12:33PM EDT - We're here in sunny San Jose, California for Apple's annual World Wide Developers Conference. A show of both hardware and software, it's Apple's keynote event of the year.

12:34PM EDT - This is the first year in recent times that Apple has held WWDC in San Jose. Normally it's out at the Moscone Center in San Francisco

12:34PM EDT - The advantage of San Jose? It's closer to Apple. It's also easier to get in and out of

12:36PM EDT - However it's also a packed house. Apple can and has filled the convention center

12:37PM EDT - The principle purpose of WWDC is to talk software. Future updates for iOS and macOS are a given

12:40PM EDT - Hardware is also a strong possibility on any given year, and I would be surprised if we didn't see something this year

12:41PM EDT - The bigger question: will WiFi hold up? We're about to find out

12:42PM EDT - So I just received word that AMD is here

12:42PM EDT - As Apple is not one to have their announcements spoiled, I imagine this is as exhibitors, but we'll see

12:43PM EDT - AMD provides the dGPUS for the 15-inch MacBook Pro, so any refresh would likely also use an AMD dGPU

12:45PM EDT - In usual Apple fashion, the names of the individual sessions have not been published. Those will be announced after the keynote, as they would otherwise be spoilers

12:48PM EDT - For those of you who prefer to watch this live, Apple is also live streaming this starting at 1pm ET: https://www.apple.com/apple-events/june-2017/

12:49PM EDT - I am curious to see what all Apple announces. The company nasn't been stagnant, but I think they know they need to avoid WWDC 2017 being more of the same

12:52PM EDT - People are still getting seated, so we may not start exactly at 1

12:55PM EDT - I can't help but think of SkiFree with Apple's idle animation here. A top-down very of people that is slowly scrolling

12:58PM EDT - Getting closer. The Apple logo is now up

12:59PM EDT - On a related note, there was a good article in the New York Times the other day on Apple's discoverability problem: http://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/02/technology/apple-iphone-developer-conference.html

01:00PM EDT - Apple hsa to be careful adding yet more features, as users are having a hard time digesting and integrating what they already have

01:01PM EDT - If we're really lucky, Apple will say something about the Mac Pro today, addressing its power users directly. But that seems doubtful

01:03PM EDT - Attendees are still getting seated. Just a few more minutes

01:06PM EDT - Still waiting at this point

01:07PM EDT - Alright, here we go

01:07PM EDT - Everyone is standing and holding up phones. I'm not sure if WWDC is a press conference, a concert, or both

01:07PM EDT - Starting things off with a video

01:09PM EDT - Humorous video about what would happen if all of Apple's iOS services went down

01:10PM EDT - Keep making apps. The world is depending on you

01:10PM EDT - Now on stage: Tim Cook

01:10PM EDT - "I'm so glad that can't really happen"

01:11PM EDT - "This is going to be the best and biggest WWDC ever"

01:11PM EDT - Stats update: 16 million registered Apple developers. 3mil gain over last year

01:13PM EDT - Tim is warming up the crowd talking about Apple's youngest and oldest developers

01:13PM EDT - Four incredible platforms: tvOS, watchOS, macOS, and iOS

01:14PM EDT - "We have a lot to talk about today"

01:14PM EDT - 6 important announcements for this morning

01:14PM EDT - Announcement #1: tvOS

01:14PM EDT - Amazon is finally coming to the Apple TV

01:15PM EDT - "We are so pleased to welcome Amazon to Apple TV"

01:15PM EDT - We'll be hearing more about tvOS later this year

01:15PM EDT - Announcement #2: Apple Watch

01:16PM EDT - Now a presentation on watchOS

01:16PM EDT - Introducing watchOS 4

01:17PM EDT - Starting with watch faces

01:17PM EDT - New Siri watch face

01:18PM EDT - Reminders and other contextually relevant notifications

01:19PM EDT - Also discusisng other artistic faces

01:19PM EDT - (We seem to be about 9 minutes behind schedule, going by Apple's not-quite-live timestamps)

01:20PM EDT - New UI for the workout watch app

01:21PM EDT - New module for high intensity interval training

01:22PM EDT - Enabling 2-way data exchange with gym equipment via NFC

01:22PM EDT - Watch-enabled equipment will be rolling out this fall from the major gym equipment manufacturers

01:23PM EDT - Moving on, new watch music app

01:23PM EDT - Demo time

01:24PM EDT - New dock for scrolling through already open watch apps

01:24PM EDT - Also a new news app for the watch

01:25PM EDT - New feature: auto-play a music playlist when starting a workout

01:27PM EDT - New dev features: new UI capabilities, more background apps, more Bluetooth capabilities

01:27PM EDT - Dev preview is out today, release version this fall

01:27PM EDT - Back to Tim

01:27PM EDT - Announcement #3: the Mac

01:28PM EDT - Now discussing what's new with macOS

01:29PM EDT - Joking around about what to call the next macOS

01:29PM EDT - Next macOS: High Sierra

01:29PM EDT - High Sierra is all about deep technologies. But also some refinements

01:31PM EDT - High Sierra is all about deep technologies. But also some refinements

01:31PM EDT - Safari is now going to block auto-playing videos

01:31PM EDT - Intelligent Tracking Prevention

01:31PM EDT - ID trackers and segregrate cross-site tracking

01:32PM EDT - Mail: search is now using Spotlight

01:32PM EDT - Full-screen split view support for Mail as well

01:32PM EDT - Apple has also cut down on Mail disk space usage by 35%

01:33PM EDT - Photos: face detection is improved. Using a better neural network for identification

01:33PM EDT - New photo editing tools as well

01:34PM EDT - Apple is opening up their photo printing service to third parties

01:34PM EDT - Getting back to technology: data, video, and graphics

01:34PM EDT - (Viva la HFS!)

01:35PM EDT - The Apple File System will be the new default in High Sierra

01:35PM EDT - (iOS has been using it since 10.3)

01:36PM EDT - Showing instant duplication (presumably using copy-on-write)

01:36PM EDT - On to video: HEVC (H.265) support on macOS

01:36PM EDT - Hardware acceleration for the format on the recent Macs

01:36PM EDT - And encoders in Apple's various tools

01:37PM EDT - (I guess Apple has sorted out a reasonable solution to the many patent pools for HEVC)

01:37PM EDT - Metal 2 being introduced today

01:37PM EDT - Apple is talking about a further 10x improvement in draw call throughput

01:38PM EDT - The Mac window server is now running on Metal

01:38PM EDT - Also discussing using Metal shaders for machine learning

01:38PM EDT - "Metal for external graphics"

01:38PM EDT - Metal 2 will support this

01:39PM EDT - Apple is selling an eGFX developer kit using TB3 and a Radeon RX 580

01:39PM EDT - Metal for VR

01:39PM EDT - VR-optimized display pipeline with the usual bells and whistles (multi-projection, etc)

01:40PM EDT - The SteamVR SDK will be coming to the Mac, as will Unity and Unreal Engine VR support

01:40PM EDT - Developer beta today. Public beta later this month. Release this Fall. Works on all systems that support Sierra

01:41PM EDT - Now for some Mac hardware announcements

01:41PM EDT - iMac update

01:41PM EDT - Updated display panels. 500 nits (43% brighter) and 10-bit dithering support

01:42PM EDT - Moving to Intels Kaby Lake and 10-bit HEVC decode

01:42PM EDT - Up to 32GB on the 21" system and 64GB on the 27" system; 2x the previous systems

01:42PM EDT - Fusion Drive now standard on 27" config and the high-end 21" config

01:42PM EDT - 50% faster SSD and up to 2TV

01:43PM EDT - Also getting 2x TB3 connectors

01:43PM EDT - iMac Graphics: entry level 21" gets Irus Plus 640 (64MB eDRAM)

01:44PM EDT - Retina 4K 21" gets dGPU, Radeon Pro 555 and 560, up to 4GB VRAM

01:44PM EDT - (Radeon 555 is not a current model number, 560 is Polaris 11)

01:44PM EDT - Retina 5K 27": Radeon Pro 570, 575, and 580

01:44PM EDT - (575 is also not an existing model number)

01:45PM EDT - Industrial Light & Magic's John Knoll is now on stage to offer a testimonial about the new iMacs

01:46PM EDT - Showcasing VR contente creation (in VR) with a Mac

01:47PM EDT - (This seems to be less intensive content creation, and more adding pre-built asset packages)

01:47PM EDT - (Think Garry's Mod)

01:47PM EDT - Running on Metal 2

01:49PM EDT - 90fps

01:49PM EDT - That's the iMac update

01:50PM EDT - $1099, $1499, and $1799 for 21", 21" 4K, and 27" 5K respectively

01:50PM EDT - Notebook refresh as well

01:50PM EDT - Kaby Lake for everyone!

01:51PM EDT - Faster SSD to the MacBook and faster standard graphics to the 15" MBP

01:51PM EDT - Still offering the same Touch Bar configurations

01:51PM EDT - The MacBook Air is also getting a frequency update

01:51PM EDT - No details, but that should be interesting

01:52PM EDT - The MacBook Air renains Apple's cheap laptop, and is quite popular despite its tepid specifications

01:52PM EDT - iMac Pro announced

01:53PM EDT - Not shipping until later this year

01:53PM EDT - Uses the same body design as the 27" iMac

01:53PM EDT - "The most powerful Mac ever"

01:54PM EDT - Talking about cooling. The iMac doesn't cool very well; it's closer to a laptop

01:54PM EDT - Shipping with up to an 18 core Xeon processor

01:54PM EDT - So Skylake-X LCC and HCC

01:54PM EDT - (With a Xeon premium)

01:54PM EDT - Graphics: Radeon Vega with up to 16GB VRAM

01:55PM EDT - Up to 11 TFLOPS FP32 performance

01:55PM EDT - Up to 128GB of ECC RAM

01:55PM EDT - I'm very curious to see how well Apple can cool this

01:55PM EDT - 4x TB3 ports

01:56PM EDT - Built-in 10Gb Ethernet

01:56PM EDT - (Coincidentlally, we have an article on cheaper 10GigE swtiches today: http://www.anandtech.com/show/11487/lower-cost-10gbase-t-switches-coming )

01:56PM EDT - UHS-II SD card slot

01:57PM EDT - Available in December

01:57PM EDT - So this is Apple's apology to pros let down by the Mac Pro

01:58PM EDT - (Though it's arguable whether Apple "gets" why developers might want a seperate tower)

01:58PM EDT - Announcement #4: iOS

01:59PM EDT - Tim is poking fun at Android's slow upgrade rate

01:59PM EDT - iOS 11

01:59PM EDT - (Insert Spinal Tap joke here)

01:59PM EDT - (Ed: actually, let's skip the spinal tap, thanks!)

01:59PM EDT - New features: Messages

02:00PM EDT - Messages in iCloud: auto syncing conversations among devices, including grabbing old messages on a newly synced device

02:00PM EDT - iOS and macOS

02:01PM EDT - Sounds like Apple is going to store a much smaller amount of messages on local devices

02:01PM EDT - Still end-to-end encrypted

02:01PM EDT - Apple Pay for person-to-person payments

02:01PM EDT - (P2PP?)

02:01PM EDT - Built-in to Messages

02:02PM EDT - If you receive money, it goes to your Apple Pay cash card

02:02PM EDT - Can transfer to a bank from there, if you'd like

02:02PM EDT - Siri update: new Siri voice

02:03PM EDT - Going for a more nautral voice

02:03PM EDT - New GUI for Siri as well

02:03PM EDT - New capabilities: translation

02:04PM EDT - Starting with English to 5 other languages

02:04PM EDT - SiriKit updates as well

02:05PM EDT - Siri is now synced across devices. Does on-device learning to better understand the user

02:06PM EDT - HEVC recording is finally enabled

02:06PM EDT - JPEG is being replaced with HEIF: High Efficiency Image Format

02:06PM EDT - Half the size of JPEG

02:07PM EDT - Image quality improvements for the cameras. Better handling of low-light, etc

02:08PM EDT - Live photos editing: trim, etc

02:08PM EDT - One other iOS big feature: control center

02:08PM EDT - Demo time

02:08PM EDT - Control center is now a single page

02:09PM EDT - Designed to make heavy use of 3D Touch

02:09PM EDT - Lock screen and notification screen are being integrated

02:10PM EDT - Seleting a "key photo" from a live photo recording

02:10PM EDT - Effect: using CV to compute a seemless loop of a live photo

02:11PM EDT - Camera: long exposure mode

02:13PM EDT - Now talking about Siri integration

02:14PM EDT - Contextual identificaiton of a request for money, triggering Apple Pay

02:14PM EDT - Detailed mall floor plans

02:15PM EDT - Also doing detailed airport maps

02:15PM EDT - Navigation: speed limit and lane guidance

02:16PM EDT - New feature: Do not Disturb While Driving

02:16PM EDT - Going to use WiFi and Bluetooth to figure out if you're driving, suggest enabling DnDWD

02:16PM EDT - New UI for DnDWD: a black screen

02:17PM EDT - Can be turned off if you're not driving

02:17PM EDT - (or if you want to be a hazard to others)

02:17PM EDT - (Cell phone makers have been taking a lot of flak for distracted driving. So this looks to be Apple's first stab at a solution)

02:18PM EDT - HomeKit Airplay 2 protocol

02:18PM EDT - Apple Music: Shared up Next (group playlists)

02:19PM EDT - Apple TV source and sink support is being added as well

02:19PM EDT - 27M Apple Music paid subscribers

02:20PM EDT - New API: MusicKit for Apple Music. So apps can interface with Apple Music

02:20PM EDT - Moving on: App Store news

02:23PM EDT - Discussing improvements over the last year for developers, such as faster app review times

02:23PM EDT - Phased releases. Choose to slowly roll it out to customers

02:24PM EDT - Apple is going to completely design the app store

02:24PM EDT - Starting tab: Today

02:24PM EDT - Games tab

02:25PM EDT - Apps (everything besides games) gets its own tab

02:25PM EDT - New product pages as well

02:25PM EDT - (Information density seems noticably lower)

02:26PM EDT - Demo time

02:27PM EDT - Very "pretty design, similar to Apple;s on web pages in some ways

02:28PM EDT - Games-only charts

02:28PM EDT - Game categories

02:30PM EDT - That's a wrap on the App Store

02:30PM EDT - Core tech updates: Metal 2 and HEVC

02:30PM EDT - Getting back to machine learning

02:31PM EDT - New machine learning APIs: Vision & natural language

02:31PM EDT - Built on CoreML

02:31PM EDT - Neural network based model

02:32PM EDT - On device processing (Apple's putting those fast GPUs to good use)

02:32PM EDT - AR: ARKit for letting devs do more with augmented reality

02:34PM EDT - Demoing a sample app with lighting interaction

02:34PM EDT - ARKit provides motion tracking, plane estimation, & more

02:36PM EDT - Better AR in Pokemon Go

02:36PM EDT - Demo time: Wingnut AR

02:37PM EDT - (AR with the iPad looks kind of awkward)

02:38PM EDT - Though a polished demo to be sure

02:39PM EDT - QR code support in the Camera app

02:39PM EDT - And that's iOS 11

02:40PM EDT - Announcement #5: iPad

02:41PM EDT - Talking about iPad Pro

02:41PM EDT - (iPad Pro is a bit of an odd product; the original large model came too early for things like DCI-P3)

02:42PM EDT - Introducing a new iPad Pro, a replacement to the 9.7-inch

02:42PM EDT - 10.5-inch display

02:42PM EDT - Thinner bezzels, weight of 1 pound

02:42PM EDT - Full size smart keyboard

02:43PM EDT - New displays for both size Pros

02:43PM EDT - DCI-P3, 600nits

02:44PM EDT - "HDR Video" (note that HDR is typically defined as 1000 Nits)

02:44PM EDT - 120Hz refresh rate

02:44PM EDT - A new arms race in refresh rates incoming?

02:45PM EDT - Higher refresh rate should improve the Apple Pencil's performance (latency down to 20ms)

02:45PM EDT - Higher refresh rate should improve the Apple Pencil's performance (latency down to 20ms)

02:46PM EDT - Adjustable reffresh rate (24hz for video, etc)

02:46PM EDT - A10X SoC

02:46PM EDT - 6 CPU cores, 12 GPU cores

02:46PM EDT - 40% faster graphics performance

02:47PM EDT - Demo time: 3rd party app, Affinity Photo

02:47PM EDT - (I'm very curious what the power hit is to 120Hz, both for the panel and the SoC)

02:50PM EDT - Demoing how fast Affinity Photo is on the new iPad

02:50PM EDT - 10 hour battery

02:50PM EDT - Using the 12MP camera module from the iPhone 8

02:51PM EDT - Excuse me, iPhone 7

02:51PM EDT - USB 3 support

02:51PM EDT - Fast charging with Apple's USB-C chargers

02:52PM EDT - So both sizes get the same SoC and cameras

02:53PM EDT - 64GB starting NAND size

02:53PM EDT - $649 for 10.5-inch, $799 for 12.9-inch

02:53PM EDT - Now on to new iOS 11 features for iPad

02:54PM EDT - New app switcher

02:54PM EDT - Drag & drop support being added as well

02:55PM EDT - Keyboard flicking to access punctuation

02:55PM EDT - New app: Files

02:55PM EDT - File manager for iPad. Can interface with 3rd party cloud providers as well

02:56PM EDT - Demoing the new macOS-style dock

02:57PM EDT - Demoing drag & drop into Mail as well

02:58PM EDT - (the iPad is looking increasingly like a Mac at times)

02:59PM EDT - Next up: Apple Pencil

03:00PM EDT - Instant Markup

03:00PM EDT - Better Notes integration as well

03:00PM EDT - Search handwritten text

03:01PM EDT - Built-in document scanner for Notes

03:01PM EDT - Demlo time

03:02PM EDT - Notes can read even bad handwriting

03:06PM EDT - iOS 11 iPad Dev preview today, public beta later this month, iOS 11 will support the iPad Air and later

03:06PM EDT - Video time

03:08PM EDT - Announcement #6: One last thing

03:08PM EDT - It's Music

03:08PM EDT - (Overheard a distinct, disappointed "oh" in the crowd)

03:09PM EDT - Tim Cook: "But what about our homes?"

03:09PM EDT - (That got some "woos" from the crowd)

03:09PM EDT - "Reinvent home music"

03:10PM EDT - "Breakthrough home speaker"

03:11PM EDT - Working on the project for later this year

03:11PM EDT - Offering a sneak peak for now. Rolling a video

03:12PM EDT - Product name: HomePod

03:13PM EDT - 7 inch tall device with 7 beam-forming tweetar array, Apple-designed upward-facing woofer, controlled by the Apple A8 SoC

03:14PM EDT - Uses beam-forming to adjust the audio to the shape of a room

03:16PM EDT - Can also use two speakers together

03:16PM EDT - Intelligent helper function works with Apple Music

03:17PM EDT - 6 microphone array

03:17PM EDT - Responds to "Hey Siri"

03:18PM EDT - Contextually-aware music questions

03:18PM EDT - Also has other home assistant functions via Siri

03:19PM EDT - So Apple's take on Amazon's Alexa, then

03:20PM EDT - (Hey Siri, play "Getting to know you")

03:20PM EDT - Can integrate with other iOS devices and tVOS devices

03:20PM EDT - Now talking about privacy

03:20PM EDT - Nothing is sent to Apple unless "hey siri" is used to activate it

03:21PM EDT - $349

03:21PM EDT - Available in Deceber, first in the US, UK, and Australia (Sorry, Canada)

03:22PM EDT - Tim's back on stage for a recap

03:25PM EDT - That's a wrap. Time for a hands-on.

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  • ViperV990 - Monday, June 5, 2017 - link

    Would be nice to have an option to show entries in chronological order instead of the reverse.
  • quiksilvr - Monday, June 5, 2017 - link

    This is currently live. Once the show is done it will be shown in chronological order on the page.
  • ddriver - Monday, June 5, 2017 - link

    At least it becomes clear why vega is "late" late...
  • Ian Cutress - Tuesday, June 6, 2017 - link

    The joys of watching a LIVE Blog and not having to scroll down each time a new entry is asked *in real time*
  • Guspaz - Monday, June 5, 2017 - link

    All I want is a generic digital watch face that has hours/minutes/seconds. Is that so much to ask? The only digital watch face that has seconds right now is the "Activity" watch face, which isn't great if you don't want the Activity stuff.
  • Guspaz - Monday, June 5, 2017 - link

    "(575 is also not an existing model number)"

    My LC575 begs to differ :)
  • invinciblegod - Monday, June 5, 2017 - link

    I don't know why they are bothering with a new mac pro expandable config if their direction was to go with an imac pro.
  • Glaurung - Monday, June 5, 2017 - link

    "why they are bothering with a new mac pro expandable config if their direction was to go with an imac pro."

    Because some of their pro customers don't care about external monitors or expandability, and for them an imac pro works. For others, it doesn't. Also, they're shipping the imac pro this year, and the new new mac pro will not show until next year this time or later.
  • Omega215D - Monday, June 5, 2017 - link

    Storing your messages in the cloud and restoring them to your device... Verizon Messages+ already does this and it's pretty seamless. Of course having such things in the cloud isn't always such a good idea. For sensitive messages it is advised that you get the well known messaging apps that focus on privacy like Signal and Telegram... maybe Wickr as well.
  • jaggedcow - Monday, June 5, 2017 - link

    Currently iMessage is as secure as Signal or Telegraph, and I doubt Apple's implementation would give up end-to-end local encryption like they have now

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