Q: My question is how best to set up an Xbox for my kid. I want to know how to control use time and whether I should use my email to set up. – Guillermo from Utah A: You're in luck! Console parental controls have come a long way from the days of hiding NES systems (or their controllers) from unruly kids. Microsoft, in particular, has made it very easy through its Xbox Family Settings app for iOS and Android, which supports Xbox Series X/S and Xbox One systems. Once you've added your kids to your Xbox family group, you'll be able to manage and see reports of their playtime, restrict access to specific content, require parental approval for purchases and sort incoming friend requests. In typical Microsoft fashion, though, setting up Xbox family accounts can be a bit confusing, so let's go over it step by step. Microsoft How to set up an Xbox for your child Turn on your Xbox and sign in with your Microsoft account. Press the Xbox button on your controller, and head to Profile & system > Settings > account > Family settings > Manage family members. Choose Add to family > Add new. Unfortunately, Microsoft requires an email address for new accounts. You can either enter your child's existing email if they have one, or choose the Get a new email option to create an Outlook email address. (This may seem a bit absurd for younger children, so if you don't want to create an email for your 6 year old, you may be better off just physically controlling access to consoles like the old days.) Next, you'll have to verify the addition of a new family group member. You can do so by either choosing This Xbox on the next screen and entering your Microsoft account details, or selecting Their phone/PC to have an email sent to you. In either case, you'll have to consent to the new member. What is a Microsoft child account? In its documentation, Microsoft says "a child account is defined as any Microsoft account that’s affiliated with an adult Microsoft account when the age of the child or teen is less than the age of majority for their country or region." These accounts are broken into "Child" and "Teen" categories, which specify age ranges between eight and 12, and 13 to 17. Microsoft notes there can be differences depending on location, like in South Korea where teen accounts range from 13 to 18. Devindra Hardawar for Engadget Are there any issues with Microsoft child accounts? As useful as the Xbox Family app and child accounts may seem, they can also lead to problems while playing Minecraft, according to comments on Reddit. Reddit user "Microdad_" said they weren't able to gift a game to their child's account, they had to deal with a buggy website to allow them to play Minecraft and after all of that trouble their child still can't play in their realm. User "Electronic_Ocelot825" encountered similar issues, replying, "You are spot on. I go through same [sic] crap and it drives me to the point where I am furious.” Have a tech question you’d like Engadget to answer? As tech reporters, the Engadget staff is always answering questions from readers, friends and family about electronics, software, gaming, big tech policies and more. So we decided to write down our answers. This question came from a coworker from Yahoo, Engadget's corporate parent. If you’ve got a tech-related question you’d like us to answer for you, please email ask@engadget.com.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/xbox/ask-engadget-how-do-i-set-up-an-xbox-for-my-kid-110022860.html?src=rss

People Can Fly cancels two projects and confirms it will once again have to "scale down" its teams "We wish to express our deepest regret and sadness over how these events have unfolded." Image credit: People Can Fly/Square Enix News by Vikki Blake Contributor Published on June 1, 2025 People Can Fly has cancelled two projects and "scaled down" its teams. In a statement posted to LinkedIn this afternoon, CEO Sebastian Wojciechowski said it had been a "difficult decision" but attributed the suspension of Project Gemini and Bifrost to the publisher "not present[ing] us with a draft of the subsequent content rider to the Publishing Agreement", and the Group's cash flow, "which showed a lack of prospects", respectively. "Today we made a very difficult decision to suspend the development of project Gemini and project Bifrost - the relevant current reports have been released to the market," Wojciechowski wrote. "The suspension of the Gemini project is a consequence of the fact that the Publisher has not presented us with a draft of the subsequent content rider to the Publishing Agreement covering the terms and conditions of further milestone on project Gemini and the lack of communication from the Publisher as to its willingness to continue or terminate the Gemini project. "Project Bifrost was suspended due to the above and the analysis of the Group's cash flow, which showed a lack of prospects for securing organisational resources and funds necessary to continue the production and release of this project. "As a result, we have to significantly regroup as a studio and scale down our teams, which hurts the most," Wojciechowski added. "We wish to express our deepest regret and sadness over how these events have unfolded and our sincere gratitude for everyone's contribution up to this point." Wojciechowski did not specify which publisher he thought had failed to "communicate", but the studio has worked with several publishing partners, most recently Square Enix, Krafton, and Sony. It's also working on Gears of War: E-Day. In December, People Can Fly the Outriders developer announced its second round of layoffs in less than a year, this time affecting "more than 120" people. The move accompanies the cancellation or downsizing of several projects, with the studio blaming "external market pressures".

Gerrard Healthy Housing replaces a single-family home in a walkable Toronto neighbourhood with 10 rental housing units. Photo by Alexandra Berceneau Gerrard Healthy Housing, at Gerrard and Main in Toronto, delivers exactly the kind of “gentle density” that has been much discussed and desired in the city. The eight-unit walk-up rental building with two laneway houses replaces a single-family home, while carefully integrating with its walkable neighbourhood. But achieving this outcome was no easy matter. To streamline approvals, TMU professor Cheryl Atkinson, of Atkinson Architect, aimed to design with no variances. “Everything’s to the minimum in terms of distance between the attached four-plexes and the laneway units,” says Rolf Paloheimo, of P&R Development, who also acted as project manager. “We built to the maximum height within 100 millimetres.” Atkinson had designed a panellized, net-zero missing middle housing unit exhibited at DX’s EDIT festival as part of a TMU research project; Paloheimo was the client and developer behind the 1996 CMHC Riverdale Healthy House, a model sustainable development designed by Martin Liefhebber. For Gerrard Healthy Housing, they set out to create as close to Passive House as possible, specifying all-electric heat pumps and ERVs, using wood framing, and deploying blown-in-cellulose insulation to achieve a quiet and airtight R45-R65 envelope—although stopping short of installing triple-glazed windows. “We wanted to make it reproducible and affordable,” says Paloheimo. “Part of my argument for doing this scale of development is that if you stay in part 9 [of the building code], the construction is a lot lighter, the consultant load is lighter. You’re stuck with higher land costs, but costs are quite a bit lower to build,” he adds. The construction costs for the project tallied up to $300 per square foot, and the all-in cost for the project was $650 per square foot—about half the square-foot cost of condo construction. Atkinson’s sensitive design provides natural light on three sides of all but two units, ample cross-ventilation and closet space, and office nooks that overlook entry stairs—as well as façades detailed to fit in with the scale of neighbourhood. Details like bespoke mailboxes add polish to the composition. The financial success of the project depended largely on government incentives for housing: just before construction started, the province waived HST on rental developments, and the City exempted four-plexes from development charges.  Paloheimo’s project management of the endeavour ensured the project stayed on track. He kept a close eye on the prices tendered by the general contractor, and ended up finding some of the trades on his own—developing such a good rapport that he bought them cakes from a nearby patisserie at the end of the project. Both Atkinson and Paloheimo also befriended the neighbours, one of whom provided temporary power from her home when the hydro connection was delayed.  Can this kind of success be replicated at scale? Paloheimo is cautiously hopeful, and plans to continue with small-scale development projects in Toronto. But he acknowledges that it’s not an endeavour for the faint of heart. “You have a house that used to be just four walls and a roof,” he says. “And then we’re gradually adding complexity. If you’re doing sustainable housing, it’s got to have a certain R-value, a certain airtightness. So it creates headwinds if you want to make affordable housing.” The bigger problem, he says, is the financialization of housing—unlike a car, which you expect to lose value and cost money each year, we expect our homes to continually increase in value. “If we could get away from that, we could focus on what’s really important about housing: which is comfort, space, light, services.” As appeared in the June 2025 issue of Canadian Architect magazine The post Editorial: Gentle Density in Action appeared first on Canadian Architect.

While there’s more than one way to format Unity C# code, agreeing on a consistent code style for your project enables your team to develop a clean, readable, and scalable codebase. In this blog, we provide some guidelines and examples you can use to develop and maintain your own code style guide.Please note that these are only recommendations based on those provided by Microsoft. This is your chance to get inspired and decide what works best for your team.Ideally, a Unity project should feel like it’s been developed by a single author, no matter how many developers actually work on it. A style guide can help unify your approach for creating a more cohesive codebase.It’s a good idea to follow industry standards wherever possible and browse through existing style guides as a starting point for creating your own. In partnership with internal and external Unity experts, we released a new e-book, Create a C# style guide: Write cleaner code that scales for inspiration, based on Microsoft’s comprehensive C# style.The Google C# style guide is another great resource for defining guidelines around naming, formatting, and commenting conventions. Again, there is no right or wrong method, but we chose to follow Microsoft standards for our own guide.Our e-book, along with an example C# file, are available for free. Both resources focus on the most common coding conventions you’ll encounter while developing in Unity. These are all, essentially, a subset of the Microsoft Framework Design guidelines, which include an extensive number of best practices beyond what we cover in this post.We recommend customizing the guidelines provided in our style guide to suit your team’s preferences. These preferences should be prioritized over our suggestions and the Microsoft Framework Design guidelines if they’re in conflict.The development of a style guide requires an upfront investment but will pay dividends later. For example, managing a single set of standards can reduce the time developers spend on ramping up if they move onto another project.Of course, consistency is key. If you follow these suggestions and need to modify your style guide in the future, a few find-and-replace operations can quickly migrate your codebase.Concentrate on creating a pragmatic style guide that fits your needs by covering the majority of day-to-day use cases. Don’t overengineer it by attempting to account for every single edge case from the start. The guide will evolve organically over time as your team iterates on it from project to project.Most style guides include basic formatting rules. Meanwhile, specific naming conventions, policy on use of namespaces, and strategies for classes are somewhat abstract areas that can be refined over time.Let’s look at some common formatting and naming conventions you might consider for your style guide.The two common indentation styles in C# are the Allman style, which places the opening curly braces on a new line (also known as the BSD style from BSD Unix), and the K&R style, or “one true brace style,” which keeps the opening brace on the same line as the previous header.In an effort to improve readability, we picked the Allman style for our guide, based on the Microsoft Framework Design guidelines: Whatever style you choose, ensure that every programmer on your team follows it.A guide should also indicate whether braces from nested multiline statements should be included. While removing braces in the following example won’t throw an error, it can be confusing to read. That’s why our guide recommends applying braces for clarity, even if they are optional.Something as simple as horizontal spacing can enhance your code’s appearance onscreen. While your personal formatting preferences can vary, here are a few recommendations from our style guide to improve overall readability:Add spaces to decrease code density:The extra whitespace can give a sense of visual separation between parts of a lineUse a single space after a comma, between function arguments.Don’t add a space after the parenthesis and function arguments.Don’t use spaces between a function name and parenthesis.Avoid spaces inside brackets.Use a single space before flow control conditions: Add a space between the flow comparison operator and the parentheses.Use a single space before and after comparison operators.Variables typically represent a state, so try to attribute clear and descriptive nouns to their names. You can then prefix booleans with a verbfor variables that must indicate a true or false value. Often they are the answer to a question such as, is the player running? Is the game over? Prefix them with a verb to clarify their meaning. This is often paired with a description or condition, e.g., isPlayerDead, isWalking, hasDamageMultiplier, etc.Since methods perform actions, a good rule of thumb is to start their names with a verb and add context as needed, e.g., GetDirection, FindTarget, and so on, based on the return type. If the method has a bool return type, it can also be framed as a question.Much like boolean variables themselves, prefix methods with a verb if they return a true-false condition. This phrases them in the form of a question, e.g., IsGameOver, HasStartedTurn.Several conventions exist for naming events and event handles. In our style guide, we name the event with a verb phrase,similar to a method. Choose a name that communicates the state change accurately.Use the present or past participle to indicate events “before” or “after.” For instance, specify OpeningDoor for an event before opening a door and DoorOpened for an event afterward.We also recommend that you don’t abbreviate names. While saving a few characters can feel like a productivity gain in the short term, what is obvious to you now might not be in a year’s time to another teammate. Your variable names should reveal their intent and be easy to pronounce. Single letter variables are fine for loops and math expressions, but otherwise, you should avoid abbreviations. Clarity is more important than any time saved from omitting a few vowels.At the same time, use one variable declaration per line; it’s less compact, but also less error prone and enhances readability. Avoid redundant names. If your class is called Player, you don’t need to create member variables called PlayerScore or PlayerTarget. Trim them down to Score or Target.In addition, avoid too many prefixes or special encoding.A practice highlighted in our guide is to prefix private member variables with an underscore (_) to differentiate them from local variables. Some style guides use prefixes for private member variables (m_), constants (k_), or static variables (s_), so the name reveals more about the variable.However, it’s good practice to prefix interface names with a capital “I” and follow this with an adjective that describes the functionality. You can even prefix the event raising method (in the subject) with “On”: The subject that invokes the event usually does so from a method prefixed with “On,” e.g., OnOpeningDoor or OnDoorOpened.Camel case and Pascal case are common standards in use, compared to Snake or Kebab case, or Hungarian notations. Our guide recommends Pascal case for public fields, enums, classes, and methods, and Camel case for private variables, as this is common practice in Unity.There are many additional rules to consider outside of what’s covered here. The example guide and our new e-book, Create a C# style guide: Write cleaner code that scales, provide many more tips for better organization.The concept of clean code aims to make development more scalable by conforming to a set of production standards. A style guide should remove most of the guesswork developers would otherwise have regarding the conventions they should follow. Ultimately, this guide should help your team establish a consensus around your codebase to grow your project into a commercial-scale production.Just how comprehensive your style guide should be depends on your situation. It’s up to your team to decide if they want their guide to set rules for more abstract, intangible concepts. This could include rules for using namespaces, breaking down classes, or implementing directives like the #region directive (or not). While #region can help you collapse and hide sections of code in C# files, making large files more manageable, it’s also an example of something that many developers consider to be code smells or anti-patterns. Therefore, you might want to avoid setting strict standards for these aspects of code styling. Not everything needs to be outlined in the guide – sometimes it’s enough to simply discuss and make decisions as a team.When we talked to the experts who helped create our guide, their main piece of advice was code readability above all else. Here are some pointers on how to achieve that:Use fewer arguments: Arguments can increase the complexity of your method. By reducing their number, you make methods easier to read and test.Avoid excessive overloading: You can generate an endless permutation of method overloads. Select the few that reflect how you’ll call the method, and then implement those. If you do overload a method, prevent confusion by making sure that each method signature has a distinct number of arguments.Avoid side effects: A method only needs to do what its name advertises. Avoid modifying anything outside of its scope. Pass in arguments by value instead of reference when possible. So when sending back results via the out or ref keyword, verify that’s the one thing you intend the method to accomplish. Though side effects are useful for certain tasks, they can lead to unintended consequences. Write a method without side effects to cut down on unexpected behavior.We hope that this blog helps you kick off the development of your own style guide. Learn more from our example C# file and brand new e-book where you can review our suggested rules and customize them to your team’s preferences.The specifics of individual rules are less important than having everyone agree to follow them consistently. When in doubt, rely on your team’s own evolving guide to settle any style disagreements. After all, this is a group effort.

​​In a quiet residential pocket of Southwest Portland, a mid-century ranch house has been transformed into a family home that embraces its landscape, celebrates material craft, and amplifies the Pacific Northwest’s nuanced natural light. Led by Jeff and Jenny Guggenheim of Guggenheim Architecture and Design Studio, the project reimagines a dated layout with a new architectural clarity — one defined by intimate volumes, warm materials, and integrated moments of delight. “This project began with the desire to create a more functional kitchen and a larger living room that did a better job embracing the backyard,” said Jeff Guggenheim. From that foundational brief, the design grew into a full reorganization of the home, centered on spatial flow, daylight, and a connection to nature. A House That Unfolds The original home, while structurally sound, lacked visual and spatial cohesion. The design team addressed this by establishing a new living room addition as the project’s anchor. “We used the living room as the anchor point,” Guggenheim explained, “and brought similar materials throughout the house to create a consistent aesthetic.” This strategy informed every subsequent design move, from the cabinetry details to the new openings created through Marvin doors and windows. “We didn’t want the house to feel like one part was remodeled and the other wasn’t,” Guggenheim said. “We wanted it to feel like it was all built at the same time.” Cohesion was therefore prioritized in the spatial layout, with a focus on subtle transitions between rooms. “When we’re designing a home, we think about flow and cohesiveness — how you might pass through different spaces and ensuring that those spaces all relate to each other,” he said. “There are threads of similarity that hold it together.” The Joy of Whimsical Architecture Though grounded in modernism, the house also reflects the spirit of the young family that lives there. “Early on in our design process, our client requested spaces that were modern yet warm, and also contained an element of whimsy,” Guggenheim explained. “They have two younger kids and this is a family home.” Whimsy is introduced through unexpected spatial gestures and opportunities for interaction, such as the inclusion of the Marvin Skycove, an innovative glass alcove that extends beyond the envelope of the home. “It’s a window that you can occupy,” Guggenheim said. “You can imagine curling up and reading a book in it, or just looking out at the clouds and daydreaming.” The Skycove supports what the client described as “moments of delight” — an idea that became a conceptual touchstone throughout the design process. “That was the first design meeting I’ve ever been in where we had a client request moments of delight,” he recalled. “How do you create that? Sometimes it’s as simple as a place to sit and read or a dining space that opens to the outdoors.” Windows That Frame Experience Daylight and ventilation played a pivotal role in shaping the home’s interior experience. The kitchen features a Marvin Awaken Skylight positioned directly above the island and sink. The Awaken Skylight is designed to enhance both natural and artificial light in the home, pairing venting capabilities with built-in, tunable lighting that adjusts throughout the day to mirror the changing color temperature of daylight. “We recognized right away that natural light was going to be very important,” Guggenheim said. “We put the skylight front and center, as it gets great morning daylight. When you wake up, you want to make your coffee and be greeted by the rising sun.” In other areas of the home, Marvin’s range of products allowed for functional variation while maintaining a unified aesthetic. “One thing that our office really appreciates about the Marvin product lines is that they all work so well together,” he noted. “We can pick and choose depending on the use of that window, and people can move through the space and feel like they belong to the same design language.” For Guggenheim, windows and doors are more than just architectural components—they are instruments for memory and belonging. “These are the apertures to time and experience,” he said. “You see the sun rise through them and the sunset through them. You see the moon, the stars. Those are the touchpoints that bring delight into a space.” Rooted in the Pacific Northwest While the home’s interiors were comprehensively reimagined, its relationship to the street and neighborhood was handled with care. “We didn’t really make any large changes to the street-facing side,” Guggenheim explained. “The house feels very appropriate to the neighborhood. It doesn’t stick out. That was really important to us.” The home’s exterior scale and material palette allow it to blend naturally into its surroundings while hinting at something more refined within. “I was driving away from here recently and I thought, it’s really nice that the house can be this high level of design but still respectful to its neighbors,” he added. Natural materials, from white oak cabinetry to cast concrete fireplaces, reinforce the project’s grounding in place. “Everything was meticulously crafted,” said Guggenheim. “Everyone who came to the site cared deeply about what they were creating — and that included the window systems.” The ability to match that craftsmanship through Marvin was essential. “It would have been inappropriate to spec a window that didn’t rise to the same level,” he said. “We wanted doors and windows that could complement our cabinetry and its details and also meet the expectations we had for all the other trades on our site.” For Guggenheim, that trust in product is paramount. “Our clients have a lot of trust in us and what we do for them,” he concluded. “And with this in mind, I like to specify Marvin products because I trust that they’re going to be quality, function well, and be well supported through their lifetime.” For architects seeking to create these kinds of connections for their clients, visit Marvin.com. Project photography by 22 Waves. The post Portland Renewal: A Modern Family Home Defined by Light, Craft and Connection appeared first on Journal.

Reading Time: 5 minutes Last week, Google unveiled many interesting updates around Gemini at Google I/O 2025. The key highlight was the launch of Gemini 2.5 Pro, their most intelligent model yet. Although there were many updates, we’ve focused on those that will be beneficial for marketers like you. So, relax and read on to discover all the insights. Future of Google Search Shopping Google is reimagining how shoppers shop online—from product discovery to trial to checkout. If you sell online and list your products on Google, this is a huge update. The traditional method of shopping involved scanning hundreds of websites, reading reviews, and then buying a product. But with Google AI Mode or the Gemini app, shoppers can ask complicated questions, and Google will do the heavy lifting. Source – Google  For example, rather than searching for “best rugs for sofa”, shoppers can use Google AI mode and ask something like this, “I have a light gray sofa, I need a rug to brighten my room”. They can also add insights like “I have four kids at my house and they like to bring friends over”. But that’s not it, there’s more. Try it on Now, shoppers can try on clothes virtually to get a feel for how a style might look on them. Source – Google  They just need to upload your full-size image. While you might have seen something similar on other platforms, Google takes it to the next level with – Advanced 3D Shape Understanding Segmentation Diffusion There’s also a completely new way for checkout. Agentic Checkout Shoppers are always on the hunt for the best deals. Google’s new Agentic Checkout feature simplifies online shopping. It allows shoppers to specify their desired price, color, and size for a product, and Google will alert them when the item meets or drops below that price. When the price is dropped, shoppers can instantly check out with a click of a button, and all the details of your product (including size and colour) will already be added. Source – Google  Google examines numerous websites, sending alerts when its findings align with your specified preferences. If a price reduction occurs, a single click enables immediate checkout, as all your product specifics, such as size and color, are already saved. What does it mean for marketers? If you sell products online and list them on Google, you have a completely new channel through which your customers can discover, try, and purchase your products. However, optimize your products according to Google’s guidelines to ensure that they appear for relevant queries. Apparel companies must take advantage of the Try it on feature to provide their customers with a rich, personalized experience. Overall, E-commerce marketers can drive a lot of awareness, engagement, and conversions using the above updates. Gemini 2.5 Pro, AI Overviews and the New “AI Mode” Gemini 2.5 Pro is Google’s most intelligent, secure, and efficient LLM yet. Marketers can continue to use it for complicated tasks and deep research. It powers Google AI Overviews and the latest AI mode inside the Gemini App. Google AI Overviews is used by over 1.5 billion users every month across 200 countries. Rather than just providing links, AI Overviews provide direct, conversational answers and summaries. This change means that users get more information without clicking through, changing how visibility and traffic work. Seeing the rapid usage of AI Overviews, Google has launched something called “AI Mode.” They’ve reimagined Search from the ground up. Source – Google   Unlike a normal Google search, users can ask longer and more complex questions. The queries can be 2-3 times longer, and they can even ask follow-up questions. And the best part: It’ll take into account their personal information for even more personalized answers. AI Mode has already been launched in the US. What does it mean for marketers? To summarise, marketers now need to shift gears from just getting people to their website/app to making sure their content shows up in these AI-generated snippet/answers. Google has updated its generative AI capabilities, including image, audio, and video generation. Veo 3 now generates audio alongside video. Below is an example. What does it mean for marketers? Google is really pushing boundaries when it comes to what you can generate using AI. Marketers should definitely explore the various generative AI capabilities for improved campaign creation. However, if you’re looking to craft customer campaigns that resonate with your target customers and get higher engagement, you need to check out our own Generative AI platform, Merlin AI. There’s nothing better than an AI that constantly analyzes your previous campaigns to give you personalized output. Glance leveraged it for 50% faster campaign go-live times. Read the complete story here. Gemini Now Supports MCP The Gemini SDK now supports the Model Context Protocol (MCP), which was introduced by Anthropic. In addition, Google is bringing agentic capabilities to Search, Chrome, and the Gemini App. They call this “Agent Mode.” MCP is an emerging technical standard that allows AI models (like those used by Google) to connect more easily and securely with external, real-world data sources and tools. What does it mean for marketers? If you’re serious about building AI agents and you’ve been using Gemini, this is big news. The support for MCP opens up a new world of possibilities. But if you’re just getting started, you can read our latest on AI Agents for Customer Engagement. AI Agents can assist marketers with everything from campaign creation to analytics to decision-making. To help drive awareness, we’re also hosting a live masterclass titled “Agentic AI and Customer Engagement in 2025 and Beyond”. In this live panel discussion, we’ll cut through the noise and explore the exciting, practical ways to leverage AI in customer engagement. You can save your seat here. Android XR The most interesting launch was Google’s push into the XR space, the Gemini-powered Android XR platform. Designed for smart glasses and VR headsets, Android XR leverages Gemini for real-time translation, live messaging, contextual navigation, and more. Source – Google  What does it mean for marketers? Android XR is an emerging channel for marketers to consider. Its potential for rapid adoption suggests it could become a significant additional marketing avenue in the near future. Keep an eye out for future updates. Wrapping Up For marketers, the above updates mean that embracing AI-powered tools and strategies is no longer optional but essential for success. By leveraging these innovations, marketers can drive better results, improve customer engagement, and stay ahead of the curve in the ever-evolving world. The post Google I/O 2025 – What Marketers Need to Know appeared first on MoEngage.

Macworld WWDC 2025 is just around the corner. The event is considered one of the most important in the tech world, as Apple reveals its plans for the future of each of its device platforms.  WWDC has never just been about new features. It’s where Apple sets the direction for its platforms and, often, the entire industry. These announcements continue to define how we interact with technology. While we wait for the keynote to kick off on June 9, let’s look back at 10 of the biggest software announcements Apple made at its developer conference. 1. Mac OS X Jaguar (WWDC 2002) Jaguar was the second major update released for the Mac operating system after Apple transitioned from the classic Mac OS 9 to Mac OS X. Announced at WWDC 2002, the update stood out not only for its improvements but also for its big cat-inspired name. If you’ve been following Apple for a long time, you probably know that each version of Mac OS X was named after a feline, such as Leopard and Lion. This began with Apple engineers giving the internal codenames “Cheetah” and “Puma” to Mac OS X 10.0 and 10.1, respectively, but the public didn’t know that. Apparently, Steve Jobs liked the internal names so much that Apple decided to use them to promote Mac OS X, with Mac OS X 10.2 “Jaguar” the first to be announced with feline branding. It wasn’t just the name, though. Jaguar was also a major upgrade when it came to features, as it introduced GPU-accelerated graphics for the first time with Quartz Extreme, which also allowed Apple to refine the system interface with smoother animations. Apple 2. Spotlight (WWDC 2004) Searching for something with Spotlight on an Apple device seems so obvious nowadays, but trying to find your files on a computer years ago could be a long and difficult task.  At WWDC 2004, Apple unveiled Spotlight as one of Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger’s marquee features. Unlike other search methods that existed before, Spotlight indexed all the data on the computer so that users could easily and quickly find anything they needed. Jobs wowed the entire audience with a live demo of Spotlight, as it not only located files, but also searched for documents, emails, contacts, and more, with users being able to refine their search by specifying a date or file type. Spotlight has become a reference for the entire industry, and 21 years later, the feature is still present across all of Apple’s devices. 3. Dashboard (WWDC 2004) Also unveiled as part of Mac OS X Tiger, Dashboard introduced an entirely new secondary desktop that provided quick access to widgets. At the time, the idea of having widgets was a novel one. Users could do things like quickly check the weather forecast and the stock market at a glance without having to open a specific app. The dedicated Dashboard feature was eventually discontinued by Apple, but widgets live on not only in macOS, but also in iOS. In fact, the first versions of Apple’s iPhone apps, such as Weather and Stocks, were inspired by those original Dashboard widgets. Foundry 4. Time Machine (WWDC 2006) Announced at WWDC 2006 as part of Mac OS X Leopard, Time Machine was Apple’s solution to make data backup much easier. While in the past users had to back up their files and apps manually, Time Machine came with the promise of doing it all automatically and periodically. More than that, Apple has also introduced a cool interface that lets users “travel back in time” to retrieve previous versions of files, emails, and settings if they lose something. Time Machine is essentially a smart backup that users don’t even have to think about. Time Machine remains one of my favorite Mac features to this day. All you have to do is plug in an external disk to your Mac and enable Time Machine in Settings. 5. iPhone SDK (WWDC 2008) The first iPhone was unveiled at Macworld San Francisco in 2007, but did you know that it didn’t have an App Store? The only way to create apps for the iPhone at the time was to build web apps compatible with the mobile version of Safari. Apple quickly realized that wasn’t the best method, and at WWDC a year later, Jobs announced the first iPhone SDK (the iOS name came a few years later). With the SDK, developers were finally able to create native apps for the iPhone, opening up a whole new world of possibilities. The accompanying iPhone OS 2.0 release also included the App Store, and the rest is history. Many apps that we all know and love today were born because of the iPhone OS SDK. This includes WhatsApp and Instagram, both created by independent developers who wanted to showcase the potential of the iPhone and the App Store. 6. iCloud (WWDC 2011) After many problems with MobileMe, Apple came up with a new online service called iCloud – a new platform that came with the promise of not only fixing what the company had done wrong in the past, but also seamlessly syncing data between iPhone, iPad, and Mac. Before iCloud, users still needed a Mac or PC to transfer data to an iPhone or iPad, or vice versa. Now, all our data is available on every device, and everything happens automatically in the background. iCloud also paved the way for services like iCloud Drive, iCloud Photos, and Family Sharing. It’s notable that iCloud was the last Apple product personally introduced by Steve Jobs. The Apple co-founder didn’t have much stage time at WWDC 2011 due to his health condition, and he passed away in October. Apple 7. iOS 7 (WWDC 2013) iOS 7 represented the most dramatic visual change in the history of Apple’s mobile operating system to date. At WWDC 2013, Apple unveiled a new, completely flat interface under the direction of Jony Ive. Skeuomorphic elements with textures imitating real-life objects gave way to solid colors and white backgrounds. The new interface didn’t just transform the look of the iPhone. It led many other developers to also adopt the flat interface in their apps and websites, creating a new trend not only for Apple platforms but for the entire industry. But in addition to the new interface, iOS 7 also introduced many features that have become essential for iPhone and iPad users. These include AirDrop, Control Center, and improved multitasking. Since then, Apple has made other changes to iOS, but the fundamentals of the design language introduced with iOS 7 are still present throughout the system. According to rumors, Apple will finally introduce another major update to the iOS interface this year with iOS 19—so maybe we’ll have a new addition to this list. 8. iPadOS (WWDC 2019) In a move to address the growing divergence between the iPhone and iPad, Apple split iOS into two at WWDC 2019 and introduced a standalone OS just for the tablet. While still based on iOS, iPadOS added specific and long-awaited features to take advantage of the iPad’s larger screen and advanced hardware. With iPadOS updates over the years, Apple introduced multi-windows for the same app, a desktop-class Safari browsing experience, support for external storage in the Files app, Picture-in-Picture, mouse and trackpad support, and the ability to use the iPad as a Mac display with Sidecar. Reports say this year’s iPadOS update will bring better multitasking and a more Mac-like experience. Foundry 9. Find My (WWDC 2019) It didn’t get quite the attention as iPadOS, but at WWDC 2019, Apple also introduced a significant improvement to its Find My service: offline device tracking. Based on an end-to-end encrypted Bluetooth signal, the new Find My network allows users to locate iPhones, iPads, and even Macs when they’re not connected to the internet. The iPhone, iPad, or Mac sends its location to other Apple devices nearby, so that the owner can see where their devices are via the Find My app. This not only improved Find My and helped people recover their lost devices more easily, but also paved the way for the launch of AirTag, a tiny Bluetooth tracker based on the same technology. 10. App Tracking Transparency (WWDC 2020) This might not be as memorable as iOS 7 or Dashboard, but App Tracking Transparency was an important addition to iOS that had a huge impact on the industry. Announced as part of iOS 14 at WWDC 2020, Apple’s first pre-recorded event during the pandemic, App Tracking Transparency (ATT) is a privacy feature that requires apps to ask for the user’s consent before tracking them across other apps and websites. ATT has dramatically impacted the online advertising market and data collection. While Apple has stood up for user privacy with App Tracking Transparency, the feature was widely criticized by companies, including Meta, whose main revenue comes from advertisements reliant on user data.

If you've ever worked at an industrial design or architecture firm, you've seen that closet or series of storage bins filled with material samples. Eventually there's a major office cleanup to reclaim space, and a bunch of that stuff goes. Goes where? Into landfill, according to Swatchbox, a sample-providing middleman between manufacturers and designers. "The architecture and design industry generates tons of waste from specifying materials," they write. "Every day, thousands of physical samples (tiles, textiles, laminates) are shipped out to architects and designers globally. Most end up in landfills after a single use." That's hardly a good look, if your firm touts their green credentials. To combat the problem, Swatchbox has launced a program called Second Life Samples—the first of its kind, they say—where firms can send material samples back to them, even if you didn't get them from Swatchbox. The company will then recirculate or recycle them.Since 2018, the company has already been doing this with samples they themselves have provided, but by opening up the program to all samples regardless of the source, reckon they can reduce waste by "up to 90% in participating architecture and design firms." After assessing returned samples for quality, those in good condition that are still labeled (a sample isn't much good unless you know where it came from) are made available on Swatchbox's online platform. As for the rest, "Unlabeled, discontinued, or lightly worn samples are made available to students and educators. Any material that is not recoverable due to damage is processed through Swatchbox recycling partners." The program is open to firms located in the U.S. and the U.K. You can sign up here.