Siri is widely expected to make up a big part of Monday’s WWDC keynote (alongside iOS 10, macOS 10.12 and more) but it seems like it is already inadvertently tipping the hat on what is going to be announce. Brian Roemelle found that by asking the voice assistant about “windows” on his phone, Siri would start referencing the “Finder” app in its responses.
Obviously, iOS doesn’t have a Finder app but OS X does. It seems like Siri is unintentionally leaking the unveiling of Siri for Mac ahead of schedule, or perhaps even a brand new Finder app for iOS 10 …
Amazon was first with its Echo Wi-Fi speaker — a dedicated, standalone hub for its Alexa virtual assistant software — and now word has it Apple is working on a similar product for Siri. The several reports this week detailing Apple’s plans followed Google’s unveiling of its competitive Home hardware and Assistant platform at its Google I/O developer conference earlier this month. But what exactly will Apple’s competitor look like? And how will its reported plans for a Siri SDK play into its approach?
As we approach Apple’s WWDC 2016 developer conference scheduled for June 13-17, there are more than a few reported in-development features and fixes that are likely candidates for stage time. An Apple Music revamp, Apple Pay updates, improvements for the App Store, and new features for HomeKit, Siri, and Apple News are just a few possibilities for Apple’s event next month. Below we roundup those features and much more as we take a look at the most likely new iPhone and iPad features in the works for iOS 10:
In a blog post announcing their launch of an embeddable web and native app VR viewer, Google also introduced the official launch of their Cardboard SDK for iOS. The SDK allows iOS developers to embed virtual reality content within their own apps to then be viewed using a viewer like Google’s own Cardboard.
Since Tesla launched the Model S in 2012, the automaker has been talking about releasing a software development kit (SDK) to create a full third-party app ecosystem for its 17-inch touchscreen, which acts as a center console for the Model S and X, but despite several inquiries from eager app developers, there has been little communication about the project until now. Expand Expanding Close
Facebook today has unveiled its own SDK for the new Apple TV’s tvOS. In a blog post on its Developers site, Facebook says that using the Facebook SDK on tvOS will allow developers to build “immersive” social experiences on the platform including tools like login, sharing, and analytics.
Code analytics platform SourceDNA has found hundreds of apps on the App Store that used private APIs to collect private user data, like email addresses and device identifiers, slipping under Apple’s radar in the approval process. The code got into these apps through the inclusion of a mischievous third-party advertising SDK, which secretly stored this data and sent it off to its own servers.
Apple has now verified the SourceDNA report and is removing all of the apps that included the advertising SDK from the store, as using private API calls is a breach of App Review Guidelines. Apple has also patched its approval processes to prevent any more apps that use this technique to make it onto the App Store.
Apple plans to hold one of its annual fall media events on Wednesday, September 9th to introduce the new iPhone 6S and iPhone 6S Plus with Force Touch, and after many fits and starts, it appears that the long-awaited next-generation Apple TV will also be unveiled. We’ve been reporting on this upcoming model since 2014, as Apple has been planning to update its set-top-box with support for an App Store for quite some time.
Earlier this year, Apple had locked in a June WWDC debut for both the new Apple TV hardware and software upgrades, but the company ultimately decided to delay the introduction until the fall. While some had speculated that the announcement was pushed back due to a lack of content deals, we are told that the delay was internally attributed to a concern over compromising iOS 9 engineering resources, as the latest OS release is focused at least as much on polish as on new features.
Why would the new Apple TV potentially take away resources from iOS 9? According to sources, this new Apple TV model, codenamed J34, will be the first model to run a full-blown iOS core. Specifically, the new Apple TV operating system will be a TV-optimized version of iOS 9. In addition to the new hardware inside, running iOS 9 will give the new Apple TV a series of benefits over the current model. Below, we explore what users can expect from Apple’s next-generation living room product.
After introducing a new developers platform and SDK in May, Pinterest is today announcing a couple of the first integrations developers have come up with starting with popular automation platform IFTTT and community based shopping/fashion site Polyvore.
For IFTTT, the service that lets users automate common web and app-based tasks based on a set of rules known as “recipes”, users will now be able to link products and devices on Pinterest to their automated workflows. The company shared some examples: automatically save Pins to a board from simple actions in other apps such as liking a photo on Instagram, upvoting a post on Reddit or favoriting an item on Etsy. There are more than 20 Recipes to choose from starting today.The Pinterest integration for IFTTT is available through desktop and the service’s mobile apps.
For Polyvore, users can login to the site using their Pinterest account to quickly and easily get access to pinning items from the fashion community/shopping site to Pinterest boards via the company’s iOS app.
In addition, Pinterest noted that new SDKs and documentation for developers are available to all through the company’s new developers site. The new SDKs give devs access to the Pin It button and JS and OAuth support.
Nearly a month after the release of the first-generation Apple Watch with Watch OS 1.0, a proven source has disclosed a collection of upcoming Apple Watch software and hardware updates. Currently in development, the features seek to enhance Apple Watch security, connectivity with other Apple devices, health and fitness features, Wi-Fi capabilities, and integration with third-party applications. Additionally, Apple is also priming major updates for the Apple TV in both the hardware and software departments, including Apple Watch integration. Below, we detail what users can expect from Apple Watches and Apple TVs in the future…
Broadcom today announced that its new SDK for the Internet of Things (IoT) now officially supports Apple’s home automation HomeKit platform, bringing us a step closer to widespread availability of Siri-controlled smart home devices.
Broadcom notes that its SDK is the first to officially support HomeKit specs for WiFi and Bluetooth Smart accessories, allowing developers to use its Wireless Internet Connectivity for Embedded Devices (WICED) platform to build apps for Apple’s new Siri-controlled, home automation platform. They will also be able to build products that double as a hardware bridge for non-HomeKit accessories. Expand Expanding Close
Chipmaker Marvell announced today that it has become “the industry’s first silicon vendor to develop a fully supported SDK” for Apple’s new HomeKit home automation platform, supplying a full hardware and software platform to accessory manufacturers. As part of the support, Marvell has an SDK for HomeKit that includes a “88MC200 microcontroller, advanced Avastar 88W8801 Wi-Fi SoC and EZ-Connect software.”
We’ve been keeping an eye on Kamcord as the platform for in-app gameplay recording and sharing grows, and today the company is announcing another round of funding, new milestone stats, and upcoming features for both developers and users. Expand Expanding Close
Apple wants the third-party app marketplace for the upcoming Apple Watch to be a hit just like on the iPhone, iPad, and Mac. Apple has begun seeking an “Apple Watch Evangelist,” according to a posting on its official jobs website. This evangelist position is specifically designed to work with third-party application developers and promote development for the upcoming Apple Watch platform:
FiftyThree, the developers behind the popular drawing app Paper, today announced it’s releasing an SDK that will let all developers take advantage of its Pencil stylus for iOS devices. First launched last year alongside an update to Paper, Pencil is a $60 Bluetooth stylus for the drawing app that aims to offer a realistic pencil-to-paper drawing experience.
The SDK will allow for a smooth experience with the Pencil stylus in other apps and that also means in some cases FiftyThree will be working to improve the apps of its direct competitors while hopefully selling its stylus as a platform in the process. Devs will get access to palm rejection, erase, easy pairing, and all the pencil and touch classifiers the company uses in the Paper app. Support for surface pressure is also arriving with iOS 8: Expand Expanding Close
SRI International, the team behind the technology that later became Apple’s Siri voice assistant feature in iOS, today announced a new product that it says “aims to improve the consumer experience on mobile devices through intelligent conversation.” Kasisto will be a similar intelligent voice assistant but the company will open it up to business customers to integrate into their own apps:
“Virtual personal assistant technology has revolutionized consumer interaction with mobile devices,” said Norman Winarsky, Ph.D., vice president, SRI Ventures. “Now consumers expect a more human-like experience when interacting online. Kasisto represents a new user experience—one that is context aware, personalized, and more effective.”
The company says Kasisto will allow businesses to integrate the virtual personal assistant features into mobile apps in days or weeks intend of months while greatly decreasing the costs currently associated with similar technologies. “It is context-aware and provides text, touch, and speech modalities, and natural language understanding and reasoning. The platform also includes a powerful software development kit (SDK) for easy customization and integration into existing mobile applications.
Alongside a whole of other changes to the App Store, Apple is integrating TestFlight. This allows developers to do seamless beta-testing for free. There are also a whole host of ‘extensions’ apps can access, enabling integration into share sheets, Notification Center widgets and more.
Apple is heavily stressing that this is the biggest developer release since the App Store was announced.
Kamcord, the Y Combinator-backed startup with an SDK that lets developers offer gameplay recording functionality in mobile apps, today announced it has secured another big round of funding as the service hits some impressive milestones and launches a new community iOS app. Even before picking up a $7.1M Series A that it announced today, it’s quickly emerged as the top in-game recording platform and is starting to gain some serious traction with over 5 million videos shared and over 3 billion gameplay videos recorded. That’s compared to 2 million videos shared and 2 billion videos recorded back in February.
The new iOS app, available on the App Store now, will allow users to access the community of shared gameplay videos as well as user profiles, likes, and comments that it first launched as a web based feature on the desktop. The app will also let users search for games and Zitzmann noted, “the early stats for the app are compelling… 30% of users click to download a game every day.” Expand Expanding Close
LG today announced a new system to help bridge the gap between a range of televisions and mobile software. The Connect SDK is an open-source, multi-platform tool that developers can use to make their mobile apps compatible with different TV set-top boxes and smart TVs. In a press release, Samuel Chang, LG Electronics USA vice president and head of the LG Silicon Valley Lab said:
Connect SDK is breaking down barriers to enable apps and devices to work together harmoniously. The screen size, capabilities and social nature of Smart TVs enable experiences that consumers will absolutely love.
Connect SDK is designed to address the problem of connecting apps with a second screen, the TV, which still serves as a main point of content consumption for many households. The company has released versions of the SDK compatible with devices on both iOS and Android.
XTouch, an SDK created by a group at the University of Toronto’s Mobile Applications Lab and funded by JOLT, turns any surface into a touch-sensitive controller for iOS apps with no additional hardware. Since XTouch uses acoustics and vibrations to recognize taps on a surrounding surface, the only requirement is that your iPhone or iPad is placed on the same surface you want to use as a touchpad. An SDK is coming soon that will allow developers to think up many interesting implementations, but for now the company has released two apps that show off what XTouch is capable of. Expand Expanding Close
Google also confirmed that it’s working with a handful of partners to bring Android Wear powered wearables to market by later this year: Expand Expanding Close
At this week’s Game Developers Conference Google is announcing number of new features coming to developers through Google Play Game services. Notable for iOS users is the fact that Google has decided to expand its multiplayer features to iOS devs. That means all iOS devs that integrate Google Play Game services into their apps (which already offers sign-in, achievements, leaderboards, cloud saves, and more) will be able to let their players across Android and iOS challenge each other to multiplayer matches.
The new features should become available to developers later this month. Google is updating its Play Games Unity Plug-in to support the new cross-platform multiplayer features as well as “introducing an early Play Games C++ SDK to support achievements and leaderboards.” Google notes the cross-platform multiplayer feature will support both its turn-based and real-time multiplayer modes.
With Touch ID in the iPhone 5s, Apple wasn’t the first to integrate a fingerprint sensor in a smartphone, but it certainly popularized the feature as other manufacturers race to build similar technology into their next-gen iPhone competitors. HTC is packing in fingerprint sensors in its latest flagship devices and Samsung announced its new Galaxy S5 earlier this week with finger scanning as one of the standout upgrades. The verdict is still out on how Samsung’s tech compares to Touch ID, but it is interesting to see how others are using fingerprint sensors while Apple keeps it closed to developers and offers very limited applications. With Samsung letting app developers access the new S5’s fingerprint scanner for mobile payments and more right out of the gate, should Apple open the fingerprint sensor to devs in iOS 8? Expand Expanding Close
Epic Games announced today that it’s partnering with Y Combinator-backed startup Kamcord to offer its in-game recording platform to iOS and Android devs using Unreal Engine 3. We spoke to Kamcord CEO Matt Zitzmann who told us why it’s a big deal that Epic Games and the Unreal Engine team are backing Kamcord— and not its competitor— as the go-to platform for implementing in-game recording features in mobile apps. Expand Expanding Close
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