The Worldwide Developers Conference brings new opportunities and new threats for indie developers. If you’re lucky, Apple introduces an API that could enhance your app. If you’re unlucky, Apple launches a new feature that renders your app obsolete.
One thing is certain: Whatever Apple announces at the annual conference will mean a lot more work for indie developers just to stay in the game. And since developers can’t charge for updates on the App Store, most of that work will go unrewarded.
Now that Apple’s annual developer conference is over, we’ve got the skinny on all the news coming out of the WWDC this year. From a thorough wrap-up of the keynote to in-depth looks at iOS 9, OS X El Capitan, the new watchOS 2, and the exciting Apple Music, we’re here to fill your weekly digital magazine to overflowing.
Get Cult of Mac Magazine now, and soak in Cult of Mac’s smart, informed, and sometimes a little snarky take on all the info from WWDC 2015.
SAN FRANCISCO — If you watched the Worldwide Developers Conference keynote earlier this week, you’d think it was a big love fest. But there’s a section of the audience sitting there in a cold, cold sweat.
Attendees are mostly software developers, and some of them are very nervous that Apple will announce something that will ruin their business overnight.
“The WWDC keynote is terrifying for developers,” said Josh Michaels, an independent software developer from Portland, Oregon, who runs Jetson Creative. “The uncertainty is the worst part.”
Take ReplayKit in iOS 9, a new feature that records games and app videos without the need for any external cameras or hardware.
Sounds great, unless you are Everyplay or Kamkord, a pair of young companies that raised millions of dollars to record games and app videos in iOS.
“They’re f**ked!” said a game developer at WWDC who asked not to be named.
“Why did I want to direct the WWDC opening number?” asks comedian Bill Hader in the video that opened Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference on Monday morning. “Good question. You know, I think I’ve always been attracted to risk, you know?”
Then the production assistant comes to get Hader’s character, “David LeGary,” from his dressing room, and we find out that the pretentious “genius” has just been talking to himself. What follows is an over-the-top rehearsal of a Hollywood-like awards show, full of funny cameos and goofy dialogue. Check it out.
UPDATE: I added a short statement from stylus-maker Adonit below.
SAN FRANCISCO — Tim Ritchey is an expert in iPad styluses — the pressure-sensitive digital pens that draw with pinpoint accuracy on an iPad.
Ritchey works for Adonit, a company that makes a line of Bluetooth styli for the iPad. His job title is “OS architect.” He knows his stuff.
In the middle of a session at this week’s Worldwide Developers Conference, he heard something that prompted him to send a panicky note to his colleagues in Slack, the popular messaging system.
“Oh shit!” he said.
Steve Jobs famously pledged that Apple would never ship an iOS device with a stylus, but there’s mounting evidence that the company is working on a new and bigger work-oriented iPad that will come with a stylus.
A couple of big clues dropped this week at WWDC.
Apple’s two-hours-plus keynote at its Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) this week was packed with new and exciting information about the future of software for its current major hardware. But we couldn’t help but notice some things that were missing.
Here are some of the ways Apple’s presentation left us hanging this year.
Jonathan Mann is the Song a Day creator who’s (so far) written and recorded 2,350 songs (including this one) for his YouTube channel. He’s an Apple fan, of course, and many of his songs have to do with the Cupertino-based tech company.
Mann set up his Macbook and guitar across the street from the Moscone Center and recorded this latest tune live on the sidewalk, and it’s all about the Monday’s developer keynote.
“Not one but (count ’em) two,” he sings, “women up on the stage. It’s a start, and it’s about time ’cause these white dad jokes they’re starting to fade.”
Check it out.
Every other year Apple releases an “S” version of the iPhone. Later this year, we’ll see the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus. The “S” models generally deliver modest improvements — better cameras, better networking, faster chips. But the basic design remains the same. The “S” suffix means the same, but better.
And so it goes with this Monday’s Worldwide Developers Conference keynote. In terms of announcements of import, WWDC 2015’s kickoff was an “S” upgrade. It built on the spectacular announcements of last year, but didn’t break huge new ground.
And that’s OK. “S” upgrades are often underrated.
Once again, Apple has shown its desire to be your go-to for everything you do in your life.
During its Worldwide Developers Conference keynote this morning, the iPhone maker talked up software updates, services and new functionalities aimed at making several of its competitors’ offerings redundant.
Here are the things Apple’s trying to take out with new stuff at WWDC 2015.
With upgrades to iOS, OS X, Apple Pay and watchOS, Apple is ready to take its massively successful platforms to the next level.
Find out what’s in store for the Mac, iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch as Apple builds on previous greatness — plus get an earful of a new little project called Apple Music — as revealed today at Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference.