Apple's big conference will change the way you use your devices

Apple kicked off its weeklong Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) Monday with a jam-packed keynote that gave us a glimpse into the tech giant’s future. And that future has a lot to do with breaking down walls between the company’s various operating systems.

There were a handful of important updates for each operating system. There were also scads of incremental updates that won’t blow you away — but should make using your iPhone, MacBook and Apple Watch a bit easier.

iOS 10

The day’s biggest news came by way of Apple’s new iOS 10, which gets a new Rise to wake lock screen feature, interactive notifications, Siri for third-party apps, and improved Maps and Music apps, and a completely overhauled Messages app.

In order to make accessing notifications easier, iOS 10 comes with a new Rise to Wake feature that automatically turns on your iPhone’s screen as soon as you lift it. This should prove convenient if you’re waiting for an important message, but I’m not sure how it will impact battery life over time.

You can now also access your camera by swiping right on the lock screen instead of swiping up on the tiny camera icon. You can also jump into your music controls by pulling up the Control Center and swiping in from the right. You can also see your widgets by swiping in from the left.

Apple is also doing a lot to make 3D Touch more useful with iOS 10.

For example, you can reply directly to messages from your phone’s lock screen by using 3D Touch to open your message and reply without having to open the Messages app. The same can be done with other apps such as Uber, which allows you to use 3D Touch to open notifications and see where your car is.

3D Touch is also being put to use with apps widgets. So if you long-press on the ESPN app for instance, you’ll get a look at the scores for your favorite teams. Android phones, however, can permanently display widgets on their home screens though, so I’m not sure this particular feature is as convenient as Apple makes it out to be.

While it’s good to see Apple trying to make 3D Touch more useful, it’s a bummer that Apple fans who don’t own the iPhone 6s or 6s Plus — the only phones that offer 3D touch — won’t be able to use it.

Apple has also opened up Siri to third-party developers, so you’ll now be able to use your voice to do things like call for an Uber, send messages via third-party services or send money to friends via payment services.

Apple Maps is getting a big update by now letting you swipe up from the bottom of the Maps screen to see suggestions for things like when you should leave for work and the best route to take. Navigation has been updated with a new Dynamic view feature that pans the screen in or out based on how long you’ll be on a specific stretch of road. There’s also traffic on route, which displays the traffic conditions on your, well, route. But that's been available for Google Maps for quite some time already.

Apple Music got a much-needed facelift that makes it easier to navigate and is more user-friendly than its first overly complex iteration. Still, it remains to be seen whether that will be enough to lure consumers away from Spotify.

The biggest updates to iOS 10, though, come in the form of the much-improved Messages app, which can now understand rich links. So if someone messages you a YouTube link, for example, the video can actually play in the Messages app.

Emojis are now three times larger, so you can actually see them, and there are now emoji predictions while you type. An emoji word replacement feature can also identify any words in a message that can be turned into emojis and highlight them so you can swap them for images in a snap.

The Messages app also gets new Bubble Effects that change the way the message bubble shows up on a recipient's screen when they get one of your messages. With the Invisible Ink effect, for instance, your recipient will see a message that’s blurred until they swipe over it.

You'll also be able to send handwritten messages and Digital Touch interactions that let you fire off hand-drawn images or your heartbeat.

macOS Sierra

OS X is no more. The company has officially renamed its desktop operating system macOS to better fit with its "OS-style" naming convention. The first version will be called macOS Sierra and it brings a huge update in the form of Siri. Yes, Siri is now free to roam your MacBook with glee.

Using the voice assistant, you can now search for files on your computer, play music, message friends, search the web and find movies.

MacOS Sierra’s new Auto Unlock feature, meanwhile, eliminates the need to enter a login password on your Mac by wirelessly identifying your Apple Watch and logging you in. It’s obviously not a reason to go out and buy an Apple Watch right away, but if you’ve already got one it should make logging in way less annoying.

The OS also gets a new tabs view for apps, which collects all of the windows you have open for specific apps and organizes them as tabs in a single window similar to Chrome or Safari. Then there’s picture-in-picture mode, which lets you watch movies in a small window while still interacting with other on-screen apps.

watchOS 3

Apple’s new watch OS 3 put a heavy emphasis on speeding up your interactions with the company’s wearable. Apps now launch seven times faster than with watch OS 2, so you won’t have to wait forever to check the score of the Mets game on your ESPN app.

You can also save your favorite apps in a dock accessible by pressing the watch’s side button. Those apps, Apple explained, are always updated so they have the latest information you’re looking for.

The Activity app has been updated to let you share and compare your activity with friends and family. There’s also a new wheelchair setting that gears activity levels and notifications toward users who use wheelchairs.

My favorite new watchOS feature, though, is Scribble, which lets you physically write replies to messages on your Apple Watch’s screen. So you’ll no longer have to look like a weirdo while using voice dictation to send a text message reply from your watch in public.

tvOS

Finally, Apple rolled out a few updates to its tvOS including the ability to use Siri to launch live TV apps, search YouTube and manage HomeKit-enabled devices with your voice.

Perhaps the best update to tvOS, though, is its new Single Sign-on feature, which eliminates the ridiculous process of having to go to your cable provider’s site and get an access code to sign into pay-TV subscription apps like HBO GO and ESPN. Now, you’ll only have to sign into one pay-TV app and any other downloaded app that uses that login will automatically sign you in. That’s a huge improvement.

Each of Apple's operating system updates will be available for free this fall. And be sure to check back with us for more in-depth looks at all of the new features of each OS.

Email Daniel at dhowley@yahoo-inc.com; follow him on Twitter at @DanielHowley.