WWDC 2023

It’s 1984!

This is one of the most exciting WWDC’s in a long while. It’s one I’m sad I missed out on in person but one I’ve enjoyed quite a bit.

The Vision Pro Apple announced has taken over media coverage and developers minds for what apps to make for it. It’s the closest thing we are getting to another iPhone. This is how I thought it would be going in. And I don’t think we got that actually. The more I think about it it’s like getting the 1984 Mac.

It’s a computer that is going to usher in “spatial computing” and introduce new ways of doing things. It’s going to lay the groundwork for all the hardware that comes after it. I love how it does not keep you isolated from the real world. Having it be more mixed reality with VR & AR components is great. But at the same time I do feel like this is going to be a very singular device.

I think the best apps for it are going to focus on giving the user media or productivity for them. I don’t think it’s ready for multiple users with the headset collaborating together. That will definitely be possible day one. But this will sell in low volume so I’m not sure how far those apps will get. I can be wrong but that’s my guess.

What has me most excited is what Apple showed. They know this product category is early and they need to make the most compelling product with todays tech. I keep thinking that Vision Pro as it is today will be like a desktop Mac Pro of sorts. A heavy powerful spatial computer. What might a Mac Mini type spatial Vision computer look like? What might a MacBook Air equivalent look like to stretch this metaphor. I know I’m already years out into non existent products. But I think Apple is thinking this way too.

I feel like the iPhone moment with this spatial computing technology will come later. That will be the mythical “regular glasses” design we all see in concept photos. I’m going though the WWDC session videos and getting more excited for this new platform. And thankfully even though I get motion sick easy it seems Vision Pro is good enough for that to not be an issue.

Summer Plans

As I ran Bridges on the Xcode beta and iOS 17 beta I’ve started to think of my summer plans. SwiftData is the new shiny this year for me and I am starting to make small demo apps with it. It’s very promising but it does hide lots of things I like to tweak under the hood. Luckily it’s still using CoreData which I’m familiar with but I think now I’m leaning towards adopting it later on and shipping what I got first. As something as important as the data model is to an app I don’t want to have legacy code day 1. But at the same time it would make me feel nervous shipping something that foundational on a 1.0. Not to mention having to push back the ship date and wonder if the beta is broken or if I’m writing the code wrong.

So as of now I think my summer is going to be very busy but fun. Im getting Bridges ready to ship as a 1.0. Continue to learn more about the new API’s and get ready for the fall releases.