Craig Federighi

The Apple News, Voice Memos, Home and Stocks apps on the Mac will be getting major updates and new designs to make them more Mac-like, Apple's software chief Craig Federighi told CNET in an interview. News, Voice Memos, Home, and Stocks were all apps that were ported over to the Mac in 2018's macOS Mojave as part of the precursor to Project Catalyst, Apple's newly announced feature designed to let iOS developers easily adapt their apps for the Mac. Since their Mac launch, the four apps have mirrored the style of an iOS app, offering little more in terms of design and functionality. Now that Project Catalyst has launched, though, Apple plans to revisit these early Mac app ports. Federighi says that because the underlying technology has improved over the course of the last year, the apps will be "automatically" upgraded thanks to Project Catalyst's more unified, native Mac framework. Apple also plans to make additional improvements on top of that to create a Mac experience."We've looked at the design and features of some of those apps and said we can make this a bit more of a Mac experience through changes that are independent of the use of Catalyst, but are just design team decisions," Federighi said. "When I read some of the initial reviews of those apps, people were saying, 'Obviously this technology is causing them to do things that don't feel Mac-like.' Honestly, 90% of those were just decisions that designers made ... People took that as 'this feels iOS-y' and therefore they thought it was a technology thing. Actually, it was a designer preference. So part

On the latest episode of the AppStories podcast, MacStories editor-in-chief Federico Viticci sat down with Apple's software engineering chief Craig Federighi to discuss WWDC 2019 announcements, including Project Catalyst, SwiftUI, and iPadOS. Craig Federighi at WWDC 2019 Project Catalyst will make it much easier for developers to extend iPad apps to the Mac. In many cases, adding macOS support to an iPad app is as easy as opening an Xcode project and clicking the Mac checkbox, although Apple encourages developers to further optimize their apps to offer a true Mac experience. Federighi believes Project Catalyst will allow many developers to bring their ‌iPad‌ apps to the Mac, as Apple has bridged the gap between its UIKit framework for iOS apps and its AppKit framework for Mac apps:UIKit and AppKit always remained these two separate worlds, and depending on what a developer did, they could build an app that was sort of factored in a way that they shared a lot of cross-platform code, but they had to always take that extra step of having people on the team that knew AppKit, people on the team that knew UIKit, and make the decision to specialize for those two. And for many developers, they chose one or the other and not both, because that was a real effort to get the expertise and to make the investment. Project Catalyst Federighi expressed excitement about Project Catalyst, noting that he has seen many apps that look fantastic on the ‌iPad‌ that he has wanted on the Mac. With macOS Catalina and Xcode 11, that is now a possibility, with Twitter being one of several

In a recent op-ed for The New York Times, Google CEO Sundar Pichai said that "privacy cannot be a luxury good offered only to people who can afford to buy premium products and services," a comment that some viewed as a dig at Apple. Craig Federighi at WWDC 2018 Apple's software engineering chief Craig Federighi has unsurprisingly disagreed with that position. In an interview with The Independent, he said that Apple aspires to offer great product experiences that "everyone should have," while cautioning that the values and business models of other companies "don't change overnight.""I don't buy into the luxury good dig," says Federighi, giving the impression he was genuinely surprised by the public attack. "On the one hand gratifying that other companies in space over the last few months, seemed to be making a lot of positive noises about caring about privacy. I think it's a deeper issue than then, what a couple of months and a couple of press releases would make. I think you've got to look fundamentally at company cultures and values and business model. And those don't change overnight. "But we certainly seek to both set a great example for the world to show what's possible to raise people's expectations about what they should expect the products, whether they get them from us or from other people. And of course, we love, ultimately, to sell Apple products to everyone we possibly could certainly not just a luxury, we think a great product experience is something everyone should have. So we aspire to develop those."Federighi emphasizes Apple's commitment to

In a new interview with Wired today, Apple senior vice president of software engineering Craig Federighi discussed yesterday's WWDC keynote, particularly touching upon the company's years-long plan to bring some iOS apps to macOS. In a memorable keynote moment, when Federighi mentioned users constantly asking if Apple would merge iOS and macOS, a giant "No" appeared on screen behind him. However, the company did detail a plan to take key framework elements from iOS and UIKit and adapt them for macOS, resulting in tools that will let third-party developers easily port iPhone and iPad apps to Mac in 2019. In the interview, Federighi again explained that right now the plan is not to build a single Apple Operating System, but to begin testing out the updated UIKit tools in its own apps for Home, News, Stocks, and Voice Memos, coming in macOS Mojave later this year. Naturally, when news about iOS apps appearing on macOS emerges, people begin to wonder again about a touchscreen MacBook. Federighi quickly shot down that idea -- which has surfaced again and again over the years -- by saying he's "not into touchscreens" on desktop computers, and likely never will be. He also mentioned that Apple doesn't see touchscreen-enabled laptops as rivals. "We really feel that the ergonomics of using a Mac are that your hands are rested on a surface, and that lifting your arm up to poke a screen is a pretty fatiguing thing to do," he said. Federighi added that he doesn't think the touchscreen laptops out there today—which he referred to as "experiments"—have been compelling.

Apple is planning to share news on APFS support for Fusion Drives "very soon," Apple software engineering chief Craig Federighi told MacRumors reader Jonathan in an email this afternoon. Federighi shared the detail after Jonathan sent him an email asking whether or not APFS was still in the works for Fusion Drives, which combine a hard drive with flash storage to provide the speed of an SSD with the affordability of a standard hard drive. Fusion Drives are used in iMacs and Mac mini machines. In response to Jonathan's question, Federighi gave a short but enticing answer, which we verified:Hi Jonathan, We intend to address this question very soon... Thanks, - craigWith the launch of macOS High Sierra, Apple introduced a new Apple File System for Macs that have all-flash built-in storage. At the time macOS High Sierra was introduced, Apple said that the initial release of the software would not allow Fusion Drives to be converted to APFS, but confirmed APFS support would be coming at a later date. Since then, iMac and Mac mini owners who have Fusion Drives have been eagerly waiting for Apple to implement support for the feature, but in update after update, no APFS support for Fusion Drives has materialized. Federighi's statement suggests that APFS will be added as a feature in an upcoming software update, perhaps the macOS 10.14 update that's expected to be unveiled at the Worldwide Developers Conference in June. For those unfamiliar with the new Apple File System, it's a more modern file system than HFS+ and has been optimized for solid state

Apple's current focus with Face ID is on single-user authentication, suggesting support for multiple faces won't be added in the near future, according to an email from the company's software engineering chief Craig Federighi. By comparison, Touch ID can store up to five fingerprints, and each of those fingerprints can belong to a different person. This allows a married couple, for example, to be able to securely authenticate a single iPhone. In an email to a customer, however, Federighi admitted that Touch ID's multi-finger support has always been intended for a single iPhone owner to authenticate with a finger or thumb on both the left and right hand if desired. Federighi added that Face ID could eventually authenticate multiple faces as the system evolves in the future, but his email makes it clear that Apple doesn't have any immediate plans to implement said functionality. MacRumors since publishing this article has received full headers that verify this email, originally shared on Reddit. We can confirm the email originates from Apple's servers at its headquarters in Cupertino, California. A screenshot of Craig Federighi's alleged email response to a customer Apple says Face ID has a one in 1,000,000 chance of a false match, compared to one in 50,000 for Touch ID, although the probability is higher among identical twins, siblings who look alike, and children. Vietnamese security firm Bkav has also been able to spoof Face ID twice with 3D printed masks, but the steps involved are quite complex and this isn't something the average user should be

Apple software engineering chief Craig Federighi has revealed that a popular 3D Touch gesture for accessing the App Switcher will apparently return in a future update to iOS 11. Federighi, replying to an email from MacRumors reader Adam Zahn, said Apple had to "temporarily drop support" for the gesture due to an unidentified "technical constraint." Question from Zahn: Could we at least make the 3D Touch app switch gesture an option in iOS 11 so that I could retain the ability to switch apps that way instead of having to double tap the home button? Response from Federighi: Hi Adam, We regretfully had to temporarily drop support for this gesture due to a technical constraint. We will be bringing it back in an upcoming iOS 11.x update. Thanks (and sorry for the inconvenience)! - craigOn devices that support 3D Touch running iOS 9 or iOS 10, users can press deeply on the left side of the screen, drag to the right, and release to quickly access the App Switcher. The gesture stopped working in the iOS 11 beta, and an Apple engineer later confirmed it was "intentionally removed." MacRumors has verified this email exchange passed through mail servers with an IP address range linked to Apple's headquarters in Cupertino, California. Coupled with the fact Federighi has been replying to several customer emails since the iPhone X event last week, we're fairly confident in its accuracy. Federighi replies have also revealed that Face ID will work with most sunglasses and that Apple has considered a Nightstand mode for iPhone X.

Apple software engineering chief Craig Federighi has revealed that Apple has considered a Nightstand mode for iPhone X. "This is definitely something we've considered," said Federighi, in response to an email from MacRumors reader Zain, who asked whether a Nightstand mode on the iPhone X would be possible. "This probably makes the most sense for customers who charge their phone in a dock that tilts up the phone." However, Federighi noted that it's "not currently super common" for people to charge their iPhones that way. Nightstand mode is an Apple Watch feature that allows the watch to be used as a nightstand clock and an alarm clock while it is laying on its side and charging. The watch displays the time in large text, along with the date, the battery's remaining charge, and an upcoming alarm if one is set. When the Apple Watch is in Nightstand mode and isn't being used, the display turns off. To see the display again, users tap it, press the Digital Crown or the side button, or lightly nudge the Apple Watch. Sometimes, even nudging or tapping the nightstand or other surface the watch is sitting on works. Since the iPhone X can't be positioned on its side by itself, it could be placed on a wireless charging pad with an angled stand, like this one from RAVPower. Coupled with new tap to wake functionality for the display, the idea of a Nightstand mode for iPhone X could make sense. Apple could add Nightstand mode to iPhone X in a future update to iOS 11, but it's possible they've already dismissed the idea. Federighi has been replying to several

Apple has updated its executive leadership page to acknowledge that software engineering chief Craig Federighi now officially oversees development of Siri. The responsibility previously belonged to Apple's services chief Eddy Cue. Craig Federighi is Apple’s senior vice president of Software Engineering, reporting to CEO Tim Cook. Craig oversees the development of iOS, macOS, and Siri. His teams are responsible for delivering the software at the heart of Apple’s innovative products, including the user interface, applications and frameworks.Apple's leadership page is only now reflecting Federighi's role as head of Siri, but the transition has been apparent for several months, based on recent interviews and stage appearances at Apple's keynotes. At WWDC 2016, for example, Federighi and Apple marketing chief Phil Schiller joined Daring Fireball's John Gruber to discuss how Apple was opening Siri up to third-party developers with SiriKit later that year. At WWDC 2017, Federighi was on stage to discuss improvements to Siri in iOS 11, including more natural voice, built-in translation capabilities, and advances in machine learning and artificial intelligence. Cue continues to oversee the iTunes Store, Apple Music, Apple Pay, Apple Maps, iCloud, and the iWork and iLife suites of apps, and handing off Siri should allow him to focus more on Apple's push into original content. Apple's updated leadership page also now lists profiles for recently promoted employees Deirdre O'Brien, Vice President of People, and Isabel Ge Mahe, Vice President and Managing Director of

Daring Fireball has shared the full video of "The Talk Show Live" from Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference this week. Before a live audience at The California Theatre in San Jose, Apple senior executives Craig Federighi and Phil Schiller joined host John Gruber to reflect on the company's announcements at its WWDC opening keynote on Monday, including several new Macs, macOS High Sierra, iOS 11, and HomePod. The video, produced by Amy Jane Gruber and Paul Kafasis, is available on Vimeo and embedded below. MacRumors has put together a WWDC 2017 roundup with the latest news and announcements from the

One of the biggest questions about the Touch Bar on Apple's new MacBook Pro is how it will work with Windows through Boot Camp. That led MacRumors reader Abraham to send an email to Apple's software engineering chief Craig Federighi, who shared good news for dual-booters.Question from Abraham: Craig, am I correct in assuming that the Touch Bar becomes a row of visual function keys when using Windows with Boot Camp? Federighi's answer: You are indeed!Presumably, this means the Touch Bar will likely display virtual function keys between F1-F12, along with an Escape key, when running Windows. It remains to be seen if there will be specific controls for system-level tasks such as volume, playback, and display brightness. Meanwhile, the virtual power button should work, but without Touch ID. MacRumors cannot fully confirm the authenticity of the email, but it does appear to be sent by Federighi through Apple's corporate servers based on full headers we saw. Apple executives occasionally respond to customer emails, or it is possible the response was handled by Apple's executive relations or public relations teams. Boot Camp is an Apple utility that enables users to partition their SSDs or hard drives and install Windows directly on a Mac, allowing for macOS and Windows to be run side by side. It differs from virtualization software like Parallels and VMware Fusion, which allows Windows to run as a desktop app within macOS

YouTube tech reviewer Marques Brownlee has shared an exclusive interview with Apple senior vice president of software engineering Craig Federighi. The pair chatted about the new MacBook Pro and its customizable Touch Bar, which Federighi said is "going to be great" and has "so much potential" for developers. Touch Bar is a Multi-Touch strip of glass that replaces the standard row of function keys on the new MacBook Pros, providing users with system-level and app-specific controls that contextually change. For example, when a user types text in a document, the Touch Bar might include controls for adjusting the font face and size. MacBook Pro users can interact with the Touch Bar using gestures. Tapping activates a control, such as a button, or selects an item, such as an emoji. Touching and holding initiates a secondary action on a control, such as a button. Panning moves an element, such as a slider of photos or emojis, from side-to-side. The questions and answers below were edited slightly for clarity and brevity. "Why now? Why 2016 for us to arrive at the Touch Bar?"A lot of it came together in terms of the technology being just right to really pull this off in this kind of form factor — such as Touch ID and the quality of the display. We wanted it to feel just completely native to the keyboard and completely real — and be so responsive. We were able to take so much that we've learned in the hardware for iOS devices — and even so much of the security model of iOS, like for Touch ID — and incorporate some of our custom silicon to make it happen. A

Following the launch of the redesigned MacBook Pro, CNET has published an interview with Apple executives Phil Schiller, Jony Ive, and Craig Federighi, highlighting some of the design decisions that went into the new machine. The contextual OLED Touch Bar on the new MacBook Pro, which is its key feature, has been in development under the direction of Jony Ive for at least two years, and according to Ive, it "marks a beginning" of a "very interesting direction" for future products. Apple's new MacBook took so long to develop because the company didn't want to "just create a speed bump," aiming instead for something that's a "big, big step forward." Apple marketing chief Phil Schiller says the MacBook Pro will allow Apple to "create many things to come," some of which "we can't envision yet." He also said Apple isn't driven by a calendar, but is instead aiming to create "new innovations" in the Mac line. Many customers are unhappy with the high price of the new MacBook Pro models, something Schiller addressed in the interview. An entry-level 13-inch MacBook Pro with a Touch Bar costs $1,799, a full $500 more than previous-generation models, and 15-inch models start at $2,399. Schiller says Apple cares about price, but has to design for experience rather than cost.Affordability is "absolutely something we care about," Schiller says. "But we don't design for price, we design for the experience and the quality people expect from Mac. Sometimes that means we end up at the higher end of the range, but not on purpose, just because that's what it costs."The MacBook Pro's

Steven Levy has published an in-depth article about Apple's artificial intelligence and machine learning efforts, after meeting with senior executives Craig Federighi, Eddy Cue, Phil Schiller, and two Siri scientists at the company's headquarters. Apple provided Levy with a closer look at how machine learning is deeply integrated into Apple software and services, led by Siri, which the article reveals has been powered by a neural-net based system since 2014. Apple said the backend change greatly improved the personal assistant's accuracy."This was one of those things where the jump was so significant that you do the test again to make sure that somebody didn’t drop a decimal place," says Eddy Cue, Apple’s senior vice president of internet software and services.Alex Acero, who leads the Siri speech team at Apple, said Siri's error rate has been lowered by more than a factor of two in many cases.“The error rate has been cut by a factor of two in all the languages, more than a factor of two in many cases,” says Acero. “That’s mostly due to deep learning and the way we have optimized it — not just the algorithm itself but in the context of the whole end-to-end product.”Acero told Levy he was able to work directly with Apple's silicon design team and the engineers who write the firmware for iOS devices to maximize performance of the neural network, and Federighi added that Apple building both hardware and software gives it an "incredible advantage" in the space."It's not just the silicon," adds Federighi. "It's how many microphones we put on the device, where we place

Continuing from an interview with Tim Cook and Eddy Cue earlier in the week, Fast Company today posted a lengthy new interview session with Cue and Craig Federighi, in which the two discussed Apple Maps, the legacy of Apple devices, and "learning from Apple's failures." Both Cue and Federighi admitted that everyone who works at the company has "to be honest with ourselves" whenever mistakes are brought up by the public, usually following new product or software launches. While some may see this as an exponentially increasing problem with Apple, Cue points out that the quality issue appears bigger since the company's reach has expanded. There's "a higher bar" Apple has to achieve now, and Cue is "okay with that." When we were the Mac company, if we impacted 1% of our customers, it was measured in thousands. Now if we impact 1% of our customers, it’s measured in tens of millions. That’s a problem, right—things are going to be perceived differently. Our products are way better than they used to be, but there’s a higher bar, and I’m okay with that. I think that is why we’re here. That’s why I get up every day. I like that people have high expectations of us, and that they care about little things that bother them, which, in a lot of products, they wouldn’t bother about. With other companies, you think, that’s about as good as it’s going to be. With us, you want perfection; you want it to be the best. And we want that. Both of the Apple executives commented that sometimes the company's high quality standards aren't fully met, particularly when Fast Company questioned them

Earlier this week, Apple executives Phil Schiller and Craig Federighi appeared on a live episode of John Gruber's podcast, The Talk Show, touching on a number of topics and expanding on some of the announcements made the previous day at the Worldwide Developers Conference keynote. The full video and audio of the interview are now available from Daring Fireball for those interested in seeing exactly what Schiller and Federighi had to say. The executives discussed such topics as the ability to remove stock apps in iOS 10, the opening of several parts of Apple's platforms to third-party developers to allow integration into apps such as Messages and Maps, and more. The discussion also covered Apple's expanded subscription options for app developers, including some clarification on which types of apps may not be appropriate for such a model, details on the new Photos features and how Apple is approaching privacy with them, and some thoughts on how Apple was able to make such significant improvements in the watchOS user

A day after Apple's WWDC keynote address, Apple SVP of Marketing Phil Schiller and SVP of Software Engineering Craig Federighi joined Daring Fireball's John Gruber on a special edition of his podcast, The Talk Show. The duo addressed many topics, including the emphasis on iMessage in iOS 10, opening up Siri and other parts of iOS up to developers and the Mac App Store. The bulk of Apple's presentation on iOS 10 was focused on the extensive improvements to iMessage. When Gruber asked Federighi about the focus on Messages Federighi said the company knew that it was the app iPhone users spent the most time in, and the one they get the most excited about.Every time we add emoji it would be the biggest thing. We work all year on a new file system or something and people are more excited about the two more emoji. So we figured if there's one place where we could make a difference in how people experience iOS it's Messages.With iOS 10, Apple announced that many of its services would be opened up to developers. Siri now has an API that allows developers to interface with it, iMessage includes a new App Store that will allow developers to create stickers and payments for it, and Apple Maps now allows developers to create extensions for their apps, allowing users to book a reservation or hail a cab via Maps. Federighi and Schiller both said that Apple likes to create a baseline for its technology first, then allow developers to build on it. Federighi said this is illustrated by Share Sheets, which at first only featured Facebook and Twitter extensions that were built by

Apple executives Eddy Cue and Craig Federighi will speak at the first annual Code Conference hosted by Re/code, the site reported today. The duo will headline the second night of the event in late May. We are very excited to have both Cue and Federighi at the event to talk about a range of things about the company that remains at the center of the action, especially in the important mobile sector. From the shifting entertainment and communications landscape to the fast-moving wearables space to, well, everything digital, these two play a very important role.Eddy Cue serves as Apple's senior vice president of Internet Software and Services handling the iTunes Store, App Store, iCloud, and more, while Federighi serves as the senior vice president of Software Engineering, overseeing both iOS and OS X. Both Cue and Federighi report directly to Tim Cook and are responsible for overseeing many essential elements of Apple's ecosystem. Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher of Re/code have done multiple yearly conferences, formerly under All Things D. Past events have included interviews with former Apple CEO Steve Jobs and last year’s event featured current Apple CEO Tim Cook, who spoke about wearables and television. The 2014 Code Conference will also feature speakers like General Motors CEO Mary Barra and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella. While the event is sold out, the site does have plans to post news and videos on Re/code throughout the

Following last week's cover story on Apple CEO Tim Cook, SVP of Design Jony Ive, and SVP of Software Engineering Craig Federighi, Bloomberg Businessweek has published the full transcript of its interview with Ive and Federighi, which reveals even more about Apple’s leading trio and the work that went into Apple’s newest mobile operating system, iOS 7. According to Federighi, both he and Ive "wanted to do something big," and had to figure out how to bring together various Apple teams that had not previously worked together. After a major management restructuring last fall, Jony Ive took over Human Interface in addition to Industrial Design and Craig Federighi, who was previously in charge of OS X, took over iOS as well.ID [Industrial Design] and HI [Human Interface] weren’t working together as much, and that became an intense collaboration, along with Engineering. These are teams that had a creative relationship going back a long time, but this became now a very intense relationship in the construction of iOS 7.The mission, said Federighi, became "so clear and so critical" that "everyone who needed to contribute jumped in." Ive agreed, adding that intense task of creating iOS 7 gave their teams an "all-consuming focus" that greatly enhanced collaboration.When you think about the roles changing, I think what happens is you think about this as the task at hand. So I don’t think we ever talked about our roles. We talked about how we can most effectively extend the collaboration that always existed. […] I think that when you have a focus that’s that clear, what

While Apple design guru Jony Ive and software engineering chief Craig Federighi were included in a Bloomberg Businessweek cover story published today, much of the focus of that piece was on CEO Tim Cook and his thoughts about Apple and the competition. Ive and Federighi now get some attention for themselves in an interview with USA Today in which the two discuss their partnership that led to the development of iOS 7."When we sat down last November (to work on iOS 7), we understood that people had already become comfortable with touching glass, they didn't need physical buttons, they understood the benefits," says Ive. "So there was an incredible liberty in not having to reference the physical world so literally. We were trying to create an environment that was less specific. It got design out of the way."Federighi goes on to note that the technological advances over the past few years have finally reached the point where Apple is able to tackle something like iOS 7."This is the first post-Retina (Display) UI (user interface), with amazing graphics processing thanks to tremendous GPU (graphics processing unit) power growth, so we had a different set of tools to bring to bear on the problem as compared to seven years ago (when the iPhone first launched)," he says. "Before, the shadowing effect we used was a great way to distract from the limitations of the display. But with a display that's this precise, there's nowhere to hide. So we wanted a clear typography." Ive jumps in. "Yes, we wanted to defer to the content, and just get out of the way."The piece also includes