iOS 12, What We Got at the WWDC Today

Its here! The World Wide Developer Conference is here! In its first day Apple (AAPL) unveiled iOS 12, the next major software update for iPhones and iPads. Here what we are getting in the September update.

iOS 12 Speed Increase

Apple Senior Vice President of Engineering Craig Federighi emphasized that with iOS 12, its all about speed. “For iOS 12, we’re doubling down on performance,” said Federighi. We know Craig, we have the need for speed, its important, its inherent, there is nothing we can do about it. Apparently this speed increase will extend to older iOS device users as well.

Federighi said iPhone users can generally expect apps to get 40% faster, with the Camera launching up to 70% faster.

AR Updates

I predicted this was coming in my what to expect from the WWDC article earlier last month. I knew as we all dis that the iOS 12 update would include updates to Apple’s augmented reality software tools. Dubbed ARKit 2.0, the upgrades add the ability for multiplayer AR games on separate devices. In other words, both players will see the same scenario through their phones’ displays.

Also announced by Apple is that USDZ as part of ARKit 2.0. USDZ is  a new AR-focused file format Apple developed in partnership with Pixar that lets users share 3-D models. Abhay Parasnis, CTO of Adobe (ADBE), took the stage to announces USDZ support across Adobe Creative Cloud. Its good to see these two getting along since the ugly adobe flash debates of the late 2000’s.  Parasnis locked in all in by saying.“With Creative Cloud, designers will be able to use apps they’re familiar with to create amazing AR content,”. That is all I needed to hear.

Memoji

Yeah, who didn’t see this coming. Now you will have the ability to emoji your self to an Animoji of yourself, dubbed Memoji. Sometimes people facetime me before I’ve have my morning coffee, not cool and highly invasive, I say. Now I can respond with my beautiful half me, half Elvis Memoji. Problems solved.  Apple says it will let users create their own personalized Animoji, or animated emoji, down to that new hairdo and sunglasses.

Yeah more Animojis too,  including a ghost, a koala, and freaking T-Rex! I don’t know why that excites me so much but just let me have this moment people.

Group FaceTime

Well this scares me to pieces. When group text hit it drained my battery life for years to come, with constant, insistent banter from mild acquaintances grouped with my closest and most despised friends. It wasn’t uncommon in 2013 before group chat etiquette was willed in to existence that one would received 60-70 messages in the 15 minute span that weren’t staring at their phone.   braces yourself people for group facetime…

Group FaceTime, which will work on iPhone, iPad, Mac, with audio available for the Apple Watch, takes the idea of group video chat to a whole new annoying  level for iOS 12. This will let up to 30 people all participate in the same FaceTime.

Federighi demonstrated how group FaceTime works, with a row of tiles at the bottom displaying all the FaceTime participants. As someone speaks, a video window above that row of that speaker enlarges.

The Final Thought

Its the first day people. we still got lots more to come. I just wanted  to share a little bit of what I was excited about and some of the things that will breed new technological nightmares… Ill keep you updated daily with the best from the WWDC. See you tomorrow…maybe..