Daniel Hruska Although WWDC is watched by a fairly wide public, this conference belongs primarily to developers. After all, that's what its name suggests. The opening two-thirds of the keynote belonged, as expected, to OS X Yosemite and iOS 8, but then the focus shifted to purely developer matters. Let's summarize them in a nutshell.
Swift
Objective-C is dead, long live Swift! No one expected this - Apple presented its new Swift programming language at WWDC 2014. Applications written in it should be faster than those in Objective-C. More information will begin to emerge as developers get their hands on Swift, and of course we'll keep you posted.
Extensions
I waited a long time for communication between applications until iOS 8 came out. What's more, Extensions will make it possible to extend the functionality of the system with applications, natively. Applications will continue to use sandboxing, but through iOS they will be able to exchange more information than before. At the keynote, there was a presentation of translating using Bing in Safari or applying a filter from the VSCO Cam application directly to a photo in built-in Images. Thanks to Extensions, we will also see widgets in the Notification Center or unified file transfer.
Third-party keyboards
Although this matter falls under Extensions, it is worth mentioning separately. In iOS 8, you'll be able to allow access to third-party keyboards to replace the built-in one. Fans of Swype, SwiftKey, Fleksy and other keyboards can look forward to this. New keyboards will be forced to use sandboxing just like other apps.
HealthKit
A new platform for all kinds of fitness bracelets and applications. HealthKit will allow developers to modify their apps to feed their data to the new Health app. This step will keep all your "healthy" data in one place. The question arises - will Apple come with its own hardware capable of capturing such data?
Touch ID API
Currently, Touch ID can only be used to unlock an iPhone or make a purchase from the iTunes Store and its affiliate stores. In iOS 8, developers will have access to the API of this fingerprint reader, which will open up more possibilities for its use, such as opening an application using only Touch ID.
CloudKit
Developers have a whole new way to build cloud-based applications. Apple will take care of the server side so developers can focus on the client side. Apple will provide its servers for free with several restrictions – for example, an upper limit of one petabyte of data.
HomeKit
A household controlled by a single handheld device would have sounded like science fiction a few years ago. Thanks to Apple, however, this convenience may soon become a reality. Whether you want to change the intensity and color of the lighting or the room temperature, applications for these actions will be able to use a unified API directly from Apple.
Camera API and PhotoKit
In iOS 8, apps will have enhanced access to the camera. What does this mean in practice? Any app from the App Store will be able to allow manual adjustment of white balance, exposure and other important factors associated with photography. The new API will also offer, for example, non-destructive editing, i.e. editing that can be undone at any time without changing the original photo.
Metal
This new technology promises up to ten times the performance of OpenGL. During the keynote, the iPad Air demonstrated the smooth flight of hundreds of butterflies in real time without a single twitch, which showed its power in multithreading.
SpriteKit and SceneKit
These two kits offer developers everything to make 2D and 3D games. Everything from collision detection to a particle generator to a physics engine is provided in them. If you're just starting out and want to create your first game, focus your attention here.
Does anyone know what the new OS X requirements will be?
All Macs running Mountain Lion and Mavericks are said to be compatible. E.g. for MacBook Pro it's Mid 2007 and later.
Macbook, iMac :-P
I was most amused by the difference between the content of the key note and the series of guaranteed news about new products :-)
Well, maybe Apple would say something about the new hardware, but that's typical Apple, when something comes out that it doesn't like, it's willing to pass it by in silence and thus increase the tension even towards those who have already started producing various accessories from unique information . It has already happened that, according to rumors, a lot of accessories were made, which the manufacturer could then put in ... Hair.
I would rather be interested in how Apple will approach processors such as the A6X in my iPad 4 with its new Metal, since despite the theoretical numbers in the benchmarks, it runs all the demanding rendering at full speed just like my sister's iPhone 5S.. It means that when they start "Metal" apps coming out, can I go whistling with my iPad 4?… What does an iPhone 5 s A6 owner have to say….
Will it be possible to develop applications for older OS versions (e.g. iOS7) with swift? I think so, but somehow I couldn't find it.
I'll answer myself :) it works...
Logically it should be possible since the iPhone only runs binary, the only thing I'd be afraid of is that there will be a problem with games if we only use "Metal" :)