Year: 2016

Here’s iOS 10’s revamped Lock screen with widgets, Raise to Wake, rich notifications and more

Apple is holding its anticipated keynote presentation at the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium in San Francisco this morning, which has kicked off the five-day WWDC 2016 developers conference, and they just announced iOS 10, the tenth major version of the mobile operation system powering the iPhone, iPod touch and iPad.

For iOS 10, there's a completely redesigned Lock screen that now makes it easy to respond to notifications with a lot richer 3D Touch support, the ability to enjoy widgets full screen, a time-saving feature called Raise to Wake and more.

tvOS 10 releasing this fall

Today is a big day for Apple fans from around the world as the Cupertino firm telegraphed some interesting changes coming to its software platforms, among them tvOS, the operating system that powers the fourth-generation Apple TV. tvOS 10 is available now as a developer-only preview and everyone else will be permitted to install it on their set-top box this coming fall, said Apple.

Apple introduces macOS Sierra with Siri, Auto Unlock and more

We know OS X is now macOS, and the first major version is macOS Sierra. So what new features does it have? SVP of Software Engineering Craig Federighi is on stage at Apple's WWDC keynote running through the new additions and improvements in the software, and there are some great ones.

The main focuses for this update are going to be Continuity, iCloud and "the fundamentals of the Mac experience." The first big new feature for the group is Auto Unlock, which allows you to automatically unlock your Mac with your Apple Watch—meaning, if you have your Watch on, you don't need to type in your password.

Apple rebrands OS X as macOS

That Apple would rebrand OS X as 'MacOS' was one of the worst-kept WWDC secrets ahead of today's keynote, and Apple just made it official. SVP of Software Engineering Craig Federighi just announced on stage that from here on out, the Mac operating system is going to be called macOS.

watchOS 3 will go live for everyone this fall

Apple has taken the wraps off watchOS 3 this morning during the keynote presentation at the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium in San Francisco. With features designed to advance the experience for Apple Watch owners, watchOS 3 will release this fall, Apple confirmed today. The major new version of the Apple Watch operating system will be released at no charge as an over-the-air update.

Activity Sharing brings social challenges to Apple Watch

After demonstrating several new Apple Watch features, Apple VP Kevin Lynch invited Director of Fitness and Health technologies Jay Blahnik to come up on stage and talk about some new fitness features. Perhaps most notable is a new feature in the Activity app called Activity Sharing.

As the name suggests, Activity Sharing brings social challenges to the Apple Watch, allowing users to easily send fitness achievements and stats to friends and family, fostering competition. This is something that has helped Fitbit grow and popularity and is a welcome addition to the Watch.

Apple unveils watchOS 3 with Instant Launch, Control Center, Reminders, Scribble input and more

Aside from a number of other software-related announcements, the WWDC 2016 keynote at the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium in San Francisco also gave us watchOS 3, the third major installment of the wearable operating system that powers the Apple Watch.

As much as watchOS 2 was about optimizing the experience with support for native apps, its successor focuses on improving that experience further with things like Control Center, a Reminders app, instant launch of applications and more.

App Store has surpassed 2 million apps, 130 billion downloads

Apple's long-awaited WWDC keynote is now in full swing, and as usual, CEO Tim Cook has taken the stage to kick things off. Cook began on a somber note, asking attendees to participate in a moment of silence for the victims of yesterday's tragedy in Orlando, and then got down to business rattling off new stats.

Among the most interesting numbers the executive shared is that the App Store recently surpassed 2 million apps. In the most recent data Apple shared on app numbers, it was still around the 1.5 million mark, so this is a new development for sure. We've got some other interesting numbers for you listed below.