SAN JOSE – Here’s something you may not have noticed about Apple’s WWDC keynote: everything Apple announced will be free. Part of the reason everything is free is that there was no hardware announced. But there were also no for-fee services, updates to paid software, or new subscription services. I can’t remember the last time that happened, but here’s the complete list of new products and features Apple announced during the WWDC 2018 keynote.
macOS Mojave
I’ll start with the Mac because that’s my favorite Apple platform. The big announcement was macOS Mojave itself, the next major version of the Mac operating system. These are new features announced as part of Mojave:
Dark Mode – a dark theme for the entire operating system that some will prefer just because. It also includes better color accuracy for those who work in that sort of thing.
Desktop Stacks – Automatic organizing of desktop files into kinds (images, documents, etc.). You click on a stack to expand it.
Metal – Metal is being beefed up with more scaling features.
Create ML – Developers can use Metal to harness their GPU and make their own machine learning tools.
File Vault Improvements – File Vault security protections will be extended to more areas of macOS in Mojave.
Gallery View – A new Finder view that combines the carousel thing Apple has tried to make us want for years, but coupled with a solid preview pane and a pane for metadata.
Quick View Update – Mac users will be able to use Markup right from the Quick View in the Finder.
Safari Intelligent Tracking Prevention Improvements – Safari will prevent social network sharing buttons and comment engines from tracking you without permission.
Group FaceTime calls – Video chat with up to 32 of your favorite people.
Continuity Camera – Use the camera on your iPhone directly from your Mac for photos and scanning!
Apple News, Stocks, Voice Memos, and Home – At last! We have some of the best services-as-apps from iOS coming to the Mac! It’s about dang time! And yeah, I mean all those exclamation points. All four of these apps are coming to the Mac, and it’s part of the next feature announced.
iOS UI Kit – A set of frameworks that will make it easier to port iOS apps to macOS. Developers can do it starting in 2019, while Apple is starting it with the four apps mentioned above.
New Mac App Store – Apple is giving the Mac App Store some much needed love. It will have a redesigned interface that includes some of the discoverability features that have been added to the iOS App Store.
The following new features were included on a slide but not discussed:
- Answer with FaceTime audio
- App recents in Dock
- International keyboard improvements
- Security Code Autofill
- Mail emoji Picker
- Mail Suggested Folders
- Font Collections
- Automatic Strong Passwords
- Faster CSS Selectors
- Improved hard drive performance
- Favicons in Safari tabs
- New login window
- New Save panel
- New Open panel
- UI language parity
- W3C Web Driver
- Improved CSS Color Support
- Apple File System for Fusion drives and hard drives
- Faster wake from sleep
- Password reuse auditing in Safari
- Automator shortcuts in Touch Bar
- Open-Type SVG fonts
Here’s that slide:
Next: New Features in iOS 12, watchOS 5, and tvOS 12