I Skipped Live-streaming WWDC 2018 and Here Are the Best Announcements that I Missed (But Am Still Excited About)

(Disclaimer: this post may be a little too late since WWDC 2018 is 3 days ago, but what the heck, I'm still excited about it!)

As an Apple fan (sans the '-boy' suffix), I’m feel obliged to watch all Apple keynotes year after year. But for the first time since 2010 I skipped streaming WWDC 2018 live. The reason? I slept! Hey, it's Ramadan and I need to take whatever hours I have at night I can to cover my reduced sleeping hours!

Thanks to the handy, 14-minute roundup by The Verge, I can catch up with everything that I missed from this year's 2-hour-plus-long WWDC. Here are some announcements that I find most interesting and will no doubt make my Mac and iPhone more useful or, in the least, look better.

macOS 10.14 Mojave 

It's official: the successor to High Sierra is called Mojave, named after the driest desert in North America. Apple announced a lineup of updates in macOS Mojave, but the one I’m most excited about is the all-new Dark Mode. While in High Sierra the so-called "dark mode" only affects the menu bar and the dock, Mojave's Dark Mode practically turns your Mac into "Batman" mode: most, if not all, of the UI elements—including the sidebar, windows, and even the Notification Center—will look more black.

Apple's Craig Federighi showcasing Finder in Dark Mode.

Complementing the Dark Mode is a new kind of wallpaper that Apple dubs "dynamic wallpapers". They automatically adjusts themselves according to the time of day, so they're light during the day and dark during the night. From all the beta demos I’ve seen on YouTube, both Dark Mode and dynamic wallpapers look so sleek and I can’t wait to give them a try!

The Mac App Store will get a massive update, too. Gone are the old, bland days of boring showcase of apps. This new update will have Mac App Store mimic the magazine-style in its iOS counterpart, showcasing an Apple-curated list of apps and games.

The mostly invisible Quick Look on Mac also just got a nice buff. You can now make quick edit on files, such as photos, videos, and voice memos, just by hitting the space bar without having to open another app. I can see this being very useful when I have to trim voice memos or crop screenshots.

iOS 12

I'm on of those people who has a mild phone addiction, so the feature that I’m most excited about is Screen Time. This allows you to check the general usage of your iPhone so you'll have more control over it. You can set a time limit to the usage of your iPhone and get notified you once this allocated time is almost over. Neat, right? This feature will not only benefits parents who want to limit their kids’ usage of phones, but also I can see it being useful to the general iPhone users as well.

Craig (again) and the Weekly Activity Summary on an iPhone X. Neat!

In the visual assistant race, Siri seems to be the least impressive. Google's announcement of Duplex a few months ago knocks Siri out of the park. In what looks to be a lazy retaliation, Siri catches up by taking a, um, shortcut with a feature that Apple dubs—wait for it—Shortcuts. With it, you can manually set a custom Siri-based set of commands. An example of how Shortcuts work is you can set Siri so that when you say, "I'm on my way home", Siri will check your ETA, turn on your bedroom light, and text your spouse that you'll be home soon. (Will Siri now finally let me control Spotify?) It by no means as advanced as Duplex, but, hey, at least Siri is getting smarter.

Please Apple, let me control Spotify with Siri!

Other announcements include improvement in AR stuff as well as animoji updates. Apple introduced four new animojis: ghost, tiger, t-rex, and panda. Also, now you can now create an animoji of your own face that Apple calls… wait for it, memoji. A me-animoji. LOL. Very cute, Apple. Also, now animoji can mimic your face when you’re blinking or sticking out your tongue. Looks neat. Congratulations, iPhone X users!

Craig with his alter egos memojis.

Last but not least, Apple announced that iPhones will get massive speed upgrade. Older devices, even stretching as far as the 5 year-old iPhone 5S, will get performance boosts. Basic operations, like opening the Camera app or switching between apps, will be snappier and less laggy. My iPhone 6S still performs very well right now, but, hey, I won't complain about a free speed upgrade!

Who doesn't love free speed boosts on their phones?

Releasing in fall 2018 and I can’t wait!

Apple will release both macOS Mojave and iOS 12 in “Fall 2018”, so we’re looking at September/October release window. Both will be free updates, of course!

Fall 2018 can't come sooner, can it?