The Best Reveals To Come Out Of Apple’s WWDC Keynote
From software to hardware, discover the absolute best reveals to come out of Apple's WWDC kickoff presentation.
The start of the annual Worldwide Developer’s Conference (WWDC) always proves to be an exciting time for Apple fans. WWDC allows the tech giant to showcase what its developers have been working on over the past year. This year’s WWDC is off to a remarkable start. For starters, because it is the first time since the onset of the pandemic that a large majority of the event will be held in person. But also because Apple kicked it off with a slew of killer Keynote announcements that highlighted a wide array of exciting new software and hardware. However, there were a few reveals that really hit it out of the park.
On the software side of things iOS 16, macOS Ventura, and watch OS9 really stood out. The WWDC presentation kicked off with Craig Federighi, Senior Vice President of Software Engineering at Apple, showing off one of iOS 16’s key features – lock screen customization. With the new lock screen customization option iPhone users will be able to change the way fonts and background pictures look as well as add personalized widgets such as weather or sports data.
Another awesome feature to be packed into the iOS 16 that was revealed at WWDC, is the ability to delete a text right after it has been sent. How many times have you wished you could take back a text right after you sent it? With iOS 16 you’ll have the ability to quickly undo any faux pas. “We have reimagined how the Lock Screen looks and works with exciting new features that make it more personal and helpful, introduced iCloud Shared Photo Library for families, streamlined communication through new capabilities in Messages and Mail, and harnessed enhanced intelligence with updates to Live Text and Visual Look Up,” summarized Federighi.
Similar to iOS 16, macOS Ventura is also chock full of exciting new features. By far the most exciting/useful of these features to be announced was Stage Manager. Many can likely relate to the frustrations of a workflow that constitutes bouncing back and forth between multiple tabs and programs. Stage Manager offers an intuitive solution. It takes clusters of what you are working on and separates them into groups on a sidebar so you can easily switch between programs and tabs for a more optimized workflow. Essentially, Stage Manager is the feature you always wanted but never knew you needed.
An additional novel feature to be included with macOS Ventura is the ability to use your iPhone as a webcam. This is ideal for folks who use external monitors that don’t have integrated cameras. It is also perfect if you just want a better camera to use for your office Zoom meetings, streaming, or even to chat with friends and family.
WatchOS 9 had its fair share of impressive highlights during the WWDC kickoff presentation, too. In addition to a slew of new watch faces, there were also ad-ons for running metrics and health tracking announced. Perhaps most notably, individuals living with Atrial Fibrillation can now glean greater insight into how long their heart beats in AFib and then share that information with their doctor.
Moving onto hardware, the star of the WWDC show was the newly announced M2 chip along with the new MacBook Air featuring the powerful new chip. “M2 starts the second generation of M-series chips and goes beyond the remarkable features of M1,” detailed Johny Srouji. He went on to explain that the M2 chip has a faster CPU, GPU, and neural engine that combine to make the M2 18% more powerful than its M1 predecessor. The M2’s increased processing and graphics power (and the new metal API that Apple introduced specifically for game developers) also positions Apple as a more formidable player in the PC gaming space.
Suffice to say, Apple walked into this year’s WWDC at the top of its game. From intuitive and impressive software reveals to the amazing new hardware announcements, it truly is an exciting time to be an Apple fan. You can watch the full Keynote here.
