Apple's WWDC 2018 Developers' Keynote: A Tale of Two Tech Giants

As we find ourselves in San Jose, California, just after Apple's WWDC 2018 developers' keynote, it becomes clear that this was the most Google-like keynote that Apple has ever presented. The reason behind this observation is straightforward - Apple announced a plethora of features that are identical to those showcased by Google at its recent I/O event. Feature for feature, it seems like Apple took a cue from Google and adapted its approach to suit its own unique style.

This raises an interesting question: what does it mean when two tech giants follow a similar path? Is this a sign of convergence or simply a case of parallel evolution? To answer this, we need to take a closer look at the features announced by both companies and examine how they differ in their approach. By comparing these features side-by-side, we can gain insight into the unique strengths and weaknesses of each company's approach.

One notable difference is that Apple typically presents a clear overarching theme at its keynotes, often with a narrative thread that ties everything together. This emphasis on storytelling creates a sense of cohesion and direction, giving developers and consumers alike a better understanding of what to expect from Apple's latest innovations. In contrast, Google's keynote approach is more focused on showcasing individual features and products, without necessarily tying them together with a broader narrative.

This dichotomy becomes even more pronounced when we examine the first feature announced by both companies - Screen Time (or Digital Wellbeing in Google's terminology). Essentially, this app allows users to track their screen time across all apps on their device, providing insights into their usage habits. While Apple and Google have opted for similar names and functionality, there are some subtle differences in how they approach this feature.

For instance, while Screen Time (or Digital Wellbeing) provides a comprehensive overview of screen time, it also offers more granular controls over individual apps and specific times of day. On the other hand, Google's equivalent feature seems to focus more on providing a holistic view of usage patterns across multiple devices. These differences may seem minor, but they underscore the distinct approaches taken by Apple and Google in their respective strategies.

Another notable difference is the handling of notifications. In iOS, Apple has seemingly fixed long-standing issues with notification management, allowing users to group notifications and dismiss them directly from the notification center without needing to dig deeper into settings. While this feature may seem minor, it represents a significant improvement over past iterations and demonstrates Apple's commitment to providing a more streamlined user experience.

Moving on to Apple Photos and Google Photos, we find yet another example of parallel innovation. Both companies have adopted similar features, such as the "For You" section that generates fun little content with uploaded photos and advanced search capabilities. However, there is one key difference: Apple has opted for end-to-end encryption when creating shared albums, whereas Google relies on cloud-based storage to achieve this level of security.

This distinction becomes crucial throughout our analysis, particularly when examining the role of cloud storage in each company's ecosystem. While both companies recognize the importance of data security, their approaches differ significantly. For Apple, end-to-end encryption is a core feature that enhances user trust and provides an additional layer of protection against unauthorized access. Google, on the other hand, relies on its vast network of cloud-based services to achieve this level of security.

Shared Augmented Reality (AR) experiences also present an intriguing opportunity for comparison between Apple and Google. Both companies have announced support for shared AR experiences across multiple devices, with Google's implementation being cross-platform and Apple's not. However, what truly sets Apple apart is its focus on local processing, where all the data required to create this shared experience is computed directly on-device, eliminating the need for cloud-based connectivity.

In contrast, Google has opted for a more cloud-centric approach, relying on remote servers to handle AR-related computations and data storage. This difference in approach may seem significant at first glance, but it highlights the unique strengths of each company's platform. By processing data locally, Apple can ensure greater security, reduced latency, and improved performance - all crucial factors for the seamless delivery of high-quality AR experiences.

As we continue our analysis, it becomes clear that both Apple and Google have much to offer in terms of innovation and user experience. While their approaches differ in many areas, there are also notable similarities that demonstrate the strengths of each company's platform. By examining these features side-by-side and exploring the nuances behind each difference, we can gain a deeper understanding of what sets these two tech giants apart.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: en- So we're here in San Jose,California, just after the endof Apple's WWDC 2018 developers'Keynote, and you know what?This was the most Googlekeynote that Applehas ever presented.What do I mean by that?Apple announced a ton ofstuff that is almost exactlylike what Google announcedat Google I/O last month.Like, feature for feature, the same thing.What I wanna do, is I wanna look at allthe features that bothApple and Google announcedin the past couple ofmonths and compare them,and see how Google does it Google's way,and Apple does it Apple's way.But you know, one thing was the same.Usually Apple gives youa clear overarching themeat its keynotes, you sortof get a narrative thread.But this time they just likeannounce a bunch of stuff!Which is exactly whatGoogle does at its keynotes.Even though this was themost Google-y Apple keynotein quite a while, trust me.Apple is still Apple.Alright, so we're back inthe studio, and honestlythere's a lot of stuffwe could go through,and I wanna just jumpthrough really rapid firein a few of them just to get started.And, well here.I'll just do this so youcan look at some stuff here.Okay, so the first thingis this timeal spend stuff.Apple calls it Screen Time, Googlecalls it Digital Wellbieng,but it's basicallyan app that lets you see how much timeyou're using on all the apps on your phoneand it's very, very similar.Another thing that's very, very similar?Oh my god, I think they mighthave fixed notificationsin ios; I'm so excited.We made a video aboutthis before, but you cannow group notifications,and you can turn offnotifications directlyfrom the notificationwithout digging into settings.And now, the last thing Iwanna do, just really quick,is Apple Photos and yo, it is astraight rip of Google Photos.They have the exact same features.They've got this for you section whereit's like the Google Assistantsection, where it likemagically creates fun littlethings with your pictures.They have advanced searchthat lets you look insidethe photos and string chainsof different searches together.And they have suggestedsharing, where it looks at who'sin the photos, and suggeststhat you make a shared albumwith those people, justlike Google Photos does.But the difference is ApplePhotos, when you make thoseshared albums, they'reend-to-end encrypted, they don'tdepend on Apple lookingat it in the cloud, whereGoogle Photos, you know Google putstheir stuff in the cloud.Now, Apple's end-to-end encryptionis the big story here, it'sthe main thing that theydo differently thanthe way Google does it.And that difference becomesreally important throughoutthis entire story.Another really good example of itis shared Augmented Reality,both companies announcedthat you could have a sharedAugmented Reality experienceamong multiple devices.Google's is cross-platform, Apple's isn't.And, you know what?Rather than me talk about it,this is the one thingI got to try at WWDC,so let's take a look at it.We've joined the game that's being hostedover there, so now youcan see the whole table.What's interesting aboutthis, is us having thisshared AR experience ishappening all locally.This is all just gettingdone directly over Wifi.So all the data about theposition of all these thingsI see it, he sees it, hesees it, it's all happeningwithout having to go up to the cloud.Which is different fromthe way Google does it.They use this thing called\"Cloud Anchors\", whichsyncs it up to the cloud,then back down again.Apple's also reallygood at recognizing thatyou know, this objectand that object, thesetwo Ipads know that this table is here andthat this is a shared world.When I send something over to this guy...He's learning how to do it, I'm just gonnadunk on him right now by going at him.Okay, so I hope thatVerin and Felicia chose toshow you the cut where Iwon that game, cause I lostmost of those games.True story when you lose a gamethe word \"Victory\" isspelled backwards 'cause,you know, it's a sharedAugmented Reality and itactually has the right perspectives.Anyway, what I reallywant to talk to you guysabout are two featuresthat I think are the mostimportant things thatApple announced at WWDC.The first is this new shortcuts feature.And it's very similar towhat's on Android P whichis called Axes and Slices,so an app's functionbreaks out of the app into therest of the operating systemeither in search, or thewidget panel, or whatever.Now the way Apple does it is you actuallyset it up yourself,It's more configuration.The way Android P does itis you just have to trustGoogle is just gonna knoweverything and figure it outfor you.They're very similar, but the Apple way,it's more configured, it's more local.The Google way, you justhave to trust Google.But the most important thing,the biggest news out ofWWDC by far, in my opinion,is this new paradigmfor the way apps are gonnawork on Mac OS in the future.This was actually my favoritemoment of the Keynotewhen Craig Federighi wasup there and he asked like,are we finally gonna mergeMac OS and ios, and hisanswer was no.\"No!\" No. It's going to be somethingmuch more complicated andfrankly, much more interesting.But before we get intothat, I wanna talk about howGoogle does this, becausethey've already done this move.They have taken Android appsand put them on Chrome OS.But Google did it in a super Google-y way.They released a pretty jankybeta that literally justtook a phone app andslapped it on the desktop.And Chromebooks havetouchscreens so you could scrollor whatever, but it workedwith mouse clicking.And they just put that onthe world and let peoplemess around with it, andthen, over time as theyevolved the operating system,they're slowly evolvingAndroid apps, so eventuallyyou're gonna be able to dowindow resizing and have proper windowing,all the rest of the stuff,but that Google way of justlike \"screw it!Put it out there and see how peoplereact to it, and we'll fixit once it's out there.\"is not the way Apple wants to work.Here's how Apple is doingit, so ios and Mac OS bothhave the same Unix underpinnings, right?But they have different waysto build the user interfacesand so what Apple isdoing is it's taking theuser interface builder forios, and it's adding it intoMac OS, it's called UI kit.And so, you can take a bunch of stuffthat you've done to build your ios app,do some tweaking in appsdeveloper platform, it's calledX-Code, and then it'llturn into a Mac app thatfeels like a Mac app, whereyou can resize the windows,and has proper scrolling,and it doesn't workwith touchscreens, causeMacs don't have touchscreens.I'm a little bit nervous.I played one with a Homeapp, which basicallyfelt like an Ipad app,just put on the Mac screen,you could resize the windowsand that was great, but it just,I really wanted to touchthe buttons, 'cause itwas a button interface thatwas designed for a touchscreen.But here's the bottomline, having mobile apps ona desktop operating systemis surprisingly great.Even in those early, jankyChrome OS betas with Android appsit was surprisingly usefulto just have a littleInstagram app, or a littleTo-Do app, instead ofa full-blown desktopapp, or a web app in acontainer electron thing,there's just literallymillions, and millions, andmillions of them for ios,and I would love to seesome of those hit Mac OS.Okay so, what did we learn?Well, we learned a bunch ofstuff about Google, they doGoogle things in very Google-y ways.They release stuff beforeit's ready for developersto screw around with it, and fix it,and they figure it out over time.They ask you to trust theGoogle Assistant a lot.Everything goes up to thecloud, Google analyzes itwith their machine learningalgorithms or whatever,you don't have to do as muchconfiguration, which I like,it's actually a little bitsimpler than Apple's way,but in order for all thatstuff to work, you have togive Google Assistant a ton ofaccess to your data and information.Now, the Apple way, verydifferent, you have todo a lot of configuration,especially with theshortcut stuff.And while I love that that gives me,as a user, more control.I'm not sure I need that much control, or,I'm not sure I wanna take thetime to set all that stuff up.Of course, the otherApple thing to do is keepeverything end-to-endencrypted, so that nobodycan see your stuff exceptyou and the people youmight happen to share it with.This is why I'm reallyexcited to see what happenswhen ios12 and Mojave come out this Fall,because we'll be able tocompare those two approaches.Except, no we can't,because the most importantdifference between thesetwo companies is thatwhen ios says that they'regonna ship a new versionof an operating system,it goes out to millions,and millions of customers,and they all get the upgraderight away.Whereas with Android P, not so much.A tiny sliver of people getthe latest version of Androidand everybody else has towait a really long time.So, the big differencebetween these two approachesis, honestly, Apple ships.The worm is turned in this Apple.Even though this is areally Google Keynote,the Apple doesn't fall far from the tree!We're gonna be makingthese videos a lot morebecause an Apple a daykeeps the Google away.\n"