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Abstract

a brief bit of interaction, but this was two hours of my life, during which I could have spent time with my girlfriend and some much-needed TV.</p><p id="32c0">It was a fun experiment, though. I’m entirely inexperienced at this and have such a minuscule audience that anything I currently tweet has an incredibly limited reach.</p><p id="ee85">But, let’s get to the meat of this: what did I think of the announcements made at WWDC20?</p><p id="9004">Here’s my totally random, quick-fire thoughts on the headline stuff.</p><h2 id="bd4a">The event itself</h2><p id="eb19">Slick (as expected), laced with clear social distancing practices and a dad-joke-offbeat tone throughout, with which WWDC has become synonymous in recent years.</p><p id="d167">It was snappy, to the point and didn’t linger on any “in these uncertain times” messages. And that was exactly the right approach.</p><h2 id="78e1">Opening with Black Lives Matter (although not directly referenced)</h2><p id="c821">It was the right thing to do, and Apple’s stance on this, like so many tech giants, is admirable.</p><h2 id="ec8c">iOS14: WIDGETS</h2><p id="50d8">A nice implementation and much needed for anyone who’s sick to death of their reams of app screens and pointless folders.</p><p id="697d">It’s just rather late to the party, right? For that reason, it was yet another Apple software iteration that screamed, “oh, <i>ok</i>, alright? We’ll add those widgets to the bloody operating system. Now, pipe down.”</p><h2 id="7764">iOS14: Picture in Picture</h2><p id="2b2d">I’ll never use this. For me, PiP has always been nothing but irritating on the iPad.</p><p id="614f">I’m simply not one of those people who can — or who cares to — watch stuff on the same device on which I’m undertaking some other task.</p><h2 id="03a5">iOS14: Siri</h2><p id="3f3e">I don’t hate Siri like a lot of people. Like so many voice assistants, it’s just a bit crap.</p><p id="43d2">We’re in the early days of this stuff, still — but I’m ok with that. The new implementation is just a nice iteration of a feature I, and I suspect many others, use infrequently.</p><h2 id="7345">Maps (all OS)</h2><p id="403c">Try as I might (and, admittedly, that isn’t very hard), I just can’t get excited about map updates.</p><p id="3e06">Sorry, Tim.</p><h2 id="5569">watchOS</h2><p id="a327">It can now track your dancing activity and how much you sleep. My two favourite things.</p><p id="956f">They’re not my two favourite things.</p><p id="57d6">It can also, inexplicably allow you to share watch faces. I cannot think of a single reason I’d ever want to do that.</p><h2 id="9505">App Clips</h2><p id="0114">Bidding for the worst feature name of all time, ‘App Clips’ look relatively useful, but are they really going to prompt more businesses and brands to invest time in developing their own apps?</p><h2 id="8cf0">iPadOS</h2><p id="dab8">I had big hopes here.</p><p id="1b02">In a few months, I’ll be offering my long-term take on the iPad as a productivity d

Options

evice. Spoiler: it’s brilliant and frustrating in equal measure.</p><p id="5ce8">The forthcoming updates to the tablet’s OS do very little to address any of the “but it still isn’t as comfortable as my laptop” concerns. The scribble option (which enables you to write with the Apple Pencil in text input fields) looks handy, but it again feels like a feature designed to sell more official peripherals.</p><p id="6730">I want a lot more from the iPad, but with each WWDC that passes, I believe we’re probably not going to see a truly productivity-focused OS for quite some time.</p><h2 id="980e">AirPods</h2><p id="4edf">Now, there’s some seriously cool stuff coming for Apple’s earbuds — providing promises are kept by the big A.</p><p id="557e">I’m forever switching devices with my AirPods Pro, and while the experience is far better than the first generation AirPods, it’s not perfect. Therefore, the promise of automated switching between devices is rather tantalising.</p><p id="ea10">If it works.</p><p id="8885">And as for spatial audio in the AirPods Pro — now <i>that</i> I need to hear.</p><h2 id="123c">macOS</h2><p id="9814">“macOS gets its iOS7 moment,” I saw one onlooker tweet yesterday. And they do have a point; this release seems almost solely centred around a new look for the Mac’s venerable operating system.</p><p id="68b6">I like it. The new look will annoy aficionados, but it’s alignment with iOS is modern, playful and much needed, in my book.</p><p id="4e19">Bar that, there wasn’t much more to report. But, I’m fine with that. The Mac remains a solid platform for me.</p><p id="b9fa">Oh, wait.</p><h2 id="3fb4">Apple Silicon</h2><p id="2788">Apple are making their own Mac chips.</p><p id="41c8">If you follow the Apple rumour mill at all, you’ll know that this has been on the cards for quite a while, but yesterday, we got to see it in the flesh — literally.</p><p id="aa55">Craig Federighi revealed that all of the macOS ‘Big Sur’ demos were run on a development Mac powered by their own silicon. We were even treated to a look at what must have been a staged, secret hardware development lair containing several of these machines and a couple of genuinely scary hardware engineers.</p><p id="dda4">They’ve managed to get Adobe, Microsoft and other big developers on board, and we’re told that Apple’s pro apps (namely, Logic Pro and Final Cut Pro) are already running reliably on their own CPUs.</p><p id="18a6">We now face a two-year transition from Intel, and Apple are even handing out development kits to help developers get on board — today.</p><p id="78db">It’s going to happen. For me, providing the two pro apps above work reliably (along with their third-party add-ons), I’m game. But if history tells us anything, it’s that the Mac is probably in for a bit of a rocky ride over the next twenty-four months.</p><p id="e2bf">Oh… and where was that damn iMac?</p><p id="7d1b">Join my mailing list <a href="http://eepurl.com/g8J1nb">here</a>.</p></article></body>

My Experience Live Blogging WWDC20

I got a bit Twitter-trigger-happy yesterday…

Yesterday, Apple held their first ever web-only Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC). And I decided to live blog the event.

It grabbed approximately two hours of my life and resulted in the following Twitter engagements:

2 new followers
1 mention
8 likes

For someone who’s attempting to build an audience from scratch, any numbers that point upwards are good numbers, but that’s a fair amount of effort to put in for little return.

The unavoidable, hideous truth about this will come down to one of the following facts:

gaining a following on Twitter organically is a long, long game; o
my tweets were crap.

It might have been the latter. I tweeted 89 times during the event, and some were in such quick succession that Twitter decided to block my account momentarily.

Equally, they may simply not have been interesting or spiky enough. Shame, because I thought I came out with some gold.

How I did it

If you fancy trying out live blogging via Twitter, you may be interested to hear how I covered WWDC20. If you’re not and really couldn’t give two hoots, skip to my roundup of what was announced, below.

My strategy was simple: provide live commentary on the event. I wanted to only speak about the stuff which either interested, annoyed or amused me. There were no rules; I was allowing myself to deviate from the brand I’m building for Mark Ellis Reviews and be a bit spicy whenever the moment felt right.

Technically, it was pretty straightforward. I simply used my MacBook with a split Safari window: WWDC20 video feed occupying two-thirds, Twitter sneaking into the remaining third.

I made sure I had #WWDC20 permanently on my clip board, and just went for it. It was a pretty painless, enjoyable process.

Was it worth it?

No, not really. It’s lovely to gain those additional followers and a brief bit of interaction, but this was two hours of my life, during which I could have spent time with my girlfriend and some much-needed TV.

It was a fun experiment, though. I’m entirely inexperienced at this and have such a minuscule audience that anything I currently tweet has an incredibly limited reach.

But, let’s get to the meat of this: what did I think of the announcements made at WWDC20?

Here’s my totally random, quick-fire thoughts on the headline stuff.

The event itself

Slick (as expected), laced with clear social distancing practices and a dad-joke-offbeat tone throughout, with which WWDC has become synonymous in recent years.

It was snappy, to the point and didn’t linger on any “in these uncertain times” messages. And that was exactly the right approach.

Opening with Black Lives Matter (although not directly referenced)

It was the right thing to do, and Apple’s stance on this, like so many tech giants, is admirable.

iOS14: WIDGETS

A nice implementation and much needed for anyone who’s sick to death of their reams of app screens and pointless folders.

It’s just rather late to the party, right? For that reason, it was yet another Apple software iteration that screamed, “oh, ok, alright? We’ll add those widgets to the bloody operating system. Now, pipe down.”

iOS14: Picture in Picture

I’ll never use this. For me, PiP has always been nothing but irritating on the iPad.

I’m simply not one of those people who can — or who cares to — watch stuff on the same device on which I’m undertaking some other task.

iOS14: Siri

I don’t hate Siri like a lot of people. Like so many voice assistants, it’s just a bit crap.

We’re in the early days of this stuff, still — but I’m ok with that. The new implementation is just a nice iteration of a feature I, and I suspect many others, use infrequently.

Maps (all OS)

Try as I might (and, admittedly, that isn’t very hard), I just can’t get excited about map updates.

Sorry, Tim.

watchOS

It can now track your dancing activity and how much you sleep. My two favourite things.

They’re not my two favourite things.

It can also, inexplicably allow you to share watch faces. I cannot think of a single reason I’d ever want to do that.

App Clips

Bidding for the worst feature name of all time, ‘App Clips’ look relatively useful, but are they really going to prompt more businesses and brands to invest time in developing their own apps?

iPadOS

I had big hopes here.

In a few months, I’ll be offering my long-term take on the iPad as a productivity device. Spoiler: it’s brilliant and frustrating in equal measure.

The forthcoming updates to the tablet’s OS do very little to address any of the “but it still isn’t as comfortable as my laptop” concerns. The scribble option (which enables you to write with the Apple Pencil in text input fields) looks handy, but it again feels like a feature designed to sell more official peripherals.

I want a lot more from the iPad, but with each WWDC that passes, I believe we’re probably not going to see a truly productivity-focused OS for quite some time.

AirPods

Now, there’s some seriously cool stuff coming for Apple’s earbuds — providing promises are kept by the big A.

I’m forever switching devices with my AirPods Pro, and while the experience is far better than the first generation AirPods, it’s not perfect. Therefore, the promise of automated switching between devices is rather tantalising.

If it works.

And as for spatial audio in the AirPods Pro — now that I need to hear.

macOS

“macOS gets its iOS7 moment,” I saw one onlooker tweet yesterday. And they do have a point; this release seems almost solely centred around a new look for the Mac’s venerable operating system.

I like it. The new look will annoy aficionados, but it’s alignment with iOS is modern, playful and much needed, in my book.

Bar that, there wasn’t much more to report. But, I’m fine with that. The Mac remains a solid platform for me.

Oh, wait.

Apple Silicon

Apple are making their own Mac chips.

If you follow the Apple rumour mill at all, you’ll know that this has been on the cards for quite a while, but yesterday, we got to see it in the flesh — literally.

Craig Federighi revealed that all of the macOS ‘Big Sur’ demos were run on a development Mac powered by their own silicon. We were even treated to a look at what must have been a staged, secret hardware development lair containing several of these machines and a couple of genuinely scary hardware engineers.

They’ve managed to get Adobe, Microsoft and other big developers on board, and we’re told that Apple’s pro apps (namely, Logic Pro and Final Cut Pro) are already running reliably on their own CPUs.

We now face a two-year transition from Intel, and Apple are even handing out development kits to help developers get on board — today.

It’s going to happen. For me, providing the two pro apps above work reliably (along with their third-party add-ons), I’m game. But if history tells us anything, it’s that the Mac is probably in for a bit of a rocky ride over the next twenty-four months.

Oh… and where was that damn iMac?

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