WWDC 2019: the latest news from Apple’s big developer conference

Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) creates a convincing version of reality that can, at times, seem too good to be true. Hosted again earlier this month at the San Jose McEnery Convention Center, the conference is a place to geek out over Swift code, meet fellow programmers and iOS app makers, and celebrate all things Apple. But you do so inside a carefully crafted environment that’s designed to maximize the iPhone maker’s image as a benevolent overlord of its sprawling software kingdom.

There are clean, Apple Store-like wooden tables equipped with USB-C Ethernet adapters where you can sit and work and enthusiastic greeters who high-five you on your way in the door. Conference rooms come equipped with HomePods that play family-friendly synth-pop on loop. The pastries are decadent, and the conference badges are cleanly designed and colorful.

In 2019, Facebook isn’t just a homepage; it’s a passport. As mobile apps look for an alternative to passwords, big networks like Facebook and Google have become login services, letting a single login sign you into dozens of different apps. As long as Facebook or Google will vouch for you, most apps are happy to take them at their word, using open protocols like OAuth to verify the login. In return, the big companies find out what you’re logging into and when. It’s a good deal for apps trying to avoid the friction of a sign-up process, and one of the many ways major tech companies have made themselves indispensable — or inescapable, depending on your perspective.

At its Worldwide Developers Conference this week, Apple threw a wrench into that system. Apple is introducing its own single sign-on (SSO) service, a direct competitor to the services offered by Google and Facebook. The new service is aimed at paring back data collection, with only minimal data shared with the app and a promise to quarantine any data collected within Apple itself so it can’t be used for other purposes. More importantly, the service will be mandatory for any iOS apps using SSO, which makes it an instant competitor to Google and Facebook’s offerings.

Earlier this week at WWDC, I finally got a chance to sit down and actually use iPadOS on an iPad Pro. The purpose of the meeting was ostensibly to walk me through the new features, but I greedily grabbed the iPad and started tapping, swiping, and opening web pages — listening and talking about what was new all the while. Turns out that, just like the new OS on the iPad, I can multitask better than I expected.

Jamming through the new features on iPadOS was like a greatest hits album of iPad Pro complaints that have been resolved. External USB drives, direct access to drives for Lightroom, and a desktop-class browser all felt like direct responses to our iPad Pro review last year.

Apple’s Dashboard is getting quietly removed from the company’s upcoming macOS Catalina update, as first noted by Appleosophy and later reported by MacRumors. The Dashboard first launched 14 years ago with Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger in 2005 and saw its final update in 2011 with the launch of OS X 10.7 Lion.

The app first introduced the concept of widgets to Apple’s desktop operating system and became a hallmark of OS X design for more than a decade. In particular, Dashboard became well known for its desktop Sticky Note feature and its overall skeuomorphic approach best emphasized by the clock, stocks, and calculator widgets, a design philosophy that formed the foundation of the first version of iOS that launched a few years after OS X Tiger. It wasn’t until iOS 7 in 2013 that Apple would abandon that aesthetic for a flatter, more modern one that eventual carried back over to its desktop look and feel.

Another WWDC, another set of apps, products, and services that may have just been “Sherlocked” by Apple. The term, used as a colloquial way to refer to when Apple builds a native feature that effectively renders a third-party app or product useless, comes up every year as the company grows its OS offerings and introduces new capabilities worthy of your 30 or so minutes to update.

So what did Apple try to get rid of, or at least borrow from, this year? While not every single item here will be considered dead by the time Apple rolls out iOS 13 and macOS Catalina in the fall, at the very least these developers must now figure out ways to differentiate themselves enough to keep customers from switching to Apple’s version.

Apple had big news for iPad users at its WWDC keynote yesterday with the announcement of a software update major enough for the company to rebrand the entire operating system. What would otherwise have been iOS 13 will be known as iPadOS on Apple’s line of tablets, and the changes look to be legitimately significant.

With these upgrades, however, will come the inevitable questions over whether the iPad is ready to be used as your main computer. No one doubts the capability of the current iPad Pro hardware, nor the areas where it excels over other computing solutions. But given Apple’s prior insistence that the iPad is a computer, is iPadOS really going to be robust enough to replace your laptop once and for all?

I’ve been to the Geneva Motor Show half a dozen times, and I can confidently say that the new Mac Pro looks tailor-made for that exhibition of exotics. It’s got a huge and imposing metal grille up front and tons of speed and power on the inside. It’s built with bespoke components, performance-optimized aerodynamics, and a starting price that means most of us will only ever get to look at, never own, one. And even though we’ve never seen it before, it’s instantly recognizable as an expensive, glamorous powerhouse machine. Yes, Apple’s 2019 Mac Pro is the supercar of the computer world.

Like the latest debut from Lamborghini or McLaren, this Mac Pro has an immediate visual impact, looking at once familiar and enticingly novel and different. It carries on a family lineage — from the original Mac Pro, pretending the 2013 “trash can” never happened — expressed in the pair of steel handles and the latticed front and rear. Apple’s famously meticulous attention to detail is expressed in the curves and forms of this Mac Pro chassis, and it’s the little touches that make the design intriguing and memorable. There are no corners to the aluminum sheath, for instance, which slides on and off with apparent ease.

Apple says it’s building a new tool it calls Real User Indicator that could cut down on the number of bots secretly signing up for new accounts with mobile, desktop, and web services.

The feature, announced during the company’s Platforms State of the Union event at its Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC), is designed to check for traits more consistent with bots than people. It then informs an app developer of the situation, so the developer can then take further action to verify the authenticity of the new account.

I was a little surprised when Apple unveiled its redesigned Mac Pro earlier today without a flashy introduction video featuring the familiar voice of chief design officer Jony Ive. However, the company did produce one. It just wasn’t part of the keynote for some reason — presumably, it was either cut for time or because Apple thought hardware engineering VP John Ternus could handle the product reveal just fine on his own.

But if you want to hear Ive go on at length about the new $5,999 Mac “designed and engineered to enable a wide range of uses and virtually unlimited possibilities for customization,” well, here you go. “Our preoccupation with utility and function defines the design of Mac Pro,” Ive says in the clip.

Apple is making a huge change to its new iPadOS, introducing mouse support for both USB and Bluetooth devices. iOS developer Steve Troughton-Smith discovered the new mouse support in iPadOS today, and it reportedly works with USB mice, devices like Apple’s Magic Trackpad, and wireless Bluetooth mice.

Apple adding mouse support to iPadOS is significant, even though it’s an accessibility feature for now. Apple has implemented this support as an AssistiveTouch feature, and the cursor looks like a typical touch target you’d find in iOS. It’s designed to simulate a finger touch, so you can use a mouse to do this instead. Many iPad owners have been asking for some type of cursor support for years, and this could be the start of Apple supporting this more broadly across its new iPadOS.

Modularity is the word of the day as far as Apple’s newly announced and redesigned Mac Pro is concerned. The computer features a return to the older “cheese-grater” look, but redesigned and with a strong eye toward flexibility and expansion.

The question for owners of the most recent desktop Mac powerhouse, the iMac Pro, will be: Should I abandon my current system for the new Mac Pro, which will start at $5,999? (The iMac Pro starts at $4,999, but includes a 27-inch 5K display.) We took a look at the specs of the current iMac Pro, which launched back in December of 2017, and what was announced today for the new Mac Pro, which will ship this fall.

It was a long run for iTunes, the jukebox software that revolutionized the music industry after its launch in 2001. But now, in the year 2019, it’s finally being put out of its misery — and ours.

With macOS 10.15 Catalina, the primary functions of iTunes will be spun out into separate Music, TV, and Podcasts apps, bringing an end to the program’s two decades of dominance within the Apple software and hardware ecosystem. Syncing your devices will now be handled by the Finder application, which can backup, update, or restore your device directly from its sidebar. (Though it’ll be gone on the Mac, iTunes will reportedly survive on Windows for the time being.)

Apple’s CarPlay will get a significant update when iOS 13 drops later this year, including an updated visual design and new features like improved Siri support and a “light mode,” the company announced at its annual Worldwide Developers Conference on Monday. Apple called it the “biggest update ever” for CarPlay.

The most noticeable difference about the refresh, at least based on what was shown onstage, is that Apple is giving CarPlay an updated look. In iOS 13, CarPlay will get a new dashboard that can show multiple apps in a single view, like Maps and Music. Apple is updating the CarPlay calendar app to include more relevant information, and the Music app to more prominently feature album art, favorites, and new music discovery.

At WWDC 2019, Apple announced a slew of software updates headed toward the Apple family of devices, including the iPhone, iPad, Mac desktops and laptops, Apple TV, and Apple Watch. There’s also the announcement of the new Mac Pro, a powerful computing device that hasn’t been refreshed since 2013.

Here’s a quick summary of the biggest highlights from the two-hour keynote.

Apple has just announced the latest versions of its mobile software: iOS 13 for the iPhone, and the newly renamed iPadOS for its iPad lineups. But unlike last year’s iOS 12, which ran on every device that ran iOS 11, not all iOS 12 devices will be getting the update to iOS 13 and iPadOS.

iOS 13 is coming to the following devices:

We just had a chance to look at the Mac Pro in a soothing hands-on area, featuring lots of stations that were demoing the kind of work that Apple expects pros will want to do. Starting at $5,999, the new Mac Pro has been long-awaited, and, lucky for pretty much everybody, Apple didn’t over-engineer the basic shape: it’s a rectangle, and you can put PCI cards in it.

Where Apple did apply its engineering chops is in all of the little details, like the complicated way that the grille on the front has some extra depth and texture instead of just being a grid of holes. The chassis is built around a stainless steel frame, and the feet on the bottom can be replaced with wheels. With a turn of a handle on the top, you can lift the entire body off the computer to get to its insides.

Microsoft unveiled its new Minecraft Earth game for iOS and Android last month, and now the company is appearing onstage at Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) to demonstrate the new title. Minecraft Earth is a new augmented reality (AR) game that’s similar to Pokémon Go. Microsoft has spent months building the new game with its Mojang development studio, and players will be able to collect materials and build giant Minecraft structures with friends. Microsoft’s ultimate goal is to cover the world in Minecraft blocks.

Microsoft is now showing off how that works at WWDC today. It’s the first time the company has publicly demonstrated gameplay. During the demo, Minecraft objects appeared onstage and both players were able to interact with them at the same time and kill skeletons or even chickens. One player could even stand within the Minecraft object thanks to a new people inclusion feature on iOS.

Apple is going to help people track their things and their loved ones with a new macOS and iOS app called Find My. At its annual Worldwide Developers Conference today, the company announced that the new app will combine Find My Friends and Find My iPhone. The idea is that Find My will be a single place to track everything, including people and Macs. It’ll be available on both iOS and macOS.

The tracking works even if a device isn’t connected to Wi-Fi or a network, the company says. Macs will send a secure Bluetooth signal occasionally, which will then be used to create a mesh network of other Apple devices, so people can track their products. A map will populate of where the device is located.

The iTunes era is over. During its annual developers conference today, Apple announced that it’s breaking iTunes up into three separate macOS apps: Podcasts, TV, and Music. The update will come with macOS 10.15. The shift makes sense, and has already taken place on iOS. Apple Podcasts, for example, has been on iPhones and iPads for years, but never made its way over to macOS devices. iTunes itself is a relic of a different era in which people bought all their music and movies in one place, and it’s felt neglected and outdated for quite some time.

The new apps feature colorful sidebars and clear menus that are easy to navigate, especially compared to the bloated iTunes. Apple Music, as the name suggests, is singularly focused on music and offers personalized recommendations while the Podcasts is dedicated to the podcast listening experience. Along with the podcast app, Apple says it’s introducing a new machine learning feature that indexes shows so that people can search for content more easily. The TV app will include Apple’s exclusive content along with other providers’ shows, including Showtime and HBO. It supports 4K HDR and Dolby Atmos audio.

The next version of macOS will be called Catalina. Apple officially unveiled the new update onstage at its Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) today. The biggest new feature for macOS 10.15 is the addition of iPad app support. The project was previously codenamed “Marzipan,” but it’s now called Catalyst. It’s a new way for developers to port their iPad apps over to the Mac. Developers will be able to use Xcode to target their iPad apps at macOS Catalina.

Twitter is planning to bring its iOS Twitter app to the Mac, and Atlassian is also bringing its Jira iPad app to macOS Catalina. It’s not clear how many developers will support this app porting initially, but Apple is certainly encouraging developers to bring their iPad apps to the Mac. Apple only showed 3 apps on stage today, though.

At WWDC 2019 today, Apple announced its Pro Display XDR display, along with the redesigned Mac Pro. The 32-inch LCD display has a factory-calibrated 6016 x 3384 Retina 6K screen, and that screen goes almost all the way to the edge with its narrow 9mm bezels. The 32-inch display will cost $4,999 at launch and a Pro stand will sell separately for $999.

The Pro Display XDR, which stands for extreme dynamic range, has P3 and 10-bit color with reference modes built in, as well as Apple’s True Tone automatic color adjustment for ambient lighting. It’s 40 percent larger than the iMac 5K display and has an anti-reflective coating, and comes in a matte option called nanotexture. It has the same “cheese grate” styling on the back as the Mac Pro, which acts as a heat sink — Apple says it allows the screen to stay at a full 1,000 nits of brightness indefinitely, and can hit a peak of 1,600 nits, both of which could help when editing HDR content.

Today at WWDC, Apple introduced a new single sign-on (or SSO) tool called “Sign In with Apple,” designed to authenticate users to apps while sharing a minimum of personal data with third parties. It’s a direct competitor to simpler services offered by Facebook and Google, which were called out by name on stage, and part of Apple’s broader effort to brand itself as a privacy-conscious alternative to those companies. The new system will be available across apps as well as on the web.

As described onstage by Apple software chief Craig Federighi, users would encounter the service as a simple sign-in button, presented as an alternative to setting up a persistent username and password for a given service. But where Google and Facebook use those buttons to link you to your broader advertising profile, Apple’s service is designed to give the minimum necessary data.

Apple has announced that soon you’ll be able to plug thumb drives, external disk drives, and SD cards directly into your iPad. The functionality, which was announced onstage at WWDC 2019, will be particularly useful for photographs, allowing you to import photos into an app like Lightroom directly from your camera’s SD card without having to use a Siri Shortcut.

The functionality is coming with Apple’s new operating system for the iPad called iPadOS, which also includes an improved Files app that will make files easier to manage once they’re on the tablet. If you want to transfer it onward from the device, then iCloud has been updated with support for folder sharing.

Having admitted that its glossy “trash can” Mac Pro of 2013 was a mistake, Apple has long promised that the next update to its most professional computer line would be a return to more modular, less thermally constrained computing. That is being realized today at WWDC 2019 with the official debut of an all-new redesigned Apple Mac Pro.

Although it’s a new design, the 2019 Mac Pro is also a throwback to Apple’s classic “cheese grater” look. The interior is structured for modularity and flexibility, addressing one of the big pain points of the outgoing Mac Pro design.