WWDC 2020 In Review

I took some time over the last couple weeks to watch the WWDC 2020 keynotes and sessions and I am impressed by and excited for the new technologies and improvements that Apple introduced. Here's a few things that stuck out to me:

iOS 14

First off, iOS 14 brought many new features and does not disappoint. The new widgets for the Home Screen and Today View are beautiful, intelligent, and well executed. Despite many complaints on the internet about them copying Android, Apple definitely has implemented them better. iOS 14 widgets are clean and consistent, and the stacks help keep things tidy, while packing in timely information. Overall, it was worth the wait.

The Picture-in-Picture feature is a nice addition. It would be nice if the YouTube app supported it, but it works well with other apps, and youtube.com. My only complaint is that it is sometimes in the way, but that's what you get for PiP on small screens.

The new phone call banner is a long overdue behavior. No more needs to be said. Group chat mentions, replies, and photos are also pretty exciting, and will really help prevent confusion in large groups.

macOS 11.0 “Big Sur” & Apple Silicon

macOS Big Sur is revolutionary in the field of the Macintosh. The new design (although polarizing) is a fresh splash of paint that definitely ushers in the next generation of Macs. The same fundamental design has been in use since the dawn of OS X 10.0 in 2001, and has lasted 15 subsequent major releases over 19 years. The new design signifies a new era of the Mac and its power.

The announcement of shifting from Intel to Apple's own fabbed chipset brings the lofty promise of power. I am optimistic of a successful transition and excited for the first Silicon-based production machines to come out.

Under-the-Hood Additions

Apple announced many new improvements to their SwiftUI framework, which is exciting. However, I am still not fond of SwiftUI, and I think it still needs lots of work before it can replace Storyboards and vanilla UIKit.

However, the introduction of SwiftUI for use with Apple Watch complications is a game changer. The declarative syntax of SwiftUI makes it much easier to create complications that are useful and informative.