The Apple Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) in Cupertino, California, was kicked off by CEO Tim Cook, who displayed a pre-recorded presentation to reveal what’s in store for customers this year.
Let us take a look at all the key updates and announcements so far.
1. iOS 16
The California-based tech giant announced iOS 16, the newest software for its mobile devices.
The version is the “biggest update ever to lockscreen, completely reimagining how it works,” said Craig Federighi, Apple’s Senior Vice President of software engineering, according to a report by CNBC.
The new version has a variety of features, such as lock screen customization through widgets, changes in notifications, focus feature on the lock screen, SharePlay in iMessage, Safety Check center, shared iCloud library, and important changes in location access.
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2. Apple Pay Later
The company announced Apple Pay Later, a service that allows customers to buy any item (which accepts Apple Pay as a mode of payment) and then pay its cost through four payments that can be made during the course of six weeks, without any extra fee.
Since the announcement, the market shares of Affirm, another similar service, have dropped by about 6%.
Apple Pay Later will enable users to manage their transactions through the Wallet application. The company is also working on a feature that will let users track their orders through the Wallet app.
The announcement comes almost a year after speculations began circulating. The service aims to benefit those consumers who wish to invest in an expensive item but do not have enough funds to make a direct singular payment.
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3. M2 chip
The M2 succeeds Apple’s M1 chip, a key component in iPads and Macbooks. The chip, which consists of 25% more transistors and 50% more bandwidth compared to its previous version, will be used in the latest MacBook Air and MacBook Pro announced at the conference.
4. Safety Check
Apple launched Safety Check, a feature that allows users to disable all of their applications and services that are being shared with family members, such as location access. The company said that the feature was collaboratively created with women’s groups in order to ensure the safety of female users who are dealing with abusive partners.
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5. CarPlay
Apple announced a key update to its in-dash software known as CarPlay at WWDC. It said that the update has “deep integration with the car’s hardware” and will be able to perform functions like displaying widgets and controlling air conditioning in vehicles.
6. New software for Apple Watch
The company unveiled watchOS 9, a new software for Apple Watch devices. The software consists of new sleep tracking features, an improved Siri user interface, new notifications, and new displays for the watch.
7. MacBook Air with M2
Apple also launched a new MacBook Air that operates on the M2 chip processor.
The device, which will retail for $1199, will be available in four colors: silver, midnight, starlight and space grey.
The new MacBook Air has a 13.6″ display, two Thunderbolt ports, and a battery life of 18 hours.
8. MacBook Pro with M2
The company also announced a new 13-inch MacBook Pro which will run on the M2 chip. With a battery life of 20 hours, an 8-core CPU, 10-core GPU and memory space of 24 GB, the device starts at $1,299 and will be released next month.
9. macOS Ventura
A new software version for Macs was also announced at the conference. The software, known as macOS Ventura, consists of features such as stage manager, passkeys, and shared tab groups for the browser.
10. iPadOS 16
Finally, Apple announced its newest software for iPads, the iPadOS 16. It will comprise features like collaboration in documents, and an application named Freeform, a whiteboard service.