Elf Year in Review 2018

It’s been a quiet, productive year at Elf with a lot of work behind the scenes. We’ve continued to work with existing clients, completing several two and three year-long projects in 2018.

Elf is now listed in the S&P global market for American companies. We have updated our primary url to www.elf.agency to better reflect our company - an agency providing services to industry-leading businesses worldwide.

Elf Channel on Apple News, Stardust Podcast and Interactive Hayden’s Exhibit

We are happy to launch our new Elf channel on Apple News that we have been working on for a while, our Hayden’s podcast Stardust featuring interviews with musicians, cinematographers and directors on iTunes; and our interactive exhibit for Hayden’s in Europe, US, UK and Canada by the fall. This will be a live exhibit with the option to listen in our podcast as well.

We have also started work on our own line of apps internally at Elf. We’re very happy to be working on these projects. The first Elf app is slated to launch in 2022.

Our blogs have been featured a lot in the last year by software technology companies such as Atlassian and Invision; startup communities such as Medium and Hacker News on Y Combinator; professional networking sites such as LinkedIn and Career Foundry; and industry-leading advertising platforms such as Ad Age. Some articles, like this one on Design, have been reposted over 3,000 times.

We’re excited for 2019 and all that we can create and do! Happy New Year! Thanks for reading.

WWDC 2018: Highlights and Some of Our Favorite Updates - Part 2

Here's Part 2 of our WWDC coverage. You can read Part 1 here.

Reviewed in Part 2

Security measures to stop retargeting and fingerprinting
Faster CPU performance
Siri improves and interacts with third-party media apps like Spotify
Dolby Atmos
WatchOS becomes more social
Mojave Stacks and more features
Health App AP opens up to developers

Security Measures to Stop Retargeting and Fingerprinting

iOS 12 and Mojave bring new security measures that we like such as the ability to restrict fingerprinting - a process by which data companies track individual users and their Internet histories, patterns and consumption. Coming off the heels of the Facebook Cambridge Analytica data scandal, Apple has clearly emphasized privacy with a new Safari feature that blocks tracking sites like Facebook’s Like and Comment feature and comment fields without your explicit permission.

Apple only only websites a simplified system configuration to prevent fingerprinting, a sneaky way that advertisers and hackers use to identify and fingerprint your device for advertisements or steal your confidential data.

macOS Mojave also has enhanced security and privacy, making it easier for you to create more unique, stronger passwords and also protect and limit app access to your camera, microphone, mail database, message history, Safari data, iTunes device backups, locations, system cookie and Time Machine backups.

Faster CPU Performance

Apple has double downed on performance, increasing CPU performance for multitasking and using power-intensive apps. Apps on the iPhone 6s Plus launch up to 40 percent faster, with up to 50 percent faster keyboard display, and a 70 percent faster shift to the camera. The increased CPU performance is visible on older models as well as newer ones.

Siri Improves and Interacts with third-party Media Apps like Spotify

Apple has opened the door to compatibility with third-party streaming services in Siri. Siri can control playback in apps like Spotify. Apple also demonstrated using Siri in a variety of situations at WWDC with an event-filled day for travel such as booking a flight, playing music, ordering food, responding to a Message and a variety of shortcuts for common tasks.

Dolby Atmos

Dolby Atmos is coming to Apple TV 4k on all supported movies, TV shows and music videos for free with tvOS12. You will also be able to automatically log into your streaming account with a new "Zero Sign-On" feature that simplifies the previously cumbersome cable authentication process. Apple TV will detect your broadband network and automatically sign you into all your supported app that you have with your cable subscription.

There are also some nice new aerial screensavers with images from the International Space Station. Apple TV has also more improvements such as AutoFill passwords from the iPhone and an Apple TV Remote that is automatically added to the Control Center on the iPhone or iPad. Apple TV support is also available on Home control systems like Control4, Crestron, and Savant.

WatchOS becomes more Social

With watchOS5, Apple has improved workout capabilities and ways to connect with others and socialize. There's a a new Walkie Talkie app that merges real-time voice conversations with spontaneous messaging. For motivation, there is tracking and progress reports regularly as well as ways to compete with friends and family. New workout options such as Yoga and Hiking have been added. There's also an automatic workout detection works with Outdoor Run, Indoor Run, Outdoor Walk, Indoor Walk, Elliptical, Rower, Pool Swim, and Open Water Swim. You can also just raise your wrist to speak to Siri, instead of asking, "Hey Siri."

We are happy to see that podcasts are finally now on the Apple Watch via a Podcasts app that syncs with the Podcasts app on your iPhone.

Mojave's Stacks and More Features

Apple's latest desktop operating system, Mojave, has several neat features. Desktop Stacks organizes all your desktop files into piles arranged by type, date, or tag. There's a new Gallery View in the Finder, enabling you to preview files one after the other, rotate photos and edit files without leaving the Finder interface. QuickLook view now offers Markup, a way to make simple, quick edits to your files. You can even trim video and audio clips without ever opening an app using QuickLook.

The Preview Pane also now shows the full metadata for a file. This helps with managing media assets. Finally, in Keynote, there's a new tool which enables you to quickly sync up with your phone and add photos you just took, immediately into your working files. The ublic beta is now available at beta.apple.com.

Apple Opens Up Health App Data to Developers

Apple also released a day before WWDC a new Health App API enabling developers to access health data. This is a significant leap forward in terms of proactively managing medications, nutrition, conditions and diagnosed diseases. This allows patients to access information from 500 health institutions, hospitals and clinics on one iPhone easily. This will help patients get a broader, holistic view of their health. Learn more here. Health records data is encrypted nd protected with the consumer’s iPhone passcode. When consumers choose to share their health record data with trusted apps, the data flows directly from HealthKit to the third-party app and is not sent to Apple’s servers.

This allows sharing of data and tailoring apps for individual experiences with the user’s permission, based on the user’s unique health history for medications, planning nutrition, managing diseases and for medical research using the Research Kit app. We are excited to use this new feature in apps we build.

And a Few More Updates We Like...

Like prior Apple WWDC events, Apple only shared major highlights. There is too much to cover in the time allocated for every detail. We've listed a few more features and updates that Apple has brought in iOS 12 and Mojave that deserve a mention.

Smoother Animations

Apple announced that apps would launch faster. iOS 12 also has faster animations, making them smoother and avoiding prior odd experiences such as stuttering, frame rate drops or other aspects because of slow-loading animations.

iPhone X-like gestures on the iPad

This is a fabulous new feature for the iPad where Apple has brought some of the iPhone X's swipe gestures to the iPad. When you swipe down from the top right corner, you bring up Control Center, and a swipe from anywhere on the dock will bring you back to the home screen. This is also possibly a way to prepare for a future iPad Pro without a home button and employing Face ID.

Critical Alerts that can Bypass Do Not Disturb

iOS 12 offers new critical alerts that you can opt in as a user such as receiving urgent messages from health care providers even when you have Do Not Disturb activated.

Improved RAW Photo Support

Apple offers improved RAW photo support on iOS, making it easier to edit on iPad Pro. Some of these updates were available on the iPhone in iOS 11 but the latest update takes it further. Apple's iPhone X photography capabilities got a boost from the the British Advertising Standards Authority (ASA), which ruled that Apple's iPhone X did provide studio photography capabilities despite complaints. The iPhone X uses a 50 mm focal lens, the most popular lens used in commercial studio photography and also offers a range of studio lighting options.

That wraps up our WWDC coverage for 2018! You can download the public beta at beta.apple.com. Also check out prior post Part 1.

View coverage from last year.

WWDC 2018: Highlights and Some of Our Favorite Updates

Last Monday, Apple held its annual WWDC event, attended by more WWDC scholars and young developers than ever before. This year’s event focused primarily on software updates.

Here are some highlights and some of our favorite updates. WWDC 2018 was attended by developers from 77 countries.

Reviewed in Part 1

App store turning 10 next year
iOS 12 and Mojave preview
ARKit2 new tools and file format
Redesign of Mac Store
Bringing iOS apps to the Mac
Apple News expands to the Mac
iBooks becomes Apple Books
CarPlay includes 3rd party navigation apps
Memojis and Group FaceTime

The App Store turns 10 Next Year

The App store, which has given rise to an entire app economy, celebrates its tenth anniversary next year. $100,000,000,000 ($100 billion) has been paid out to developers since its launch, inspiring new startups, innovation, cross collaboration and entrepreneurs all over the world.

iOS 12 and Mojave Preview

Apple announced the developer preview of iOS 12 for the iPhone and iPad and Mojave for the Mac, replacing High Sierra. The developer preview is available at developer.apple.com and a public beta program will be available to Mac users in late June at beta.apple.com.

In sync with consumer concern about being constantly tethered to their devices, Apple has built in time management and focus tools with Screen Time, so that you can get a weekly Activity Report on your usage of your iOS device. This helps you track where you are spending time most and how you use your mobile devices, for how long and which apps send you the most notifications.

This will help you monitor your app and device usage and manage your time better, reducing interruptions. You can set App Limits and Parental Controls. You can also determine when and how you wish to receive notifications, and have them go to the Notification Center and not appear on your Lock Screen with Deliver Quietly mode on.

At the same time iOS 12 introduces new Critical Alerts that you opt in for (and can opt out at any time) such as alerts from your healthcare providers that you want to receive in emergencies.

We're happy to see that Apple has increased performance and efficiency to make both iPhones and iPads faster and more responsive as well as improving prior model performance. This makes it easier to launch apps and use the Camera and to work on several applications at one time when you need higher performance.

Increased CPU performance allows live rendering of rich animations and video using programs like Metal by Unity on MacBook Pro possible.

Mojave Preview

Apple also previewed Mojave, its latest operating system for the Mac, replacing High Sierra. A standout feature is the new Dark Mode that is pushed out beyond just the menu and dock to full apps and windows adopting the theme.

In addition, several iOS apps are now available on the Mac as part of a new project Apple has been working on and expects to complete by 2019 where developers can more easily port iOS apps to macOS. We've discussed it in more detail below.

Apple News, Stocks, Home and Voice Memos are now all available in macOS Mojave.

macOS Mojave is free and compatible with 2015 and newer MacBooks, 2012 MacBook Airs and newer ones and even Mac Pro models from 2013.

ARKit2 Introduces New Tools and File Format

We're excited about the new tools for ARKit2 - augmented reality for iOS with the new USDZ file format designed with Pixar, and now integrated into Adobe. ARKit2 offers measurement tools and multi-player or user shared environments.

Quick Look for AR helps you place 3D objects into the real world to see how something would work in any space.

Below are images from Lego's demo at WWDC.

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Redesign of Mac Store

This is something we have been eager to see, to match up with the beautiful redesign of the iOS App Store that happened last year with iOS 11. Now with Mojave, the Mac App store is revamped with a clean look, and convenient tabs such as the Discover one to highlight the best Mac apps along with in-depth editorial content, editor's choice picks and additional Create, Work, Play and Develop tabs to improve app discovery.

The new Mac App Store redesign also brings compelling stories and helpful videos.

Redesigned product pages offer reviews and ratings along with new video previews so you can explore the app before making a purchase or downloading it.

Create, Work, Play and Develop tabs offer recommendations and expertise about apps, including tips and tutorials for even expert users.

Machine learning technology is available via Core ML 2 and Create ML for developers to integrate into their apps. Small changes are already included in Mojave such as faster wake from sleep, improved hard drive performance, Favicons in Safari tabs, Apple Filesystem support for Fusion and hard drives and more.

Microsoft Office 365, Adobe Lightroom CC and BBEdit are available in the new Mac Store.

Bringing iOS apps to the Mac

This by far is one of the most exciting developments at WWDC this year. Apple announced that it would allow developers to port their iOS applications to the Mac and that Apple had already started and successfully tested the process by already bringing over iOS apps - Home, Stocks, Apple News and Voice Memos - to macOS 10.14 Mojave.

This project, named Marzipan, will be finalized by 2019. Prior to this, many Mac applications were based off a software framework called AppKit that provides user interface elements such as windows, menus, buttons, scrollers, and text fields along with additional software required to display applications on your devices. AppKit was first created back in the 1980s and adapted from the original NeXTSTEP Application Kit.

With iOS apps, Apple developed a new kit called UIKit for smaller screens and limited touch controls that are quite different from code frameworks from Mac apps. In addition, AppKit includes mouse and keyboard inputs while UIKit is designed for touch input. Through this new endeavor, Apple is providing an easier way for developers to bring over their iOS apps to the Mac and for them to give these apps a Mac-like user interface. This also saves time as the developer would not have to build the entire app from scratch using AppKit user interface. By adding UI Kit as a native framework, the ported apps can run natively without using a simulator. Developers will now have access to both the existing AppKit and a new UIKit for the Mac.

Within Apple’s own ecosystem, iPad apps and tvOS apps for the Apple TV work already in a similar way as they are built in UIKit. This makes it easier to port from one platform to another. You still have to adapt to the interface of each platform with its own design, controls and considerations.

In an interview with Wired magazine, Apple's senior vice president of software engineering Craig Federighi said Apple is planning to developers on their way in this process. Developers will able to designate in Xcode when they want to make an app variant to run on macOS. This will also automatically replace how some parts of the app interact, such as changing long presses on iOS into a two-finger right click on a Mac.

Apple News expands to the Mac

We are very excited to see some of the new Apple News updates, with enhanced iPad experience and full left tab navigation and integration with the stock app. Apple News is also now available on the Mac. We are launching our own Elf channel on Apple News this year so check back for our release!

iBooks becomes Apple Books

We love the iBooks redesign and its new name Apple Books. Apple Books has a beautiful presentation, better search functionality for discovery

CarPlay Includes 3rd Party Navigation Apps

Another update we were excited to see what the third-party navigation app update to CarPlay, allowing apps such as Waze and Google Maps.

Memojis and Group FaceTime

Apple has added more emojis and functionality for you to design your own Memoji with some of your personality stamped right on it. This is in addition to the existing Animoji and default emoji library that now includes a ghost, koala, tiger and T. rex. You can also use these emojis in the new Group FaceTime feature. The person who is speaking, naturally comes to the forefront during a call. Group FaceTime supports up to 32 people at one time for iOS and macOS.

Read on to Part 2 here. You can also view coverage from last year here.