WWDC 2018 Aftermath

It’s a weird WWDC this year. On one hand Apple released tons of features. On the other hand there were only a few big tickets items.

All in all I’d summarize as: Apple went for all the low hanging fruit this year, filling obvious blanks in their platforms but they left the big changes for another time.

Highlights

The biggest change for iOS will be the Shortcuts app. Integrating Workflow into Siri and seriously expanding upon the Sirikit capabilities.

Marco Arment hoped for “tell App to do thing” during last weeks ATP.fm. This is basically it.

Speaking of Podcasts, the availability of the app on watchOS was long overdue and will make going out without your iPhone a lot more fun. This combined with the automated Workout detection are two cool new features  for the Apple Watch.

I’m not a big macOS fan but I can’t wait for the Finder Actions to come to iOS. Desktop stacks on Mac feel like they belong in the iPads home screen too. Replacing the app grid with documents and widgets and moving all apps to the iPad dock seems a logical move someday.

The iPad also got a little love. Control center is now an overlay of the home screen. The menubar is less cluttered and contains a date now. And the combined notifications are yet again an example of finally.

Wishlist

I had a wishlist. Let’s see how I did:

• ✖️New reminders app that forgets the cards concept
• ✔️Integration for third party apps in Siri watch face
• ✖️iOS Safari Desktop Mode which would makes site backends like Squarespace or Zendesk finally work.
• ✔️Podcast.app for Apple Watch
• ✖️Time Machine backups to iCloud, or expand synced iCloud Drive Folders in macOS.
• ✖️Change Flashlight shortcut on iPhone X to app if choice
• ✔️True black mode for iBooks
• ✖️Sync Home.app Room photos
• ✖️The ability to receive more than one document at once via AirDrop
• ✖️The ability to change photo album cover photos on iOS
• ✖️Background downloads for iOS Safari.
• ✖️Shared iCloud Drive folders with family members
• ✔️Shared iCloud Photo a library albums with family members
• ✖️A way to distribute IAP via VPP
• ✖️A way to push macOS releases to devices via MDM (installhighsierra)
• ✖️SAML integration for Managed AppleIDs for easier deployment via OneLogin, Okta or Google or AD.
• ✖️Apple Pay in Belgium
• ✖️Apple News Worldwide
• ✖️TV app to replace Movies
• ✖️Predictive keyboard in Dutch
• ✔️NMBS in Apple Maps
• ✖️De Lijn in Apple Maps