Apple WWDC 2018 keynote highlights: iOS 12 and watchOS 5 revealed; macOS is called Mojave

The Apple WWDC keynote is over. Apple showcased iOS 12, watchOS 5, tvOS and macOS Mojave during the keynote. Apple WWDC will continue till June 8. 

Developer beta will go live today for all the operating systems. No word on the public beta just yet. 

No, says Craig Federighi. Yes, it looks like Universal apps are coming, but not this year. This year in macOS, Apple is bringing its own apps of to macOS, like Stocks, Voice Memo. Apple says it managed to do this with very few code changes. The feature will come for developers next year. 

This will let developers create their own machine learning models, and the training is all GPU accelerated. Developers can train their models on computer vision, audio, natural language processing, etc. 

To bring the highest GPU performance, Apple had added support for external GPUs, which are powered by Metal. New levels of performance, 3D rendering for games, which will look realistic. 

Mac App Store has been redesigned from the group up. It has a new UI, video previews. There's also a new Discover app where Apple will show editorial about the best Mac Apps. 

Apple will let users protect their data on Safari by turning off tracking. 

Apple will automatically protect access to webcam, microphone, etc on your MacBook from apps. 

Apple is adding the Apple News app for MacBooks along with the new Stocks app. 

Continuity will allow users to take photos of documents from their phones and it will be shared instantly to their documents on the macOS. 

Users will be able edit screenshots, use Mark-up straight after taking one. There is also the option of capturing the entire screen, and the option for screen capture for video. 

Users can invoke mark-up in PDF documents in the Quick Look options. It will work for all kinds of files, including PDFs, videos, etc. 

Stacks wil ensure you desktop is cleaner and not one giant mess of all different kinds of files. It will stack them according to kind, tags, etc. Sidebar in Mojave supports all metadata for photos. There are also quick actions in the photos app. Sidebar is also available in other views in the Finder app as well. 

Now, moving to macOS 10.14. It is called macOS Mojave. 

If a user is on their TV provider's broadband, then tvOS will unlock all the apps supported with it securely without any sign-on needed for Apple tvOS users.  

Apple tvOS is now being showcased. Apple says iTunes has the largest 4K HDR library. Apple TV 4K will now add support for Dolby Atmos for 'room-filling sound.' 

Apple will also launch new bands for Pride month. 

Apple is also bringing WebKit to watchOS 5 and it will support web content on the Apple Watch itself. Apple Podcasts app will also come to the Apple Watch. 

A user will see the predicted Shortcuts on the Apple Watchface as well. Just tap and complete the action. Users will now be able to use third-party apps on the Siri Watchface. 

Apple is introducing a Walkie-Talkie app on watchOS 5. It will allow users to enable walkie-talkie with a friend and allows for short-distance communication. The friend has to accept the walkie-talkie request for this feature to work. Of course, they will need an Apple Watch as well. 

Users can have a challenge with their friends via the Apple Watch. Apple is also adding tracking for yoga, hiking in watchOS 5. Apple will also let users track their rolling mile pace: which is how fast they ran their previous mile. Runners will now get Cadence, which will let them track their steps. Apple is also adding automatic workout detection. Users will get retroactive credit, even if they press start after they started working out. Apple Watch will also detect when you ended your workout for those who forget to close their sessions,  

Apple is adding fun stickers to FaceTime as well. 

Apple adds Group FaceTime. Yes, Apple's FaceTime will support 32 people in a Group call. 

Users will be able to add effects, stickers, filters to photos taken from the camera app in Messages. Users can apply their favourite Animoji live as well. They can also apply a Memoji to the photo. 

Yes there are new Animojis. Also something called Memoji, which will look like you, the user. The new Animojis on the list are Tiger, Koala, T-Rex, and a Ghost, which will remind you of the Snapchat Ghost. Yes, Memoji will let you choose your hair, skin colour, etc. 

Screentime will help people to take better control of their app lives and that of their children by setting limits. 

Yes, screen time will show the full details on how long you spend on the iPhone, iPad. How much on your app, what apps are sending you most notifications, etc. Apple says it will help users how to manage their time better. Apple will also allow users to set app limits. Users will get a reminder saying time is up for the app. If you exceed the limit, Apple will flash a message on the iPhone saying, 'Time is up.' Apple thinks this will help with kids and families achieve better balance. 

Apple iOS 12 will have Siri suggesting which notifications to turn off, depending on the ones you are not using. Apple is also introducing grouped notifications. Users will be able to get rid of all notifications in a thread in one go. 

DND during bedtime will make sure you see notifications at night on your iPhone. Users can ease into dealing with these notifications the next day. Users will also be able to set DND end time during an event, for a location, time, etc.

Apple CarPlay will now support third-party navigation apps. 

Apple is adding a new browse tab to Apple News. It will also make it easier for Apple News users to jump to their favourites. Apple is also adding a new sidebar to the iPad version of Apple News. Apple Stock app has been redesigned completely, and it will show stock performance through out the day. Apple News is also coming to Stocks. It will have business news from the day.  Apple Stocks app will also come to iPad on iOS 12. Voice memos will also come to iPad for the first time. Apple is also adding iCloud support for voice memos. iBooks has also been redesigned completely. It will now be called Apple Books. 

Essentially a user can create a fixed phrase with a particular app and Siri will tell you all the details. For instance with your traveling app, you can have the phrase 'Travel Plans' and then Siri will pull the data from the particular app. All of this is relying on the Shortcut app. 

For instance if you go to the gym daily, Siri will tell you in the locked screen that about accessing the fitness app that you use on a daily basis. Shortcuts will be a new app in iOS 12. Shortcuts seems to be a good way to get users to use Siri more. Anyway, Siri is the most popular virtual assistant with 10 billion monthly requests, according to Apple.

Apple iOS 12 Siri will take advantage of a new feature called Short-cuts. An App can give an option for a short-cut to Siri. A user can say the phrase and it will then open the app.  Short-cut will allow for millions of possibilities, says Apple. 

Apple says Photo sharing is done on iMessage, it is end-to-end encrypted. It is also done on the machine. 

Apple takes its cue from Google by offering search suggestions in the Photos app. It has a bit of Facebook moments too helping users share their shared memories. All this is powered by machine learning.

Over a 1 trillion photos captured on iOS everyday, says Craig Federighi. "Search in Photos now starts working for you even before you start typing," he explains. It will categorise photos like hiking, etc. It will index 4 million events like sporting events. Users can search for multiple terms in the Photos app. iOS 12 also has a new tab. For You has all the memories like featured photos, highlighting photos you took on a particular day last year, shared album activity.  

ARkit 2 can let up to four kids play the same game using the new Lego app. This is a completely new use of AR, that of multiple users getting their perspective on the same environment

As expected Apple is showcasing ARKit 2.0, which will support multi-user augmented reality. It supports shared view of AR in real-time for multiple users. 

The new Measure app will be the first app that everyone will use with AR. That's a neat idea from Apple to open up people to the new concept. But it also kills of thousands of measurement apps on the store. Who will use those when Apple offers its own app. Finally AR is becoming more user friendly and not a neat gimmick on your phone.

It will let users rely on AR technology to measure actual objects in the real world. It gives the full 3D experience to the user. Apple's USDZ experience will also come to news with animations being possible in the Apple News app. 

With creative cloud, designers and developers will be able to use apps like Photoshop to create AR content for Apple's iOS 12. Adobe will bring news services and apps, which will let developers design AR experiences quickly. It will use Adobe's Creative Cloud and let developers bring this directly into the iOS native environment. 

Apple has worked with Pixar to create a new file format for AR. It is called USDZ, and it can be used across the system from Files app, Safari to Messages. It will allow developers to place these 3D objects in the real world easily. Apple says it is working with the leading companies to bring support for 3D libraries. Adobe is one of the partners for Apple's AR effort. 

Interstingly, the new iOS 12 is being showcased with an old phone, the iPhone 6plus. This means the new software will work on older devices, the same as iOS 11.

40 per cent faster app loads, slide up keyboard will be faster by 70 per cent. "We have put iOS 12 through our stress test. Apps launched twice as fast for iOS 12, and these are big improvements. "Our tight integration with our chip teaming has allowed us to ramp up performance on iOS 12. In iOS 12, we ramp up processor performance, when we realise you need that extra speed," says the Apple executive. Apple will be bringing this feature to all its devices, including the older iPhones and iPads. 

Apple says it will make your device faster and more responsive. iOS 12 will support all the same devices as iOS 11. This includes iPhone 5S as well. This is the largest base ever supported by an Apple release.  

Craig Federighi is on stage showing off the new iOS 12 update. "Half of our customers upgraded to iOS 11 in just seven weeks. Currently 81 per cent active iOS devices are on iOS 11," explains Federighi. "We are thrilled to report that customer satisfaction for iOS 11 is 95 per cent. 

It looks like this keynote is starting with Apple iOS 12. Craig Federighi, Apple's Senior VP is on stage. 

'Coding should be taught in all schools,' says Tim Cook. Swift is available to tens and millions of students around the world, says Cook. 'I'm sure what these developers create will change the world,' he adds. 'We put the customer at the centre of everything to do. We are working to provide new and better experiences for our customers.'  Today is all about software, says Tim Cook. 

Tim Cook is addressing the event to developers. Starts by talking about what matters to the developer species. "We want more people to learn the power of code. It all starts with Swift and Swift playgrounds. We made it easy to learn code. Fast growing programming language," says Tim Cook.