced a new app called Measure that lets you measure objects and distances in augmented reality. There are already plenty of iOS apps that do that, but Apple added tons of other useful functionality such as the ability to automatically identify and measure objects, and the ability to view objects at actual size in AR.
Learn more about ARKit 2 in our earlier coverage.
Siri improvements
Apple added some cool features to Siri, including a new Shortcuts feature and app based on Apple’s Workflow acquisition. More details can be found in our iOS 12 post.
New Animoji and Memoji
Apple added four new Animoji characters in iOS 12, and it also added a feature called Memoji that lets you create your own Animoji characters that look like you or anyone else. You can now use Animoji and Memoji
Group FaceTime
FaceTime finally gets group video chat support in iOS 12, with the ability to have as many as 32 different people on a single FaceTime video call. Also cool: Live Animoji and Memoji are now supported in FaceTime.
watchOS 5
Apple of course unveiled a brand new version of its Apple Watch operating system, watchOS 5. Learn all about it in our big watchOS 5 post. There is one new feature we definitely need to highlight here though: automatic workout detection. Finally!
tvOS 12 and Apple TV
The platform that powers the
macOS Mojave
Apple’s macOS operating system gets a big update this year with a great new feature that users have been clamoring for. iOS users, we mean. Yup, Dark Mode is coming to macOS this year, but not to iOS 12 on the iPhone or iPad. Sorry y’all. There are still some awesome new capabilities coming soon to your Mac in macOS Mojave, and you can learn all about them in our earlier coverage.
iOS apps in macOS
Apple gave users a sneak peek at a project Apple is working on for down the road a bit. Apple is building tools that will allow developers to bring their iOS apps to macOS with barely any code changes needed. These tools will become available to developers sometime in 2019, though Apple already used internal versions of these tools to bring iOS apps like Apple News and Stocks to macOS Mojave.
