Takeaways from the WWDC 2020 Keynote

Monday, June 22, 2020

I am an Apple enthusiast, and I just watched the WWDC 2020 keynote. Here’s what I thought (in no specific order):

Reaching for the top row apps on my iPhone 7 Plus is not easy. I can rarely, if ever, use my phone with a single hand anymore. So, I appreciate the new home screen layout. It definitely appears useful at first glance.
I can see myself adding Dark Sky (wait, will it still be updated?!) and Fantastical widgets, but I don’t think I’ll add much else. We’ll see.
Pinned conversations, inline replies, mentions… Love it all. Also, mask Memoji 😷!
As someone that obsessively downloads (and keeps) apps from cafes, stores, and parking apps I only need about once every year, and refuses to delete them for the one time time I might need them again, I love the idea of App Clips. I can (hopefully) get rid of all those unused apps.
I am nitpicky about my home screen layout, so I’m conflicted about the new dynamic App Library. I can imagine it being useful, but it might also play against my muscle memory.
No more full-screen popovers for phone calls or Siri! YES!
Rarely use iPhone to watch video, so couldn’t care less about picture-in-picture.
Lot of appreciation for the new privacy features. I have desired approximate location for so many apps that I don’t trust, but still have to provide location information to.
Camera and microphone usage indicators are godsend. I have often wondered how many apps exploit those permissions because they have them.
Overall not a lot is changing, which is a good thing.

Biking directions with elevation! I have wished for this to have existed for months as I struggled with mapping my bike rides. This alone will make me update to iOS 14 on day 1.

Hand washing countdowns are cute and I love that they exist ☺️.
Sleep tracking appears cool, but I also don’t like wearing my Apple Watch while I’m asleep.

Amazing new privacy controls. I use Safari all day, everyday. It is already very fast, secure and neatly integrated. The privacy improvements take what is great and make it even better.
I’m going to obsess for a while over the Privacy Reports of some of my most visited websites.
The new hover-on-tab feature that displays a tiny thumbnail is also really nice. It is one of the things I miss the most from my days of Firefox.

I like the new design aesthetic in the apps, but hate the new icons. The iOS-ified icons feel out of place. Maybe they’ll grown on me over time.
Control Center is neat, and so is the new notification pane.
Messages and Apple Maps are Catalyst ports, but get feature parity with iOS. Cool!
Overall: A slate of nice updates for a mature desktop OS. Lots of polish, I hope.

Simple, easy to understand privacy policies for every app before you download it? Yes, please!

This might actually go through in a seamless way than I had thought.
A12Z running Final Cut Pro and 3 streams of 4K, and driving the 6K Pro Display XDR? Damn, that’s powerful.
Emulation also appears to be fast.
Not a fan of iOS and iPadOS apps running on macOS. That sounds like a recipe for lazy developers to not make good, native macOS apps, while allowing Apple to boast ‘millions of apps on day 1’.
I can’t wait to learn more about the upcoming Mac line-up. Such an exciting time!

The production quality of this year’s presentation was exemplary.
It was uncanny (and weird) to look at close-ups of Tim Cook and Craig Federighi as they talked to the camera. It was too close and too in-my-face.