Today Apple held its World Wide Developer Conference, or WWDC, keynote. The WWDC keynote is a way of Apple to highlight the features that will be coming to its platforms overs the next year. This year keynote is a big one with features that were highlighted for all of Apple’s platforms. I will highlight what I think are the biggest announcements.

Vision Pro

The Apple Vision Pro is Apple’s latest platform and while it has only been around for four months, there are some good updates coming. First, for those who use a Mac with their Apple Vision Pro you will be able to use a display that will be like having two 4K monitors side-by-side. This is great so you can have even more screen real estate.

For Photos, you will be able to use machine learning to make any photo a Spatial Photo, so you can view it with Apple Vision Pro.

The Apple Vision Pro is also coming to new regions both later this month and also in July.

Home Screen

Our devices are super personalized and we often use our home screen to reflect that. Now, you can do even more customization. You can customize your home screen to place icons where you would like them. This works well for images that may normally be covered by icons. Just like you re-arrange the icons, and you can place them wherever you would like.

Locking Apps

Some apps can contain some sensitive data, like photos or a journal app. There may be those times when you want to protect this data. You can now lock apps behind Face ID. This means that you can use require Face ID to open up an app.

Hiding Apps

There may be apps that you do not want others to see when you hand them your phone. You can now hide apps and these will be put into a "Hidden Apps" folder in the App Library, and they will be locked behind Face ID, just like other apps.

Icon Tint

There are those of us who like to have complete color coordination between our Home Screen and our icons, but icons come in a variety of colors. You can work around this by creating a shortcut that opens up the app, but this can be tedious. There is a new option for customizing the tint color of icons. This tint color applies to all icons, but you can select any color you want.

Control Center

The Control Center also allows you to organize, resize, and organize the icons as you see fit. You can even have groups of controls that make sense for you. Developers will be able to add additional control center items for you as well.

Contacts

A couple years ago Apple added a new way to limit which photos that an app could see. Now, you can do the same with Contacts. Instead of allowing an app full access, you can choose which contacts an app will have access to. This is a great addition for privacy.

Passwords

There is now a new Passwords app that works across Mac, iPhone, iPad, Apple Vision Pro, and even on Windows. This will allow you to store your passwords, one-time codes, passkeys, Wi-Fi, shared passwords, and Sign-In with Apple.

Messages

Messages gets some new features like custom Tapbacks, so you can now add emoji inline or as a tapback. Beyond this, you can use the new Genmoji feature to generate your own custom emoji-looking items to get the right images for the situation.

Sometimes all you need to do is add some emphasis to text. This can also be done through the new "text effects". These will allow you to add bold, italics, underline, or strike through some text. Beyond this, you can add some effects including:

• Big
• Small
• Shake
• Nod
• Explode
• Ripple
• Bloom
• Jitter

Here is a photo of some of them. When you preview them, they will show a preview of what they will look like.

TV

The AppleTV app is getting a new feature called "Insights". This is where you will be able to see other things that an actor or actress has been in as well as identify a song. You will then be able to add the song to an Apple Music playlist. If you use your iPhone as a remote while watching TV with others, you will also be able to get Insights.

Another feature is Enhance Dialog for TV speakers and speakers, this can be super helpful so you can hear what is being said. Subtitles will also get some tweaks, where they will automatically come up if you mute the audio or jump back in time.

Calculator

There is now a calculator on the iPad and it includes a feature called "Math Notes". Math Notes allows you to write out expressions with the Apple Pencil and calculator will compute the answer once you put an equals sign in the equation. If you need to add a column of numbers, this can be done as well by putting a line under all of the numbers to be added.

You will also be able to add graphs and update values in real-time with variables. Math Notes are not limited to just the calculator app. You can also use them in the Notes app.

macOS

macOS is the oldest and most mature of Apple’s operating systems, but it also seems some new features, like the aforementioned Passwords app. There are two iPhone-related features coming, mirroring and mirroring and notifications.

iPhone Mirroring

There may be instances when you would might want to be able to see what is happening on your iPhone while you are using your Mac. This can be particularly true if your iPhone is charging in another room. Now, you will be able to actually use your iPhone while it is elsewhere. You are able to interact with it by swiping and clicking, just as if you were using the iPhone.

When you do you your iPhone via mirroring, it will remain locked, so nobody else will be able to see what you are doing.

iPhone Notifications

Much like being able to add widgets from your iPhone to your Mac, you will be able to get iPhone notifications right on your Mac. Along with this, you can interact with them and they should even be able to open up via iPhone mirroring.

Mail

Mail is also getting some updates, including categorizations. This is done on device and emails will be put into one of a few categories:

• Primary - Most important
• Transactions - Receipts
• Updates - Newsletters
• Promotions - Marketing/Sales

This is a nice update as well. There is another thing coming to mail, Writing Tools.

Writing Tools will allow you to spell check, proof-read, and rewrite an email. It will not be limited Mail, but can also be found in Keynote. Pages, Notes, and even third-party apps.

Apple Intelligence

One of the big items highlighted is Artificial Intelligence. Artificial Intelligence will allow you to create images, rework text, and even use Siri to perform actions and find your own data. Apple could have just integrated existing Artificial Intelligence, but they have decided to go above and beyond with a new feature called Apple Intelligence.

Apple Intelligence is an initiative that takes Artificial intelligence and expands upon it to make sure that your information stays private. This is done through a combination of on-device and cloud infrastructure. A vast majority of the data will be on device, but for tasks that require more resources, there is the cloud portion.

But not just any cloud. Apple has dubbed their solution Private Cloud Compute. PrivatE Cloud Compute is built on Apple Silicon and uses many of the features built into the system. One of the features of this is that there is no data persistence, so your private data is only available to that server for that one request, before the data is wiped from the server.

Apple Intelligence provides access to your data so you can perform actions like "Find photos of Suzy in a Pink dress" and it knows enough context to be able to find what you are looking for.

Image Generation

One of the more common uses of current artificial intelligence is to generate images. You can do this on iOS 18, iPadOS 18, and macOS Sequoia as well. You will be able to create images to send to others based upon a template, and a few limited styles. Beyond this, you will be able to write out what you are looking for and it will perform a search.

Being able to use your own data is great, but sometimes you need access to general world knowledge. Apple has a solution with that as well.

ChatGPT

Apple is partnering with Open AI and to use their ChatGPT 4o model to allow you to ask Siri general knowledge. The request will be sent and it will end up responding. If an app needs to use your personal data, you will need to confirm that you want to send the data to ChatGPT before it sent. This way, you are always able to decide to not send the data.

Again, these features will be coming later in the year.

Closing Thoughts

All of the features outlined above should be coming over the next year. Some will be released this fall, while others will be later. There are a number of great features, like Home Screen customization, new text effects in Messages. The new Passwords app will make it easier to manage all of your passwords, and related information in a single location.

Artificial Intelligence is a big topic with a slew of features planned including Writing Tools, mail organization, and general ChatGPT features through Siri and throughout Apple's operating systems.

You can see previews for macOS Sequoia, iOS 18, and iPadOS 18.

Sources:

Today Apple held its annual World Wide Developer Conference (WWDC) keynote. As expected they announced all of the new operating systems as well as some new hardware. iOS 17, iPadOS 17, watchOS 10, and macOS 14 Sonoma, were all covered and each of them included a bunch of new features.

Macs

Apple announced three new Macs today, a MacBook Air, a Mac Studio, and the Mac Pro. Let us start with the 15-inch MacBook Air.

15-inch MacBook Air

The 15-inch MacBook Air is very similar to the 13.6-inch model, in that it has an options for an 8-Core M2 chip with either 8 or 10 GPU cores, a Liquid Retina display, P3 Color gamut, and True Tone on the display. It has 2 Thunderbolt 4/USB 4 ports. It has a 15.3-inch screen, with 500 nits of brightness.

According to Apple, it it s 12x faster than the latest Intel-based MacBook Air and it comes with 18 hours of battery life. You can configure it up to 24GB of memory and up to 2TB of storage.

The 15-inch MacBook Air will be available to order it today and will start shipping next week. The 15-inch MacBook Air starts at $1299 for the 8-Core CPU and 10-Core GPU with 8GB of unified memory and 256GB of storage. As a side note, the 13-inch M2 MacBook Air is now starts $1099 for the 8-Core CPU and 8-Core GPU with 8GB of unified memory and 256GB of storage.

Mac Studio with M2 Max and M2 Ultra

The Mac Studio is Apple’s latest desktop Mac and it has been popular amongst users who need the additional power of the M1 Max and M1 Ultra. The Mac Studio is a great way of being able to have the connectivity that you need given the myriad of ports on the back of the device.

The hardware has now been updated with the M2 Max and M2 Ultra. The M2 Max is the same one that comes in the 14 and 16-inch MacBook Pro, so it has either a 12-core CPU, and 30-Core GPU. The M2 Ultra is double that of the M2 Max, so it has a 24-Core CPU and a 76-Core GPU. The M2 Ultra is capable of streaming 22 8K streams simultaneously, so it is a beefy powerhouse. The M2 Max also includes a 32-core Neural Engine and can support up to 192 GB of memory.

The M2 Ultra now supports up to 6 Pro Display XDR connected to a single Mac Studio with M2 Ultra, if you need that much screen real estate. On either of the models, you can configure up to 8TB of internal storage.

The Mac Studio with M2 Max is available for order today and will start shipping next week. The starting price is $1999. The Mac Studio with M2 Ultra is also available to order today and will begin shipping next week. The starting price for the Mac Studio with M2 Ultra, 64GB of memory, and 512GB SSD, and 1TB of storage is $3999.

Mac Pro

Mac Pro with Apple Silicon it combines the Apple Silicon with PCI expansion. All Mac Pro comes with M2 Ultra. This is the 24-Core CPU, 60-Core GPU, and 32-core Neural engine.

The Mac Pro with Apple Silicon comes with the performance of 7 afterburner cards, and it can unjust 24, 4K camera feeds and render them in real-time. There are also 8 thunderbolt 4 ports, six on the back and 2 on the top. There are six open PCI slots that support generation 4 PCI. This allows you to expand your Mac Pro as needed.

The Mac Pro with Apple Silicon starts at $6999, for the 24-Core CPU, 60-Core GPU, and 32-core Neural engine, and 1TB of internal storage . It can be ordered today and will start arriving next week.

iOS 17 and iPadOS 17

iOS 17 brings a few new features that will help you communicate in new ways through a feature called Contact Cards. Contact Cards are a way of allowing you to personalize your own card that will show up when you call someone. You can customize the photo, font size, font weight, and even the font color. You can choose to use a Memoji instead of a photo if desired.

Along with a personal contact card, you will also be able to see a live transcription of voicemails that are left for you, and if it is a time sensitive item, you can answer the call right from the Lock Screen. One thing that is coming to FaceTime is the ability to leave a voicemail message, so they will see that you contacted them.

Messages is getting some enhancements to its search by adding the ability to filter messages using advanced filtering.

The iPhone also gets a new “Standby” mode. When you put your iPhone in landscape mode, a new layout will appear. This layout will allow you to easily see the items that you need to see, depending on location, and time of day. This is powered by widgets, so you can see upcoming calendar events, photos, and more. StandBy will also support live activities. StandBy will be useful on a nightstand by changing the font to be red, so it will not interfere with your sleep.

There have been some improvements to both dictation and auto-correct. They will now use on-device learning to be able to more accurately predict what you want to type next.

There is one last new feature to highlight, called “Check In”. Check In will allow you to automatically notify family and friends when you get home. This is done within Messages and if you are running late, you can also extend time.

iPadOS 17

iPadOS 17 is getting some new features of its own, like the Lock Screen, Interactive Widgets, PDF improvements, and the Health App.

With iOS 16 the iPhone received a way to be able to customize the Lock Screen, including photos, fonts, and colors, and you could even include some widgets. This year the iPad gets the same features, including the ability to add more widgets along the left-side of the iPad. This makes sense given the larger real estate on an iPad. Along with the Lock Screen customizations, widgets also get some improvements.

Widgets can now be interactive, so this means that you can tap on a task and have it be completed, or you can tap on a Smart Light and have it turn on or off. This is a great enhancement that many users have been waiting for a while. Interactive widgets are available on both iOS 17 and iPadOS 17.

There is a huge improvement to PDF support within Notes. You can now add multiple PDFs to a note, annotate PDFs, and even collaborate on PDFs. All of the collaboration is real-time so if someone else makes they will be reflected on your copy.

The iPad is now getting the Health app, so you can now view everything within the Health app across iOS, iPadOS, and watchOS. To go with health, there is a focus on mental health, including the ability to provide context for your mood and you can gain some insights with what is adding to your current feelings.

There is also a new “Journal” app that will allow you to provide additional information about moments in your life. There are also intelligent suggestions for things like podcasts, music, photos, contacts, and photos, among other sources of information.

watchOS 10

watchOS is getting a redesign with a focus on glanceable information through the use of stacks of information. You can quickly glance at a variety of information by swiping as you would on stacks within widgets.

Activity will now show you a full-screen view of your information for standing, exercise, and calories burned. If you are a cyclist, you now have dedicated

There are two new watch faces, Palette, which is a three layers of color to provide you the time. The second watch face features Snoopy and Woodstock and this watch face can provide various appearances depending on time of day and current weather.

For those who like to hike, there are a few new features including two waypoints, Cellular Connectivity, and SOS. The Cellular Connectivity waypoint will show you where you are able to get cellular connectivity should you need to call someone. At the same time, the SOS waypoint will show you where you can make an emergency call. Along with this, you can now see elevations and contour lines within maps, so you can more easily see how difficult your hike will be.

macOS Sonoma

macOS is a mature operating system and this year’s release of macOS Sonoma (macOS 14) is getting a few features including changes to Safari, widget enhancements, screensavers. For the screensavers you will be able to download screensavers similar to those on the Apple TV. These will also show when the Mac is locked.

Safari is seeing some new features like profiles. Profiles will allow you to keep work, school, and standard separate. When you enable profiles you will have separate cookies, tab groups, and favorites. What this means is that you can log into the same website on two different windows. One of these could be on a user account or another could be on an administrator account.

The last big feature to highlight is Interactive Widgets. Widgets are now on macOS Sonoma and they are no longer limited to the Notification Center, they can now be placed on the desktop. Widgets do not get in the way, they will stay in the background and the tint will dim their background and the widget will still be visible no matter of the background color. Widgets on macOS Sonoma will also allow you to use iPhone widgets on your Mac, provided the iPhone is nearby or on the same Wi-Fi network.

The last item to cover is the biggest announcement, the Vision Pro Headset

Vision Pro Headset

It has been long rumored that Apple was working on a headset, and today they announced just that. Their product is called Apple Vision Pro. The Apple Vision Pro Headset is an all-new product category for Apple and the first product category since the AirPods in 2016. The Apple Vision Pro headset is designed to work well in a spatial environment. The Vision Pro Headset is designed to augment what you see by providing overlays of the apps that you are used to.

The Vision Pro Headset has a feature called “EyeSight”, which will allow others to easily see if the user is able to see them, or if they are fully immersed in what they are doing. As a user, you can adjust the size of any app window to the size that makes the most sense to you. This means that you can watch a video in a window that would be similar to that in a theater, or even just in a corner, so you can watch what you want and continue to perform work.

Given the 3D nature of the Vision Pro headset, you can record videos in 3D, and even play them back at a future date. The Vision Pro headset is powered by an all new operating system called visionOS. From Apple’s announcement:

visionOS features a brand-new three-dimensional interface that makes digital content look and feel present in a user’s physical world. By responding dynamically to natural light and casting shadows, it helps the user understand scale and distance. To enable user navigation and interaction with spatial content, Apple Vision Pro introduces an entirely new input system controlled by a person’s eyes, hands, and voice. Users can browse through apps by simply looking at them, tapping their fingers to select, flicking their wrist to scroll, or using voice to dictate.

Battery life on the Vision Pro Headset is two hours with the battery pack, or all day when plugged in. The Vision Pro Headset will be available in early 2024 and it will start at $3,499. It will be available in the United States only, via Apple.com and in Apple Retail stores. You can read more about the Vision Pro headset on Apple’s dedicated Apple Vision Pro headset page.

Closing Thoughts

The items outlined above are just a fraction of what was actually announced. I think a lot of the work this year went into the Vision Pro headset as well as visionOS that powers the Vision Pro. While we did get some great features for iOS, iPadOS, and macOS, with widgets. There is a lot more information in the actual Keynote, which you can watch on the Apple Special Events page.

Sources:

Yesterday’s Apple World Wide Developer Conference keynote was a long one. It came in at just under two and half hours. This is the longest keynote that they have done, end so it was completely full of announcements. A list of items covered include software, and hardware, including some sneak peeks at hardware coming later. There was so much in this keynote, it is hard to choose where to begin. Let us start with hardware.

iPad Pro

One of the things that Apple announced at this keynote is new iPad Pros. The new iPad Pros have a slew of new features. Both of the iPad Pros now have feature parity, meaning that they have the same hardware inside the case.

• ProMotion technology
• P3 Wide Color Gamut
• True Tone Display
• A10X Fusion Chip
• 12-megapixel camera
• ƒ/1.8 aperture

The physical dimensions of the iPad Pros have changed, at least for the 9.7-inch model. That model is gone. It has been replaced with the new 10.5-inch iPad Pro, yet it is almost the same physical size. This is possible because there is now 40% less bezel on the sides. The new 10.5-inch iPad Pro is only 0.3 inches longer and 0.2 inches wider than the 9.7-inch model. The size difference also means that the weight of the 10.5-inch iPad Pro is a bit more over the 9.7-inch model. In fact, it is a whole 32 grams, or 0.07 pounds more.

If one is going from the 9.7-inch iPad pro to the 10.5-inch iPad Pro you will see a more modest set of changes one. However, the 12.9-inch iPad Pro is seeing a bunch of new features. Again, these are all available on the 10.5-inch. The new features of the 12.9-inch include:

• Digital zoom up to 5x
• Optical image stabilization
• Six‑element lens
• Quad-LED True Tone flash
• Panorama (up to 63 megapixels)
• ProMotion technology
• Wide color display (P3)
• True Tone display

As mentioned, these were all available on the 9.7-inch previously, however having them on the 12.9-inch iPad Pro will be a nice change for those 12.9-inch iPad Pro owners who do upgrade. In fact, the 12.9-inch iPad Pro is now lighter by 36 grams, or 0.08 pounds.

The FaceTime camera has also been upgraded in both models. It is now a 7 megapixel camera with a ƒ/2.2 aperture, and 1080p recording. The FaceTime camera includes Wide Color capture as well. The FaceTime camera changes will work not only for FaceTime but also for selfies.

There is one last thing to note. The 10.5-inch iPad Pro is the only one that comes in Rose Gold. The 12.9-inch iPad Pro does not. The 10.5-inch model starts at $649, while the 12.9-inch model starts at $799. You can choose among three different storage sizes, 64GB, 256GB, and 512GB. This is double the previous models. There are also cellular models and these cost $130 more. The new iPad Pros are able to be ordered today, and they ship next week.

Macs

The quick summary is that everything got updated, well except the Mac mini, and the MacBook Air. The iMac, MacBook and MacBook Pros have all gotten an upgrade to the latest Intel Series of chips, codenamed Kaby Lake. The 13-inch MacBook now has the Intel Iris Plus 640 Graphics chip, where as the 13-inch with Touch Bar has the Intel Iris Plus Graphics 650.

The 15-inch MacBook Pro with Touch Bar now includes an AMD Radeon 555 with 2GB of Video RAM, or Radeon 560 with 4GB of Video RAM. The 13-inch MacBook Pro non-touchbar model is now starting at $1299.

The 12-inch MacBook has also received a slight upgrade as well. It also has the 7th Generation Intel chips. It now has a 1.2 GHz process as its base which includes Intel HD 615 Graphics. Along side this it has Bluetooth 4.2 support.

If you are still in the market for a MacBook Air, they are still around and have recieved a very minor procssor speed increase, but that is the only change for the MacBook Air.

The MacBooks were modest upgrades, unlike the iMacs. These received a more substantial upgrade.

iMacs

The entire Retina iMac line received upgrades to the latest Intel chips, Kaby Lake. The most notable change is in the 27-inch Screen. It now supports the Wide Color Gamut (P3), which brings it to parity with the iPads.

The second biggest change is that the iMac line now supports USB-C, and Thunderbolt 3, with the two USB-C ports available on all models. This is the first time that USB-C has been available on a desktop Mac. Alongside, there is also Bluetooth 4.2 support. One of the most noticeable changes will be in graphics. For all Retina models, Apple is now including AMD Radeon Pro graphics. For the 21.5-inch model this is the 555 with 2GB of RAM or the 560 with 4GB of RAM. The 27-inch models get the Radeon Pro 570, 575, or 580, with 4GB of memory for the 570 and 575, and 8GB video Memory for the 580.

The change that is most likely to be a nice change is that the 21.5-inch 4K Retina iMac now starts at $1299. This is down from $1499 for the previous version.

There were two "Sneak Peeks" at the keynote. These will be covered a bit later. For now, let us look at the software that was announced, starting with tvOS.

tvOS

There was only one announcement, for today, regarding the Apple TV. Even though it was only one announcement, it was a big one; the Amazon Prime Video is coming this fall. This means that anybody who likes to watch Amazon Prime Video will be able to do that directly on the Apple TV. It is possible to use AirPlay to get Amazon Video on your Apple TV today, but this is an inelegant solution.

watchOS

The Apple Watch has become a key aspect to many people's lives since its initial release in April of 2015. It took a couple of years, but the Apple has honed in on its main focus, health and fitness. watchOS 4 brings a few new features, the first being a new user interface for scrolling applications. Along side this there are a few new watch faces, Siri, Kaleidoscope, as well as coupel of new iconic characters. These characterse areWoody, Jessie, and Buzz from the Toy Story franchise.

Workouts are now easier under watchOS 4. To coincide with this, you are able to get more data to and from the Apple Watch. This is done through the use of NFC. The NFC capability will only available on newer equipment, but if it is available, it will be helpful. In particular, your heart rate will be sent from your Apple Watch to the gym equipment, whereas the incline rate from the gym equipment will be sent to your Apple Watch. This two-way communication allows for more data relating to health. This is likely only the beginning of the two-way communications between the Apple Watch and gym equipment.

The last item with watchOS is that Music can now be automatically synchronized over to your Apple Watch. This feature will allow you to always have music with you, particularly if you do not bring your iPhone with your when you exercise.

There are a bunch of other features for watchOS. For now let us look at some of the new features of iOS.

iOS 11

The most anticipated aspect of the announcement is the operating system for the iPhone, and iPad, iOS. iOS 11 brings a bunch of updates. One of the most used applications on iOS is Messages.

Messages

There are a couple of updates specifically for Messages. These revolve around iMessage apps, syncing, and Payments.

iMessage Apps and Stickers

With iOS 10, Apple added iMessage applications to iOS. One of the downsides to have so many iMessage apps and stickers is the difficulty of finding the specifc iMessage application you wanted to use. With iOS 11 it is now easier to find said application. You simply scroll through your iMessage application drawer and locate the application you are looking for. This was one of the biggest issues with iMessage in iOS 10. The next feature is syncing of messages.

Syncing

iOS 11 will synchronize all of your messages across all of your devices. This is possible because all of your iMessages will being stored in the cloud, securely. When you get a new device, all of your recent messages will be synchronized to the device. This will also reduce the amount of storage needed on your device for messages. The last item to highlight is actually an iMessage app, Payments.

Person to Person Payments

The biggest change to iMessage in iOS 11 will be the ability to send money directly to someone. Once you receive some money, it will be added to your Apple Pay Cash card. You can use this to purchase apps or pay for other services using your iPhone. Alternnatively you can transfer the money to your bank account.

App Store

Since the App Store was released nine years ago, it has remained mostly unchanged. It has changed slightly here and there with the style changes of iOS. However, that is going to change with iOS 11. Under iOS 11, the App Store is now getting a major redesign, similar to the one that Apple Music introduced. There are now two new and distinct tabs at the bottom; Games and Apps. These, as one might guess, are specifically for these two genres. This separation allows those specifically looking for Games to be able to find a game to play. The same goes for the other app categories.

The biggest change within the App Store is the "Today" tab. Similar to how Apple Music will suggest music for you, the App Store can now show you what is new today. This could be popular items, suggestions from the App Store curators, or even in-app purchases for games you are already playing.

Mark Up

One of the features within Mail on macOS Sierra was the ability to "Mark Up" images and send them to others. This feature is now available on screenshots within iOS 11. “Mark Up” is even better on an iPad Pro with an Apple Pencil, but the feature works across all iOS 11 devices. This means that you will be able to add notes and highlights to any screenshot. This will make collaboration even better.

iPad Changes

The biggest changes for iOS 11 are with the iPad. As was stated, "This is the biggest release of iOS for the iPad". The focus on the iPad Pro. They were not kidding. iOS 11 is chalk full of features specifically for the iPad. Some of these include:

• Update for the Dock
• Improvements to Split View & Drag and Drop
• Consolidated Files

There is a lot more that has been added, but these are the biggest items and we will focus on these. Let us start with the Dock.

The Dock

Under iOS 10 and previous versions, the dock on the iPad was limited to 5 items, regardless of the size of the iPad. This meant that there was a lot of empty space between applications. This is no longer the case with iOS 11. Instead, you are now able to fill up the dock with as many applications as you would like. Additionally, the dock will house any recent items and will even predict what applications you may want.

Split View

Split View came to the iPad with iOS 9 in 2015. At the time you were able to run more than one application at the same time. This has been the case, but now with iOS 11, you are able to drag and drop all types of data between applications. This means that instead of needing to manually copy and paste, or send a picture to another application. This will make things even quicker for many users.

Alongside Drag and Drop, applications that you pair together will now stay together. This means that if you like to have two applications open side by side, it will now be remembered, which will only increase productivity.

Files.app

The last thing to know about the iPad, and iPhone, is that all of your files will now be viewable into a single application. This means that if you have files stored in iCloud, One Drive, and Dropbox you will be able to see all of them all at once instead of needing to go to different applications to get all of the files that you have. This will make it even easier with Drag and Drop to be able to find items and place them onto applications.

There are definitely many more features, however these are some of the biggest. Now, let us move on to macOS.

macOS

It is not surprising to see a new version of macOS at Apple's World Wide Developer Conference. Each year there is a new name to accompany the new operating system. macOS 10.13 is code-named "High Sierra". This is similar to the naming convention used by Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard and OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion. This signifies that while there were some user facing features, these updates were aimed at under the hood improvements.

macOS High Sierra does not contain a huge number of new feeatures, except there are a ton of under the hood changes. The lowest level that one interacts with every day, the file system. iOS 10.3 brought the Apple File System (APFS) to iOS devices,

macOS High Sierra brings APFS to the Mac. This will be the default going forward. One of the things that many users use often is Safari. There have been a couple of changes in Safari.

Safari

The biggest change in Safari on macOS High Sierra is that Autoplay videos will no longer play, automatically. They are still able to be played, but they will be muted by default. Having autoplay videos not play automatically will only improve a user’s experience.

One of the downsides of the the modern web is the amount of tracking that is done has become and just how it occurs across all types of websites. This has changed with Safari under macOS High Sierra. Now, Safari will cordon off those sites that attempt to track your data and it will remove the data, so you cannot be tracked all over the web. The ads will still display, so it will not break the internet, but it should become a bit more pleasant.

There are some other technologies that are "under the hood" of macOS High Sierra, but these are not necessary to cover now. Let us look at the two products that Apple previewed.

Sneak Peeks

It is not often that Apple previews hardware, it has occurred before, but it is not often. Today Apple previewed two new products, the iMac Pro and HomePod. Let us start with the iMac Pro.

iMac Pro

The iMac Pro was briefly mentioned a couple months ago, when Apple sat down with a handful of journalists to spell out the future of the professional Mac. At that time there were no details. We now have some more information. First and foremost, the iMac Pro is designed for Professionals. This is particularly apparent with the STARTING price, of $4999. Yes, almost five thousand dollars is the starting price. The iMac Pro has the following specifications:

• Retina 5k Screen with Wide Color Gamut
• An 8, 10 or 18-Core Xeon Processor
• 32, 64, or 128GB of Memory
• 1TB SSD, configurable to 2TB or even 4TB
• AMD Radeon Pro Vega 56 graphics, with 8GB of memory, configurable to Radeon Pro Vega 64 with 16GB of memory
• 1080p FaceTime Camera
• Stereo Speakers with Four microphones
• 4 USB3 port
• 4 USB-C ports
• Bluetooth 4.2 wireless technology
• 10Gbps ethernet port

There is only one color for the iMac Pro, Space Gray. The peripherals are also Space Gray, this includes the keyboard, Magic Trackpad and Magic Mouse 2. The iMac Pro will be available in December 2017.

Mac Accessories

There is one new accessory for everybody today, a Magic Keyboard with a number pad. This is available today for $129. Let us look at the other sneak peek, the HomePod.

HomePod

One of the more anticipated items is what Apple would do regarding a smart home speaker. Today, they answered the question with the HomePod. The HomePod has a built-in A8 chip, the same one that powers the 4th generation Apple TV. Besides the processing chip, there are six microphones, and seven tweeters, each with their own drivers. The microphones and tweeters work in concert to be able to produce the best sound possible.

It does this through Spatial Awareness. Spatial Awareness will test the room that it is in and adjust the sound to each tweeter individually to produce the best sound possible. All of this is done within a 6.8 inches high cylinder that is surrounded by a wire mesh to allow the sound to flow through.

The HomePod is primarily designed to be a music speaker, however that is not all it can do. It also functions as a conduit to using Siri. You can ask Siri, "Who is the drummer in this song", "Play some Hip Hop", or even "Play this specific song" That is not all though, since it integrates with Siri, you can also say things like "Give me the news" or "Turn off the lights". The HomePod is fully integrated with HomeKit, so it can perform any of the same tasks that Siri can.

The HomePod will be available in December 2017 for $349. It comes in two colors, White and Space Grey. If you have more than one HomePod in the same room, they can both work in concert to produce even better sound. At launch, HomePod will be availble in the U.S., the UK, and Australia, with other countries coming next year.

Final Thoughts

Today's World Wide Developer Keynote presentation was a long, but feature rich presentation. The refreshed Macs and iPad Pros will provide even more for users. iOS 11 and macOS High Sierra will also provide a slew of new features. Both iOS 11 and macOS High Sierra will be available in the fall as free upgrades.

There was even more in the presentation that I did not cover here. You can watch the entire keynote on Apple's website.

Yesterday was Apple’s September event. Given the length of Apple’s keynote, I opted to break up the two into articles. Yesterday’s <a href=‘https://www.waynedixon.com/2015/09/09/apples-epic-keynote-part-1/'>article covers the first two products, Apple Watch and iPad. This article will provide information about the last two items, Apple TV and iPhone.

Apple TV

Hardware

Siri Remote

tvOS

Gaming

Pricing

Final Thoughts on Apple TV

iPhone

New iPhones

Camera

Colors

Pricing

Upgrade Program

AppleCare+

Other iPhones

Conclusion

Apple's October event was a big one. They introduced new iPads and updated one Mac and introduced another new Mac the last thing to talk about is software and services and with that, let us dive in.

iOS 8.1

Apple introduced iOS 8.0 last month. In that time 48% of iOS devices are running iOS 8.0, and 47% are running iOS 7. The remaining 5% are running an earlier version of iOS. iOS 8.1 includes a couple of bug fixes and includes support Apple Pay. iOS 8.1 will be available on Monday, October 20th as a free upgrade for all of those running iOS 8.0. The iPad Air 2 and iPad Mini 3 should be running iOS 8.1. Besides Apple Pay, there are other new features for the update, just Apple Pay.

WatchKit

At the September event, Apple announced their new product line, the Apple Watch. At that time they also announced a new framework, WatchKit; they stated that it would be coming later this year. They were not incorrect when they stated this. At today's event, Apple announced that the WatchKit framework would be coming in November to allow developers time to determine how best to support the Apple Watch with their applications. There was no update on release date for the Apple Watch outside of "Early 2015".

Apple Pay

Apple introduced its payment service, Apple Pay, last month at their September Event. At that time, they stated that Apple Pay would begin rolling out in October. Well, a date has been set, and it is on Monday, October 20th, and it will only begin in the United States. Apple has partnered with the three largest card issuers, Visa, MasterCard, and American Express. Also at the September event Apple stated that they were starting with the largest banks. In the interim, they have signed up over 500 banks. All of these will begin to roll out support for Apple Pay this year as well as early next year.

OS X 10.10 Yosemite

All Macs being shipped today, including the updated Mac Mini and the iMac with 5K Retina Display will be running OS X 10.10 Yosemite. It is available now in the Mac App Store and is available for Free. If you are running OS X 10.8 or OS X 10.9 Mavericks, you can upgrade right now.

OS X Server 4.0

There was a piece of software that was not mentioned and that is OS X 10.10 Yosemite Server. It was also updated to version 4.0. Unlike OS X 10.10 Yosemite, Server 4.0 is not a free upgrade and costs $19.99. It can be downloaded from the Mac App Store. OS X Server 4.0 will only run on OS X 10.10 Yosemite.

iWork

One of the suites of software that was announced as receiving an update is the iWork Suite. Pages, Numbers and Keynote have been updated to take advantage of the features of OS X 10.10 Yosemite. Pages 5.5 includes support for Handoff, iCloud drive support, an updated file format, Apple Support for mail merge, and improved table support. Numbers 3.5 includes support for Handoff, iCloud Drive, an updated file format, improved table support, and the ability to easily resize and re-position charts. Keynote 6.5 includes support for Handoff, iCloud Drive, an updated file format, the ability to move and customize items in the presenter's display, the ability to pair Keynote with nearby iOS devices by using Multipeer connectivity, and improved table support.

iWork is a free upgrade for those who have already purchased the applications. If you have not, you can download Pages, Numbers, and Keynote for $19.99 each.

GarageBand

GarageBand has been updated to 10.0.3. The changes associated with this are OS X 10.10 Yosemite support, Mail Drop support, a new Voice template to easily create a voice track, and the addition of audio-effect plugins. GarageBand is available in the Mac App Store as a free update, or $4.99 if you do not already own the application.

iMovie

iMovie 10.0.6 includes an updated look for OS X 10.10 Yosemite, a set of new export options, including Audio Only, the ability to share a frame as an image, the ability to email HD video with Mail Drop, improved performance, and the ability for developers to create App Previews as well as screen capturing directly from an iPhone or iPad. It is available now in the Mac App Store as a free update, or $14.99 if you do not already own it.

iPhoto

iPhoto received only a very minor update to version 9.6. The only fixes are compatibility fixes for OS X 10.10 Yosemite. It is available in the Mac App Store for free.

Final Thoughts

Even though we knew that OS X 10.10 Yosemite was right around the corner, we did not know the exact release date. The unveiling of the Apple Pay start date, as well as the accompanying iOS 8.1 update, will let users being using Apple Pay on Monday. With over 500 banks that will be supporting Apple Pay, it is quite likely that a bank near you will be supporting the service sometime soon.

Today Apple announced a whole slew of new products. The iPad Air and a refresh of the iPad Mini with a Retina Display. As well as new 13” and 15” MacBook Pros, running Haswell and Crystalwell respectively. While the new Mac Pros were unveiled at their World Wide Developer Conference (WWDC) 2013 event, we received update information, better information on specs and a release date.

I could rehash all of the specs for the new devices, but I want to focus on Apps instead. We will start with OS X 10.9 Mavericks. OS X 10.9 Mavericks was unveiled to the world at WWDC 2013. Some of the new features were covered, the biggest item left out was the price and availability date. Today we learned that. Mavericks is a FREE Upgrade for those running OS X 10.6.8 Snow Leopard, Mac OS X 10.7 Lion, or OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion. Yes, you read that correctly, it is FREE. You can read all about the OS X 10.9 Mavericks upgrade by purchasing my ebook review from iTunes in ePub or iBooks versions for $2.99. The price of OS X 10.9 Mavericks is the important thing to note. Apple not released OS X 10.9 Mavericks, but also released some other applications today too.

Apple has unveiled completely refreshed versions of their iLife and iWork applications. These updates have been completely redesigned for OS X 10.9 Mavericks and iOS 7. It now makes completely sense as to why Apple did not release updated versions of Garageband, iPhoto, and iMovie on the iLife side and Pages, Keynote and Numbers, on the iWork side, at iOS at last month’s iPhone announcement. It was to be done in conjunction with OS X 10.9 Mavericks’ release. Let us look at each of the apps in turn. We’ll start with iLife.

iLife

iLife has been the demo software of choice when showing off just how well a Mac runs and also demonstrates what is possible with a Mac. Not to mention that the iLife Suite makes it much easier to be creative on a Mac.

Garageband

Garageband received a big update. Garageband is now completely 64-bit on iOS and OS X. Garageband now has the ability to handle up to 32 Tracks simultaneously. That is 32 tracks on any 64-bit device, iPhone, iPad Mini with Retina, iPad Air or OS X Mavericks machine. That was not the only update. Garageband also has a new feature called “Drummer Track”. Drummer Track will allow you to have a track that will play a drumbeat in your song. You have the ability to change which portion of the drum set the player is playing on, the tempo of the drumming and even what type of feel the drummer will bring to your song. This feature is available on all iOS and OS X 10.9 Mavericks devices.

iPhoto

iPhoto has always been a big application for users who take a lot of photos. With easy editing, organization and sharing, iPhoto is a no brainer for just about anybody. iPhoto is a getting a brand new look. Everything is now contextual. This means that if you’re editing a photo you will see only items that are related to the photo. The same goes for sharing as well. With iPhoto you are now able to select a group of photos and iPhoto will create a montage of the photos to fit best for displaying.

With iPhoto you also have an option to have a book printed of your photos. This has been around for a while, but in iPhoto this is made even simpler.

iMovie

iMovie is gaining a couple of new features, most notably the ability to change the speed of a section of a movie. This, paired with the new iPhone 5S, means that when you take slow-motion video, it can be shown in spectacular beauty without much effort.

Under previous versions of iMovie sharing just a section of a video could be a bit of a pain. Now with the updated iPhoto, users are able to highlight just the section they want and share that to whatever service they may want. It could be Facebook, YouTube, Vimeo or others.

iMovie Theater

iMovie now has another new feature called “iMovie Theater”. iMovie Theater aggregates your movies and trailers and allows you to pick and choose what you want to show. With iCloud all of your movies and trailers are synchronized across all of your devices, including your Apple TV.

iWork

iWork has always been a must-have productivity suite for many users. The biggest downside has been that Apple has not provided a significant update to the iWork Suite since 2009. Today, that has changed.

Pages

Pages has received a significant update. Pages now does everything contextually, or as Apple calls it, “object-based” . If you are adding a picture, you will see items related to pictures. If you are changing a selection of text, you will see bold, underline, and italics along with fonts. This is the case for both iOS and OS X.

Keynote

Keynote, like Pages, has received and update. With Keynote you are presented with more transitions, more realistic physics. Apple has added a few more transitions to allow presenters to choose the best transitions for their presentation.

Numbers

Numbers, just like Keynote and Pages, has received a big upgrade. Numbers follows the same path as Keynote and Pages with it’s contextual options. If you are editing a chart, you’ll be presented with options for adding formulas, changing fonts, colors, and text. If you are editing a graph, you will be able to swap the chart on the fly, add a title or legend, and even change colors with a few clicks.

iWork and iCloud

There is one other aspect to the iWork applications and iCloud. A new feature with iWork is collaboration. Collaboration works just as anybody would expect it to work. You can have multiple people simultaneously working on the same document. The changes are almost instantaneous. iWork for iCloud is not limited to just those with OS X 10.9 Mavericks machines. You can edit iWork documents with those on Windows PCs as well as OS X 10.9 Mavericks machines. There are some limitations for Windows PCs. For instance, if you’re using Pages and need to collaborate with a colleague who is on Windows Vista (or higher) and running Windows 7 with Internet Explorer 9, you will be collaborate in real-time without any issues. iWork for iCloud supports Safari 6.0.3 or newer, Chrome 27 or newer, and Internet Explorer 9.0.8 or later. When using Internet Explorer there may be some issues.

In addition to be compatible between iOS and OS X, but also compatible with Microsoft Office documents, thereby allowing interoperability between the two platforms for even easier transitions between the two.

iCloud Integration

iCloud is heavily integrated in all of the iLife and iWork Applications. With iLife and iWork all of your files become instantly available on all of your devices. This will allow users to create, modify and save on ANY of their devices. You can start creating a Pages document on your iPad and continue editing on your Mac running OS X 10.9 Mavericks. A side effect, and full benefit, of this means that iLife and iWork on iOS are using the exact same file format as on OS X. No more wondering “does this font work on my iPad”, or “What will this presentation look like when I try to start it”. The files are all the same, no more confusion or guess work is needed.

Pricing

Pricing for ALL of Apple iLife and iWork applications has changed. While it was announced last month at the iPhone event, it was clearly reiterated at today’s announcement, FREE. All of the iLife and iWork applications will be free with the purchase of a new iOS device or with a new Mac. It is not just the iLife and iWork applications that were made free. OS X 10.9 Mavericks is now also a free upgrade.

This model has turned the entire computer industry. Instead of focusing on charging users for a license for software, Apple is looking to use the margins on their hardware to subsidize the software portion of their business. The software, in turn, will bring more people into the Mac and iOS communities, which means they will buy hardware and thus creates a nice cycle for Apple and its shareholders.

This model is also a direct shot at Microsoft, who is known to charge at least $99 per year to use their Microsoft Office 365 software suite, and even more for retail boxed copies of the software.

Other Applications

Apple also made mention that over 20 of their applications will be receiving updates similar to those for iLife and iWork. This means full 64-bit compatibility for both iOS 7 and OS X applications. Some of these applications include Podcasts on iOS, Aperture on OS X, If we include the three iLife and three iWork apps, this means that there are still some additional applications that will be updated. So keep your eyes peeled for this.

Overall

Overall, Apple has delivered some rather solid updates. The price change for all of their iLife, iWork and OS X 10.9 Mavericks client becoming free makes a very compelling argument for why anybody would choose to use anything other than Apple products. It will be interesting to watch the response by other companies to this shift in strategy.

These are raw notes. Mostly sentences just with brief statements regarding what they talked about... Microsoft CES 2011 Keynote:

Consumer Electronics industry is projected to make $186 billion in 2011, or 3% growth. Individuals can now join the Consumer Electronics Association as 'technology enthusiasts'

Microsoft

2010 exciting Released Office 2010, Kinect, Windows Phone 7

IE 9 introduced office 365 huge growth with azure and bing Share what they've done, what's coming next impact of technology bets made a decade ago.

most important technologies TV windows phone windows pc

bold step transform entertainment - began with xbox powered by software transported 10 of millions into world of Halo, Call of Duty, Fable Xbox Live - transformed gaming with the cloud xbox front and center connecting millions fun with friends include music, TV, Facebook, movies,

biggest step to transforming entire family. Launched Kinect, to entire world. 2010 biggest year in xbox history

music movies TV,

1080p, 5.1 surround, no downloading, no waiting available in 20 countries - Demo o controlling Zune movies with Kinect - Netflix will become interactive with Kinect. later this spring, Controller free Hulu Plus in the US later this spring

Kinect - avatar kinect - facial expressions - eyebrows - smile - laugh - this spring, Avatar kinect will be available free for XBL Gold

Xbox live community grows - 30 Million XBL members - new member joins every 2 seconds

Xbox 360 #1 selling console for the last months in the US 50 Million units world wide 5 Million kinects predicted first 60days, 8 Million kinect sensors worldwide.

xbox is becoming hub of your living room - gaming system - TV shows, sports - social interactions delivered directly to the biggest screen in the house

Crackdown Halo Natin - Announce Fable is coming to WP7 - Fable Coin Golf - All the gold you earn in FCG goes to Fable 3 character.

Games coming to Windows Phone 7

Alan Wake Viva Pinata rise of glory Poker Zombies Pacman Halo Waypoint Fruit Ninja Tetris

Game Room Games: assassins creed monopoly pocket god zombie attack 2 sims 3 nfs undercover star wars cantinas avatar gadgets

Windows Phone 7 dramatically different - could we help simply the tasks people use most - as more apps released - still make them easy to use

added great new titles, Bank of America, Fruit Ninja, Kindle App 5500 apps available today more than half download a new app every day. 20,000 developers are registered

9/10 customers at AT&T - they would recommend the product series of updates will automatically be pushed out - two most noticeable - copy and paste - performance improvement loading and switching applications - make windows phone 7 on sprint and Verizon in first half

7 features - quick snap with camera, dedicated camera button - glance and go, lock screen sees quick information - voice search, web and local - Bing, dedicated search button, same pictures as website, instant answers - hubs, stuff you care about in one place - one notes sync across web, PC, phone, - apps, Bank of America, Travelocity, Fandango, Amazon.com, - Xbox live on the Phone - games

Windows PC - Made announcements Windows 7, delivered product that hit the mark fastest selling PCs in history 7 copies a second 20% of all PC connected to the internet IE 9 leap forward with developers and HTML5 - hardware accelerated graphics 20 million already using IE9 beta. Windows Live Wave 4 - 500 Million people world wide

Hotmail #1 email worldwide 20 million people use Office webapps through hotmail. Windows Live Messenger connects to Facebook, #2 app on Facebook More hardware and innovative designs at CES Customers expect full power of PC across form factors

Microsoft Surface - PC is thin, 4" thin Windows 7 PC dual core CPU AMD GPU Gorilla Glass bonded to LCD PixelSense - infrared sensor - Surface as a Kiosk - Vision based applications

Next Version of Windows Widest possible range of products System on a Chip

Always about breadth hardware and software innovations Nvidia, Qualcomm, texas instruments Intel and AMD continue innovate on X86 platforms

Show some of the Work of Windows Support with System on Chip

• no modification needed with current version of windows applications
• Will need new drivers to work with ARM processors

1 Billion consumers experiencing Windows Phone, Xbox, Windows PCs Windows will be everywhere on all types of devices, low power, long lasting devices