Everything you need to know about the WWDC 2015 keynote

Posted June 9, 20159 yr

Don't worry about missing the WWDC 2015 keynote, we've got the full wrap-up right here.

The WWDC 2015 keynote started off with a fun little sketch by Bill Hader and a handful other other notable comedians pretending to prep a big show. Tim Cook took the stage to talk about how many attendees were coming from around the world, and the sessions they'll be offering.

OS X 10 El Capitan

First was OS X 10.11 named El Capitan coming this fall and available to developers as beta today. New touchpad gestures allow for easily marking e-mails as read, Safari tabs can be easily pinned and muted, Spotlight search has been in enhanced, new window management is available with Split View, and there's a new notes app (more on that later).

OS X El Capitan developer preview available today, public beta in July

Apple brings Metal to the Mac, bringing graphics down to the chip

OS X El Capitan will bring enhancements to Mission Control and window management

Spotlight gets contextual search and more in OS X El Capitan

Safari in OS X El Capitan will allow for sites to be pinned to the tab bar

On top of experience improvements, there's significant progress in performance. The Metal technology used on iOS devices will be available on Mac to reduce processor load for graphics rendering, both mundane and high-demand. This cuts out OpenGL and allows game developers to optimize for Mac at an unprecedented level. The new Unreal Engine plays nice with Metal.

iOS 9

The WWDC keynote then moved on to talk about iOS 9, including improvements in foundation, intelligence, apps, and more. iOS 9 enters public beta in July, will be a free update in the fall, and won't be dropping support for any devices.

Apple officially unveils iOS 9 at WWDC

iOS 9 beta goes to developers today; public beta coming in July

iOS 9's performance boosts focus on efficiency and battery life

Siri will see an improvement in location-based reminders and proactive assisting, such as predicting incoming calls from numbers not in your address book, easily adding contextual reminders, or offering music to listen to in certain situations. Search now has an API available for developers to get their hooks into, not to mention new kinds of tailored results out of the box. The search presentation closed with a reassurance talking about Apple's dedication to privacy, and affirming that the user is always in control.

Siri in iOS 9 gets a new look and more intelligence

Apple Pay was next up. New partners are signing up with Apple Pay, including Square with a new reader. 1 million locations will be using Apple Pay as of next month. Apple Pay is big with apps too, getting twice as many checkouts. Pinterest will allow users to buy pinned items with Apple Pay soon. Apple Pay is coming to UK in July with support for many major banks, with more coming in the fall. 250,000 UK locations, including Oyster, will support Apple Pay at launch. Apple Pay is adding store, credit, and debit cards. Passbook has been renamed to Wallet in light of all of the new features.

Apple Pay now being used by 2,500 bank locations in US, will launch in the UK in July

Following Apple Pay, the Notes app was shown off with checklists, photos, drawing, web links, and a new view which highlights attachments. Apple's native Maps app is getting an update too with transit information in major cities in China and the U.S. Maps now has search based on category.

Maps in iOS 9 brings detailed transit maps to the fore

Add photos, create checklists, draw sketches, and more with Notes in iOS 9

One of the more exciting iOS announcements was a brand new app called News. Slick transition animations, embedded video, in-line photo galleries, and rich typography are all available. Bookmarks help you pick up where you left off, and suggestions help you find other publications based on your reading habits and manually-entered interests. Major publishers like Conde Nast, ESPN, Wired, and Wall Street Journal are on board. U.S., U.K., and Australia will be the first to get the News app.

Apple introduces News to keep you up to date with your favorite publications

iPad is due for some updates in iOS 9. The QuickType keyboard will have cut, copy, and paste shortcuts, along with a few others up beside your text predictions. A nifty double-swipe gesture allows you to select text without leaving the keyboard. Additional optimization has been made for hardware keyboards.

New multitasking features are coming to the iPad as part of iOS 9

iPad keyboard gains new shortcut bar, can become trackpad, and more in iOS 9

Multitasking on iPad is getting a big upgrade in iOS 9. SlideOver is a new feature that lets you swipe in a split view of two apps running at once. Split View is unfortunately only available on the iPad Air 2, though you'll be able to peek at incoming notifications on older devices. A new multitasking interface now shows larger previews of the apps immediately available. Picture-in-picture video lets you shrink, resize, and move thumbnails of videos while you're in other apps. APIs are going to be available for developers to make use of PIP video.

Talk about iOS 9 closed off with a smattering of additional announcements. An extra three hours of battery life are going to be available through a new battery saver mode. Two-factor authentication is coming to iCloud. The over the air update to iOS 9 will only require 1.3 GB of free space, as opposed to much larger historical updates.

iOS 9 brings a variety of developer goodies including GamePlayKit, ReplayKit, and more

iOS 9 will be a space-friendly update, two-factor authentication coming to iCloud

Then there was a lot of great stuff for developers. Three new frameworks are going to be available to developers called GameplayKit, Model I/O, and ReplayKit. HealthKit can now monitor hydration and reproductive health. HomeKit is adding support for sensors, window shades, and security, with remote control over iCloud. CarPlay is adding wireless support, and expanded support for car manufacturers. Swift 2 was announced at WWDC 2015, with a bunch of improvements, and will be going open source. iOS, OS X, and Linux compilers will be available in late 2015.

Swift 2 programming language will become open source project by Apple

CarPlay will be going wireless in future cars

HomeKit supports remote access via iCloud, wide variety of connected devices

watchOS 2

Tim Cook got back on stage to sum things up, and announce the the App Store has served up 100 billion downloads, has 1.5 million apps available, and paid out $30 billion to developers.

Then there was watchOS 2. The developer beta launched today, and coming to the public in the fall. Apple Pay, Maps, Siri, and Timepiece are all getting improvements on the Apple Watch. Individual photos and albums can be used as faces, alongside new city-based timelapses, and customizable "complication" faces with additional contextual information like weather and upcoming flights.

Apple announces watchOS 2: native apps, more friends, smarter Siri

Apple watchOS 2 Developer Beta available today, public launch this fall

Apple Watch app creators will be able to put in more native features

Time Travel comes to watchOS, shows what you have coming up quickly

Time Travel is a neat new feature that lets you zip forward with the Digital Crown to see how those complications will change, such as which meeting is after your next one. Nightstand mode is a new landscape alarm mode that can kick in while your Apple Watch is charging.

The friends system lets you add buddies more easily and have multiple sets of friends. Digital Touch now supports multiple colors. E-mail will have the ability to to reply, and FaceTime can handle audio now.

Fitness apps can work independently and sync up whenever it restores an iPhone connection. Fitness has some cool new achievements. Apple Pay on Apple Watch includes the membership cards we'll be seeing in iOS 9. Transit directions on maps will be there complete with Siri commands. Siri will also support home control over your Apple Watch.

For developers, app logic will be able to run natively on the watch, without needing to rely on your iPhone. Developer access to audio and video playback will be available on watchOS 2, plus HealthKit, HomeKit, accelerometer, microphone, Taptic Engine and the Digital Crown.

Apple Music

Tim Cook came back on again for "one more thing", which was Apple Music. Apple Music aims to tie together video, audio, and social into a unified service. It comes out June 30 in over 100 countries for $9.99/month, or $14.99 for a family up to 6 users. The first three months will be free, and the app will be coming to Android later alongside a new version of iTunes.

Apple Music is official with on-demand streaming, a global radio station, more

Apple Music coming June 30 for iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Windows

Jimmy Iovine took the stage to introduce the service, and Trent Reznor appeared on video talking about his creative involvement. In addition to on-demand streaming of iTunes music is a 24/7 radio station based out of three cities called Beats One. There's also a curation section of the app that allows you to view songs suggested by Apple's human musical experts. Drake took to the stage to introduce the Connect feature in Apple Music, followed by Eddy Cue who did a walk-through of the app.

The show closed off with a concert by The Weeknd. That's about it, but be sure to read up in more detail on all of the announcements below!

WWDC 2015