My Favorite WWDC Announcements (2024 Edition)

With WWDC week winding down, I’ve had some time to take in all of Apple’s announcements and check out small details people are discovering in the OS betas. These are the new features that speak most to me:

  • iOS: Customizing Control Center is going to be so much fun. I’ve spent a lot of time tweaking my setup in its current iteration because I get so much use out of it. Being able to make it work exactly the way I want and add third-party apps to it is like a dream come true. The resizing options for different controls look intriguing, too.
  • iPadOS: The absence of the Calculator app is such a long-running joke that it’s almost sad the era’s coming to an end, but I do a lot of budget-balancing on my iPad, so I’m excited to have Calculator available there.
  • macOS: The Passwords app is coming to iOS, iPadOS, and visionOS, too, but since Apple highlighted it as a Mac feature, I thought I’d mention it here. I’ve been all-in on iCloud for passwords for as long as it’s been around, and finally being able to manage and share those credentials from a full-fledged app is going to be sweet.
  • visionOS: There is so much about visionOS 2 that excites me as someone who spends a lot of time in my Apple Vision Pro. The quality-of-life improvements like easier access to Control Center and the option to rearrange apps on the Home View are so welcome. I can’t wait to spatialize some of my family photos, too.
  • tvOS: InSight is exactly what I need when I’m watching TV. It bugs me to no end when I can’t figure out where I recognize an actor from, and now that information will be readily available, at least for Apple Originals. I can’t wait to try it.
  • watchOS: Live Activities are great on my iPhone, but they make so much more sense on the Watch, which I’m much more likely to glance at when I need to check on something. They’ll be a great addition to the Smart Stack, especially once I get a watch with double tap.
  • Home: I’m finally going to be able to set my preferred home hub! This will save me so much troubleshooting and hopefully make my smart home setup even more reliable.
  • Apple Intelligence: The part that most impressed me about the Apple Intelligence announcement was the system’s ability to use information it knows about me to respond contextually to requests. That has a ton of potential, and I look forward to seeing what I can do with it in practice.
  • Services: I love to see Apple’s services continue to evolve. Wallet additions like Tap to Provision and richer event tickets look useful, and I like the direction the company went in redesigning Fitness+.
  • Development: FinanceKit is easier for developers to access now, which is a win for budgeting nerds like me. I hope we see a slew of personal finance apps integrate with it this fall.

There was so much more announced for this year, and I look forward to experiencing it all for myself. But these are the features I’m most interested in, so I’ll be trying them first when I get my hands on this year’s updates.

Which of the new features announced this week are you most looking forward to? I’d love to hear your thoughts on the OS updates, Apple Intelligence, and everything else about WWDC 2024.

WWDC Coverage

I had the privilege of helping cover Apple’s WWDC announcements this week alongside the rest of the MacStories team. We’ve got overviews of all the major platform updates plus Apple Intelligence, so I encourage you to check those out.

These are the pieces I wrote:

I also got to edit a few of my colleagues’ great articles, and I wrapped up my portion of WWDC coverage today with the latest episode of Magic Rays of Light, where Sigmund and I recap tvOS 18, visionOS 2, Immersive Video updates, and more.

It’s been a fun week taking in all of the exciting news and working with my friends to share it. Being on team MacStories is something special, and never more so than when we’re covering an event as monumental as this. Now it's time to catch up on any tidbits I missed this week and maybe even get some hands-on time with an update or two.

Structured Cloud

Planning my days with Structured is one of the most impactful habits I practice. With its unique combination of Calendar events, Reminders to-dos, and custom tasks on a daily timeline, the app helps me stay on top of what I need to do and, more importantly, go into each day confident that I can accomplish what's necessary in a manageable way. The value of that feeling can't be quantified.

One of the very few sticking points I've run into with Structured has been syncing. From the beginning, the app relied on Apple's iCloud backend for keeping tasks in sync across devices. iCloud does a great job of making sure all of the data goes where it's supposed to go, but it is limited in certain ways, too. The big one for me is backgroud syncing. For whatever reason, syncing in the background isn't a built-in feature of CloudKit the way it is in Apple's first-party apps. Because of that, editing my day plan on one device wouldn't automatically update it on another device until the app was actually opened, rendering features like widgets and watch complications much less useful.

All of that is in the past now, though, thanks to Structured Cloud. The Structured team has rolled out their own custom syncing solution in beta as an optional alternative to iCloud syncing. I turned it on as soon as I possibly could, and I've been quite pleased by the change. Signing up was as simple as providing my email address. After entering a one-time code sent to my email, I was signed in and ready to go. Tasks now sync just as seamlessly as they did before, with the added benefit that it all happens in the background without any extra effort on my part.

Where I've noticed this change the most is on my Apple Watch. My main watch face complication is the Structured timeline because I want to be able to quickly glance at my wrist and see what I should be up to and how long I have to until my next task. Because of the quirks of iCloud, I used to manually open the Watch app every day to force a sync and keep my day plan up-to-date. Now, that information is always accurate whether I manually open the app or not. Amazing!

Structured Cloud also sets the stage for future additions like a web version and integration with Structured's Android app. The mixture of Reminders and Calendar data with custom, cross-platform sync is intriguing, and I can't wait to see where the team goes with it.

To be completely honest, this experience has changed the way I think about iCloud. I've often looked at apps that use their own syncing solution and thought, "Why don't they just use iCloud? It's so much simpler and doesn't require me to set up another account." Having seen what Structured Cloud is capable of, I now understand the benefits of looking outside of CloudKit for syncing, though I'm still glad that it's an option for developers.

I'm so impressed by what the Structured team has done here. If you're a user on the fence about trying their new cloud solution, I can say with confidence that it's an improvement and worth switching to. Go for it! And if you're reading this and haven't given Structured a spin yet, you know I'm going to recommend it. I've only written about the app three times now. So here's your opportunity to try it for yourself, new cloud syncing and all. An app's syncing experience is so important, and Structured Cloud gets it right.

Check-In: Fixing the iPad Lineup

Nearly a year ago, I lined out my plan for how Apple could improve the iPad lineup to make it more sensible. With the much-anticipated iPad Pro and iPad Air updates now out the way, I figured I should check in and see if my ideas panned out.

Rebrand the iPad 9 as iPad SE. On first glance, it seems like this idea didn’t go anywhere. Officially, the iPad 9 has been discontinued and is no longer a part of Apple’s lineup. But it’s still available from third-party retailers for $250, significantly lower than any iPad has ever been sold for before. I have a hunch that this is part of a low-key strategy on Apple’s part to keep this model in the channel without selling it officially, similar to what the company is doing with the M1 MacBook Air. It’s not the rebrand I was hoping for, but it has the same effect: making the 10th-generation iPad the official base model while keeping the classic version around somewhere at a steep discount.

Bring compatibility for the latest Apple Pencil to the iPad. The Apple Pencil story is still a bit confusing, but it’s getting better, and Apple did technically do this. The Apple Pencil (USB-C) introduced last fall is the new base model pencil, and it’s compatible with the base model iPad. In fact, it’s compatible with all iPads currently sold by Apple. The Apple Pencil Pro only works with the new iPad Pro and iPad Air, but I imagine the iPad mini will support the newest Pencil the next time it’s refreshed. Then, every current iPad model will be compatible with the regular Pencil, and the mid-tier and high-end models will offer a premium Pencil option as well. We’re moving in the right direction here.

Raise the base storage on the iPad Air and iPad mini. The new iPad Air starts at 128 GB of storage, double the previous generation. I have to believe the iPad mini will follow suit when it’s updated next. This is the right move, and I’m happy to see it.

Bring the XDR display to the 11” iPad Pro. Joke’s on me, because Apple didn’t bring the XDR display to the smaller iPad Pro, but the company did update both sizes of the iPad Pro to OLED, bringing their screen technologies back in sync. That’s what I really wanted; my suggestion was just too specific. The iPad Pro should have the best screen available regardless of its size, and that’s now the case.

Move the front-facing camera to the long edge on every model. Once again, this is true for every model except for the iPad mini, which hasn’t been updated since I wrote these suggestions. I believe the trend will be completed by the next-generation iPad mini.

Simplify the accessory options. The keyboard situation with the iPad was too confusing a year ago, and it’s better now, though not in a way that makes everyone happy. The company seems to be phasing out the Smart Keyboard line, leaving only the Magic Keyboard as options for new iPad models. This is a classic “be careful what you wish for” situation. I’m sad to see the Smart Keyboard Folio go and was hoping for a good/better offering across the line rather than a “better only” offering for each model. My apologies to all Smart Keyboard fans for single-handedly killing your favorite accessory with this suggestion.

Bonus points: Bring ProMotion to the iPad Air and iPad mini. This was a stretch then, and it remains a stretch now. I still hope it will happen one day, but it’s going to be some time before the screen technology in Apple’s Pro devices is advanced enough that ProMotion can shift down to the mid-tier line.

Looking back at these ideas, most of them actually came to fruition, if not in letter then in spirit. The overarching vibe when it comes to the iPad lineup seems much more positive since the Let Loose event – software complaints notwithstanding. I think the iPad is in the best place it’s ever been, and an update to the iPad mini (hopefully this fall 🤞) will only seal the deal.

Folks, I think we fixed it.

Sequel Adds Shortcuts Actions, Magic Lookup, and Personal Notes

In my post announcing Watch History Journal 2, I mentioned that the shortcut relies on new Shortcuts actions from Sequel, the media-tracking app from Romain Lefebvre. What I didn’t get to include was the fact that these actions come as part of a really nice update to the app, version 2.3, which includes some other great features as well.

Shortcuts actions have been my biggest feature request for Sequel since I started using it, and the way they’ve been added is exactly what I was hoping for. Thanks to these new actions, I can accomplish so many of my regular media-tracking tasks, including marking titles as complete and checking on upcoming releases, without ever opening the app. I’ve added a Sequel super shortcut to my iPhone’s Action Button and use it multiple times a day, and that’s just a fraction of what these actions are capable of. They are so, so well done.

Magic Lookup is my second-favorite new feature that came to Sequel this week. It adds share sheet support to the app in the most unique way I’ve ever seen: when you share a webpage or bit of text to Sequel, it uses AI to analyze the contents of what you sent and return matched titles from the app’s media databases. It’s the quickest way possible to get from reading about a title to tracking it, and it really does feel like magic. When I’m watching a movie trailer or reading an Apple Newsroom article about an upcoming series, I’ve gotten in the habit of sharing it to Sequel with Magic Lookup and adding it to my library that way. I love it.

I haven’t spent as much time with Personal Notes as I have the other new features, but I know it’s something that a lot of people are quite happy about. You can now add notes in Markdown format to any title in Sequel, allowing you to record thoughts on a movie or log game progress within the app you’re already using to track these titles. It’s a great idea, and as with everything Romain does, it’s done in a way that’s both attractive and useful.

The update includes a handful of new library options, too, including the ability to search within a particular library, change the size of title images, and remove title labels in the library view. For more details about all of these additions, check out John’s review on MacStories.

I’d say that Sequel 2.3 is the biggest update to the app since 2.0 last year. It’s brought about huge changes for the way I use it every day, making so many aspects of media-tracking faster and easier than ever. Sequel has been my favorite app in its category for some time now, and this update just further solidifies its place as the perfect solution for me.