Apple WWDC 2017 overview

4 min readJun 7, 2017

The Apple WWDC 2017 large-scale presentation took place on June 5. Let’s summarize and highlight the most important aspects.

Giving a brief overview of the latest hardware, the company upgraded the watchOS, tvOS, and macOS, showed the improved iMac, MacBook Pro and MacBook. Also, Apple released the completely new iMac Pro, iPad Pro and HomePod speaker.

Let’s summarize and highlight the most important aspects for all tech whizzes.

As developers, we would like to pay more attention to software part of presentation. The support of the latest iOS features is particularly relevant for us because most iOS users update their devices right away.

iOS 10 is installed on 86% of devices in the market, whereas Android 7.0 makes up 7%.
- Tim Cook

NEW FEATURES OF IOS:

The platform ARKit for creating apps with augmented reality has been added;
New apps in iMessages and the ability to send money through messages on Apple Pay are now available. Apple Pay is developing and its usage is becoming more popular. New FinTech products will definitely blow the market;
The improved drag-n-drop function lets move apps from Dock to a given window of Split-screen (when two apps are open at the same time). Now, a picture can be dragged and dropped right to the attachments of a letter;
The maps have been improved. Navigation in big buildings (for example, airports) is available. It hints which road to take when driving on the highway. It will be interesting to test this great update in practice as GPS always has its own issues. If such indoor navigation works perfectly, it opens new horizons for development of consumer applications;
The first update of the App Store design has been made, which places a new challenge for designers who are going to create new marketing pictures.

At first sight, the following features will be available and interesting only on regular applications. However, we will learn more about their essence when we get more information about the APIs system available for developers.

Notes can be written on pdf-files, screenshots, scanned documents, or a locked screen with the help of the Apple Pencil;
There are new variants of photo editing in Live Photos;
“Do Not Disturb” mode for drivers was introduced. The system identifies the location of a person in their moving car and suggests turning off notifications during the journey;
The control center occupies only one page now. It supports 3D Touch, new widgets and functions. Due to the “Files” app in the iOS 11, there will be a full-fledged file system;
Due to the “Files” app in the iOS 11, there will be a full-fledged file system.

WATCHOS

WatchOS 4 Developer Preview is now available. The new WatchOS 4 has a separate screen for Siri, new animations and the ability to exchange data through NFC with fitness equipment. The watch embodies a sports device now. Playlists and automatic mixes from compositions can be created.

Of course, we love and use Apple products every day and can’t help but point out the updates of OS MacOS High Sierra and also the new iMac and MacBook.

MACOS HIGH SIERRA

The distinguishing feature of new macOS High Sierra is the Apple File System. The Safari browser has again become the fastest on macOS and got add-ons such as Intelligent Tracking Prevention, a technology that prevents tracking the search queries and won’t let ads hunt the user on the network.

The Photo app has a new photo editor and the enhanced picture sorting system. The Metal 2 platform allows to work with internal graphic maps. It is worth mentioning the beginning of VR era for macOS — it will support the Vr-helmet HTC Vive.

IMAC AND MACBOOK

The line of iMac and MacBook has been updated, focusing on the functional part of devices. The 7th generation chips Kaby Lake and SSD faster than before have been installed. The screen has become brighter and new Radeon graphics has been added. The new line supports VR-devices.

The announcement about one more device — the speaker in particular — shows that Apple has big plans to enhance Siri, probably connecting her to the smart home or the new ARKit.

HOMEPOD SMART SPEAKER

Apple introduced the speaker that has the perfect sound as it modifies the sound, taking into account the environment. Siri is built into the speaker and can find out the lead singer’s name or which song was a hit last year, as well as answer the usual questions. If the smart home system HomeKit is set, one can control the curtains, conditioners and lights through HomePod.

We have briefly looked through all the novelties from Apple and we are ready to try them out to offer our clients interesting solutions for their projects. We look forward to September with its iPhone 8, wondering what it holds for us.

Also see our Google I/O 2017 overview.