Interstellar Boats

Now - May(be, Maybe not)

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Creating

Tinkering on Tim. Spent some time trying a few different approaches to UI and I think I've landed on something fairly solid. Nothing much to show or share yet, starting a bit lower level than is probably reasonable. I think it'll be worth it the extra effort, and if nothing else it is a bit more fun taking this approach.

Consuming

I have a lot of complicated rambly thoughts on this, and I'm not sure it could be conceived of today, but it is arguably peak 2017 near future sci-fi writing. It wasn't perfect and technological advancements since it's release have altered the meaning behind the ideas it explores, but I really enjoyed it. I'd say stay tuned but I'm not sure I'll get around to a full write up any time soon.

Considering

Pre WWDC keynote Predictions

WWDC 2025! Will I update my OS this year?

My almost guaranteed incorrect predictions:

  • Hard pivot away from Generative AI, focus on computing for the people. So, probably still using some generative and assistive stuff but no mention of OpenAI or the weird antisocial "Please phone tell me, what dog is that?" style AI

  • iMessage APK available for sideload on Android. Now you too, Android User, can have a blue bubble, but only if you load it in a way that Apple doesn't allow on their own devices, and Google always seems a bit skeptical of. Enjoy!

Post-WWDC keynote Reactions:

It might seem weird as someone who doesn't use many Apple products to get excited about WWDC. Most of my development is done on MacBooks these days, and then deployed to x86 based linux devices, or to the MacBook directly. So you'd think the rest of the week is what I would care about with stuff like this:

https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2025/06/apple-supercharges-its-tools-and-technologies-for-developers/

Stuff like that is generally left out of the keynote, but vitally important information that could change how a large portion of how my work is done.

The main reason though is that they make software announcements fun.

There's no other company that gets as much production for it's software event as it does for the hardware launches. It's usually ridiculous, but most of the world's software announcements feel like they're exclusively replacing peoples jobs, Apple starts with an F1 race on it's roof! (It helps that they're generally an end consumer facing company whereas most software these days is regrettably B2B). They're not perfect, but at least they're entertaining.

Like, they're doing some of the most interesting work in terms of Cloud Computing. As nice as it would be to trust it because the code running is open source, that's not the standard in any cloud organization that I'm aware of. I can audit their services as much as I can of any other's services (I probably can't and wouldn't want to.), but I can trust the other's audits the same, and based on those audits they are taking privacy of the end users of that cloud more seriously than anyone else.

End to end encrypted cloud seems like it should be the industry standard, and maybe more of it is than I'm aware of, but apple uses it to advertise and the rest either don't or can't.

Now on to the event.

The new design: Looks fine. Brings back Vista vibes, as well the vibes of some fun iPhone old design concepts

The "Fluidity that only apple can achieve" hopefully will mean faster animations, but I should know better than to get my hopes up. This line does highlight the increase in GPU compute and in the last ~20 years that should keep the live frosted glass effect smooth.

In terms of how they present this, it they kept layering pieces of glass on top of the screens as they bubble up then back to the screen. This reminds me of some other fun layered design paradigms.

The new naming of how things that release every year should be named. I'm not sure the OS should be updated every year, but that's kinda besides the point. Personally I'd rather an OS update every few years, followed by security and stability patches, with updates to the apps within. That would make it harder to remain cohesive across the system though, so a yearly update with a yearly name I can accept.

IOS

The all clear option is very funny. Can't wait for the see through iPhone of 2007 design's dreams in a few years. It'll probably pair well with the rumored iPhone Air. Personally reminds me of the design's of see through TV's, which don't tend to make much sense, but are fun.

I do appreciate:

  • the dynamic size of the time on the lock screen, although I wonder if that affects the at a glance readability of it.
  • the 3d holofoil effect of the lock screens. Edit: Googled later on and it was not holofoil but lenticular cards I was thinking of
  • the Spotify-Cavnas like now playing view being directly on the home screen.

All of this would be nice if i had an iPhone, at least. Maybe the Air will have a small size, so that two years from now I can replace my phone with it.

The demo-like presentation is always appreciated, but the pre-recorded nature does take some of the edge off of showing these features working.

I think my phone will be a 5-7 year phone, hopefully the next will be 10 years. My long term bet against nobody is on Apple announcing 10 years of software support by the time I need a new one.

I'll be skipping past the car related stuff, since as much as I don't use many Apple devices, I use even fewer cars. Where's Apple TrainPlay?

Messages screening is mentioned as being entirely on-device, which has me thinking that call screening, and the on hold feature is not happening on devices. This is where the secure end to end cloud seems very important and useful. Hopefully that's what's being used here if not on device.

It would be nice if iMessage was cross platform, I would happily use it if it was. Too many friends not on iPhone, and I myself am not on iPhone. It's a bit odd that the backgrounds are shared with everyone, rather than being user specific. Also

The "variety of dynamic built in backgrounds, or select one of your own photos. And with apple intelligence, you even generate your own backgrounds in image playground."

I supposed if your generating a live background given an image that could be fine but like, the AI doesn't seem very necessary in that feature specifically.

The poll detection and defataulted such that anyone can add anything is an OK choice. The example makes it look like it's one vote per person in the polls, which isn't great for the lets just make our mind up quickly approach to decision making, but is probably fine.

Several people are typing has entered iMessage. May your hot takes in the group chat be warned.

Emoji blend and whatnot, all in good fun. I'll stick with emoticons where possible, but there isn't much harm ¯\(ツ)/¯ in these afaict.

I'm mentioning this section because this is where OpenAI's ChatGPT has entered the chat. Apple must be offloading it's image training and generating to them in this case, otherwise why mention it?

Live translation is on device, which seems much better than relying on Google's translate features. Assuming it works half as well of course, now the iPhone user can have both options for this. It's unclear from the demo how this works in person to person situations like Google's approach, but this does seem like a situation where best effort is actually good enough. Being entirely on device, I wonder how many languages are supported.

Examples I saw pictured included:

  • English
  • French
  • German
  • Spanish

Note that the call also included the transcription of both the translation and source text, all happening on device. Impressive, but having Google translate as a backup still seems like a good move (or if without internet, maybe this is the good backup to have on hand (I need to double check if translate works in this way offline)). There are a lot of unknowns in this sections, and I hope this doesn't make people think they can replace human translators. These seem good in a pinch, and Apple's just covers a few more pinches by being offline than google's does.

Apple Services

Apple Music

Getting lots of fun Spotify features, with some notable improvements (pronunciation, rather than just lyrics). It's a wonder what competition can do to a company who used to effectively own digital music distribution. Here's hoping Spotify claps back.

Apple Maps

Preferred routes that are "smart" and it'll learn your "preferred routes".

Why not pin them? Like the favorite tunes in apple music that were just announced? Maybe that'll be an option.

Apple wallet

I'll stick with an ID that doesn't run out of battery regardless of how secure handing my phone over sounds.

Apple games

Giving Steam some competition on iOS (oh wait, Steam isn't on iOS... yet). I wonder if there are any other game stores looking to open up on iOS

Visual intelligence

This is that antisocial AI I mentioned in my predictions, thinking they should pivot away from. Doing it on screen is at least a bit better, and their examples were a more reasonable. Rather than comment on a post asking what the thing is, you can ask your phone and get their answer to what the thing.

Is this better? Probably? Maybe? One question and answer, and that answer pinned and in theory nobody else has to ask again. Maybe some people who would have normally commented a duplicate question will know about this feature and use it instead?

Clearly better than Google lens in some ways by allowng apps to integrate. Relying on a single source of search seems like the way of the past.

All of this is an improvement over the let me scan your dog of old though.

Watch OS

I remain a Garmin user, and I keep it about as dumb as possible, so will skip past most of the WatchOS updates. Although I think I prefer a real workout buddy to an AI on my wrist. I am a bit low tech in my exercise though so I suppose some folks might like this.

Wish I had that visual intelligence to see what kinda exercise bike that is. The logo looks Schwinn but the internet seems to lack any white Schwinn exercise bikes, in my brief search. The Apple Watch demonstrations always have the most interesting backgrounds. Even more so when releasing hardware but there's just so much more movement going on with them than with the other portions.

I wonder how far they biked / walked in the filming of this section.

TV OS:

Entirely here for the shows, will be sure to pick up a month of subscription when Severance season 3 comes out.

So I guess maybe in 2027 I'll have some reason to do that...

Anyways, they played HOT TO GO Pink Pony Club, by Chappelle Roan. I should have had something like this on my predictions, next time.

MAC OS

This one got some theatrics, gotta make the good old computer exciting somehow. Unnecessary for me since this is the one I am actually excited for and actually use.

All the refined liquid glass styling will have almost no impact on the mostly cross platform apps I use, for better or worse. The display will feel larger, but doesn't seem like it will get rid of the notch gap, which would actually make the usable screen larger...

But this is mostly a holdover from other operating systems where I lack a menu bar entirely, so it being permanently there still feels odd, with the little gap making it worse The linked reddit thread suggests reasonable reasons for this annoying gap.

The customization of folder colors seems good. Continuity would be great if it was a collection of APIs that could integrate with my phone or desktop. Not really a MacOS feature without interoperability with other computers, more of an iPhone feature.

But exciting news, Shortcuts can now be run:

  • on connecting to a display,
  • at specific times
  • no mention of on applaunch, so shortery has not been entirely sherlocked for me

Nothing crazy, but maybe there will be more triggers in the full release.

The Spotlight improvements, with Actions and Quick Keys seems very powerful, hopefully they can be integrated and well in the cross platform apps I actually use. I could see some customizations working well for Obsidian quick launches to notes, so hopefully a plugin will make that possible, much like how it works with the potentially sherlocked for some, Raycast.

The demo of spotlight was great. Unfortunately it was all done in pages, and I don't know anyone who actually uses that.

Gaming on MacOS

I do this. I play games on Mac. Like 2 whole games(Celeste and Minecraft). But here we do have Steam and Epic Games. Now they have a games app that:

  • gives you a place to launch your games from
  • has a built in game overlay, Where you can adjust system settings, but like its more limited than control center for some reason?
  • chat with friends and invite them to play. It's like the discord invite, or the steam invite, or I assume the epic games store's equivalent. But srue, more options sounds good to me.

My games wouldn't benefit from these at all. Neither of them need a intermingling launcher, let alone a new one from Apple. But these also don't sound like they'll get too in the way so I'll withhold my complaints

Vision OS

Now for the real gaming platform. Huge impressive changes. Still basically useless for me but the software they're promising is pretty damn impressive.

Persistent Widgets and Window placement is HUGE. How do they persist the locations of windows? How does it remember things? Where does it store this? How does it tell when its in a new location? How does it merge those locations?

This might all be way more simple than it seems.

if recognize_area() {
  load_known_area();
}
else {
  display_unrecognized_area_notification();
  create_new_area()
}

See it looks simple, but I don't know how I'd implement those functions without a lot of trial, error, and math (but I repeat myself).

If it works as well as they're saying, it's very impressive. I mean. As impressive as my Microsoft headset from a few years ago working without base stations too... But this thing can just kinda go anywhere and it works at a much different scale being full house capable, completely tehterless.

I supposed eye / hand / accessibility settings are considered too private to be stored on a shared device, but it still seems odd that you need to save them to your iPhone when using a shared work devices.

Especially when the next thing they announce is a Protected Content API, which is introduced as "literally a for your eyes only mode".

Why not keep the personal info in that same sort of location?

Spacial accessories (to me) means that BeatSaber is coming soon. Somehow. Hopefully. It's the only game I miss from when I had a VR setup. (I do need to finish Alyx too when next time I have functioning VR.)

iPad OS

I hope with increased fluidity of this new UI, we'll get a high refresh rate iPad mini (and MacBook Air).

"This is what you've all been waiting for, a new windowing system on iPad"

Probably the best line in this whole event. Federico Viticci seems rightly vindicated. I don't own an iPad so don't have many thoughts ( I'd probably have a Mini if it was a bit higher spec, but we'll have to wait till later this year to see if that comes to fruition. )

But, I for one can't wait for them to bring along the rest of MacOS to the iPad. I also hope they bring some of that those audio selection tools to MacOS. Holding down the option key to get to the mic input feels a bit unnecessary. And maybe that tiling window manager too :eyes:

"Back to you Craig", these are scripted like a news cast (kinda), and presented like a weather forecast (even bigger stretch, but I enjoy the analogy).

Finished up work on a train ride home, so wasn't able to get around to watching the keynote until I got home, so these notes are late and more news is out about the event.

My "live" reactions you see above aren't worth much anyways, but they're fun to make, and give me ideas for how I'll be presenting Tim (once it's presentable. I look forward to the professionals talk about the event in their round up podcasts, and encourage you dear viewer to check them out as well for more informed, less me-focused takes.

As for my predictions, I am 0/2 as expected. They're not doing anything surprising with AI, but are keeping it as delightfully local as they can. The vision pro seems about as isolating and antisocial as ever, but it'll be that way until they're past the ski goggle phase and once they get there it seems like they'll have the best software solutions for things (and possibly the only ones in that price range?)

Either way enjoy the rest of WWDC you Apple developers and developers targeting Apple, I know I will.