As trends come and go, we were up for the new ones to surface in public from Apple’s planner as they kicked-off the 2023 Worldwide Developers Conference keynote on 5th June, 2023. As the world-of-tech came to a standstill to witness some of the ecstatic and upcoming technology from Apple, the Apple WWDC rumours were more or less the reality of the event and that took a lot of Apple fans by surprise, in a positive way though!
Source: LifeWire
Apple CEO Tim Cook opened up the Apple WWDC event with a focus on hardware, software and services, but the biggest takeaways are the Vision Pro headset and the 15-inch MacBook Air. We saw updates to each one of Apple’s core platforms.
Apple WWDC Product Launch – What’s New From Apple?
Vision Pro AR Headset
This augmented reality headset is called Apple Vision Pro and it blends with the real and digital world to give an out-of-the-world experience for users. Priced at approximately Rs. 2,89,000 the device was termed as a pair of “ski-goggles” from Tim Cook and features a separate battery pack. The headset can be controlled with your hands, eyes, and voice recognition features.
Source: GizChina
What looks like a primary AR device can also be switched to full virtual reality with the help of a special dial. It’s powered by Apple’s M2 chipset, paired alongside a brand-new chip called R1, designed for “real-time sensor processing.” Those chipsets power Apple’s new operating system, visionOS, which has been specifically designed for the headset.
Read – iPhone 15 Pro: Launch Date, Colours, & Features
15-Inch MacBook Air
Next up, Apple announced a major deal for Mac lovers by fulfilling the request of a 15-inch MacBook Air. Priced approximately at Rs. 1,35,000, the Mac is 11.5mm thick, weighs 1.3kg, and is powered by Apple’s own M2 chipset. The notebook features two USB-C ports, Apple’s MagSafe charging dock, and a standard headphone jack.
The Mac features an 18-hour battery with an 8-core CPU and 10-core GPU. The new MacBook Air will ship in four colours, including Midnight and Starlight and might start delivery by the coming week.
Apart from the WWDC products there are some software and OS updates too, which were launched at the event.
iOS 17 for iPhone & iPadOS 17 for iPad
As discussed in a previous blog, the WWDC event also saw the launch of iOS 17 for the iPhone along with the launch of the iPadOS 17 for the iPad. You can read about the latest developments and updates in the iOS 17 blog that we wrote but for starters here are some of the updates you will get to see with iPadOS 17.
- Brand new Messages features
- AirDrop capabilities, and smarter autocorrect for text input.
- The ability to personalise the lock screen.
- New Health App
- Live display just like iOS
- Notes App & PDF Annotation
macOS Sonoma for Mac
The macOS Sonoma is the latest version of Mac operating system, which includes several new features including desktop widgets, Apple TV-like aerial screensavers and enhancements to apps like Messages and Safari. On the gaming front, there’s a new Game mode that prioritises CPU and GPU performance.
Source: The Verge
The macOS Sonoma takes gaming to a next level with the new gaming functionality that takes advantage of Apple’s more powerful graphics processing units and Apple’s Metal 3 framework. There’s also expanded video-conferencing functionality through FaceTime. Widgets are coming to the macOS on the desktop.
watchOS 10
With the launch of the watchOS 10, Apple is updating the Apple Watch’s software with new widgets and redesigned apps. The idea is to show more information at a glance. By turning the digital crown you can bring up your widget stack and scroll through for quick and easy access to information.
Source: The Verge
The Apple Watch will also get two new watch faces, the first one a colour-palette themed, and the second inspired by Peanuts characters Snoopy and Woodstock. There will also be more metrics and workout views for cycling, including the ability to show extra statistics when connecting to other Bluetooth-enabled bike sensors. Health is also a growing focus for WatchOS 10. Apple is adding new mood-logging features to the Mindfulness app, which you can access on both the watch and the phone.
Mac Studio & Mac Pro with M2 Max and M2 Ultra
The Mac studio is Apple’s smallest yet the most powerful desktop version for its set of users. At WWDC 2023, it was announced that these powerhouses will be getting a product update. With this, Apple is updating the silicon and replacing the M1 Max and M1 Ultra with the M2 Max and M2 Ultra.
Source: News18
The main difference, of the next-generation chip, unlocks new performance capabilities in the Mac Studio and Mac Pro. This starts with a 20% jump on CPU performance, 30% jump on GPU performance, and by making the neural engine work up to 40% faster. That’s super impressive.
With the M2 Ultra, Apple-lovers can get up to 192GB of RAM making the new Mac Studio up to 6 times faster than the Intel-powered Mac Studio. There are other connectivity and video enhancements that you will get wif you purchase the new $1,999 Mac Studio that may be available from June second week in 2023.
Other Apple WWDC Announcements
VisionOS
VisionOS is the first Apple operating system designed from the ground up for Spatial Computing. The OS is an amalgamation of years of innovation across Apple’s other existing platforms, namely iOS, iPadOS, and macOS.
OpticID
Optic ID is a new way to unlock devices with eye scanning, which the company claims will be able to distinguish even between identical twins. Optic ID will work to unlock the Vision Pro and make payments.
That’s all folks from the announcements of the Apple WWDC 2023. If you want to read and update yourself for everything about the latest Apple developments you can head to the blog section for more exciting reads.
