The Apple WWDC 2020 (WorldWide Developer's Conference) was one of its kind—it was the first event Apple streamed exclusively online with no in-person event yesterday on June 21, 2020. Tim Cook and Apple head honchos made some grand announcements and started the conference by talking about George Floyd, Black Lives Matter and the coronavirus pandemic.
Here are the 5 major takeaways from Apple's conference:
Apple Announced Its Break Up With Intel
Apple announced that it's ending its 15-year-old relationship with Intel, and it plans to switch to processors that are self-manufactured, which means MACs and MacBook Pros will no longer run on Intel processors. But this was already foreseen as Apple already designs its own chipsets for iPhones, this was coming, as Apple makes chips for almost all its products from the iPhone and iPad to the Apple Watch.
But the full transition to in-house silicon chips, which will be based on ARM architecture will take two years, so a few Apple computers will have Intel chips till then.
iOS14 Copy Pasted Features From Android
iOS14 was received with a lukewarm response. No innovations this year, just a lot of borrowing from android. The most familiar feature is Google Translate's iOS avatar, called 'Translate' which will only support 11 languages.
This was followed by Apple's App Library, which might give Android users a bit of deja vu. It is Android's app drawer, but with an Apple twist. The App Library automatically sorts your apps into specific groups like Social or Entertainment. Here are a list of borrowed features from Android.
Cashing In On Pandemic Paranoia
Apple has instilled a bit of COVID-19 care into the new operating system—your Apple Watch will automatically detect when you start washing your hands and it will remind you to keep going till the WHO recommended 20 seconds.
It also has a sleep tracking feature that automatically turns on when you go to bed and helps you access the quality of your sleep.
macOS Big Sur's Visual Spectacle
The new macOS, Big Sur, gets the biggest update in terms of visual aesthetics. There's a customisable Control Centre on macOS Big Sur, giving easy access to apps like WiFi and Bluetooth. These additions of widgets and layers follow the same path of iOS and iPadOS—the Big Sur also has its own iPhone like control centre.
Security First: Big Brother Won't Be Watching You
The best development of WWDC 2020 was the security and privacy controls that Apple has announced.
In a major announcement, Apple said its new UI system will let users know what type of data each app collects from them, and each app will have to disclose each type of data they use to track users across the web.
Apple has also added a new feature that counters apps that could sneakily access an iOS device's camera and microphone.
iPhone users can now share their proxy locations instead of precise coordinates. What this means is that users will allow users to share locations based on geolocation-based apps. This essentially means you won't have any problem sharing your location on dating apps like Hinge or Tinder, yet you won't be giving out your exact GPS coordinates, which will be a problem when you order pizza from Zomato.