I was lucky enough to be able to attend Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference this year. This was my fourth time attending the conference, but was my first time attending WWDC in San Jose.
The conference for me had a rough start. It started at home with a four hour delay of my flight. This meant I didn’t get into San Francisco and then to my hotel until after 11pm (2am EDT).
Things got much better after that. The conference was great. I had a great flight home, being moved to an exit row and having an empty seat next to me.
Overall, the conference was great. I did forget much of what I had learned by the end of the week. So many great sessions and things started to blur together.
Favorite “Features” of Upcoming Releases
Apple announced a number of new features and technologies this year.
- iOS Performance updates
- Long-form audio on watchOS
- Dark Mode on macOS
- Update DND
- Screen Time
- Siri Shortcuts
- CreateML
- Shared App Platform (early preview)
Favorite Sessions
I watched a lot of sessions while I was at the conference. Here are some of my favorites. I haven’t seen all of the sessions from WWDC, so there may be a number of better sessions out there.
- What’s New in Swift
- What’s New in Cocoa Touch
- What’s New in watchOS
- The Qualities of Great Design
- Intentional Design
- Practical Approaches to Great App Performance
My favorite session was probably What’s New in Swift. I love using Swift. It’s such a great language. I enjoy seeing what’s new in it.
Labs
The labs are probably the largest benefit to coming to WWDC. You can watch the sessions anytime from the comfort of your home. But labs give you an opportunity to talk 1:1 with Apple engineers.
I spent a bit of time in the labs talking and discussing issues I (and my team) have had. We were able to work through most of the issues I brought with me. There was an issue that the engineers weren’t able to solve. I ended up speaking to four different engineers and we decided to create a bug report with as much details as I could give. Hopefully, they’ll come back with an answer at some point (and not just mark it as a dup) and weren’t just trying to get rid of me.
I’m glad that I went prepared with a list of questions and issues to take to the labs.
Most Anticipated Feature
My single most anticipated feature is the ability to have apps play long-form audio on watchOS. I take multiple long walks every day and listen to either books (using Audible) or podcast (using Overcast / Castro). I would love to ditch the phone and walk with my AirPods and Apple Watch.
This feature alone will make daily walks much more enjoyable. I cannot wait for the app developers to implement this new feature.
Overall
It was a great conference. It started out a little shaky, but ended great. I’m looking forward to playing with the new features.