WWDC23: Tuesday’s Tidbits
The first developer sessions have been released and ever more new software bits that didn’t make the keynote or marketing pages are emerging. Like yesterday, I’ve rounded up the ones that piqued my interest and will continue to append new discoveries throughout the rest of the day.
Now that’s how you do pronouns. Best implementation I’ve seen so far.
I’m glad to see Apple opening up the macOS developer betas to those without paid developer accounts.
Before you could always sneak in with the command line enroll, now you can download the image from your browser
Get ’em here.
You’ve heard that Security Code AutoFill is coming to email, but the SMS version gets two huge buffs in iOS 17 and macOS Sonoma:
- Filled codes are automatically deleted! (Controlled by a preference. You’ll be prompted to enable on first AutoFill. Yes, there’s a “Recently Deleted” safety net.)
- Text Message Forwarding is now automatically enabled between devices with Messages in iCloud turned on! No manual setup. If you’ve never used AutoFill in Safari on macOS, you’re in for a treat!
More thoughts on Apple: I wonder how the feud with Epic will affect the Vision Pro, given that Epic makes one of the biggest 3D engines and has a lot of VR expertise and would almost certainly have gotten some airtime a few years ago.
Stage Manager in iPadOS 17:
- Much more freedom for window placement, finally windows can overlap
- Much more fluid window resizing
- Shift-clicking to add a window to the stage now works from the dock and strip!🥰
Regarding the Podcasts app:
Plus, you can now double tap the Search tab to immediately bring the search bar into focus and begin typing.
God I hope this is because a system-level feature for any app implementing a Search tab! But there’s more:
Apple also announced that this fall, users will be able to connect eligible subscriptions to top apps on the App Store with Apple Podcasts to access new shows. This includes news apps, such as Bloomberg and The Washington Post; health and fitness apps, such as Calm; along with kids and family apps, like Lingokids. Apple Podcasts will automatically recognize these App Store subscriptions and add the corresponding channel or show to a listener’s Library.
Now that’s system integration. I doubt third-party podcast apps will get that synergy with other apps’ subscriptions. And a final Podcasts nicety:
Apple also announced that this fall, users will be able to connect eligible subscriptions to top apps on the App Store with Apple Podcasts to access new shows. This includes news apps, such as Bloomberg and The Washington Post; health and fitness apps, such as Calm; along with kids and family apps, like Lingokids. Apple Podcasts will automatically recognize these App Store subscriptions and add the corresponding channel or show to a listener’s Library.
I much prefer this episodic content in my podcast app rather than News or Music. Hopefully — and I suspect they will — these podcasts will be accessible via a standard RSS feed.
some huge improvements to App Intents framework in iOS 17!
App Shortcuts via Siri will be a lot more forgiving to natural language variation
- Flexible Matching (aka ”Semantic Similarity Index”), so Siri will accept phrases similar to an AppShortcut’s provided trigger phrases
– synonyms API (!) for AppEntity and AppEnum values — so you could build in explicit NLU coverage for things like “Chi Town” or “the windy City” for the value Chicago for example
https://developer.apple.com/wwdc23/10102
If you have an Apple Watch paired to your iPhone, Apple has added an optional button in Control Center that enables you to ping your watch if you have misplaced it. (H/T Aaron.)
You can now also toggle certain system settings directly from within [Spotlight’s] Siri Suggestions results. You can, for example, enable a Focus, turn on Airplane Mode, or disable your iPhone 14 Pro’s Always On Display.
In Safari, Apple has added a new “Listen to Page” option to the aA menu in the address bar. Tap it, and Siri will read the contents of the currently loaded webpage out loud.
When Siri is reading it to you, the same option changes to “Pause Listening,” and if you choose to pause, it switches to “Resume Listening” so you can pick up where you left off.
I was just looking for this sort of option the other day when hoping to hear my draft of an article read aloud to me.
Apple’s upcoming iOS 17 update will add daily crossword puzzles to the Apple News app, but only for News Plus subscribers, the company said on its iOS 17 preview website. The addition of crosswords could make News Plus a more enticing subscription offering — right now, the main benefits to News Plus are access to digital versions of publications and audio versions of some articles.
Hmmm…I might actually start using a feature of that News+ subscription I’m paying for through Apple One.
Shortcuts is getting a redesign:
Image Credits: Apple
In addition, the redesign makes it easier to identify the actions associated with an app and simplifies the process of creating automation.
And is that an addition of the ‘Scan Document’ action that I’ve been searching for? ☝️👀 And it looks like launching shortcuts via voice will be more flexible:
Plus, Apple made some subtle changes to Siri to make it easier to use spoken commands to trigger App Shortcuts. Where before, users would have to speak the exact phrase designated as the Shortcut’s trigger phrase, now they can speak more naturally. Even if the exact wording isn’t used, Siri will be able to understand the phrase as the Shortcut’s trigger, thanks to on-device machine learning that will allow similar phrases to also work. (A new tool, App Shortcuts Preview, will allow developers to test phrases that they think users might try with Siri to launch their app.) This feature won’t yet work on Apple Watch, though.
Apple added #DX12 support to macOS and Apple Silicon via its Game Porting Toolkit. It’s basically a 20k patch to Wine that will make it easy to play AAA Windows games on macOS without using a VM. https://github.com/apple/homebrew-apple
Unlike iPad, there is very little reason to prevent AppKit apps running on visionOS 👀 Use a mouse and keyboard, job done. I do want to see somebody try to use the ornaments API to build a pull-down menu bar at the top of a visionOS app (if I don’t get there first)
i’m a bit bummed that Apple basically completely ignored the Home app in the software updates this year, because it’s still a hot mess
https://www.theverge.com/2023/6/6/23749556/apple-siri-home-new-features-wwdc-2023
Most, if not all, WWDC videos refer to visionOS as xrOS. That means the name was changed super late, doesn’t it? #WWDC #WWDC23
The crown will allow you to assign a shortcut to the #accessibility option of your your choice. Tripple tap it on the #VisionPro device to launch.
Reality Kit has a new accessible component, which allows the assigning of accessibility properties. There are custom labels, values, and traits as well as custom rotors, custom actions, and custom content. Activate and ajustable system actions can also be assigned.
#WWDC WWDC23
PencilKit in visionOS is looking 🥵
Direct manipulation of UI in visionOS is going to be a fascinating playground for novel ideas. And see how apps scale down as you bring them close. I’m glad that remote gestures aren’t the only way to interact with apps