WWDC 2013 Expectations | Hacker News Reader

WWDC 2013 Expectations

daringfireball.net

83 pointsrkrishnakumar84 comments

I'm not sure if Apple did a good job at keeping secrets, or whether there isn't anything to keep a secret about?

We're expecting new software, but that's easy for Apple to keep under wraps as it doesn't really have to be used outside Cupertino, unlike manufactured products like an iPhone. Nothing abnormally secret there.

We're expecting new MacBooks, but the rumour is a move to Haswell, which would only be a spec bump, no new major design, and we have had new model numbers leaked. Nothing abnormally secret again.

There might be a new Mac Pro, but this is supposedly being manufactured in the US meaning there is less of a supply chain to leak from, and my guess is that it's not in manufacturing yet anyway and if one is announced it will be a little way off (it was slated for 'later in 2013').

If there is an entirely new product (probably something TV related) then that would be a big secret that was well kept. But I'm not putting money on that happening. I'm not sure Apple has been any better at keeping secrets than recent years at all.

>> "We're expecting new software, but that's easy for Apple to keep under wraps as it doesn't really have to be used outside Cupertino"

I would assume they have to use iOS out in the field to test things like Maps and any changes they've made to the software controlling the radio signals.

It would be very difficult to know if the person near you is using a secret version of the software.

One thing we know is that Apple's test units have narrow field of view overlays to make sneaking a peek harder.

Testing it in the field without detection is quite easy to do in the Valley. It's not like being in SF or NYC, where you could always have someone peeking over your shoulder.

Historically Apple software hasn't really been leaked that much as far as I can tell. The fact we don't know anything about iOS 7 or OS X 10.9 isn't anything new, that's the same as every OS release.

I am happy if they add a share button like the Android one. It's a small wish but it's clear that Apple is falling behind in many areas except performance and battery life on tablets.

Relaxing App Store rules to include programming languages/VMs will give a little boost to our community too. If I want to learn Haskell I want to do it on the iPad.

The way apps can interoperate in Android is definitely an advantage over iOS for developers, but it's a security/sandbox issue not a lack of capability in the OS. iOS hugely trails Android in malware... Coincidence?

App Store allows programming languages and even VMs. It doesn't allow running externally sourced code.

But the same can be applied to copy&paste. We are not talking about rocket science....

Any malware issues on Android have more to do with differences in vetting than the intents system.

It is a security issue, but I don't think it is what is causing the Android malware issue. The Intents system on Android is a security issue because most developers don't use it smartly and end up exposing their apps to SQL injection on the internal SQLite database they use.

Actually, the fact that Android uses a virtual machine for it's code has pretty good security benefits over running native code as on iOS.

This is true in theory if not practice, but the point is that Apple blocks third party VMs (or did).

Actually, the fact that Android uses a virtual machine for it's code has pretty good security benefits over running native code as on iOS.

Howso? I'm trying to think of what a VM could guard against aside from illegal memory accesses, which of course iOS hardware (like any other modern hardware) guards against for native code.

As everything must eventually exit the VM to use hardware or certain features, you have more control over the boundary. On iOS, as you run native code, you could theoretically do direct device access in assembly and the OS has far less control over that. It is also possible to inspect the bytecode for a Java program and know with much more certainty what it's going to try and do, which instructions it will try and run, etc.

On iOS, as you run native code, you could theoretically do direct device access in assembly and the OS has far less control over that.

But the hardware access protection ensures user code doesn't access anything it's not supposed to. And its up to device drivers to manage devices and ensure that access to them by user code is done properly.

Static inspection of Java bytecode can allow you to verify the safety of some things and so do fewer checks at runtime; but to my understanding, native code has all the same protections in the end as code running in a VM.

Bullshit. Windows RT has similar app interoperability and significantly advanced share functionality when compared to iOS and yet has no 'security issue' nor 'malware'.

No users either.

Haskell and VMs are not against the App Store rules at all, you just cannot JIT anything. The ban against non-C languages was only in place long enough to scare Adobe away.

That's not true. An app cannot run code not part of the original app package. This was a huge problem for projects like the Commodore 64 emulator.

Those rules were relaxed three years ago.

http://n4g.com/news/607824/apple-approves-manomios-c64-2-0-a...

There are many examples of programming language runtime apps, such as

Scheme: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/gambit-repl/id434534076

OCaml: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/ocamlexample/id396515573

Python: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/python-3.3-for-ios/id5779112...

Codea (LUA): https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/codea/id439571171

What restricts these apps from being awesome is that they cannot download source code or accept source code pushed to them from other apps. Cut-n-paste is the only way to transfer existing code.

> they cannot download source code

The Python app can download arbitrary data with nothing more than a simple urllib call. Feed it into eval, and you're done.

> Nothing abnormally secret again.

What do you mean by this? You listed the things that we do know, then said nothing about those things are abnormally secret.

I mean that the secrets aren't likely to be anything out of the ordinary for Apple given the last few years.

We don't know much about the software, as usual, and we know pretty much what the hardware will be, as usual, with the exception possibly being a new Mac Pro, which I'm not sure is going to be released soon, although it might be announced.

I hope we see a modern, case-sensitive filesystem, for once, without resource or data forks of any kind.

Second, I hope we see better graphics, new OpenGL is a must.

Third, maybe a fresher UI similar to iTunes 11, would be nice. Aqua is dated.

That's all I hope for. Just wait for it, the announcement is tomorrow. It's only 21 hours away... just wait.

+1 for newer opengl. 3.2 is from 2009 :(

So? Any particular thing you're missing in the desktop from OpenGL 4.x?

Do people really play that many games on their Macs? And do they think 3.2 vs 4.x would make that much a difference?

And it's not like 2009 is that back. If you want to see real pain, see us web people not being able to use 5+ year old CSS technologies without tricks because of lack of support, and having to use an almost unchanged for 15+ years JS language.

ARB_sampler_objects, ARB_draw_indirect, ARB_tesselation_shader, compute shaders, opengl es compatibility, debug callbacks to name a few.

Please do not justify brokenness by citing other brokenness.

The problem with modern, case-sensitive filesystems is that old software (and frameworks) don't like them. IIRC, case-sensitive HFS+ still isn't the default because Adobe software breaks if installed on it. Apple's not willing to say "sorry, you millions of Photoshop users, we're going to be technologically pure"

The other problem is that nobody but change-resistant Unix geeks (of which I am one) want case-sensitive filesystems.

To the average person, "John's grocery list" being different from "john's grocery list" would be nothing more than a silly limitation of the dumb computer.

"case-sensitive filesystem"

What is the business use case for a user to treat documents "Annual Report.docx" and "Annual report.docx" as absolutely different and unrelated?

>I hope we see a modern, case-sensitive filesystem, for once, without resource or data forks of any kind.

How is a "case-sensitive" filesystem more ...modern?

Case-sensitivity has fewer edge cases (I'll give you that, especially concerning Unicode), but it's really just us bending over to the way the computer sees files instead of the way people think about them.

The files "accounts.xls" and "Accounts.xls" are not conceptually different.

>without resource or data forks of any kind.

Again, this is giving away tons of potential and actual benefits, features and uses, only to make it simpler for the developer of the filesystem and to enable better compatibility to cross-filesystems transfers.

I'd rather see a standard way of handling resource/data-forks that is also implemented by Windows and Linux at least.

When I switched to OS X from Linux, case sensitivity was a thing I missed dearly. I know that it's a fringe feature, and that even I don't use it much, but it irks me that it isn't there, especially when both ext4 and NTFS have it.

It's more important considering Time Machine backups and actual UNIX moving and copying of files, and this is also where resource/data forks are also a huge burden. Unless OS X implements a different cp and mv than the standard FreeBSD ones, just implementing a filesystem without forking could be a solution. Also, case sensitivity is affected the same way.

For the normal user, it's fine to keep a case-preserving filesystem. But, Apple needs to make sure developers write their apps with case-sensitivity in mind (I'm looking at YOU, Adobe).

NTFS "has" it, but it's only there to meet POSIX requirements. It's merely case-preserving in non-POSIX contexts, which ultimately means almost nobody uses it.

Unless OS X implements a different cp and mv than the standard FreeBSD ones, …

It does (though it didn't before 10.4). There's still lots of code out there that doesn't respect them, no doubt, but to my knowledge you can use the built-ins without worrying about losing your resource forks.

> How is a "case-sensitive" filesystem more ...modern?

HFS has a case-sensitive flag. OS X works fine with it turned on. Some applications, notably games, sometimes have problems with it. You can easily create a case-sensitive development partition and have expect no problems.

No data forks of an kind? The data fork of a file is ... the file. Mac OS X only supports resource forks as a legacy and I believe only through Carbon which is gone. Case sensitive file system? This is an advantage how? More modern how?

You can format your HD to be case-sensitive using DiskUtil. It's just set to case-insensitive be default.

File systems are an anachronism from when stored everything in filing cabinets (the original meaning of "file system"). Search and tagging have shown us a better way forward, we should just relegate file systems to behind the scenes work as they are on phones.

While the naming is vestigial, the concept is not. Hierarchies are still the best way to navigate and organize data and objects, and search is only one component of that.

It works on phones because phones have limited use cases. A computer needs to be general purpose.

I don't think so, we just still stuck in the past. It is definitely quite reasonable to get rid of the file system as a user concern, how many people bother organizing their files into folders anyways? They would be better served by tagging and other enhanced meta-data to make search more effective.

It certainly has been odd watching Apple this year. Normally the company announces something significant every few months, but in 2013 they've gone (almost) completely silent. The last product release of note was the 2012 iMac, which was announced in October. So that's seven or eight months of silence.

Something has been brewing at Cupertino, and I'm looking forward to tomorrow. Between this and E3, this week is like nerd Christmas.

Based on Cook's statements during the last earnings report, we're not going to see a new category of hardware before Q4, but opening AppleTV for third party development, announcing broader content for AppleTV, and announcing a beefier AppleTV would be huge — I think the living room is Apple's to lose.

Imagine an AppleTV with sufficient grunt for games that uses iOS devices as remotes.

Here are my predictions based on what I've read and some guesswork, and being very bored.

iOS. The visual refresh for iOS will make it feel modern and present a new design language for developers, ribbon, leather and wood textures are eradicated, however no fundamental changes such as widgets. There will be some relenting in the iron-fisted control of default apps, but only a couple of apps will be allowed (Browser and Mail).

OSX. OSX gets similar but smaller visual update, and yet more iOS features which are not welcomed by power users (more posts about switching from Mac to Linux will ensue[1]).

Finder. iCloud will be integrated directly into Finder somehow, such that if signed into iCloud the default start place in Finder will be iCloud documents/images which can be viewed on the Mac, along with their associated sandboxed applications. If you do not have the app installed required to open the document you will be shown a link to purchase the app in the App Store. They will also finally relent to power user demands and allow tabs in the Finder via preferences.

The menu bar will be inverted to pure black with white text/icons and no drop shadow. Although the 'z-index' will still be present it will feel flat aesthetically which will fit more with the new design language.

There will be yet more annoying animation with window open/closing, modals etc, and of course no way to turn it off. Core 2 Duo and lower will no longer be supported.

Some sort of Mac Pro similar to the G4 Cube with modular add-ons will be announced and will be ridiculously expensive.

Finally Apple TV possible update to include an app store and have new hardware (possibly $149). It will be compatible with the last generation, but miss out on a key feature like 'Siri TV'.

[1] I use both Linux and Mac.

i don't know why i feel they should introduce a digital camera running iOS.

They do; it's called the iPod Touch.

I want many of those changes to happen, but I think you're being optimistic.

I think Apple will keep support for Conroe (Core 2 and its contemporary Xeon counterparts) for another OS release. Conroe was one of the biggest performance jumps between Intel processor generations in some time, and Apple used the NVIDIA 9400M IGP to give their Core 2 computers passable graphics performance.

I probably am being optimistic you're right. I also hope you're right and they do keep support for Conroe, I currently have an iMac and Macbook Air both running Core 2 Duo. Not sure I will buy Apple hardware again anyway as currently I just want an i7 in a desktop chasis. More and more of what I do is virtualised (be it Vagrant, remote servers etc) so I just need power at a reasonable price.

tl;dr Gruber doesn't know.

I've been thinking about this lately. Keeping software leak-free is pretty easy compared to hardware. They have shields on the product that limit the viewing angle of the display. Also, only certain employees will have access to the final build, so if any of them leaked screenshots or what have you, it could be easily traced back to the leaker.

"... and did so by introducing something new. The touchscreen."

That's something that still annoys the crap out of me. Long before the iPhone, plenty of people were happily using PalmOS and Windows Mobile touchscreen devices and downloading apps for them. If he doesn't think the Palm Treos mattered, he wasn't paying attention.

He clearly wasn't. There aren't that many Treo-mentions on DF pre-iPhone and almost all of those are about kicking the Windows Mobile 700w (which was justified to a point, but still...).

Right. Speaking as an ex-happy-palmos and ex-angry-winmo user, what the iPhone introduced was the finger-usable (i.e. capacitive) touch screen, rather than the stylus-based (resistive) one - which genuinely was a paradigm shift.

I used my fingernail on my Treo all the time. I was happy to switch to capacitive touch but sometimes I miss the precision and ability to use any old stylus.

I'm surprised there hasn't been much speculation regarding an Apple TV announcement. It's been about a year since Tim Cook stated 'TV is something we are incredibly interested in' - Apple has sold over 13MM Apple TVs - connected 'Smart TVs' are growing (roughly 25MM connected smart tvs in use) - and Apple just released the CW app on Apple TV.

Maybe it doesn't seem like a WWDC kind of announcement, but opening up an SDK for this rich viewing experiences on Apple TV could be huge, depending on what examples they have lined up.

Also, since the Apple TV would only require a hardware upgrade (at most) - and is mostly just software, it could be kept under wraps pretty easily. Hopefully something comes up about TV!

I am hoping for Apple TV apps + SDK, remaking game consoles accidentally like they worked over handheld gaming. If you think about WiiU + Microsoft's XBone announcement they might be trying to focus where Apple TV is going. The best way to do it would be the ability to Air Install apps/games from your phone/tablet onto Apple TV. Yes there is AirPlay for gaming now but being able to get it on the device helps with lag.

Maybe Apple did get better at keeping things under wrap, but it's also because people lost interest with the lack of innovation coming out of Apple.

In the span of ten years (2001 - 2010), they brought Unix computers to the mass market, revolutionized the smartphone, and introduced mainstream tablets. Saying that there's a lack of innovation there is ridiculous to me. I am extremely pleased that Apple only rarely embraces change for the sake of change[1].

I get the sense that people like us tend to want to see lots of changes, and are too quick to write things off just because they don't look that different from last year's model.

All that said, I certainly don't think iOS is perfect. I think Apple needs to add user accounts to the iPad, and allow for some IPC and replacement of system components on iOS, among other things.

[1] cf. this god-awful skeumorphic thing that is finally being put out to pasture. And the Flower Power and Dalmatian iMacs. And that whole "It's called iTools, not wait .Mac, no wait MobileMe, no wait iCloud!" thing has been a total disaster.

> brought Unix to the mass market

Not really. 90% of Mac users don't care or know what Unix is. They don't know that OS X's toolchain and userland are based on FreeBSD. All they care about is ease of use.

Developers like OS X because it is Unix, and if OS X wasn't, they would just be using GNU+Linux or BSD anyway.

> Not really. 90% of Mac users don't care or know what Unix is.

This is exactly why it is brilliant. The average user is NOT a unix user, but the average developer is. The reason OS X is doing so well the same reason Facebook Home bombed. Developers are actually using the systems they are writing code for.

In a sense, however, this is egregious. Since 10.6 OS X has been about abandoning developers and professionals and catering to consumers. The removal of 2-dimensional workspace management, inconsistency in NATIVE application look and feel (this is ridiculous, I can understand when there's inconsistency in third party applications, but to have in-house apps look and feel completely different is absurd) and the inability to easily remove unneeded or unwanted "features" in the OS has made OS X a pain in the ass for many, including me.

I've vacillated on switching back to Ubuntu for quite a while now. I always end up making a Linux partition, installing Ubuntu on it, but I come back to OS X, just because

1. Less worry about configuration 2. Greater OS-wide service communication and integration 3. Laziness

I've been considering creating a GNU+Linux distro with an OpenStep-compatible toolkit at its core (http://gnustep.org/) so that I can get the famous Cocoa look and feel, but with the modularity of Linux.

Still haven't done it yet.

I don't understand this sentiment. Apple is releasing groundbreaking new products at the same rate they always have. They are certainly innovating no slower then they always have.

Anyone else bothered by the fact that the font size is only 11px? Being on a 27" iMac the article was hard to read.

TSDR (Too Small Didn't Read)

Install the Clearly browser extension or the Readability bookmarklet.

You can change it here: http://daringfireball.net/preferences/

Or zoom on the browser itself (but you already knew that).

I didn't know he had a preferences page. Thank you.

The link is on the footer :)

Command Shift +

Apple predictions game, fwiw. http://apple.dyaso.com/

All I want is a new Mac Pro that doesn't suck. Yes, I'll pay Mac tax for the hardware.

Will there is Livestream this year?

What a fanboy

I'd be interested to know what areas jumped out as "fanboy-ish" to you.

"No, Apple did not invent the touchscreen. But the iPhone... It was the first touchscreen device that mattered."

There you go.

Out of genuine curiosity, what touchscreen device would you say then was actually the first one that mattered?

I assume by "mattered" Gruber meant mass market popularity, which IMO was mostly because Apple did get many things right in their touchscreen. (I owned a bunch of touchscreen devices before my first iPhone and they all sucked from a user experience perspective - missed taps, sluggish response, lack of multitouch, requirement for a special stylus etc).

I'd say that Palm manufactured a large number of "touchscreen devices that mattered" years before the iPhone. Just because it wasn't high-resolution and capacitive doesn't change the fact that for a long while, Palm Pilots were a staple of business.

Ah, fair point. The Palm didn't come to my mind because I didn't buy one - I personally felt that the device & the stylus-based interface were too clunky - but you're right, it was still a touchscreen device that mattered.

I'd be interested to know which mainstream touchscreen device really impacted society before the iPhone.

Whether or not you like the iPhone, it's rather hard to claim that it didn't revolutionize the cell phone market.

Palm pilot was probably the first usable device.

   * 5% chance they have a new connector to rip people off with overpriced patented attachments (low likelihood only because they recently came out with one already)
   * 65% ipad mini gets a "retina" display and finally has the resolution of it's high priced competitor the Nexus 7"
   * 70% new ipad comes out with the new connector to force people to upgrade, manufacturers to pay ridiculous licensing costs and to spark replacement purchases.
   * 70% apple roles out a competitor for Google Music before the iPeeps realize that things are much cheaper and higher quality in the other store
   * 95% they copy a few more features from Android and talk about how it's the first device to do it.
   * 75% they try to incorporate features from the announced xbox one

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