This week Apple held their annual WWDC developers conference. This article will focus on the Keynote. During the keynote Apple announced new features in all their OSs, the next generation of Apple Silicon and, new Macs
iOS
This year iOS got a major update regarding the Lock Screen. it also got a feature called Safety Check that allows users to better manage permissions and also reset iCloud. Also, Shared Photo Libraries are coming to IOS and Messages will get a SharePlay integration and undo send. Apple Pay will be getting a few updates including Apple Pay Later a buy now pay later service and Order Tracking.
Lock Screen
In iOS 16 the lock screen will get widgets that act like complications for the Apple Watch, It also gets a cool effect that separates the subject of the wallpaper from the photo. There’s also a new wallpaper gallery, notifications are now pinned to the bottom of the screen and, there’s a new now playing interface.
iPadOS
iPadOS got a major new window management feature called Stage Manager (also coming to Mac) which (finally) brings proper windowed multitasking to iPad. It’s also getting a weather app and they’re completely redoing how collaboration works. Devs will now be able to implement user customizable toolbars. iPads will now be able to do display scaling and will get a reference display mode.
WatchOS
WatchOS 6 will get new watch faces (including a lunar calendar face) upgrades to its sleep and AFib tacking and medication tracking.
IOT Stuff
There were a few updates to Apple’s IOT landscape. They announced that the Home app will be redesigned and talked about Matter. CarPlay is also getting updates, it can use the HUD and will adaptively resize to the cars screen.
Mac
MacOS
MacOS Ventura is a relatively minor update, It’ll get the same new features as iOS in Messages and Mail. For the devs, Apple is updating the Metal framework which will give users DLSS like upscaling. They talked about their implementation of the FIDO Alliance’s Passkeys security standard (This episode of Security Now explains what that is really well). But the standout feature announced this year was Continuity Camera, it would allow you to use you iPhone as a webcam (with you Mac). The reason it’s so cool is that it could somehow use the wide-angle lens to show a top-down view of your desk, I’m skeptical that it would work well.
Apple Silicon (M2)
The biggest announcement at WWDC this year was the next generation of Apple Silicon, the M2. Here’s some info about it:
- 8-core CPU & 10-core GPU
- 100GB/s of unified memory bandwidth
- The Neural Engine can process up to 15.8 trillion operations per second
- The media engine includes a higher-bandwidth video decoder, supporting 8K H.264 and HEVC video.
- Apple’s powerful ProRes video engine enables playback of multiple streams of both 4K and 8K video.
- Apple’s latest Secure Enclave provides best-in-class security.
- A new image signal processor (ISP) delivers better image noise reduction.
– Apple
New Macs
As predicted/rumored new Mac were announced last (as far as I remember). The new MacBook Air equipped with M2 got redesigned which removed the wedged design, It’ll have a 13.3-inch liquid retina display and spatial audio. They also announced an upgraded MacBook Pro but it wasn’t redesigned and still has the TouchBar. The Air starts at $1199 and the Pro starts at $1299, you can order them now and they will start shipping next month.
Software Releases
| Dev Beta | Today |
| Public Beta | Next Month |
| Final Release | Fall |
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