DEV Community: Solomon

The WWDC 2019 Platforms State of the Union Highlights

Solomon — Mon, 03 Jun 2019 23:37:26 +0000

Here are some things that were mentioned during the Platforms State of the Union at WWDC 2019.

macOS Catalina

DriverKit - kernel extensions but in userspace

Explicit User Authorizations for:

Keystroke recording
Screen capture
Screen recording
User Data
- Document
- Desktop
- Downloads
- iCloud Drive
- Removeable media
- Network volumes

watchOS 6

Independence from the iPhone
Audio Streaming
Extended Runtime
SwiftUI support

Privacy

Sign In with Apple

Real User Indicator based on account history (determine if another verification step should be performed)
Works on the Web and across all Apple platforms

ML

image saliency (user interest heat maps for auto-cropping)
text recognition (printed text transcription)
word embeddings (get synonyms of words for search purposes)
speech api on-device (recognize speech)
speech saliency (get the cadence and pitch of spoken words)

CoreML

Personalized, background-updated machine learning models personalized on each user's device.

CreateML

macOS app for building models without code with templates, and testing them with various inputs from built-in sensors on iOS and Mac.

Siri Shortcuts

Shortcut phrase suggestions (Add to Siri)
Conversational (parametrized) shortcuts
Shipped with iOS and iPadOS
Automation (smart shortcut triggers)
Multi-step, multi-app shortcuts

ARKit

Apple Pay integration (instant buy)
Simultaneous front and back camera usage
Motion capture
People occlusion

RealityComposer

WYSIWYG interface for laying out 3D AR experiences for Apple devices
An iOS and Mac application

RealityKit

An engine for 3D AR experiences
Multi-threaded renderer
Synchronizes with camera data for realistic results

Metal

Supported fully by the iOS Simulator on Mac
Metal Memory Debugger to understand resource allocation
Metal Indirect Compute Encoding (offloading more tasks from the CPU to the GPU)
Better raytracing support
Peer Group API (GPUs can share data with each other without clogging the slower PCI system bus)

Thanks for reading!

The WWDC 2019 Keynote Highlights in 5 minutes

Solomon — Mon, 03 Jun 2019 20:30:10 +0000

Here are some things that were announced this morning that I think will change the way developers work on Apple platforms.

If I missed something or you caught a typo please leave a comment below.

Let's get into this!

First, the welcome video, now featuring lots of Touch Bar MacBook Pros (spoiler alert: they didn't update the notebook line-up here, having already cleared the decks with the spec bump):

watchOS

New taptic clock chimes (audible if sound is on).

The robins are okay. - Kevin Lynch

New Apps

Audiobooks
Voice Memos
Calculator (with tip/split calculator)

New Developer Tools

Independent Apps (without iPhone companion)
Extended Sessions
Streams Audio API
Appstore for Apple Watch
- Dictation search
- Siri-based search
- Integrated purchases

iOS

iOS 12 statistics:

97% iOS 12 customer
85% install base (10% adoption of Android 9)

[unlike] those other guys - Tim Cook

iOS 13

yes, it's iOS 13 - Craig Federighi

30% faster Face ID unlock
app packaging changes - 50% smaller downloads and 60% smaller updates
2x app launch speed
Dark Mode
swipe type (like GBoard)
smart photo sharing suggestions
time synced lyrics in Music
Safari text-sizing options
Mail formatting controls and rich fonts
Notes gallery view, shared folders
Reminders redesign
- smart lists
- iMessage tagging (reminder to talk)
Maps
- rebuilt map
- it'll rollout to the entire US by the end of 2019
- ETA sharing
- favorite places menu for easy access
- collections for lists of favorite places for sharing
- lookaround view for 3D exploring
- smooth virtual street navigation

Privacy

Location

One-time location sharing
Background location usage reports
Wi-Fi and Bluetooth signal access controls

Social Logins

Sign in with Apple
- simple API
- instant Face ID authentication
- optional private email generation > a unique, random address that forwards to your real address ... you can disable any one of them at any time - Craig Federighi
- available on the web and all Apple platforms

Homekit

Homekit Secure Video
- Cloudless HomePod, Apple TV, or iPad camera analysis
- 10-day clip storage for free
Homekit for Routers
- Firewalls for individual accessories
- Will be available from Linksys, Eero, ISPs like Spectrum

Messages

Avatar picture sharing controls

Memojis

New Memoji options
Auto-generated Personal Memoji Sticker Packs
Memoji on all devices with A8 or later

Camera

High-key mono effect
Adjustable portrait lightning effect
Redesigned editing interface for still photos and videos
- Video rotation

Photos

Hides duplicates with Machine Learning
Intelligent photo organization and nicer photo browsing

AirPods

Siri can announce and read incoming messages from Messages or any SiriKit-enabled messages app
Audio Sharing

HomePod

Handoff your music, podcast, or a phone call to HomePod
Live radio from 100,000 stations through Siri
Voice recongization/response personalization
- Includes Apple Music, Messages, Reminders, and Notes actions.

CarPlay

redesign
- CarPlay dashboard with Siri, music, maps, and calendar
Siri third-party integration (starting with Pandora and Waze)

Shortcuts

Siri shortcut integration with the shortcuts app on all platforms
Suggested automations create templates based on your behavior in different apps

Siri

Now a text-to-speech voice entirely generated by a neural network
- more natural responses

Other features

send unknown callers to voicemail
enterprise single-sign-on
separate iCloud accounts

iPadOS

a new name!
tighter Springboard app icon layout
home screen widget pinning
Slideover (mini app launcher on the side of the main app)
multi-window capabilities with individual component drag-and-drop and third-party app support

[shows two Word documents in a split view] I mean that's enterprisey right there - Craig Federighi

Files

column-view (like Finder on macOS)
iCloud Drive folder sharing
SMB server file sharing
USB drive support
USB photo loading support for third-party apps (like camera -> Lightroom)

Safari

Desktop-class browsing (with automatic resizing and touch optimization)
Download manager
30+ new keyboard shortcuts

Writing and Apple Pencil

Custom fonts on the App Store
Multi-touch navigation
- for document scrolling
- cursor position dragging
- editing gestures:
- three-finger-pinch copy
- three-finger-pinch paste
- three-finger-swipe undo
screenshot/photo markup gestures (with full document capture mode in Safari)
resizable keyboard gesture swipe (thumb typing)
20 millisecond to 9 millisecond latency
redesigned editing palette
PencilKit editing palette API for app developers

Mac

New Mac Pro

modular design
top case handles
up to 28 core 300+ watt Xeon processor with great cooling
6 channels of ECC RAM, up to 1.5 terabytes
8 PCIe expansion slots
IO Card: two Thunderbolt 3 ports, one USB-A port, audio jack, two 10 gigabit Ethernet ports
supported graphics through up to two Mac Pro Expansion Module (MPX): Radeon Pro 580 X, Radeon Pro Vega || (two supported)
"Afterburner" module (6 billion pixels per second of hardware accelerated video editing)
optional wheels for transport
can drive six 6K displays
Fall release starting price: $5999

Live Demo

1,000 audio tracks + software instruments in Logic
- Simultaneously playing 3 streams of 8K ProRes RAW footage

Pro Display XDR

32-inch LCD
6K Retina
superwide viewing angle
anti-reflective coating
nano-texture matte glass panel option without haze effect
1000 nits of indefinite full-screen brightness for HDR
- peak of 1600 nits
1 million to 1 contrast ratio
rotation to portrait mode
Fall release starting price: $4999
- nano-texture version: $5999

macOS Catalina

iTunes split - Apple Music, Podcasts, TV

How about calendar in iTunes? ... How about Mail in iTunes? And maybe Safari in iTunes! ... Well of course we'll add a dock ... Nailed it! - Craig Federighi

Music

Unobtrusive device syncing from Finder
New sidebar and recommendations

Podcasts

Machine Learning-informed search for spoken content

TV

Contains purchased movies, subscribed channels
4K HDR playback
Dolby Atmos spatial audio

Sidecar

Use iPad as a second Mac display
Precise input with Apple Pencil in several macOS apps

Accessibility

Voice Control for iOS and Mac.
- Text correction/editing
- Open apps
- Scroll instructions
- Tab-based navigation
- Button clicking
- Field navigation
- Maps grid view
- Volume control
- Local processing

Find My

Find my iPhone + Find My Friends
Available on Mac and iOS
Offline location detection through secure distributed Bluetooth relay through other's Apple devices

Activation Lock

Supports all T2 Macs
Locks the boot and OS install processes with your credentials

Project Catalyst (Marzipan)

Start with a "Mac" checkbox in Xcode and build iPad and macOS apps simultaneously.
Early adopters:
- Asphalt
- Twitter
- Atlassian

ARKit 3

plus a Minecraft Earth Live Demo

People Occlusion
Motion Capture support

Just to be clear no chickens were harmed on stage at WWDC - Craig Federighi

Swift

New UI Framework: SwiftUI

declarative, expressive UI
size classes
automatic animation
automatic Dark Mode support
live UI preview in Xcode
drag and drop component ("view") library with code generation
smart view inspect menu
built-in localization
live, on-device code editing
modular adoption (one view or full application)
runs natively on watchOS and every Apple platform, and binds to every native control

Release Dates (all platform announcements)

Developer beta: Today
Public seed: July
General user availability: Fall

If you liked this post, make sure to smash that ❤ button an odd number of times. Thanks!

How to reload your unpacked Chrome extensions on-save from anywhere!

Solomon — Wed, 27 Feb 2019 00:28:28 +0000

There's a really cool Chrome extension called "Reload Extensions", and it saved me from a (now fixed) extension loading bug, and the inconvenience of reloading unpacked extensions:

Solomon • Feb 23 '19

Yep! Especially when the extension icons don't update after I enable/load an extension (which I think is unintended behavior), I just go to reload.extensions and everything works as intended!

But it can get even more convenient for us aspiring extension developers:

kinghat • Feb 23 '19

are you using the extensions reloader url to automate the reloading?

(kudos to @kinghat for aiding in the research of this post!)

Requirements

Let's go back to the basics!

You need to have the following software installed:

git
a text editor
any browser that supports Chrome extensions

Instructions

The Extension

Run the following commands in your terminal to build a copy of Jerome Dane's chrome.management API-based fork of the extension source code:

git clone https://github.com/JeromeDane/chrome-extension-auto-reload
cd chrome-extension-auto-reload
npm install
npm audit fix
npm run build

Now, load the contents of chrome-extension-auto-reload/build/ into Chrome as an unpacked extension and configure it like so:

Navigate to chrome://extensions using the address bar.
Toggle on "Developer Mode" in the top right corner if you haven't already.
Click on "Load Unpacked" and browse to the build directory we generated earlier.
Click the "Details" button seen in Figure 1. Figure 1: the extension card with the "Details" button.
Scroll to the "Extension options" link and click on it.
At the top of the page, change the "reload method" dropdown to equal "Manage API". This allows it to work with all extension scripts on the latest version of Chrome.

Your Project

Navigate to your extension project's directory, create a new file called gulpfile.js, and paste the following contents into it:

var gulp = require("gulp");
var watch = require("gulp-watch");
var io = require("socket.io");

gulp.task("chrome-watch", function() {
  var WEB_SOCKET_PORT = 8890;
  io = io.listen(WEB_SOCKET_PORT);
  watch("**/*.*", function(file) {
    io.emit("file.change", {});
  });
});

Install the Gulpfile's dependencies into your extension project like so: npm install gulp gulp-watch socket.io --save-dev. Assuming it isn't a Node project yet, you'll need to run npm init and fill out the metadata to be placed into package.json first.

Run npx gulp chrome-watch and enjoy!

Sources

https://github.com/JeromeDane/chrome-extension-auto-reload
Conversations with @kinghat regarding my previous post on this topic.

Reloading your Chrome extensions on-save in VS Code!

Solomon — Sun, 24 Feb 2019 00:24:04 +0000

Update: there's a better way to do this

There's a really cool Chrome extension called "Reload Extensions", and it saved me from a (now fixed) extension loading bug, and the general inconvenience of reloading unpacked extensions:

Solomon • Feb 23 '19

Yep! Especially when the extension icons don't update after I enable/load an extension (which I think is unintended behavior), I just go to reload.extensions and everything works as intended!

But it can get even more convenient for us aspiring extension developers.

kinghat • Feb 23 '19

are you using the extensions reloader url to automate the reloading?

(kudos to @kinghat for inspiring this post!)

Configuration

Prerequisites

You need to have the following software installed:

Visual Studio Code
Extensions Reloader
Any browser that supports Chrome extensions. The example command configurations are for Chrome, but start http://reload.extensions (Windows), open http://reload.extensions (Mac), and xdg-open http://reload.extensions (GNU/Linux) can work with any of the aforementioned browsers, assuming they are your computer's default.

You can get this Visual Studio Code extension called RunOnSave, which lets you add this to your settings.json:

Windows

    "emeraldwalk.runonsave": {
        "commands": [
            {
                "match": "\\\\extension-project-folder\\\\.*",
                "cmd": "start chrome http://reload.extensions"
            }
        ]
    }

Just make sure to replace "extension-project-folder" with the name of your project's folder.

The double escaping of the backslashes isn't required on Unix-like operating systems like Mac and GNU/Linux.

macOS

    "emeraldwalk.runonsave": {
        "commands": [
            {
                "match": "/extension-project-folder/.*",
                "cmd": "open -a 'Google Chrome' http://reload.extensions"
            }
        ]
    }

GNU/Linux

    "emeraldwalk.runonsave": {
        "commands": [
            {
                "match": "/extension-project-folder/.*",
                "cmd": "google-chrome http://reload.extensions"
            }
        ]
    }

Autosave configuration

(this step is optional but recommended)

For minimal interruptions, I recommend setting the save mode to auto save when the VS Code window loses focus in settings.json:

"files.autoSave": "onWindowChange"

That's it!

It's kind of annoying (because it focuses your browser every time you switch away from VS Code) unless you're only switching between Code and Chrome, in which case it works really well!

I haven't tested this on every OS and browser, so let me know if this functions for you in the comments below.

Sources

https://stackoverflow.com/a/32775952
https://stackoverflow.com/a/23039509
https://superuser.com/a/790678
https://askubuntu.com/a/19920
https://github.com/emeraldwalk/vscode-runonsave/blob/master/README.md