Apple(SAN JOSE, Calif.) — Apple’s annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC18) kicked off today at the McEnery Convention Center in San Jose, California.
More than 6,000 developers from around the world are attending the five-day event. CEO Tim Cook and Craig Federighi, Apple’s senior vice president of software engineering, were on hand to announce the company’s latest news.
The first major announcement at this year’s keynote was iOS 12. Federighi said everything that supports iOS 11 will also now support iOS 12, meaning Apple isn’t leaving older devices behind in terms of performance.
Apps will now open 40 percent faster and the camera function will also be quicker to access.
AR
Federighi gave some major updates around augmented reality (AR) with ARKit 2, a “platform that allows developers to integrate shared experiences, persistent AR experiences tied to a specific location, object detection and image tracking to make AR apps even more dynamic,” according to the company.
Apple also added a new app Measure that can “quickly gauge the size of real-world objects similar to a tape measure.”
Siri Shortcuts
Apple announced some new updates to its personal assistant, Siri. With Siri Shortcuts, users will be able to build their own commands with any application. Siri will also be able to make suggestions, like ordering a coffee in the morning or calling your mother on her birthday.
Group FaceTime
Apple said its popular FaceTime service can now include up to 32 people in a video call.
Animojis
Now Apple users will be able to make personalized animojis — even ones that stick out their tongues thanks to the new “tongue detection” technology. Apple also added several more animojis like a ghost, koala, tiger and T.rex.
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