WWDC 2016

AppFoundry, jul. 11 2016

It’s this time of the year again, the time I usually get all cozy in front of my Apple TV. Only this year I got the opportunity to be there, and boy what an experience!

Keynote

4 AM, time to get up! Its queuing time! (Atleast, thats what all previous WWDC attendees adviced me.) Not only to get a good spot but also for the experience and fun conversations with fellow developers. Looking back at it, queuing this early didn’t make that much of a difference. Bill Graham Auditorium had plenty of seats and the view to the podium was pretty open from every side. The keynote itself was not more special then any other WWDC’s edition but it gave a quick overview of the new features coming to iOS 10, WatchOS 3, MacOS Sierra and tvOS 10. I’m not going through all of them but these are some of my highlights:
  1. iOS10
    • HomeKit app!
    • Custom views inside notifications
    • A more central place for widgets
  2. WatchOS 3
    • Faster and more up-to-date apps!
    • Option to share your Activity and compete with friends
  3. MacOS:
    • Auto unlock with an Apple Watch running WatchOS3
    • Siri
  4. tvOS 10:
    • HomeKit Framework and ability to let the ATV be the bridge
    • User Notifications
    • Dark theme :)

Sessions

After Monday (keynote day), developers had the option to choose between attending labs & sessions. Labs had the purpose of talking to Apple Engineers about your specific idea’s or problems and sessions are presentations about specific topics. There were about 8 sessions a day you could attend and there usually were plenty of seats to fit the crowd. The sessions vary from Developer tools to Design to Frameworks. If I had to recommend a few sessions I would definitely check these out: (note that these sessions are only available for registered Developers)
  1. Platform State of the Union (must see for every iOS developer)
  2. Advanced Notifications
  3. Advances in UIKit Animations and Transitions
  4. What’s new in UICollectionView in iOS 10

Labs

During the time at WWDC, I attended one lab but there were others attending more labs than sessions. Talking with Apple Engineers gives you a lot of comfort about your code and your way of thinking but we only took one example project with us to show a requirement we needed in UIKit. Otherwise I would have attended the labs more often! In preparation for a possible next year I dedicated myself to describe and write down the problems I’m experiencing during development and even make a quick example app to show it. Filing a radar was something I heard a lot from the Apple Engineers and I’m sure it does help if everybody is using that system. They promise it won’t end up in /dev/null.

San Francisco

Well, this was my first time in San Francisco and I must say I’m impressed by the city itself. It is very clean and the people are very friendly. We only had a few days to spare on sightseeing but I definitely recommend checking out the Big Sur. Such a nice view!

Thanks

Last I would like to thank AppFoundry to make this awesome trip possible! It surely was a nice experience to be there and be part of such a community! Until next year? I definitely hope so!