WWDC is almost upon us. Ahead of Monday’s keynote event we’re running down everything we’re expecting for the annual developers extravaganza. You can watch the keynote live, and follow coverage here at Cult of Mac.
From software to hardware, here’s what we are predicting for next week:
Microsoft is rolling out a complete top-to-bottom overhaul of Skype in an effort to do battle with the likes of iMessage and Snapchat.
Its revamped service combines familiar Skype features like instant messaging and international calling with third-party service integration, improved group chat, and photo sharing with the ability to add annotations and emoji stickers.
Want to earn money and help out your favorite tech company? According to a new report, Apple has created a Mechanical Turk-style web app that lets people sign up and help improve Apple Maps for money.
People in the program reportedly earn about 54 cents per task (correcting or verifying a placemark in Apple Maps), with a maximum of 600 tasks every seven days. That’s about $324 per week — which is roughly in line with U.S. minimum wage for a full-time job, minus any additional benefits.
A simple to-do list isn’t enough when you’re managing tasks for more than one person, which is why Microsoft gave us Planner.
Its productivity tool makes it easy to organize teamwork among multiple people, and now it’s available on Android and iOS.
Following President Trump’s decision to take the United States out of the Paris climate agreement, Apple CEO Tim Cook shared an email with Apple employees.
Cook, who spoke with Trump ahead of the announcement, said that his efforts to persuade Trump to stay in the agreement had failed. Despite this, Cook noted that it will have no impact on Apple’s environmental initiatives. Check out the letter below.
Banners and other WWDC paraphernalia are going up at San Jose’s McEnery Convention Center, ahead of next week’s 2017 Worldwide Developers Conference.
Images posted online so far show a large banner at the front of the venue, decorations covering one side of the building, and smaller banners hung from nearby light posts. The images show variations on the artwork reportedly created by Los Angeles artist, graphic designer, and movie title sequence creator Geoff McFettridge.
Four months after going on sale online in the U.S., Snapchat Spectacles have finally landed in Europe.
The glasses cost £129.99 in the U.K. and €149.99 elsewhere, and they’re available from popup Snapbot vending machines as well as the Spectacles website.
Because iOS is a variant of macOS, it has a lot in common with the Mac. One of the things that iOS shares with the Mac is the keyboard. Not the on-screen keyboard, but the real, physical, clackety-buttoned keyboard. Thanks to its OS X heritage, the iPad (and iPhone) can use all the same keyboard tricks to manipulate text that Mac users have been enjoying for years.
It even carries some, but not all, of the shortcuts over from the ancient text editor Emacs. What? Don’t worry, it’s not too dorky.
Apple could unveil a new iPad Pro 2 as soon as next Monday during its WWDC 2017 keynote. And if it does, we hope the company adds some new productivity features, like this Smart Keyboard with a trackpad.
In a new mockup that imagines what the new Smart Keyboard could look like, designer David Chapman shows why it would be a great idea.
Take another look:
Your iPhone is loaded with plenty of mind-numbing games or picturing editing apps that let you superimpose unicorn horns on your selfies.
You need to make room for a few unsung task managers. Adobe today launched one to help us sort through one of life’s least pleasant realities – paperwork.
Apple today teased a big Swift Playgrounds update that allows students to control real-world devices.
Using Swift, the company’s open-source coding language, users can take control of robots, drones and musical instruments — all via an iPad.
As Apple’s longest-running annual keynote event, it’s no surprise that WWDC has played host to some absolutely enormous announcements over the years.
From strategies that changed the company’s course to the debut of astonishing new products, here are our picks for the most important ones. Check out the list below.
Twelve South’s popular BookArc stand is now available in Space Gray, making it the ideal desktop companion for your new MacBook. It costs exactly the same as the original silver model, and it’s compatible with almost every Apple notebook.
Google has no plans to move out of London following Brexit. In fact, the search giant is building a brand new headquarters in Kings Cross that’s going to cost well over $1 billion.
It’s no Spaceship campus, but under renders suggest it will be incredibly ostentatious, with its own swimming pool, basketball court, running track, and more.
As much as our computers help us get work done, they’re just as good for keeping us distracted. For every minute of work, there’s a minute of cat GIFs to binge on, games to be played, feeds to be perused. Pagico keeps your eye on your work by making it a lot more engaging and intuitive. Their app offers a one-stop for turning your tasks, notes, and projects into beautiful interactive flowcharts that defy distraction. The latest version will keep you on task when diversions arise, and will help to make work minutes even more productive. And right now, you can get Pagico 8.7 for just $19.99 at Cult of Mac Deals.
Wonder Woman is the DC Extended Universe’s best-received movie so far by a long shot, and to celebrate, Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment has added a bunch of new Wonder Woman-themed content to its DC Legends game for iOS.
An update worthy of Zeus’ daughter, for sure!
Developers have now earned over $70 billion from the App Store since it opened its doors in 2008. Apple says downloads have grown over 70 percent in the last year alone, thanks in part to “breakout hits” like Pokémon GO and Super Mario Run.
Intel is benefitting from Apple’s current standoff with Qualcomm, with Apple reportedly upping its wireless “baseband” chip orders from Intel for the iPhone.
Apple first added Intel as a second baseband supplier in 2016. This was part of its strategy to diversify the number of suppliers that provide each of its components, to allow Apple to lessen its risk and negotiate more favorable terms for components.
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There’s no iTunes for iOS. Thank God, some may say — after all, iTunes on the desktop is Apple’s Office, a bloated, do-it-all app that does nothing well, and is impossible to kill. But this also means that there’s no good way to save and wrangle music files on iOS — not from Apple at least. Which is where Kymatica’s AudioShare comes in. AudioShare is really a tool for musicians and other folks who work with sound, but it is so useful, and so easy to use, that everyone should have it on their iPhone and iPad to deal with audio files of all kinds.
President Donald Trump is considering pulling out of the Paris climate agreement, but some of the biggest names in tech are begging him to stay in, including Apple CEO Tim Cook.
Apple’s grand unveiling of its Siri-powered home speaker could come as soon as next week, according to a new report that claims production on the new device is already underway.
Whispers that Apple is working on a speaker to rival the Amazon Echo and Google Home have been swirling around the rumor mill for months. Even though Apple execs have downplayed the possibility of a Siri speaker in the past, but it looks like it’s about to become a reality. And it will boast some new tech its rivals don’t have.
“Sketchnotes” are an increasingly popular form of visual note-taking. By combining text and images, sketchnotes are not only beautiful, but often easier to recall than text alone. The technique is an effective way of capturing notes and ideas in the classroom, meetings and conferences.
All next week, illustrator and senior UX/UI designer Andy McNally will be sketchnoting Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) for us, starting with the big keynote on Monday.
Andy has been covering Apple’s events as sketchnotes for some time. We ran some of his sketchnotes from last year’s event, which proved very popular. He’s back again this year, and is planning to publish sketchnotes from a variety of sessions at the conference.
Before he gets started, Andy shared some tips and techniques for getting started on sketchnoting yourself. Let’s take a look:
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If you love the idea of Apple Pencil but you don’t want to upgrade to a pricey iPad Pro, the new Bamboo Sketch stylus is the solution.
With 2,048 levels of pressure sensitivity, interchangeable tips, and Bluetooth connectivity, it’s the ultimate stylus for any iPad.