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WWDC 2017: Apple announces iOS 11, macOS 10.13, HomePods, new iPad Pro and more

It’s WWDC day and it’s expected to be a big one. Apple is set to announce new versions of its software platforms, iOS 11, macOS 10.13, tvOS 11 and watchOS 4.

We are also expecting new Mac hardware, a 10.5-inch iPad Pro and the unveiling of a ‘Siri Speaker’ home voice assistant. There will probably be other surprises as well. The keynote kicks off at 10 AM PT — 9to5Mac will be covering the whole thing live.

Follow along below for our live blog of the WWDC 2017 keynote, news links, and coverage of all the announcements …

We’ll be bringing full coverage of the lead up to the event, the main show and everything that happens after (like hands-on with the software betas). Here’s all the news from WWDC 2017:

WWDC 2017 News Hub

 

Live blog:

– That’s it. A monster WWDC 2017 keynote.

– Michelle Obama will join WWDC for a fireside chat on Tuesday.

– Press can get hands-on with the new iPads after the keynote. Developers can also get a go at the new hardware later in the day.

– Tim Cook back to close out the WWDC keynote. Everything they have announced today is shipping this year.

– HomePod costs $349, shipping in December in select countries.

– HomePod will act as a hub, like how the Apple TV works. This allows remote control all around the world.

– HomePod can control HomeKit devices, alarms, timers and much more.

– When you ask a Siri question, the top of the device lights up to display a waveform. Apple says the speaker array can pick up what you are saying even when you are across the room.

– Musicologist uses your Apple Music library to create automatic playlist of continuous music.

– You can setup 2 in one room and they will work together.

– It detects the space of the room that is in to make a large spacious sound. Schiller simulating the experience for the keynote attendees.

– HomePod controlled by Apple A8 chip. It performs real-time acoustic modelling, audio beam forming and more.

– It’s called ‘HomePod’.

– Apple’s speaker will be very loud, free from distortion. Spatial awareness, Musicologist, and more. The new speaker is coming later this year.

– Apple looking to do the best of speakers and smart speakers like Amazon Echo. ‘Breakthrough home speaker’ across many years.

– Apple introducing Music, its sixth segment. Apple wants to reinvent home music.

– “One last thing”

– iOS 11 is available to developers today; public beta later this month. Launching for real to everyone in the fall.

– When you take a screenshot, you can annotate it before sharing straight to Twitter or any other location in the Share Sheet.

– Toby Patterson is up to demo the new Apple Pencil features.

– Scan documents straight into Notes using the camera.

– Inline drawing for Notes. You can write straight over what you typed.

– OCR handwriting analysis for Notes.

– iOS 11 lets you markup PDFs and screenshots using your finger or Apple Pencil.

– You can tap and hold on apps in the Dock to find recent documents to drop straight into the main application.

– Files has a Recents view, a grid view and a list view. You can drag and drop files together. Files supports tagging as well as subfolders.

– Attachments from Mail can be dragged straight into the new Files app.

– Drag and Drop works as you expect. Pick up text and images from one side and let it go on the other. You can even drag across Spaces.

– Activate App Switcher by swiping up from the bottom of the screen. Spaces are preserved to keep two apps together whilst multitasking.

– New Files app reinvents Finder for the iPad, supporting iCloud Drive and many more third party services too.

– Gestural keyboard, flick up to get alternative characters.

– Drag and Drop content between multitasking apps.

– App Switcher is redesigned, kinda like Spaces on macOS.

– Pull an app out of the dock and place it onto the screen to launch Slideover.

– Now iOS 11 features for iPad. Dock can be summoned from anywhere and contain many more apps.

– Apple doubles memory of iPad, starting at 64 GB. Maximum storage goes up to 500 GB.

– New iPad Pro features same camera as iPhone 7.

– Demo of Affinity Photo app for iPad to highlight the 120hz display, performance and more.

– New 10.5-inch iPad and new 12.9-inch iPad use the Apple A10X Fusion chip, with up to 40% better performance.

– Apple launches 10.5-inch iPad with 120hz refresh rate display.

– Apple introducing new iPad announcements, pushing iPad further ever before. Joz on stage.

– iOS 11 in China: QR Code support, SMS fraud, traffic cameras and more.

– ARKit demo by ‘Wingnut AR’. Full battlefield mapped onto a table, using iPad to play the game.

– LEGO bringing new app that expands Batman logo onto a table. Move in the real world to see different perspectives on the battle. Pokemon GO enhanced with ARKit allows the ball to bounce along the ground.

– ARKit to become the largest AR platform in the world, powered by hundreds of millions of iPhones and iPads.

– Apple bringing ‘ARKit’ to iOS enabling developers to take advantage of augmented reality. This includes ways for apps to place virtual objects on a table in the real world. This includes interactive shadows.

– Federighi says Core ML on iPhone is 6x faster than Google Pixel and Samsung Galaxy S8.

– Core Technologies update for iOS includes Metal 2, HEVC and machine learning. Machine learning is now easy for developers to incorporate into their apps. This includes a Vision API like face detection, Natural language API and more. This is wrapped into a framework called ‘Core ML’.

– New app pages highlight reviews, rating, videos and more. Reviews are more visible.

– Today view in the App Store is like Apple News for Apps. You can see stories about upcoming releases in Today. Apple has an editorial team making continuous content for apps.

– App Store has been redesigned. Looks like a magazine. New tabs: ‘Today, Games, Apps, Updates, Search’. In-app purchases surfaced alongside.

– Developers can now schedule calls, more TestFlight tesers and phased releases. This lets developers release app updates slowly to customer instead of all at once.

– 500 million visitors to the App Store, 180 billion App Store downloads to date, $70 billion paid to developers.

– Social features for Apple Music, including what Friends Are Listening To. MusicKit allows full access to the Apple Music service for developers.

– Multiroom audio ‘AirPlay 2’, requires new hardware or an Apple TV. Third party audio apps can support multi-room too.

– Do Not Disturb Whilst Driving will reply to contacts automatically to let them know you can’t answer yet.

– Do Not Disturb whilst driving. This means notifications are hidden automatically when you are in your car, based on Bluetooth and WiFi sensors.

– Maps adds detailed floor plans for malls and airports. Navigation now supports speed limit and lane guidance.

– iOS 11 Siri extends Memories into the Messages app.

– Live Photos can now create seamless loops based on machine learning.

– Lock Screen and Notification Center are integrated together.

– Control Center redesign, back to one page. Everything is arranged into a grid although it’s not clear where the organisation is.

– Photos app has upgraded Memories to recognise even more types of events. You can do portrait and landscape memories. Live Photos are editable.

– iOS 11 devices with two cameras result in improved image quality, improved low light, and more. There’s a Depth API of developers.

– iOS users take 1 trillion photos per year. Camera app updates include HEVC video quality, better compression. Apple is also replacing JPEG capture with HEIF — photos up to half the size.

– Siri Intelligence has been revamped. It learns about topics of interest, calendar appointments and more.

– SiriKit can now do more than ever with task management, banking, QR codes and more.

– Updated with more natural Siri voice in both male and female. There’s a UI improvement with new rounded bubbles. Siri can now translate from English to Chinese, French, German, Italian and Spanish.

– Person-to-person Apple Pay coming with iOS 11. It works like an Apple Pay app. Apple Pay cash card can be transferred to your bank. Available on iOS and Apple Watch.

– ‘Messages in iCloud’ saves all conversations into the cloud so you can restore them when you log in. You can now delete a bubble and it vanishes everywhere.

– iMessage apps are now visible in a horizontal row that you can scroll through.

– Apple is turning it up to 11 with iOS 11. Craig Federighi is revealing it.

– Tim back to introduce iOS 11. 86% of customers are running iOS 10.

– Starts at $4999, so it isn’t cheap but Apple says it is good value for what’s inside.

– iMac Pro can deliver up to 22 teraflops computation power, Radeon Vega graphics. You can configure it with up to 128 GB ECC RAM. 4 Thunderbolt 3 ports. Coming in December.

– Apple adding workstation performance into the iMac. 27-inch ‘iMac Pro’ in space gray. ‘Most powerful Mac we have ever made’. iMac includes 8-core Xeon processor, a 10-core Xeon processor and a 18-core Xeon processor option.

– MacBook and MacBook Pro are also getting a refresh with Kaby Lake processors. A 13-inch MacBook Pro configuration now available for $1299. The MacBook Air is getting a ‘megahertz’ bump.

– 4K iMac now starts at $1299.

– Demo of iMac graphic performance from John Knoll at Industrial Light & Magic. It’s a virtual reality headset demo, in a Star Wars universe.

– 27-inch iMac has up to 8 GB VRAM and Radeon Pro 570 and up.

– All iMacs boosting graphics performance. Low end gets better integrated graphics, up to 80% faster. Retina 4K 21.5-inch iMac adds Radeon Pro 555 GPUs as the base, up to 3x faster than the previous generation.

– Apple updates iMac with 43% brighter display, 500 nits brightness and 10-bit dithering. The whole iMac line is updating to Kaby Lake with HEVC decode. 27-inch iMac can now go up to 64 GB. They also have 2 Thunderbolt 3 ports.

– macOS High Sierra is coming this fall.

– Apple is adding VR support to macOS with spherical video support, VR engines from Unreal and Metal integration with Virtual Reality.

– Apple is supporting external GPUs with High Sierra. They are launching a developer kit with an AMD Radeon GPU to let developers get ready for eGPUs.

– Apple developer portal now down, awaiting new betas after the keynote!

– ‘Metal 2’ is a 10x improvement over Metal 1 in graphics performance. Debugging options for developers.

– Apple is migrating macOS to h.265 video codecs, 40% higher compression with the same quality. Software encoders in High Sierra and hardware acceleration in newer Macs.

– macOS High Sierra now uses Apple File System.

– macOS Photos adds a persistent sidebar and they have a new dropdown for filtering. They have added a lot more editing tools and added a better UI for advanced editing. Faces now sync across devices. New printing options.

– macOS Mail now includes Top Hits search. They have also added Split View Mail Compose.

– macOS Safari includes auto-play blocking and intelligent tracking protection.

– macOS’s new name is ‘High Sierra’. This update is about deep technologies and refinements.

– macOS up now. Craig Federighi coming up.

– Kevin Lynch back to talk about watchOS 4 features for developers, including improved Bluetooth. watchOS 4 beta releasing later today.

– News app on Apple Watch!

– New presenter Vera Carr from the Apple Watch team. She is showing off the new Dock, which is kind of like the iOS 10 multitasking but vertically.

– Apple Watch Music has been revamped to support automatic syncing and you can flip through albums with the Digital Crown. You can sync more than one playlist finally!

– You can now connect gym equipment to the Apple Watch, allowing all the information to be more accurate and synced together. Compatible equipment will roll out from this fall.

– They’ve also added an easier way to start multiple workouts in succession.

– Apple has also redesigned the Workout app and added new Pool Swim features for Series 2 Apple Watch. They have also added High Intensity Interval Training with custom motion algorithms.

– Better achievement progress from the Activity app. New animation when the rings are completed.

– There’s also Toy Story watch faces.

– Kaleidoscope face adds a ‘trippy’ effect to the watch face.

– watchOS 4 announced by Kevin Lynch. Siri clock face will give automatic suggestions on watchOS called ‘Up Next’.

– Amazon Prime TV coming later this year to Apple TV and the TV app. No tvOS.

– Tim Cook says they have a lot to talk about, six flagship announcements.

– 5300 developers, more than ever. Attendees from 75 different countries. Youngest student developer is 10 years old.

– Tim Cook: ‘Best and biggest WWDC ever’

– Tim Cook on stage, fifteen years since they last held a developer conference.

– Intro video is a gaffe about security, shows original iPod. Apple data centre accidentally unplugged; all the app icons vanishing from people’s iOS devices around the world.

– Apple showed who’s speaking on stage, Vera seems to be a new face.

– TestFlight updated for iOS 11 beta!

– Here’s Jordan’s perspective from inside the McEnery convention center.

– Apple’s live stream is up. Ten minutes from showtime.

– Jony Ive is in the audience! New software design or just for new hardware?

Developers rushing to their seats, many queueing since last night.

– Press hearing that it is going to be a long show, over 2 hours.

– We are going inside. 45 minutes until showtime!

– One hour away from the show!  The livestream usually goes about fifteen minutes before.

– If you want to install the betas after the event is over, remember to charge your Apple devices now; this includes accessories like Apple Pencil in case there’s new stuff for those too!

– 9to5’s Seth Weintraub is talking about WWDC on Cheddar.

– Apple has special Snapchat filters for developers in attendance at the venue.

– Jordan is watching the event from inside the McEnery convention center. Here’s his badge:

– Tim says ‘there is a big week ahead’. Keynote line is already packed.

-Late-breaking leaks include new Files app, and references to drag and drop.

-We are live in the keynote line.

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Avatar for Benjamin Mayo Benjamin Mayo

Benjamin develops iOS apps professionally and covers Apple news and rumors for 9to5Mac. Listen to Benjamin, every week, on the Happy Hour podcast. Check out his personal blog. Message Benjamin over email or Twitter.