{"id":4394,"date":"2020-01-21T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-01-21T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hedgehoglab.com\/news\/wwdc-2016-an-amazing-experience-for-app-developers\/"},"modified":"2023-12-05T11:47:04","modified_gmt":"2023-12-05T10:47:04","slug":"wwdc-2016-an-amazing-experience-for-app-developers","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/hedgehoglab.com\/news\/wwdc-2016-an-amazing-experience-for-app-developers\/","title":{"rendered":"WWDC 2016: an amazing experience for app developers"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This blog was originally written by Rob Sammons<\/b><\/i><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Winning the WWDC lottery was a surreal experience in late April. Without much notice from Apple\u201a I had to plan an entire trip with flights\u201a hotels and more in less than 40 days. Being my first time at WWDC\u201a it was quite a daunting experience\u201a but in the end it was worth every penny.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The headline event was the Keynote; I met up with a friend from Twitter and began queueing at 4am outside Bill Graham Auditorium to see what Tim Cook\u201a Craig Federighi and the rest of the team had to present this year. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Those who are aware of Apple know that this is the biggest event of the year for mobile app developers and fans. The line moved slowly throughout the morning until 8:30\u201a when the doors opened and 5\u201a000 developers poured into the auditorium. With seats close to the front and the stage in clear view\u201a everyone was ready and waiting.Following the shooting at Pulse in Orlando\u201a Tim Cook made an incredibly humble speech and asked that everyone participate in a one-minute silence. It was very moving to be in the room and the sentiment was genuine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"[object<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The keynote continued with a walkthrough of watchOS 3\u201a tvOS and macOS\u201a leading up to iOS 10. All four platforms were a key focus for Apple; throughout the event app developers were reminded of how the platforms link together.The releases have been covered in detail elsewhere at this point\u201a but it was great to see how presenters came across to the room instead of watching them on a screen\u201a as well as seeing some newer faces on stage.For me the most exciting announcement of the keynote was watchOS 3<\/a> – a huge release for Apple Watch with increased speeds\u201a new apps\u201a enhanced features and developer APIs\u201a such as the digital crown and speaker access. Having attended many watchOS 3 sessions throughout the week\u201a it was clear that Apple wants more app developer support here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"[object<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

With the keynote over\u201a it was time to move onto the sessions. All of these sessions were streamed live to mobile app developers around the world and are available to re-watch on Apple\u2019s developer website.I attended a number of sessions throughout the week\u201a but due to the availability of these outside the conference\u201a it didn\u2019t feel that attending every session was an effective use of my time\u201a especially with so many other activities going on during the week.Let’s quickly review some of the highlights of the sessions and new APIs available: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \n
  • \n

    SFSpeechRecognizer – This allows for on-device speech recognition\u201a a new API with huge potential for developers.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n

  • \n

    3D Touch – Peek and Pop can now have custom UI<\/p>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n

  • \n

    iMessage Stickers – These are incredibly easy to set up; almost anyone with a set of assets can build an iMessage sticker set<\/p>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n

  • \n

    Extensions to Notifications – Notifications can now be intercepted before display to add custom UI\u201a such as showing live video<\/p>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n

  • \n

    Unified local\/remote notification in UserNotifications.framework<\/p>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n

  • \n

    NSUserActivity – Can now be used for locations within Maps.app<\/p>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n

  • \n

    UICollectionView – Prefetching cells and improvements to cell scrolling<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n

    \"[object<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

    Apple arranged eye-opening lunchtime talks with influencers in the industry. One such talk was around Marvel\u201a presented by Creative Director of Marvel Games\u201a Bill Rosemann.As a big Marvel fan\u201a it was fascinating to see and hear about Bill\u2019s comic book heroes. One particular story from Bill was a boy who couldn\u2019t find a super hero with a hearing aid; Marvel went to great lengths to find one and ultimately created a special Marvel comic just for him. Whilst this wasn\u2019t about apps in particular\u201a it was hugely interesting nonetheless.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \"[object<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

    The highlight talk of the week was with Haben Girma\u201a who is an acclaimed accessibility and inclusion advocate. She is the first deaf blind person to graduate from Harvard Law School.In her talk she spoke at length about how accessibility within apps has helpedher through a Bluetooth braille machine. Small features like VoiceOver can really improve the accessibility of an app. For the first time\u201a Apple has uploaded lunchtime talks onto their website and this talk is a must watch.Accessibility was a strong theme of the entire week and I think has inspired many developers to make sure that they are at least focusing on basic accessibility\u201a like offering alternative labels to imagery. It was noted how hard it is to find accessibility apps in the App Store and that Apple actively seeks out those that go above and beyond to feature.A new accessibility inspector in Xcode 8 allows developers to run audits on their app to find problems initially; they can tap different areas to see what users with VoiceOver will hear\u201a which should improve the scope and quality of testing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Summing up<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

    One of the main reasons to visit WWDC is that Apple has thousands of engineers on site to answer questions. Attending labs with the engineers allows you to pinpoint any existing problems\u201a ask questions and meet the team in person. I was able to speak to the HealthKit team about features for diabetic users\u201a the iTunes Connect team about app review and TestFlight and the watchOS team around data loss. It was interesting to see how close the teams were – no question was too big or too small. I gained so much knowledge from the engineers\u201a which you really can\u2019t put a price on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \"[object<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

    As you can tell\u201a I thought WWDC and San Francisco were incredible. It was fantastic to meet exciting new people\u201a find out about all the new API\u2019s\u201a attend parties and more. I\u2019ll be applying next year and fingers crossed I win the WWDC 2017 lottery!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    This blog was originally written by Rob Sammons Winning the WWDC lottery was a surreal experience in late April. Without much notice from Apple\u201a I had to plan an entire trip with flights\u201a hotels and more in less than 40 days. Being my first time at WWDC\u201a it was quite a daunting experience\u201a but in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":3199,"parent":0,"menu_order":48,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"content-type":"","inline_featured_image":false},"news-tags":[216],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nWWDC 2016: an amazing experience for app developers | hedgehog lab<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/hedgehoglab.com\/news\/wwdc-2016-an-amazing-experience-for-app-developers\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"WWDC 2016: an amazing experience for app developers | hedgehog lab\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"This blog was originally written by Rob Sammons Winning the WWDC lottery was a surreal experience in late April. Without much notice from Apple\u201a I had to plan an entire trip with flights\u201a hotels and more in less than 40 days. Being my first time at WWDC\u201a it was quite a daunting experience\u201a but in […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/hedgehoglab.com\/news\/wwdc-2016-an-amazing-experience-for-app-developers\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"hedgehog lab\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-12-05T10:47:04+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/hedgehoglab.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/5CD4B796-9CBC-4060-8822-AC47416BCFFF.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"800\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"600\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Estimated reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"6 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/hedgehoglab.com\/news\/wwdc-2016-an-amazing-experience-for-app-developers\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/hedgehoglab.com\/news\/wwdc-2016-an-amazing-experience-for-app-developers\/\",\"name\":\"WWDC 2016: an amazing experience for app developers | hedgehog lab\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/hedgehoglab.com\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/hedgehoglab.com\/news\/wwdc-2016-an-amazing-experience-for-app-developers\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/hedgehoglab.com\/news\/wwdc-2016-an-amazing-experience-for-app-developers\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/hedgehoglab.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/5CD4B796-9CBC-4060-8822-AC47416BCFFF.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-01-21T00:00:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-12-05T10:47:04+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/hedgehoglab.com\/news\/wwdc-2016-an-amazing-experience-for-app-developers\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/hedgehoglab.com\/news\/wwdc-2016-an-amazing-experience-for-app-developers\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/hedgehoglab.com\/news\/wwdc-2016-an-amazing-experience-for-app-developers\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/hedgehoglab.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/5CD4B796-9CBC-4060-8822-AC47416BCFFF.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/hedgehoglab.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/5CD4B796-9CBC-4060-8822-AC47416BCFFF.jpg\",\"width\":800,\"height\":600},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/hedgehoglab.com\/news\/wwdc-2016-an-amazing-experience-for-app-developers\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/hedgehoglab.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"WWDC 2016: an amazing experience for app developers\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/hedgehoglab.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/hedgehoglab.com\/\",\"name\":\"hedgehog lab\",\"description\":\"Mobile App Developer in UK & USA\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/hedgehoglab.com\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/hedgehoglab.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/hedgehoglab.com\/#organization\",\"name\":\"hedgehog lab\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/hedgehoglab.com\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/hedgehoglab.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/hedgehoglab.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/Vector-3.svg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/hedgehoglab.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/Vector-3.svg\",\"width\":179,\"height\":149,\"caption\":\"hedgehog lab\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/hedgehoglab.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"}}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"WWDC 2016: an amazing experience for app developers | hedgehog lab","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/hedgehoglab.com\/news\/wwdc-2016-an-amazing-experience-for-app-developers\/","og_locale":"en_GB","og_type":"article","og_title":"WWDC 2016: an amazing experience for app developers | hedgehog lab","og_description":"This blog was originally written by Rob Sammons Winning the WWDC lottery was a surreal experience in late April. Without much notice from Apple\u201a I had to plan an entire trip with flights\u201a hotels and more in less than 40 days. Being my first time at WWDC\u201a it was quite a daunting experience\u201a but in […]","og_url":"https:\/\/hedgehoglab.com\/news\/wwdc-2016-an-amazing-experience-for-app-developers\/","og_site_name":"hedgehog lab","article_modified_time":"2023-12-05T10:47:04+00:00","og_image":[{"width":800,"height":600,"url":"https:\/\/hedgehoglab.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/5CD4B796-9CBC-4060-8822-AC47416BCFFF.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Estimated reading time":"6 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/hedgehoglab.com\/news\/wwdc-2016-an-amazing-experience-for-app-developers\/","url":"https:\/\/hedgehoglab.com\/news\/wwdc-2016-an-amazing-experience-for-app-developers\/","name":"WWDC 2016: an amazing experience for app developers | hedgehog lab","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/hedgehoglab.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/hedgehoglab.com\/news\/wwdc-2016-an-amazing-experience-for-app-developers\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/hedgehoglab.com\/news\/wwdc-2016-an-amazing-experience-for-app-developers\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/hedgehoglab.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/5CD4B796-9CBC-4060-8822-AC47416BCFFF.jpg","datePublished":"2020-01-21T00:00:00+00:00","dateModified":"2023-12-05T10:47:04+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/hedgehoglab.com\/news\/wwdc-2016-an-amazing-experience-for-app-developers\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-GB","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/hedgehoglab.com\/news\/wwdc-2016-an-amazing-experience-for-app-developers\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/hedgehoglab.com\/news\/wwdc-2016-an-amazing-experience-for-app-developers\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/hedgehoglab.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/5CD4B796-9CBC-4060-8822-AC47416BCFFF.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/hedgehoglab.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/5CD4B796-9CBC-4060-8822-AC47416BCFFF.jpg","width":800,"height":600},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/hedgehoglab.com\/news\/wwdc-2016-an-amazing-experience-for-app-developers\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/hedgehoglab.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"WWDC 2016: an amazing experience for app developers"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/hedgehoglab.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/hedgehoglab.com\/","name":"hedgehog lab","description":"Mobile App Developer in UK & USA","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/hedgehoglab.com\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/hedgehoglab.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-GB"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/hedgehoglab.com\/#organization","name":"hedgehog lab","url":"https:\/\/hedgehoglab.com\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/hedgehoglab.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/hedgehoglab.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/Vector-3.svg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/hedgehoglab.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/Vector-3.svg","width":179,"height":149,"caption":"hedgehog lab"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/hedgehoglab.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"}}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hedgehoglab.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/4394"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hedgehoglab.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hedgehoglab.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hedgehoglab.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3199"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hedgehoglab.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4394"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-tags","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hedgehoglab.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-tags?post=4394"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}