WWDC 2022

Three years in a row, WWDC was also held as an online-only event. I know a few (not sure how many) forks were invited to Apple Park for an on-site "viewing" event, but I couldn't be one of them. Maybe, Apple might still be concerning my complaints; they must not have been able to prepare toasters for me this time either.

In my opinion, this year's WWDC keynote was less powerful - at least less than last year. M2 and the M2 Macbook Air should be topliners. However, what I thought interesting was that quite a lot of content was not leaked ahead of time. In recent years, many Apple events used to be dull due to design leaks. This time, I couldn't have seen any spoilers that precisely predicted the new MBA design; I was so glad that Apple was wise enough not to adopt the white keyboard that some spoilers expected several months ago. Some predicted widgets on the lock screens, but there was no always-on screen that many sources claimed. Apple might have learned (or reinstated) some secret method to protect their secretive culture.

Others seemed to be solid improvements. Live Activities was interesting: it would help me mitigate my impatience digging into Giants or Warriors scores via search windows. Swift Charts was what I wanted several years ago (when I made some iOS code by myself), but it would have made some 3rd party charting library developers fall into despair.

But what I really wanted to see was a Swift-based full game engine from Apple. Although Metal announced some improvements, it seemed that there would be no significant upgrade for SceneKit or any replacement. Many say that Apple is truly serious about AR/VR (with rumored glasses or a headset). I believe a Swift-based full game engine integrated with Xcode must be an essential piece for it. Maybe that day would be the day I return to try game development again.