I never learn. Each year I love the start of WWDC: The excitement of what is new, the demos of how Apple sees features working, and the inevitable download of new tools, apps, and operating systems. And this year, like WWDC19, something goes wrong.
I picked up the new iPad Pro 11inch (with the M1), and have made sure that I don’t have any work related content. It is my test device. I expect to lose data… And like two years ago, when macOS bricked my MacBook Pro, this year my brand new iPad Pro went into a reboot loop on install.
I am hoping that the iPad Recovery mode, will allow me install the restore image, if not, I will back level to iOS 14. And try again. So far, I am not frustrated, more disappointed. I have raised a feedback, but I don’t think I should wait for them to come back (usually after the next beta). More to come.
However, I think WWDC has already announced a few key things that I am very excited about, let me count the ways.
- TestFlight for the Mac. Finally able to distribute my beta app to testers, who want to play with the Mac version. (I know I could distribute it normally, but it is much easier to distribute via TestFlight on iOS, WatchOS, iPadOS and tvOS – so this is good news).
- App Development on the iPad. This is THE reason I brought the new iPad Pro. Apple announced that they will be releasing a new version of Swift Playgrounds which will allow you to develop iOS and iPadOS apps on your iPad and submit them to the App Store. The App is not there yet, but I can’t wait.
- SharePlay – for years, many different tools and platforms have tried create shared viewing for TV and Movies. I think that Apple has figured it out. And now that FaceTime is allowing screen share, I may be able to switch to FaceTime to do my remote support of my parents and mother-in-law’s computer issues. We shall see.
This week will be very interesting to review all the details over the next 200 videos.