Apple’s WorldWide Developers Conference (WWDC) on June 5th started off with a monologue showing everything coming to the company’s lineup of devices. Usually this event has been where they show the first look at the softwares of iPhones, iPads, Apple Watches and Macs. This year there was an additional reveal of a new hardware too.
The Apple Visin Pro was the big announcement, where Tim cook presented it as “new kind of computer”. The Macbook Air & other Mac harderware announcements also included the new silicon used along with the software updates. So there was no exception of Apples’s ecosystem updates.
Now lets have a look at the brief summary on all the announcements.
Apple Vision Pro, a new headset
Apple’s answer to the AR & VR headset race is the Apple Vision Pro. While the operating system looks like a mixed bag of iOS, MacOS & TVOS. Its retailing for $3499 & will be shipped early next year.
The headset resembles an bit like the one from Ready Player:One with the glass on the front to cover the cameras & even a curved OLED outer display. The headset has a wide rear band & no over the top strap. There are rumors which suggest an external battery pack that connects over a cable and sits in your pocket.
The vision pro has 3 element lenses that enables 4K resolution. There is an option to even change the lense for a different vision capabilities. The audio pods enclosed within the band which sit over your ears. Lidar & others sensors track hand and body motions which are at the bottom of the headset.
New Macbook Air 15
Apple has launched a larger version of already present Macbook Air 13. It is powered by M2 chip and boasts a 18 hours of battery life. It can be configured upto 24GB of RAm and 2TB of storage. It retails from ₹134900.
The 15-inch version also has the same thickness of 11.5mm & weighs at 1.51 kg. It comes with four colour options – Silver, Starlight, Space Grey & Midnight. The in box contents are : 15-inch MacBook Air, 35W Dual USB-C Port Power Adapter & USB-C to MagSafe 3 Cable
Mac Studio with M2
A new Mac Studio is in the market and it comes with Apple’s latest silicon. The new model is equipped with an M2 Max chipset or the new M2 Ultra chipset essentially two M2 Max chips combined, allowing up to 192GB of memory.
The M2 Ultra stole the spotlight with new capabilities, with a 24-core CPU and streaming 22 videos in 8K ProRes resolution at once. It can support up to six Apple Pro displays simultaneously. The Mac Studio is priced from $1,999 and will be available next week.
Mac Pro with M2 Ultra
Apple wasted no time in announcing that its new high-end Mac Pro desktop model will also get the M2 Ultra. The new Mac Pro will get all the M2 Ultra upgrades as the Studio, including support for up to 192GB RAM.
The Mac Pro has eight Thunderbolt ports, two HDMI ports and two 10GB Ethernet ports, as well as six open PCIe Gen 4 slots. The new Mac Pro is available in both upright tower and horizontal rack configurations. The new Mac Pro starts at $6,999 and will be available next week.
iOS 17
iOS 17 brings a ton of quality of life improvements, and the iOS 17 developer beta is available for download now. Finally, you can search your messages. You can swipe on specific messages to reply to them, and voice notes are transcribed.
Say goodbye to gray screens when you get calls. Now you can show your contacts full-screen photos or memoji when they call you. And when someone leaves a voicemail, you can see the transcription in real time to review calls when you don’t recognize a caller.
A new security feature, Check In, sends a message to a trusted contact when you’ve reached a specific location, such as when you’ve arrived home safely after a late-night trip. If it takes you longer to reach a destination, you’ll be prompted to extend the timer instead of alerting your contact. It also displays your battery and signal status. Check In is end-to-end encrypted.
Last year, Apple introduced an iOS feature that lets you copy and paste photo emojis as stickers, and now you can do the same with videos to essentially create GIFs that you can share with friends or even use as replies to messages. All emoji can now be used as stickers as well.
AirDrop is a helpful tool for sending files between Apple devices, but now you can also share your contact information with Name Drop. You can choose what you want to share: Email addresses, phone numbers, and more.
Also, say goodbye to notes to jot down your thoughts. Journal is a new secure app for personal reminders. Apple touts it as a gratitude exercise, but iOS automatically adds activities like songs and workouts to your personal journal.
Apple Maps got an update that Android owners have had for years, the ability to use Maps offline, which is especially helpful when you’re outdoors beyond network range or want to conserve battery.
A new mode, StandBy, turns an iPhone into an alarm clock when it’s charged and turned horizontally. It gets smart interactions like a large visible watch face and calendar and music controls.
Finally, as has been rumored, you won’t have to say “Hey Siri” anymore. It’ll be enough to say “Siri” to invoke the voice assistant.
iPadOS 17 iPadOS 17 brings more controls for widgets that not only display more information at a glance, but also have more interactive buttons that you can use to control your smart home or play music.
iPadOS 17 brings more interactive personal data to the Health app, including better visualization of sleep and activity.
The next iPadOS update will bring quality of life improvements such as more customization options for the lock screen and multiple timers (helpful for cooking), as well as improvements to the Stage Manager “follow-you-during-video-calls” feature for iPad selfie cameras.
Because the iPad has so much screen space, Apple has expanded capabilities for PDFs that can be autofilled and signed from within iPadOS, iPad owners can collaborate in real time while editing PDFs, and files can now be saved in the Notes app.
MacOS Sonoma
MacOS Sonoma, named after one of California’s most famous wine-growing regions, continues the WWDC theme of adding more widget features.
Sonoma also has some gaming upgrades like a new game mode that prioritizes CPU and GPU to improve frame rate. Apple is paying attention to immersion with lower latency wireless controllers and speakers or headsets. The company is also courting developers with game dev kits and Metal 3, but the biggest gaming announcement is that legendary game developer Hideo Kojima’s Death Stranding will be released for Macs later this year. “We’re actively working to bring our future titles to Apple platforms,” Kojima said during the WWDC presentation.
On the business side, the Mac has improved video conferencing with an overlay that displays slide controls during the presentation. Apple has also introduced new responses, such as dropping the ticker tape during congratulations, which can be triggered with gestures.
PassKey, the end-to-end encrypted password chain Apple introduced last year, can now be shared with other contacts, and anyone who’s in can edit and update passwords to share with the group.
Safari has security updates, including locking the browser window in private browsing mode and profiles to separate accounts, logins and cookies between work and personal use.
AirPods and audio upgrades
Apple has made a handful of improvements to its audio products. AirPods get Adaptive Audio, which combines noise cancelation with intelligent audio to suppress distracting background noise while letting through important sounds — like car horns or bike bells. Voices are also let through in case someone starts a personal conversation.
And it’s much easier to take control of music digitally with SharePlay while someone is behind the wheel with CarPlay — a prompt goes out to others in the car asking if they want to take control.
WatchOS 10
Widgets also reappear in WatchOS 10, the next operating system upgrade for Apple Watches. Widgets are now accessible in a stack from the home screen — just use the digital crown to flip between them.
Apple has focused on cycling this year, improving workouts by displaying functional threshold data, an important metric for cyclists. The watch also connects to sensors on bikes via Bluetooth, and there’s a new full-screen mode for iPhones that lets you use it full-screen while cycling.
Hikers, rejoice! WatchOS 10 has added cellular connection waypoints to its compass, which tell you which direction to go and how far you have to go before you have cellular reception. It also displays SOS waypoints and shows an elevation view in the 3D compass view. There is also a clear topographic view.
Apple is also expanding its mindfulness app to log how you’re feeling in “State of Mind,” where you can choose between color-coded feeling states. You can even access it from your iPhone if you’re not near your Apple Watch.
Health Focuses for 2023
In addition to the WatchOS mindfulness updates, Apple has introduced a neutral mood and mental health self-assessment survey that acts as a sort of non-medical way to indicate whether you might want to seek professional help.
Apple also has a new cross-device focus on vision health in the Health app, and a new feature on the Apple Watch measures time spent outdoors in daylight to watch for nearsightedness in younger wearers. Screen Distance uses the iPad’s TrueDepth camera to warn people when they’re sitting too close to the screen.