A panoramic glimpse of the entrance to the conference.

By: Lauren Goodacre

In the wake of Apple’s exciting $3 billion deal with Beats Music and Beats Electronics, the company kicked off day one of the week-long World Wide Developers Conference (WWDC). The conference brought together more than 6,000 developers, media and tech-savvy wannabes (like me) eager to hear about the latest updates regarding Mac OS 10 and iOS 8.

As the only one not sitting down or on my phone, I figured I would fit in nicely.

After spending the morning hunched over my MacBook trying to catch every word of WWDC, I decided to take a stroll down to Moscone Center to catch some of the action myself. I arrived at the conference hall during lunch, and was immediately surrounded by hoodies and hundreds of developers glued to their iPhones. Despite the madness, I was able to hail down a promoter to snap a picture of me at the buzzing event.

According to Apple CEO Tim Cook, who delivered the much-shared keynote, the company gained 130 million new customers in the last year, making it still one of the most profitable and thriving companies in the world. WWDC proved no different: Cook and several of his colleagues boasted of some awesome new features that even Android lovers can appreciate.

I typically hate updating my phone. It usually takes too long to install, and I have to spend several days getting used to the new features. Some of the most recent updates haven’t been particularly game changing in my opinion, which is why I’ve been ignoring the daunting little notification that has lived in my Settings icon for several months. However, the new iOS 8 update is definitely worth waiting for! Here are some noteworthy features to come:

– Interactive notifications – Users can respond to text, accept calendar invites and even like/comment on Facebook posts without leaving the current app they are on; the notification shows up at the top of the screen for people to quickly and easily respond.

This is an example of the Quicktype feature. Photo credit: Apple.com WWDC live stream.

– Quicktype – The phone now learns how you type and predicts what it thinks you’re going to say next. For example, you might be talking to a friend about dinner last night and start typing the words “dinner was… ” and the Quicktype feature will bring up a selection of words like “awesome, so good, awkward” for you to choose from. It bases these words on how you commonly type and to whom you are talking.

– Group messages – You will soon be able to add/remove people from a thread. So, if the group chat goes from your friends’ weekend plans to two people talking about cats, you can easily remove yourself from the conversation.

– Location sharing – Pending your friends are actually willing to share their location with you, you’ll be able to tell where everyone in the conversation is located at any given time.

On a more controversial note, Apple received a bit of criticism from WhatsApp co-founder Jan Koum, who is accusing Apple of “borrowing” several of the company’s messaging features, including voice recordings and in-message video sharing. The new iOS will also begin deleting certain messages after a period of time. Snapchat for iMessage, anyone?

Demonstrating some of Markups awesome capabilities. Photo credit: Apple.com WWDC live stream.

There are also some great new qualities coming for Mac OS 10, including a savvy new feature called Markup. Mac users will be able to edit, enhance and manipulate photos right from an email or pdf. For people who are actually able to keep their phones more than a foot away from them, the new OSX will let people answer a phone call directly from an iPad or computer, even if the phone is far away or in another room.

Overall, day one of WWDC seemed to be a success. I am keen to tune in the rest of the week (from my Mac, iPad and/or iPhone) to hear what else Apple is planning for the next year. I hope there’s something in there about Beats. I could really use an updated pair of ear bud headphones…

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You can get all your WWDC news including the live stream on Apple’s website, starting at 10 am PT every morning this week.

Who to follow:

#Apple
@TimCook
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@WhatsApp
@Mashable
@PressKitchenSF