This iOS Goes To 11

Been enough of a while since WWDC ’17 for people to sort out what they find interesting about iOS 11 and all now, so let’s take a look shall we?

The canonical references up at the mothership are

A good TL;DR while you bookmark this for later is What’s new in iOS 11 for developers

iOS 11 By Examples has, surprise, examples of using new iOS 11 APIs:

Core ML: Image classification demo using Core ML framework
Vision: Face detection, landmarks, and object tracking
ARKit: Augmented reality experiences in your app or game
Core NFC: Reading of NFC tag payloads.
IdentityLookup: SMS and MMS filtering using IdentityLookup framework
DeviceCheck: Identifying devices that have used a promo, flagging fraudsters
Blogs/Newsletter: Other places that mentioned this list — probably mention more good stuff too!

Personally we’d already been planning to try out iPad-only travel soon, and iOS 11 + new iPad Pro looks like MASSIVE WIN on both fronts — seriously, did anybody at all predict the super duper ProMotion screen? — and the mutitasking stuff is a good bit better than we’d expected, and easy to use, see:

Implementing Apple’s Drag and Drop
SplitViewDragAndDrop: “Easily add drag and drop to pass data between your apps in split view mode”

CoreNFC is one of those what took you so long things, but hey better late than never: CoreNFC tutorial

Now that Metal is even more metal to support 120 fps displays and all, they’re Introducing Metal 2

If you do anything with file names in iOS or macOS, make sure you read APFS Native Normalization

One thing worthy of noting as removing what we’d found the major annoyance with UIStackView and likely you too: Stack View Custom Spacing

Also top and layout guides are simplified to Safe Area Layout Guide

Some more little bites, to coin a phrase, at #309: UIFontMetrics and #310: Screen Edges in iOS 11 and #311: Round Corner Improvements

Now, to step back from the API level, some people are very excited about this Business Chat thing:

… I believe that Apple Pay Cash, and the ability to send low transaction amounts with no cost to the sender or the receiver (the business) will be one of the most transformative elements to the impact of Business Chat. This can bring rise to a number of new businesses and applications that may be similar to the “gig economy” of Fivver and other systems…

Business Chat can not only spell the end of the POS system and payment systems as we know it in retail sales, it may also spell the end of the shopping carts and payment systems in online sales. Some may argue this is bombastic…

Yes, maybe a touch. Doesn’t mean it’s wrong though; read the whole thing, and the Business Chat info at the mothership, and see what you think —or read this one that figures it’s not just shopping carts in the crosshairs: Apple Bank here we come

Last one we’ll call out here — some good thoughts on the new evolutions of the interface design language: Think Bigger: Design Changes in iOS 11

Need more? Check out your veritably canonical reference to everything new over at New stuff from WWDC 2017!

UPDATES:

Changes to location tracking in iOS 11; Location Permissions in iOS 11 and avoiding the Blue Bar of Shame

iOS 11, Privacy and Single Sign On

What’s New In UIKit Animations In Swift 4

Working with CoreNFC in iOS 11

Apple Platform SDK API Differences for iOS 11+

Working with Drag and Drop APIs in iOS 11

Working with Core Bluetooth in iOS 11 > Introduction to HealthKit with Core Bluetooth

Touch ID and Face ID on iOS