Chris Hannah

WWDC

Social Media Accounts No Longer Integrated into iOS 11

Starting in iOS 11, users will no longer be able to associate social media accounts, such as Twitter or Facebook into the Settings app.

Previously, users could add an account to Settings, which would then allow other apps to request these details as authentication. Which was quite useful, as there are a lot of apps/services that authenticate via Twitter, and this meant you didn’t have to keep entering your password.

There is an alternative that developers can use, and that is the built in Keychain that can be used to store authentication details, such as username or password. And they can combine this together with the new additions to in app autofill, so that stored details can be loaded into the login form automatically.

This also means that the Social app framework, that developers used to initiate content sharing to built-in social networks has changed. Instead of providing a simple way to post to LinkedIn, Weibo, Facebook, is Twitter, it is now a generalised framework that can be manipulated to be used with any social account.

From the documentation:

On iOS and macOS, this framework provides a template for creating HTTP requests. On iOS only, the Social framework provides a generalized interface for posting requests on behalf of the user.

A common way to use this framework is:

  • Create a network session.
  • Get the activity feed for a user.
  • Make a new post.
  • Set properties on a post, add attachments, etc.
  • Publish a post to an activity feed.

So it’s still helpful, in that it can be used in more ways than before, and a general interface is also provided. But from the point of view of something like Twitter that was previously integrated, it will be a bit more work to integrate.

WWDC 2017

Firstly, that was an amazing keynote.

There were so many different features announced, that it just went super fast. I’m especially looking forward to finding out all the little things that didn’t make it.

I won’t be posting an entire summary of the event, as there’s loads more great writers doing just that. But I thought I’d share my brief opinion on a few things here, before any smaller pieces that I share here on my blog.

tvOS

Not much was announced for tvOS, apart from Amazon Prime Video. That’s pretty cool, and definitely something I’ll be using, but nothing really to give an opinion on.

watchOS

The watch faces were, apart from Siri, a bit uninteresting in my opinion. But the Siri face is something I’m really intrigued about.

I hope that the complications I use on my current watch face (Dark Sky, Overcast, and Todoist) can find ways to put their content in this view. It also looks like Apple have finally found something that makes good use of the Digital Crown.

I’m a fan of the new Activity features, as it’s something that can really benefit from being personalised.

The Music app looks pretty nice, with the same card style as the Siri face. But I don’t listen to music from my watch at all.

macOS

“High Sierra”, wow.

Again, just like tvOS, there’s nothing to really shout about with the latest update of macOS. Maybe that’s why they didn’t pay much attention to the name.

I’m sure they’ve added a lot of great features, but I just installed it on a second MacBook I have, and I didn’t notice anything different.

APFS is pretty cool though.

VR

There is however some great VR functionality, and it’s really pleasing to see Apple go full throttle into this industry.

New Macs

Quite a few new Macs, with some good improvements. But the real announcement was the iMac Pro, what a machine. It looks beautiful.

It’s way too powerful for what I use a Mac for, but Apple are truly moving forward in the pro market. 128 GB RAM and 18-Core processors just blow my mind.

I really need the space grey external keyboard and mouse.

iOS 11

Messages

I like the fact messages are now stored in the cloud, and that they managed it while still providing the same level of security as before.

Apple Pay P2P

Nice!

Siri

Some great improvements with the voices, and translation. But overall, Siri is becoming pretty clever!

Something I didn’t take in initially was that you now have “one Siri”, as the data is shared between your devices.

Control Center

I like this a lot! It’s a bit ugly, but it can do a lot more than before, and it’s even customisable!

AR

Could they have done this any better?

Interface

I’ve played with iOS 11 a tiny bit so far, and the interface is really clean.

The multitasking is a lot better than before, and the Dock just makes it so easy.

When I was first playing with the beta on my iPad, I found it a bit confusing when how to activate Split View when viewing an app. But it’s a nice way to do it, and having an app “over” another is really helpful. I guess it will also help when apps don’t support Split View, so you’ll still be able to have something above.

Drag and Drop

It’s a drag fest. – Craig Federighi

All of this just makes sense, the multiple file selection, moving them between apps, it just feels perfect for iOS.

Arranging icons on the home screen is also easier because of this as well, because you can pick up an app, and swipe between screens whilst holding the app!

Files

😍

Markup

I use this quite a bit already, but it’s way more powerful in iOS 11.

I love that when you take a screenshot it let’s you activate it right away as well, that’s all I use Markup for!

New iPads

Great new iPads. I need one.

HomePod

It’s a speaker and a voice assistant, but at the same time it’s so much more.

I have an Amazon Echo, but because it’s not integrated very well into the Apple ecosystem, I hardly use it.

And while I don’t think this is worth purchasing just for Siri, if I ever move out, this would be a perfect addition.

WWDC 2016 Video Transcripts Added

Apple have now added the transcripts for all of the WWDC videos from this years event. What’s more, is that all of these transcripts are searchable!

Take advantage of transcripts to quickly discover and share information presented in WWDC16 videos. You can search by keyword, see all instances where the keyword is mentioned in the video, go straight to the time it was mentioned, and even share a link to that specific time.

So just head over to the WWDC 2016 website, to watch some of the videos, and the Transcript option is directly below the video.