APPLE CORE News feature
INVESTIGATES
16 | MACFORMAT | SEPTEMBER 2019 macformat.com @macformatFor our latest
subscription offer
see page 34!WRITTEN BY ADAM BANKS
T
he keynote that opens Apple’s
annual World Wide Developer
Conference is streamed live on
the web, making it a fixture in the
Silicon Valley media calendar.
Sessions from the five-day event are also
posted (at bit.ly/mfwwdc19vids) for everyone to
see. But the real target audience is the 5,000-odd
members of Apple’s Developer Programs who win
the annual lottery for a $1,599 (£1,265) ticket to
attend in person, plus the 350 students awarded
Apple scholarships. We asked for some of their
reactions to WWDC 2019.Exploding head
A long keynote with plenty of technical detail left
some members of the public nonplussed, but
developers were enthusiastic. Kyle Lee, a self-
taught Swift coder who teaches others as Kilo
Loco, thought the cartoon graphics set the right
tone: “Apple was spot-on with the exploding head
theme – so much awesome technology all at once.”
Jose Reyes, also based in California and an iOS
developer, said: “This WWDC was very much
Apple at their utmost... incredible innovation in
all areas.” Kelly Guimont, meanwhile, who co-ranApp Camp for Girls and hosts The Mac Observer’s
Daily Observations podcast felt that this was “a
big year for Apple.”
Diane Hamilton is co-owner of Binary
Formations in Richmond, Virginia, making
macOS and iOS apps. “This year’s WWDC
brought back signs of Steve Jobs’ commitment
to quality and design over meeting self-imposed
deadlines,” she told us. “I’m excited about the
possibilities for our apps.”
Julian Schiavo, a 15-year-old iOS developer
who’s won scholarships to the last two WWDCs,
was really happy with how this year’s event went.
“Apple’s been trying to make things easier and
better for developers.”
One example much discussed in the run-up to
WWDC was Catalyst (originally Marzipan), the
initiative to bring UIKit, the interface-driven
framework used to make iOS apps, to macOS
development. Because UIKit is more widely used
than AppKit, the macOS framework, and seen as
easier to get into, Apple hopes it’ll increase the
number of Mac apps.
Ish ShaBazz, a developer and mentor in
southern California, is looking forward to
bringing his iOS apps to the Mac, while wonderingThe news from Apple’s annual developer conference
unpicked by those who know
What did developers
think of WWDC?
Tim Cook welcomes
developers to the
WWDC 2019 keynote.