223: Live From WWDC 2018 With Greg Joswiak and Mike Rockwell

Episode Summary

Executive Summary: Live from WWDC, John Gruber interviews Apple’s Mike Rockwell and Greg Joswiak about Apple’s AR/VR direction, iOS 12, privacy, Siri shortcuts, CarPlay, and macOS Mojave. The conversation emphasizes Apple’s focus on making complex technologies accessible, performant on older devices, privacy-preserving on-device processing, and platform openness where it benefits users and developers.

Main Topics: ARKit 2 and USDZ as a new AR content standard (Priority: 5/5): Rockwell explains Apple’s push to make AR creation and sharing easier through USDZ, an open 3D/AR file format meant to function like a 'PDF of AR,' with broad tool support from Pixar, Adobe, and others. AR persistence, object detection, and shared experiences (Priority: 5/5): The discussion covers how ARKit 2 can save environment maps, relocalize experiences later, support peer-to-peer sharing, and detect trained objects like Lego models for collaborative or asynchronous AR use. Machine learning and AR performance (Priority: 4/5): Apple describes ML as central to ARKit features such as environment texturing, plane detection, and scene understanding, while also enabling app-specific classifiers via Core ML and Create ML. iOS 12 performance, attention management, and Screen Time (Priority: 5/5): Joswiak frames iOS 12 as a performance-focused update for older devices, and discusses new tools like Do Not Disturb refinements, notification tuning, and usage reporting to help users manage attention. Privacy as a product principle (Priority: 5/5): The guests stress Apple’s on-device approach to photos, AR maps, and tracking prevention in Safari, arguing that users should control data and that Apple avoids cloud-heavy profiling models. Mojave, dark mode, Safari favicons, and Mac App Store revival (Priority: 4/5): The conversation highlights macOS Mojave features—Dark Mode, improved screenshots, Finder metadata, Safari favicon display, and a redesigned Mac App Store—plus Apple’s effort to bring pro iOS apps to the Mac via new UIKit-on-Mac technology. Siri shortcuts and CarPlay expansion (Priority: 4/5): Apple positions Siri Shortcuts as a major step toward a more personal assistant, while CarPlay’s support for third-party navigation apps like Waze signals a more open platform stance in automotive UX.

Key Arguments: AR adoption needs a standard format and Apple is betting USDZ can become the default, open, efficient way to distribute AR assets. ARKit 2 solves real problems—persistence, object recognition, and shared coordinate systems—so AR can move beyond demos into practical uses. Machine learning is not separate from AR; it is embedded throughout ARKit and also available to developers for custom recognition tasks. Apple’s software updates are designed to improve, not degrade, older devices; iOS 12 specifically targets performance on older hardware. Privacy-friendly design means Apple prefers on-device processing and sparse environmental maps that do not contain RGB images. Notification and usage tools in iOS 12 are meant to give users actionable awareness and control rather than merely adding features. Apple is selectively opening platforms when it improves the user experience, as seen with third-party navigation in CarPlay and third-party app integration in Siri Shortcuts. The new Mac app compatibility initiative is intended to bring more iOS apps to the Mac without replacing AppKit, but by expanding the ecosystem. Dark Mode and the redesigned Mac App Store are presented as both pro-user improvements and broadly useful quality-of-life features.

Data Points: Group FaceTime participants: up to 32 - Apple announced Group FaceTime can scale to 32 people in a call. ARKit age at time of discussion: 9 months - Joswiak notes ARKit has only been out for about nine months, countering claims it has not taken off. ARKit releases mentioned: 1, 1.5, 2 - Rockwell references Apple’s rapid iteration across ARKit 1, 1.5, and 2. Environment capture spaces: about 10,000 - Apple says it captured roughly 10,000 spaces to train the neural network for environment texturing. iOS 11 customer satisfaction: 95% - Joswiak cites iOS 11 satisfaction as evidence software updates are well received. Siri active users: over 500 million - Apple says Siri has a very large active user base. Siri monthly requests: 10 billion requests per month - Used to emphasize Siri’s scale and importance. App Store weekly usage: 500 million users per week - Joswiak cites App Store engagement while discussing editorial improvements and discovery. Free trial length for Mac Stadium: 30 days - Sponsor mention for Mac Stadium’s production-ready trial. Instabug credit offer: $150 in credit - Instabug sponsor promotion for code DF18. Instabug preloaded credit after trial: $50 - Part of the DF18 promotional offer. SetApp monthly price: $9.99 per month - Sponsor mention for SetApp’s curated Mac app service.

Pivotal Quotes: "We're trying to start something which would be like the PDF of AR, which is really what we think USDZ can become." — Mike Rockwell: Explaining the purpose and ambition behind the USDZ file format. "The beauty of AR is you don't have that problem. Right. Your legs still move." — Mike Rockwell: Responding to concerns about awkward body interaction in VR versus AR form factors. "We've got chips, as we talked about, that are super fast. We have software teams that know how to do amazing things without having to resort to the cloud doing the heavy lifting." — Greg Joswiak: On Apple’s privacy and on-device processing philosophy.

Implications: Apple is positioning AR, privacy, and platform integration as long-term ecosystem bets: simpler developer tools, more capable devices, and more user control. The announcements suggest Apple wants AR and Mac/iOS convergence to become mainstream, practical, and trustworthy.