Beginning this fall with iOS 12, FaceTime will support audio and video calls with as many as 32 simultaneous participants. Members will be able to drop in and out of group call as necessary, much like an ongoing conference call.
The announcement could be a blow to dedicated conference call services like Zoom, as smaller organizations may choose to rely on the the built-in FaceTime rather than paying for a more feature-filled service.
On more populated video calls, the FaceTime app will automatically focus on and enlarge the "tiles" of users, and vary the size of individual tiles when someone else talks. You can also choose to lock focus on a certain user, and apply filter effects, Animoji, and the new Memoji to yourself while live on a call.
Group FaceTime will work on iPhone, iPad, and Mac, and you can answer on audio using the Apple Watch.
Apple today at its WWDC keynote introduced personalized Animoji known as Memoji, a feature coming in iOS 12.
Memojis are highly customizable, with multiple options for skin colors, hairstyles, head shapes, eyes, eyebrows, facial hair, eyewear, and headwear.
Once a Memoji has been created, it can be used just like an Animoji, with the iPhone X's facial recognition sensors mimicking real-time facial expressions and head movements. Starting with iOS 12, that includes wink and tongue detection.
The existing set of Animoji is also expanding to include a ghost, koala, tiger, and tyrannosaurus rex in iOS 12.
Memoji can only be created on the iPhone X, but they can be sent in Messages across most Apple devices. They can also be used in FaceTime video chats, alongside other new camera effects and filters such as "comic book" and "watercolor."
Memoji are similar to Samsung's new AR Emoji, but they also share a similar concept with Bitmoji on Snapchat.
Beginning this fall with iOS 12, Apple will allow navigation apps to work with CarPlay, including both Google Maps and Waze.
The change was announced at WWDC, and — for consumers — could be one of the most immediately useful announcements made during the entire keynote.
Since CarPlay was first introduced a few years ago, Apple has prevented all navigation apps not named Apple Maps from working with CarPlay. This means that anyone who wanted to use an alternative app like Google Maps, Waze, or TomTom was forced to use a phone mount instead of the otherwise very useful CarPlay.
Apple didn't actually say when (or even if) Google Maps and Waze would be available with CarPlay, but MacRumors has reached out to Google and will update if we hear back.
Apple has revealed a collection of Siri improvements coming to iOS 12, centered around a new app called "Shortcuts." Shortcuts will let users connect certain third-party apps to Siri to greatly streamline voice controls. For example, the Tile app will let you add a shortcut to Siri so you can say "I lost my keys," activating Siri and showing Tile actions right in the Siri UI.
Other examples include creating a Shortcut to automatically open an app when you get to the gym every day, turning on Do Not Disturb at the movies, calling a family member on their birthday, and more. With the Shortcuts app, all of these customizable edits can be added and connected to an invokable Siri phrase.
Apple gave another example where a person created a Shortcut from the Kayak app, connecting their hotel address with the Siri phrase "Travel Plans." So, when they quickly needed to get the address all they had to do was say "Travel Plans" to Siri and it came up immediately.
Far more intricate Shortcuts will be available, with one Siri phrase able to do things like adjust HomeKit thermostats, text a friend, read the news, and more, by simply saying something like "Hey Siri, I'm heading home."
Apple has announced at its WWDC keynote that a new For You tab is coming to its iOS 12 Photos app that will include intelligent Sharing Suggestions.
Apple explained that the Photos app is gaining a new "For You" tab, similar to Apple Music, that has an "On this day" section showcasing existing memories, looping Live Photos, Portrait photos, and more.
The For You tab will also suggest editing tools to try out to improve pictures in your library.
An all-new For You tab surfaces favorite moments in one place, combining Memories and iCloud Shared Albums. A new sharing suggestions feature makes it easier to share photos with friends, and friends who receive photos are prompted to share back any photos and videos they have from the same trip or event.
Search suggestions surface the most relevant Events, People, Places, Groups, Categories and recent searches, and new search functionality lets users combine multiple search terms to find just the right photos.
The Sharing Suggestions feature meanwhile essentially uses AI to suggest people with whom you might want to share your photos, based on who appears in them. Photos shared through the new feature can be shared at full resolution over iCloud.
Craig Federighi today announced ARKit 2 at WWDC 2018, which will give developers access to improved face tracking, realistic rendering, 3D object detection, persistent experiences, and shared experiences. The company gave a demo of two users sharing a virtual environment using ARKit 2, playing on a table with wooden toys and trying to knock down the other player's objects.
Apple says that ARKit 2 is a more powerful platform than the original ARKit, since it can allow multiple users to play a game or collaborate on projects together. There is also support for a "spectator mode" so that friends and family can see AR gameplay from another iOS device without participating.
With "persistent AR," you'll be able to leave virtual objects in the real world and come back to them later. For example, you can start a puzzle on a table and come back to it another day and discover it in the same state that you left it.
ARKit 2 also extends support for image detection and tracking, making it possible to detect 3D objects like toys or sculptures, and adds the ability to automatically apply reflections of the real world onto AR objects. This makes the AR experience an even more realistic mix of the virtual and real world.
One of the notable demos at WWDC this year saw Apple bring Martin Sanders, Director of Innovation at LEGO, on stage to demonstrate a new LEGO AR iOS app that will integrate with ARKit 2 features and connect to physical LEGO sets. An entire LEGO city was shown off in the demo, allowing users to build objects, place characters, go on quests, open sets to see inside, and play with friends in the same world.
Up to four friends can play in the same set on four different iOS devices, and notably all of the virtual aspects of the LEGO AR app will be connected to physical LEGO sets. "We can save our entire world back into our physical set, and pick up where we left off later," Sanders said.
In other augmented reality news, Apple has created its own measuring app called "Measure," which can provide the dimensions of objects automatically. The company also collaborated with Pixar to create a new open file format called usdz, which enables AR experiences in many apps, like Messages and Mail.
All of these advanced ARKit 2 features will be available when iOS 12 launches this fall.
Apple today announced a new augmented reality file format called Universal Scene Description (USDZ) during its keynote event at WWDC in San Jose, California.
Apple explained that USDZ was developed alongside animation studio Pixar and is an open file format optimized for creating and sharing 3D Augmented Reality assets in a compact, single file. This means that the format is optimized for sharing AR objects in apps like Messages, Safari, and Mail, while retaining powerful graphics and animation features.
USDZ is based on Pixar’s Universal Scene Description and makes it easy to experience AR nearly anywhere in iOS.
In conjunction with USDZ, Apple detailed a new feature called "Quick Look" for AR that allows users to place 3D objects into their real world surroundings "to see how something would work in a space.
Adobe VP Abhay Parasnis was introduced on stage during the keynote to confirm that it will have native support for Apple's new AR file format in its entire suite of Creative Cloud software applications, and will also be adding a new AR design app to CC with easy-to-use tools for creating new experiences.
Apple has developed its own augmented reality-enabled measuring app called "Measure." The iOS app uses ARKit 2 to measure objects, get automatic measurements of things like photos and tables, and more.
Numerous measurement apps have been available on the iOS App Store since Apple launched ARKit last year, and now Apple will have its own alternative on the App Store for users. In a demo during WWDC, Craig Federighi showed off easily measuring a box with Measure, and then snapped a quick photo which gave him precise measurements of an object.
Measure is a new app in iOS 12, which uses AR to quickly gauge the size of real-world objects similar to a tape measure. The new app automatically provides the dimensions of objects like picture frames, posters and signs, and can also show diagonal measurements, compute area and allow users to take a photo and share it with accurate dimensions right from their iPhone or iPad.
There's no word about a launch date for Measure, though it will likely be released alongside iOS 12 this fall.
Apple's annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) starts today at the McEnery Convention Center in San Jose, with the traditional keynote kicking things off at 10:00 AM Pacific Time.
We're expecting to see a number of announcements, although it appears Apple will primarily be discussing software this year.
Apple is providing a live video stream on its website and via Apple TV. iOS 12 and macOS 10.14 are expected to be the main focus as usual, with Apple itself leaking macOS details heading into the weekend.
In addition to Apple's video stream, we will be updating this article with live blog coverage and issuing Twitter updates through our @MacRumorsLive account as the keynote unfolds. Highlights from the event and separate news stories regarding today's announcements will go out through our @MacRumors account.
Apple's WWDC keynote will be kicking off at 10:00 am Pacific Time today, and as is tradition, some MacRumors readers who can't follow the event live are interested in avoiding all of the announcements and waiting until Apple posts the recorded video of the event so as to experience it without already knowing the outcome.
For those individuals, we've posted this news story, which will be updated with a direct link to the presentation once it becomes available from Apple. No other news stories or announcements will be displayed alongside this story.
Apple has become quicker about making event videos available for replay over the past several years, and videos are now frequently available within an hour of an event's conclusion.
Users waiting for the video to be posted are welcome to gather in the thread associated with this news story, and we ask that those who follow the events refrain from making any posts about Apple's announcements in this thread.
Video Posted: A direct link to the video file is now available, with no spoilers.
Well-known Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo has returned today with his first Apple-related research note for his new firm TF International Securities. According to Kuo, Apple's pricing strategy will be "more aggressive" for the three iPhones rumored for September 2018, an effort to boost shipments of the models this year.
One of the main reasons Kuo says is behind the aggressive pricing strategy is Apple's "concern over the negative impact of a higher price" for its 2018 iPhones. Last year, the company received some blowback on the top-tier pricing of its iPhone X, which began at $999 in the United States for 64GB.
Now, Kuo states that the 6.5-inch OLED "iPhone X Plus" will be $900-$1,000, the second generation OLED iPhone X will be $800-$900, and the new 6.1-inch LCD iPhone will be $600-$700. Kuo reiterates that all 2018 iPhones will have a full-screen design and Face ID. The analyst also outlined more reasons behind Apple's new pricing strategy:
We forecast that Apple will adopt a more aggressive price policy for the following reasons: (1) concern over the negative impact of a higher price in a mature smartphone market on selling momentum, (2) improved cost structure, which is mainly attributed to assembly yield improvements of end product & 3D sensing and cost reduction of components, and (3) increasing users of Face ID benefiting the promotion of the Apple service and ecosystem.
Secondly, Kuo believes that Apple will announce all three new iPhone models at an event in September. Furthermore, all three iPhones will launch in September, including the LCD model which some reports have previously pegged for a November debut.
This is Kuo's first research note since departing KGI Securities in April. At the time, it was believed he would lessen his focus on Apple to look at other emerging industries, but it seems we can still expect reports on Apple and its supply chain from Kuo.
Drone videographers Duncan Sinfield and Matthew Roberts each uploaded new videos to their YouTube channels over the past day, covering the latest views of Apple Park from the sky. The videos come a few hours ahead of Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference, which is happening about 8 miles to the east of Apple Park at the McEnery Convention Center in San Jose.
In Cupertino, the company's ringed campus "continues to evolve," according to Sinfield. For June 2018, this means that around 9,000 trees have now been permanently planted around the campus, employees are continuing to relocate onto the site "every week," and cleaning crews are working twenty-four hours a day to maintain the central spaceship building and the structures surrounding it, "including washing the window shades at least once per week."
At around the two minute mark in his video, Sinfield spots a few Apple Park workers doing just that.
Roberts also catches a few workers cleaning the window shades in the central courtyard of the spaceship building, pointing out that he has seen "notable changes" in the "amount of detail paid to keeping the spaceship clean" and in the expansion of greenery around the campus. Otherwise, Roberts catches nice glimpses into Apple Park's main atrium, the employees' outdoor activity area with basketball courts, and the stairs that lead down into the underground portion of the Steve Jobs Theater.
Drone video updates from videographers like Sinfield and Roberts have become slightly less frequent as Apple Park finally ends construction after beginning just over four years ago in December 2013. Additionally, in April 2018 Sinfield said that it has become increasingly difficult to fly his drones over the campus due to increased security, believing it's "only a matter of time until the campus becomes shut-off to drones completely."
In the summer of 2017, multiple reports emerged about Apple Park security's first efforts at stopping drone pilots from accessing the airspace above the campus. Despite those attempts, drone update videos kept being uploaded to YouTube by multiple videographers, mainly including Sinfield and Roberts. Apple's renewed anti-drone efforts in the spring of 2018 appear to have been a bit more strict, however, and followed a leaked memo from the company that warned employees against leaking details about future devices to the media.
Facebook forged an agreement with at least 60 device makers including Apple and Samsung to provide access to large swathes of user data without explicit consent, in a move that may have violated a 2011 Federal Trade Commission consent decree.
According to a lengthy report in The New York Times, the social network made the deals so that device makers could use APIs to include Facebook messaging functions, "Like" buttons, address books, and other features without requiring users to install a separate app. The deals were reportedly made over the last decade, starting before Facebook apps were widely available on smartphones.
Most of the partnerships remain in effect, though Facebook began winding them down in April. However, in a recent test conducted by NYT on a 2013 Blackberry device, using a reporter's Facebook account, an app called "The Hub" was still able to harvest details on 558 of his friends, including their political and religious views. Not only that, the app was also able to access "identifying information" on 294,258 friends of his friends.
Facebook has hit back against the claims in the report. In a blog post titled "Why We Disagree with The New York Times", the company said it created the APIs for device makers so that they could provide Facebook features on operating systems before apps or app stores where available.
Given that these APIs enabled other companies to recreate the Facebook experience, we controlled them tightly from the get-go. These partners signed agreements that prevented people’s Facebook information from being used for any other purpose than to recreate Facebook-like experiences. Partners could not integrate the user’s Facebook features with their devices without the user’s permission. And our partnership and engineering teams approved the Facebook experiences these companies built. Contrary to claims by the New York Times, friends’ information, like photos, was only accessible on devices when people made a decision to share their information with those friends. We are not aware of any abuse by these companies.
Facebook came under major scrutiny in March following the Cambridge Analytica scandal, in which the data of 50 million users was misused in the run-up to the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has since testified in front of congress in an attempt to answer questions about Facebook's handling of user data.
The social networking giant is already facing an ongoing investigation by the FTC, which is looking into whether Facebook violated an agreement reached with the agency in 2011. The FTC investigation was launched when it found that Facebook had told users that third-party apps on the social media site wouldn't be allowed to access their data, when in fact they were able to obtain almost all personal information about a user.
Apple is set to tighten its control of its MacBook supply chain by directly negotiating prices with third-party suppliers of non-key parts such as screws and plastics, which are required by contract suppliers to produce major components.
According to a new report by DigiTimes, industry sources say the move by Apple will significantly reduce profit margins of its contracted supply partners, however Apple has neither confirmed nor denied the move.
The Taiwan-based website's sources said that this will be the first time Apple has ever interfered with the procurement of non-crucial materials and parts by its contracted key component producers, who manufacture the processors, panels, batteries, chassis, and heat dissipation modules in Apple MacBooks.
Taiwan contracted supply partners of MacBooks were reportedly told of the new policy during a meeting they attended at Apple's headquarters in Cupertino.
If enforced in time for MacBook models to be released this year, the policy could erase 10 to 15 percent of profits currently made by contracted producers from the purchases of materials, leaving them with only the contracted MacBook manufacturing fees.
Apple has reportedly decided to expand its centralized procurement coverage to include upstream materials such as copper and cobalt, and non-key parts and components from third-party suppliers. The electronics giant will reportedly directly set the prices and order volumes for such materials and minor parts and components, instead of only screening the name lists of qualified third-party suppliers proposed by contracted supply chain partners and inspecting their supply quality and shipment schedules.
The same industry sources predict that when the policy goes into effect, contracted supply chain players will have to boost their self-sufficiency for components or look to other markets like cloud, AI and automotive electronics applications to claw back profitability.
Apart from typical MacBook refreshes, former KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo believes Apple is working on a "more affordable MacBook Air" set to be released at some point in 2018.
We've heard a similar rumor from DigiTimes, which says Apple is working on a new entry-level 13-inch MacBook in the second half of 2018, which would serve as a replacement for the MacBook Air, but we don't expect it to surface during this year's WWDC.
There are no details on what features an updated MacBook Air could include, but if Apple is aiming to keep costs down, it could receive minimal updates. The MacBook Air remains outdated and continues to use a processor from 2014, so an updated version could include a new processor and new graphics. Thunderbolt 3 could also be added, and it's possible Apple will update the display.
Apple has updated its Apple Music tools website with a new interface that allows subscribers to sign in and play full songs, albums, and playlists within embeddable widgets, leading to speculation that the company could be about to introduce an Apple Music web client.
Signed into a widget on the Apple Music Tools site
Apple has been hosting the tools URL to let artists download Apple Music badges and generate embeddable widgets for promotional use on their own websites and blogs.
Previously it was only possible to play 30-90 second sample tracks in widgets. However, a Reddit user discovered that after logging in with their Apple Music credentials using a sign in button, they were able to search for and listen to full songs, albums, and playlists through the site, as well as add songs directly to their Apple Music library without being kicked out to another app.
The Apple Music web player, logged in via an iOS device
While it's still not possible to browse your library, create playlists or see what friends are playing on the site, the change does suggest Apple could be preparing a full-fat Apple Music web client to compete with existing offerings from the likes of Spotify.
You can learn whether Apple announces that a web player is in the works today and keep abreast of all other Apple-related developments at WWDC right here at MacRumors. We'll be in attendance at the keynote, set to start at 10:00 a.m. Pacific Time, and be sure to stay tuned to our @MacRumorsLive account on Twitter, with live coverage of the event beginning shortly after 8:00 a.m. Pacific Time.
Apple has shared an ad on its main YouTube channel this morning to promote the iPhone X's Animoji feature ahead of Monday's WWDC keynote, which starts at 10.00 a.m. Pacific Time.
Titled "Animoji: Taxi Driver", the one-minute short features three Animoji faces singing along to the track "Citizen Kane" by Korean band HYUKOH.
Bear Face Animoji takes the lead role in the lip synced song, with backing vocals provided by Chicken and Dragon Face, as the disembodied trio travel through a neon-soaked Hong Kong cityscape.
The ad was originally uploaded to Apple's Korean YouTube channel on May 21, but the fact that Apple has chosen to share the video over its international YouTube channel just before WWDC kicks off clearly anticipates one of the new features in iOS 12 that is expected to be previewed at today's keynote.
Apple is said to be planning additional updates to Animoji in iOS 12, with rumors suggesting Apple will add more new characters. Apple is also said to be planning an overhauled Animoji interface and Animoji integration in FaceTime, which would allow users to use Animoji characters during FaceTime calls, perhaps in a karaoke context.
Apple has pulled some features from iOS 12 to focus more attention on performance improvements, bug fixes, and quality, but other features are still expected to debut in iOS 12, and could include multi-person support for AR games, improvements to Do Not Disturb, and more.
In the months leading up to Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference each year, the company offers free WWDC scholarships to students and STEM organization members who don't have the $1,599 necessary to purchase a ticket to the event.
When selected, the scholarship winners gain a free WWDC ticket, free lodging, and a free one year Apple developer membership. On Twitter today, Apple CEO Tim Cook celebrated these 350+ individuals with a quick video highlighting a few of the winners and their apps.
In the video, Cook is seen discussing the apps with the scholarship winners, who also briefly describe the projects they're working on. Some apps include "Study Buddy Connection," which aims to streamline how tutors and students find one another, and "UV Safe," which sends out iOS notifications to apply sunscreen based on the UV index at your location.
Accompanying the video, Cook's tweet says: "Nothing inspires us more than fresh ideas."
WWDC 2018 kicks off tomorrow with a keynote at 10:00 a.m. Pacific Time at the McEnery Convention Center in San Jose, California. As developers and other attendees arrived in California over the weekend, the first glimpses of conference swag appeared online, including a Levi's denim jacket and a collection of Apple-themed enamel pins.
MacRumors will be providing all of the usual coverage of the conference, with real-time keynote updates found on our @MacRumorsLive Twitter account and all of the event highlights appearing on MacRumors.com throughout the day and week. In preparation for the keynote, visit our full How To guide on the best ways to watch the presentation live on June 4.
With one day to go before Apple's WWDC keynote, scheduled to begin at 10 a.m. Pacific Time, some developers have been sharing the contents of their conference swag bags on social media. Like last year, the items include a Levi's denim jacket and a collection of Apple-themed enamel pins.
Apple introduced the popular pin packs at WWDC 2017 and kicked off collections with the old rainbow-themed Apple logo, the "hello" Mac greeting, the Swift and Metal logos, the original Macintosh, and emojis. Attendees also received a flag pin of their home country.
This year Apple has added several new pins to the mix, including an Animoji bear, a "mind-blown" emoji, a peace sign emoji a dogcow, and a California pin, amongst others.
The Levi's trucker jacket comes in black, includes fits and sizes for both men and women, and has two interior pockets large enough to fit an iPhone 8 Plus.
In a subtle change from last year, Apple has ditched the usual embroidered WWDC logo on the jacket and gone for a small WWDC 2018 pin instead, allowing owners to remove any reference to the conference if they so wish.
MacRumors will be in attendance at the keynote, with live coverage of the event beginning shortly after 8:00 a.m. Pacific Time. Stay tuned to MacRumors.com and our @MacRumorsLive account on Twitter. We've also put together a guide explaining all the ways you can watch Apple's WWDC18 Keynote live as it happens.
Facebook forged an agreement with at least 60 device makers including Apple and Samsung to provide access to large swathes of user data without explicit consent, in a move that may have violated a 2011 Federal Trade Commission consent decree. 
