Apple's Beats brand in April unveiled the Powerbeats Pro, a redesigned wire-free version of its popular fitness-oriented Powerbeats earbuds.
Apple Announces Significant SDK Improvements with New 'Swift' Programming Language, CloudKit and More
Apple devoted the last third of its keynote address at the Worldwide Developer Conference today to improvements for its Software Development Kit (SDK), launching a new programming language called Swift, and development kits for health, home automation, iCloud and inter-app operability.
The announcement that got the biggest reaction from developers was Swift, a new programming language for Cocoa and Cocoa Touch that Apple calls modern, fast and powerful and designed for safety.
iCloud has also been partly opened up for developers with a powerful new framework for developers called CloudKit. It allows developers to avoid costly and time-consuming coding the server-side of applications, with Apple providing huge amounts of cloud storage and computing power for free, albeit with extremely high limits to encourage tight coding.
Apps from the App Store can send widgets to the Today pane in the Notification Center. For instance, ESPN's SportsCenter could add a widget within the Today pane that allows users to easily check the latest sports scores without having to open the app. Widgets are also interactive, allowing users to, for example, bid for an item on eBay from within the Notification Center.
Other parts of iOS have been opened up to developers as well, including the ability for users to swap out the default iOS keyboard for third-party options like Swype. Touch ID has also been opened up to developers, allowing apps like Mint to use fingerprint scans instead of passwords.
Apple also announced its rumored home automation platform, called HomeKit. Previously, each home automation app used its own security protocols. Now, after working together with leaders in the home automation field, all apps can work together with a single protocol and secure pairings. This allows automated home devices, like Phillips' Hue lights, to work with Siri. Users can now tell Siri something like "Siri, get ready for bed" to turn off the lights, close the garage and whatever other functions are automated in a users' home.
Apple has also improved things for game developers, announcing Metal, which frees up resources for game developers to make better looking and more powerful games for iOS devices. For instance, EA would now be able to use its Frostbite engine for console games for games meant for iOS, like the upcoming Plants vs Zombies: Garden Warfare.
Xcode has been updated with live rendering, view debugging, performance testing, storyboards and more.
All of these SDK features are available for developers in the iOS 8 beta today, and will be available for consumers later this year in the fall. Much more information is available at Apple's Developer website.
The announcement that got the biggest reaction from developers was Swift, a new programming language for Cocoa and Cocoa Touch that Apple calls modern, fast and powerful and designed for safety.
Swift is the result of the latest research on programming languages, combined with decades of experience building Apple platforms. Named parameters brought forward from Objective-C are expressed in a clean syntax that makes APIs in Swift even easier to read and maintain. Inferred types make code cleaner and less prone to mistakes, while modules eliminate headers and provide namespaces. Memory is managed automatically, and you don’t even need to type semi-colons.Swift also includes "Playgrounds", which allows developers to see the results of their code in a side panel in real time. The developer community appears extremely excited about Swift, with Realmac's Nik Fletcher saying he had "no words". Notable Apple pundit and developer John Gruber said that Swift is "huge, huge news" and the "future of all Apple development".
iCloud has also been partly opened up for developers with a powerful new framework for developers called CloudKit. It allows developers to avoid costly and time-consuming coding the server-side of applications, with Apple providing huge amounts of cloud storage and computing power for free, albeit with extremely high limits to encourage tight coding.
Leverage the full power of iCloud and build apps with the new CloudKit framework. Now you can easily and securely store and efficiently retrieve your app data like structured data in a database or assets right from iCloud. CloudKit also enables your users to anonymously sign in to your apps with their iCloud Apple IDs without sharing their personal information.Additionally, Apple announced lots of new APIs for developers to take further advantage of iOS. Extensibility allows apps from the App Store, which are usually isolated in sandboxes, to communicate with each other. For instance, the Pinterest app could be updated to provide a sharing option in Safari, or Bing could be updated to provide translations within Safari. Another example includes the Photos app, which can use filters from third-party apps like VSCO.
Apps from the App Store can send widgets to the Today pane in the Notification Center. For instance, ESPN's SportsCenter could add a widget within the Today pane that allows users to easily check the latest sports scores without having to open the app. Widgets are also interactive, allowing users to, for example, bid for an item on eBay from within the Notification Center.
Other parts of iOS have been opened up to developers as well, including the ability for users to swap out the default iOS keyboard for third-party options like Swype. Touch ID has also been opened up to developers, allowing apps like Mint to use fingerprint scans instead of passwords.
Apple also announced its rumored home automation platform, called HomeKit. Previously, each home automation app used its own security protocols. Now, after working together with leaders in the home automation field, all apps can work together with a single protocol and secure pairings. This allows automated home devices, like Phillips' Hue lights, to work with Siri. Users can now tell Siri something like "Siri, get ready for bed" to turn off the lights, close the garage and whatever other functions are automated in a users' home.
Apple has also improved things for game developers, announcing Metal, which frees up resources for game developers to make better looking and more powerful games for iOS devices. For instance, EA would now be able to use its Frostbite engine for console games for games meant for iOS, like the upcoming Plants vs Zombies: Garden Warfare.
Xcode has been updated with live rendering, view debugging, performance testing, storyboards and more.
All of these SDK features are available for developers in the iOS 8 beta today, and will be available for consumers later this year in the fall. Much more information is available at Apple's Developer website.
[ 93 comments ]
Top Rated Comments
(View all)
67 months ago
These were pretty major announcements. Some of these things were assumed to simply never be a part of what Apple would do for developers or users. For example, people were assuming that a replacement for Obj. C would be years in the future, if ever. Likewise with allowing developers hooks directly into system apps to improve them.
Kind of thrilling. Not sure what to think about Apple now, to be honest. And I mean that in a good way.
Kind of thrilling. Not sure what to think about Apple now, to be honest. And I mean that in a good way.
67 months ago
Swift was the most important announcement today!
How come this is not on the front page? :confused:
This announcement didnt make front page because Swift is not important or revolutionary technology. Beats reducing bass on their headphones... now that is front page news!
67 months ago
This was one of the few things I wasn't expecting.
Wow, this changes everything! Swift! :apple:
A 21st Century programming language!
Apple just might crash the Internet today!
Swift was the most important announcement today!
How come this is not on the front page? :confused:
67 months ago
WWDC 14: boring... Ok... Where's the iwatch/Apple TV... Hey Tim Sweeney, ooh shiney... I hope they have more than this... Jaw on floor, wtf! BOOM HEADSHOT!
What did you expect from a DEVELOPER CONFERENCE
67 months ago
Metal blew me away. I thought it would be the IOS announcement of the decade. Then they hit us with Swift. (One more thing!)
I only wish Swift was available for server side development.
I only wish Swift was available for server side development.
67 months ago
Swift book link: [iBooks] (https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/the-swift-programming-language/id881256329?mt=11)
Overview: [link] (https://developer.apple.com/swift/)
From a quick glance, I can see there's some Scala influence in there, which is awesome!
Overview: [link] (https://developer.apple.com/swift/)
From a quick glance, I can see there's some Scala influence in there, which is awesome!
67 months ago
Can anyone comment on the potential difficulty of learning Objective-C and Swift at the same time? I was planning to learn Objective-C this summer...
Objective-C is just C with some extensions; if you are good with C and have good understanding of objects, learning Objective-C takes half and hour.
If you are new to programming, just start with Swift. You will pick it up much faster.
Swift is actually very interesting. It incorporates many high-level concepts from 'less popular' (but still very powerful languages) that go back to at least ML. I can see how it will help reduce both the development time and the possibility of an error. It is very nice to see such a high-level language to be adopted as a main development toolkit on OS X. I wonder though how efficient certain things are. Especially the overhead of the optional types worry me. I imagine they would be implemented with some sort of pointer tagging...
67 months ago
Amazing part of the keynote! We certainly didn't see it coming.
Emoji variables, the most ridiculous thing to come to programming haha
The best part so far.. :D
Image (https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BpJoJTYIAAAZ-8Z.png)
Emoji variables, the most ridiculous thing to come to programming haha
67 months ago
Of course I wasn't expecting a whole new programming language today. But it's a developers confenerce, so I without a doubt expected some cool announcements that will shake the developers up. And boy Apple did exactly that. As a from-time-to-time-developer (:)), I was literally amazed several times during the keynote. It was nowhere near boring even with no device announcements which I guess is the only reason of your buttz hurt.
ok, I guess I didn't fully understand what you were saying, and I don't think that you really understood my first post. I wasn't really disappointed by no hardware announcements, just the general (user facing) changes to iOS and OS X (the first half of the keynote) were fairly bland compared to previous keynotes where the keynote speech as been more directed to the general public than to developers, with the rest of the conference directed at developers. The third section of the show was mind blowing, with swift being the most shocking. the look on the faces of the scholarship students was priceless.
Sorry for the misunderstanding, and thank you for responding with a well thought out post.
[ Read All Comments ]
Tennessee State University last week launched the HBCU C2 Presidential Academy, a new initiative that's designed to expose students of color to coding and app development, reports The...
Apple has asked the Trump administration to exclude components for the new Mac Pro and various accessories like the Magic Mouse and Magic Trackpad from being subject to a 25 percent tariff on Chinese...
Apple Maps vehicles will begin surveying Germany next week, through mid-September, according to the Frankfurter Allgemeine.
The data collected, such as road details, signage, and landmarks,...
Since its introduction with iOS 7, AirDrop has become the favored means for iPhone and iPad users to instantly share photos, videos, documents, and more to nearby Apple devices over Wi-Fi and...
Twelve South today launched a new product called the "StayGo," which is a portable hub that connects to USB-C MacBooks and MacBook Pros.
Note: MacRumors is an affiliate partner with...
The team behind Pixelmator Pro today released a major update for the photo editing app, introducing useful new capabilities that make it easier than ever to edit your photos.
There's now a...
Television maker LG says that updates will soon arrive that make HomeKit and AirPlay 2 available on supported TVs.
LG's Australian support account on Twitter responded to a customer query...
Alongside the launch of iOS 12.4, Apple today released new versions of iOS 9.3.6 and iOS 10.3.4 for older iPhones and iPads that aren't able to run iOS 12.4.
The iOS 9.3.6 update is...
