AppAdvice's Apple WWDC 2014 Link Roundup - Find All Of Our Coverage Here

It’s that time of year again! Today is the day that Apple announces iOS 8, OS X 10.10, and much more. This post features a rundown of all our event coverage as it happens. Please refresh this page often for the latest news! Apple Introduces A New Programming Language Called Swift Swift is the new programming language introduced by Apple. It is supposed to be faster, clearer, and more computationally effective than Objective-C. Swift is completely native to Cocoa and Cocoa Touch. The Swift code can fit alongside Objective-C and C code in the same application. In the Swift playground, you can see your programming essentially as a live preview. Swift will be available to developers “right out of the gate.” Apple's Revamped App Store In iOS 8 Takes Flight With TestFlight Beta Testing In iOS 8, Apple has significantly improved the App Store with new features, including trending searches, app bundles, and app previews. Another notable new App Store feature is TestFlight. That’s right: the supposedly defunct app testing platform has been integrated right into the App Store in iOS 8. With TestFlight built into the App Store, Apple makes it easy for developers to invite users to beta test their apps for free. Apple Unveils Its New HomeKit API At WWDC 2014 Apple’s making the jump into the smart home with its new HomeKit API for developers. Designed for the growing smart home market and devices like locks, lights, cameras, doors, thermostats, plugs, and switches, it allows secure pairing from your iOS device. Users can also control their individual devices and even group devices into different scenes. HomeKit will also feature Siri integration. Shazam! Apple's iOS 8 Will Feature Built-In Song Recognition With Help From Siri In Apple’s newest iOS version, the personal assistant can recognize songs and tell users the song title. It can even recognize a song while you’re talking. With Siri in iOS 8, users can also purchase iTunes content. Saying “Hey Siri” will activate the assistant. It's All In The Family: Apple Introduces Family Sharing In iOS 8 With iOS 8, Apple has introduced a new feature that’s quite, well, family-friendly. It’s called Family Sharing. Family Sharing on iOS 8 lets you set up your family as a family unit so that you can share photos, calendars, reminders, and more with one another. With the necessary permissions granted, Family Sharing also lets you locate your loved ones via Find My Friends and Find My iPhone. The new feature also works with songs, movies, books, apps, and more from the iTunes Store. And what’s particularly neat about it is that it lets you share not just your purchases but also the purchases of all of the members of your family. Apple Introduces Enhanced Enterprise Features In iOS 8 As part of its WWDC keynote presentation, Cupertino’s Craig Federighi explained how Apple’s recently launched Device Enrolment program allows users in enterprise to hand out iOS devices to staff without having to open the packaging. Configuration can take place remotely, and the process is far easier than it would otherwise be. Apple also promises a more secure environment with iOS 8, and VIP threads allow users to set special notification rules for individual email threads. Apple Focuses On Health In iOS 8 With HealthKit Healthkit will sport an interface that is very similar to Passbook, featuring various “cards” that will keep tabs on different vitals, such as weight, heart rate, sleep, and nutrition. It may even go beyond the basics, and include stuff like blood work, blood pressure, hydration, blood sugar, respiratory rate, and oxygen saturation. This information will all be secure and encrypted. Apple is even working with the Mayo Clinic app, to be at the forefront of innovative health technology. You can even choose which apps to connect to Health, such as Nike and Fitbit. Apple Refines Spotlight And Safari Search In iOS 8 These include some enhancements to Spotlight, the search technology built into iOS. Unsurprisingly, these enhancements are similar to the ones that have been announced for Spotlight on OS X Yosemite. Spotlight on iOS 8 offers quick and easy searching for apps, Wikipedia articles, points of interest, restaurants, and songs. And when searching for movies, the software now also yields showtimes, theaters nearby, and streamable content from the iTunes Store. Apple’s iOS 8 Includes QuickType Technology Apple’s just announced iOS 8 introduces a new keyboard technology. QuickType now gives users multiple word suggestions with its predictive technology. As an example, users will see predicted terms above the keyboard to fill out their sentences quickly with familiar language. With an eye to privacy, all of the learning and prediction is done on your iOS device and is not sent to Apple. The technology sounds similar to SwiftKey Note, which recently launched an iOS app. In iOS 8, Apple's Mail Adds New Gesturing Tools In iOS 8, Apple has added some new gesturing features in Mail. When you swipe down to hide the message you’re composing, you’re able to simply tap on the header on the bottom to bring it back up. This lets you check things out while you’re in the middle of a draft, and then you can pop right back in to the message you were drafting by tapping at the bottom of the screen. Apple Makes A Number Of Improvements To The Messages App In iOS 8 Apple has added a new feature in its iOS 8 mobile operating system: “Quick Access” for dedicated contacts. The change means a double-tap of the Home button now allows users to gain speedy access to a dedication of their most popular contacts. From the multitasking interface, users can then send an iMessage over to their friend or colleague quickly and easily. In iOS 8, users can also “quick reply” to Messages app contacts from a banner notification. Group messaging allows users to rename threads, add or remove individuals, and set “Do Not Disturb” for individual message threads. Apple Pushes For 'Continuity' Between Mac And iOS With AirDrop And Handoff Features Not surprisingly iOS 8 and OS X 10.10 include many of the same tools. Apple wants you to “use the right device for the moment.” And so with its just-announced OS X Yosemite, Apple is pushing what it calls “Continuity.” First off, this Continuity includes the ability of AirDrop to now work between iOS and Mac. There’s also something called Handoff. With this new feature, when Mac and iOS recognize each other, you’re able to simply swipe or click to “hand off” your document or whatever you’re working on to the other device. Apple Announces iOS 8 Excited To Get OS X 10.10 Yosemite? Here's When It's Available Apple Introduces iCloud Drive For OS X, Windows And iOS The company's "iCloud Drive” is a new feature in OS X 10.10 Yosemite that provides a dedicated location for iCloud files on OS X, Windows, and even iOS. The news comes as critics and users of cloud-based storage solutions (like Dropbox and Google Drive) have called for expanded functionality for Apple’s own free iCloud service. Now, users can access their iCloud files between Macs, Windows PCs, and iOS devices from iCloud Drive. On a Mac, for example, you’ll be able to access iCloud Drive from inside of Finder in OS X 10.10 Yosemite. Apple Shines The Spotlight On OS X Yosemite's Redesigned Search Experience Say hello to OS X Yosemite Apple has just made its first big reveal of the day during the WWDC 2014 keynote by announcing the next major version of OS X. Version 10.10 will also be known as Yosemite. After jokingly telling the audience all the names that didn’t make the cut, like Weed, Rancho Cucamonga, and Oxnard, Apple’s Craig Federighi talked about the visual continuity across OS X. One part of OS X 10.10 is an advanced Notification Center. From this location, you can view calendar, hourly weather, stocks, reminders, news, etc. Best of all, these widgets are customizable. Addionally, OS X Yosemite includes a new Spotlight feature for searching locally and online, as well as a revamped apps including Maps, Calendar, Messages, and much more. Key numbers Tim Cook offered the following numbers at the start of the conference: WWDC 25th anniversary of WWDC Started in 1990 with 13 developers with just one lab Attendees from 69 countries 70 percent are first-time attendees Youngest developer in the audience is 13 years old 9 million registered developers (47 percent increase from last year) OS X 80 million Mac installed base 40 million copies of Mavericks installed 51 percent of install base running on Mavericks (compared with 14 percent for Windows)

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