MBW 977: A Slab of Ham on a Box - WWDC 2025 Aftermath: The Great Apple Software Turnaround of 2025

29 snips

Jun 18, 2025

After WWDC 2025, Apple's software landscape is transforming! The hosts celebrate immersive video advancements, featuring a documentary shot with Blackmagic's new camera. They highlight major upgrades in Vision Pro's spatial personas and discuss revolutionary multitasking features on iPadOS 26. Apple’s move towards AI integration and improved background tasks is also on the table. Meanwhile, a rumored smart display and critiques of traditional smart home devices round out the conversation, reflecting a shift in user experience.

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ANECDOTE

First Apple Immersive Doc

Canal+ created the first Apple immersive video production using Blackmagic's new URSA camera at the French Grand Prix.
This documentary showcases immersive motorcycle footage, marking a significant step in immersive content creation.

INSIGHT

Vision Pro Personas Leap Forward

Vision Pro's new spatial personas look remarkably like real people, a leap from earlier versions.
The software improvements were made without new hardware, reflecting a strong software team.

INSIGHT

Geographic Persistence in AR

visionOS 26 allows virtual objects to stay fixed in physical spaces across sessions and reboots.
Geographic persistence is essential for realistic augmented reality experiences long term.

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This week's episode dives deep into the post-WWDC hangover, exploring Apple's remarkable software improvements across platforms. The hosts examine the first third-party immersive video production using Blackmagic's new camera, celebrate major Vision Pro persona upgrades, and discuss Apple's complete re-architecture of iPad windowing. The conversation reveals how Apple's software teams seem to have hit their stride after years of criticism, delivering substantial improvements from terminal apps to AI integration.

Canal+ MotoGP Documentary for Vision Pro - First third-party Apple immersive video production shot entirely with new Blackmagic URSA camera, featuring French motorcycle racer Johann Zarco
Spatial Personas Get Major Upgrade - visionOS 26 delivers dramatically improved personas that actually look like real people, though beards still cause mouth-tracking issues
Geographic Persistence and Room Mapping - visionOS 26 features allow virtual objects to stay in place across reboots and sessions
Apple Home Hub Smart Display Discovery - Code found in iOS 26 dev beta reveals upcoming HomePod with screen, expected by the end of year
iPad Multitasking Revolution - Craig Federighi explains the complete re-architecture of iPadOS 26 windowing system, bringing full Mac-style window management to iPad
Background Task Processing - iPadOS 26 introduces finite background tasks for exports and file operations, finally allowing users to switch apps during long processes
Software Quality Renaissance - Discussion of Apple's apparent software turnaround, from improved backend infrastructure (40% improvement moving from Java to Swift/Rust) to new developer APIs
New Speech-to-Text APIs - Apple provides developers access to on-device transcription that's twice as fast as Whisper, though slightly less accurate
Third-Party App Integration Improvements - Apple now allows music apps to show animated artwork on lock screen and provides access to various ML models
Terminal and Spotlight Updates - macOS 26 features the first meaningful Terminal app update in years, plus pro features added to Spotlight, including clipboard history
F1 Movie Marketing Blitz - Deep dive into Apple's $200+ million investment in the F1 film, including custom iPhone cameras built for race cars and haptic trailer experiences

Picks of the Week:

Leo's Pick: Classic Sega iOS games going free before delisting on the App Store, including Crazy Taxi, Sonic titles, and Super Monkey Ball
Jason's Pick: PlugShare app for electric vehicle owners to find compatible charging stations across all networks and plug types
Andy's Pick: Usagi Yojimbo comic collection Humble Bundle featuring Stan Sakai's acclaimed samurai rabbit series, with proceeds supporting the Hero Initiative
Alex's Pick: Perla iOS camera app designed to give iPhone footage an authentic 16mm film look and feel

Hosts: Leo Laporte, Alex Lindsay, Andy Ihnatko, and Jason Snell

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