John Gruber Sits Down With Apple’s Craig Federighi and Greg Joswiak to Discuss WWDC

For many years, Apple blogger John Gruber takes his podcast The Talk Show to WWDC to sit down with Apple executives and break down the announcements. Due to social distancing limitations, John Gruber held a special remote version of his podcast this year while speaking to Apple’s SVP Craig Federighi and Greg Joswiak.

The conversation Gruber lead went through the most important news topics to come out of this week’s WWDC keynote. The trio discussed iOS 14, macOS 11 Big Sur, ARM Macs, and more.

On the topic of macOS Big Sur, Gruber touched on the speculation many have had in the past that Apple may phase out macOS in replacement of iOS. Federighi refuted this notion by saying: “We’re putting massive investments into driving the Mac forward in big, bold ways.” In regards to Big Sur, Federighi believes that the new UI design and improvement in apps strengthen the Mac in many ways. Joswiak added that on a business level “it would make no sense.”

An aspect of the trepidation from a user perspective is the current state of Mac Catalyst and its app interface. Gruber brings up the improvements in place for the Messages app. Working off of that, Federighi points out that Apple’s initiative for the Mac is a multi-year commitment that that “we aren’t done”.

Transitioning to Apple’s silicon for Mac, Joswiak wanted to punctuate that the announcement “was not a consumer product launch.” The announcement of Apple transitioning away from Intel’s processors was to enable developers to begin playing with the new silicon and explain the benefits. During WWDC, Apple announced that the first in-house silicon Mac would be available by the end of 2020 with a roadmap to completely transition by 2022.

Finally, on the topic of iOS 14, Gruber believes the theme of the update is convenience. App Clips, which enables users to quickly and efficiently use an app that may not be downloaded on their iPhone to pay a parking ticket or order food is a huge benefit to users.

Federighi spoke on the convenience factor when saying: “There’s this value to be had but all of that friction would stand in the way of what could be an awesome way to use your phone.” Streamlining app experiences appear to be a big focus for iOS 14.