Apple Unveils iOS 12, Group FaceTime, And Memojis At WWDC 2018

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SAN JOSE, CA (CBS Local/CNET) - As WWDC 2018 approached, Apple released the last version of iOS 11 recently, 11.4, with important updates such as Messages in iCloud and AirPlay 2 for multi-room, stereo audio with HomePods. We speculated as to what we'd see, what we wanted to see in iOS 12 and how we need to see a Watch face store already.

At the start of the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference, we were treated to how well Apple was doing, along with the 10th anniversary of the App Store next month. Here are some of the key reveals from the week-long event.

iOS 12

The update to the operating system of the iPhone and iPad shows what type of capabilities we can expect in the new versions of those devices, usually announced starting in September.

• Everything we know, including better performance.
• Surprisingly broad device compatibility
• ARKit 2.0, includes a new USDZ file format developed with Pixar and available now for Adobe Creative Cloud. Plus, Lego AR!
• A new Measure app for finding the dimensions of real-life objects.
• Photos gets search suggestions, event indexing and a single tab with all its automated suggestions.
• A new Siri Shortcuts capability and app to directly perform app actions.
• Apple News on the iPad gets a navigation sidebar, and the Stocks app has been redesigned to include it.
• Voice memos come to iPad and sync across iCloud.
• iBooks becomes Apple Books and offers bookmarking.
• Carplay now has support for third-party navigation apps.
• Apple's response to phone addiction is Screen Time, a weekly activity summary of your usage and App Limits to limit how long you can spend, plus Downtime and Allowance for unplugging your kids.
• Notifications earn Do Not Disturb during bedtime and DND end times, as well as lock screen notification tuning and grouped notifications with grouped dismissal.
• Animoji now with Tongue Detection. Welcome to the era of Memoji.
• Messages now has effects, stickers and so on for its camera that supports Memoji.
• Group FaceTime with up to 32 simultaneous... faces. Plus, it's integrated with Messages.

WatchOS 5

The annual update to Apple Watch's operating system brings us to WatchOS 5, with features to stay "active and connected."

• Activity tracker helps you celebrate your goals, coaching, seven-day competitions and more.
• Runner cadence and more types of tracking for various activities, including automatic workout detection.
• Walkie-Talkie brings voice real-time messaging.
• Sports scores, heart rate, maps and more on the watch face, including Siri Shortcuts and third-party apps.
• No more "Hey Siri." Just talk.
• Interactive notifications and WebKit integration to view web content.
• The Apple Podcast app comes to Apple Watch.

Apple TV 4K and TVOS 12

• Welcome Dolby Atmos to Apple TV 4K with expansion of Atmos content for iTunes and free updates to supported titles you already own, and sign-on has been eliminated if you're on your home network.
• Charter Spectrum customers will now be able to get channels through Apple TV.
• A new "Earth" screensaver filmed from the ISS and more in TVOS 12.

MacOS Mojave (10.14)

Last year Apple announced High Sierra, operating system for MacBooks and iMacs, a predominantly under-the-hood update to MacOS intended to lay the groundwork for the updated version, dubbed "Mojave," we've seen today.

• A new dark mode because it's about time, and dynamic desktop where it changes with time of day.
• Automatically created Desktop Stacks for your icon-cluttered desktop with video-thumbnail-like scrubbing.
• Finder finally gets a gallery view that's more photo-friendly with support for related Automator actions.
• Quicklook integrates document markup, video trimming and more.
• Faster screenshot annotation and HUD for screenshot options, plus screen capture for video.
• Continuity Camera lets you shoot photos, pictures of documents and video directly into current document.
• Apple News, Stocks, Voice Memos and Home come to the Mac.
• Mobile-like security opt-ins for camera, mic, backups and more.
• Safari will block more tracking objects on web pages, reduce unique identifiers that can be used for fingerprinting. On iOS 12, as well.
• The Mac App Store interface finally gets some love with higher-profile ratings and reviews.
• Create ML is training wheels for developers to implement training machine learning and CoreML 2 is faster.

And no, Apple isn't merging MacOS and iOS, but it will be bringing iOS apps to the Mac.

[H/T CNET]

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