The WWDC 2014 has wrapped up and we’ve all had a little time to digest the information that Apple has thrown our way. There was a lot of speculation about what Apple would be unveiling at this conference –we had our own guesses: here. Now that the conference is over and done with –we thought we’d look back and take a minute to share a few points that stood out to us and what we thought about them.
The three main points we wanted to focus on were the continuity feature, kits, and the Swift programming language.
Continuity Feature: In my opinion, there is no doubt that this continuity feature was put in specifically to sell more Mac computers. Think about it –it’s definitely a marketing feature. Here’s an example of how the continuity feature works: You start writing an email on your iPhone and you go to your Mac computer to add a photo. As soon as you step up to your Mac computer, a window will pop up asking, “Do you want to finish this email on your computer?” This is a perfect marketing feature to sell more Mac computers. Think of how many people have iPhones that don’t have Macs? Their feature definitely focuses on continuity, but it also sends a message that you need a Mac computer to be able to complete the full process and use the extra features provided to you.
Kits: Apple didn’t introduce hardware this year, but they have enabled the hardware companies in both home and healthcare to be more helpful to people. How did they do that? By announcing five new kits for iOS8. What exactly is a software development kit? Well, it’s a set of tools that allows for the creation of apps. The two main focuses were the Health and Home kits.
Health Kit – This kit takes all of your devices (sleep trackers, step bands, heart rate tracker, etc.) and puts them all in one place to allow you to monitor your health from your iPhone. Then, at a doctor’s office for instance, you can give the doctor access to connect and see your habits measured by all of your different devices. Apple has also partnered with the Mayo Clinic and other healthcare providers, turning your device into a mobile doctor.
Home Kit – This kit integrates all of your smart home devices on your iPhone and iPad. It brings all of the different apps into one. You can control your Nest system, your locks, your lamps, etc. with a push of a button on a single kit instead of opening up 20 different apps to accomplish the same thing. You can literally tell Siri you’re going to bed and sit back as it locks the doors, adjusts the temp, etc.
Swift Programming Language: This is going to be huge. Although this is kind of thrown in at the end of the keynote –I think this was possibly the biggest move at the WWDC. Swift is a brand new programming language that should make it easier for developers to create apps for iPhones and iPads. It’s a very cool visual language program that will change the way a developer designs an application. Swift comes with many functions that will enable a developer to add smooth effects and see them in real-time unlike other Programming languages which are very difficult to understand, write, compile, and debug. Currently, most developers have to run code through a compiler and then execute it, rinse, and repeat. Swift changes all that.
Now that WWDC 2014 is over, let us know what stood out the most to you and what you thought about it. Leave a comment below with your opinions of the keynote and what Apple has shared with us!
