Apple WWDC 2023: Everything announced so far including iOS 17, MacBook Air and more

1 year ago 119

It’s WWDC 2023 keynote time! Each year Apple kicks off its Worldwide Developer Conference with a few hours of just straight announcements, generally covering things from OS to watchOS to new and updated gadgets. Here’s how to tune in — someone even created a BINGO game.

By now, you’ve prepared yourself with what we think will be unveiled, now sit back and relax while the team runs down all of the biggest news in an easy-to-skim digest.

Mac 15-inch

Image Credits: Brian Heater

Dream big indeed. It’s Apple’s largest consumer laptop.

Three pounds and 11.5mm thin, touting as “thinnest 15 inch laptop to date.”
18 hours of battery life.
Six speakers

Mac Studio

Image Credits: Apple

The Mac Studio, Apple’s small yet powerful desktop computer, is receiving a product update, including the silicon and replacing the M1 Max and M1 Ultra with the M2 Max and M2 Ultra.

Roughly three times as tall as a Mac Mini.
The main difference is that the new chip unlocks new performances.
When it comes to the neural engine, it is 40% faster.
Video bandwidth has been increased, which means that you can connect 8K display at a fast refresh rate.

MacPro

Image Credits: Apple

This was a surprise announcement about the Apple Silicon powered desktop and rack-mounted Mac Pro workstation. Get the scoop.

M2 Ultra

Image Credits: Apple

M2 Ultra is the most powerful Apple Silicon chip yet, however, Apple continues with its M1 playbook.

With Ultra, the M2 version is also essentially two M1 Max dies fused into a single package.
It is built using 5nm technology and featuring 134 billion transistors, will feature 24 CPU cores, up to 76 GPU cores (there’s also a 60-core option) and a 32-core Neural Engine. The CPU consists of 16-next gen high-performance cores and eight high-efficiency cores.
One major change is that the M2 Ultra supports up to 192 GB of unified memory, backed by 800GB/s of memory bandwidth.

New features: Namedrop, Journal app, Standby, Autocorrect

Image Credits: Apple

A new Airdrop feature called Namedrop lets you easily and seamlessly share your phone number, and even photos, with another person. Here’s how it works: when you bring your phones close together, you can choose to share your phone number and email address. You can use name drop with an iPhone and an Apple watch too. Read more.
Apple is introducing a new journaling app simply called Journal. Using on-device machine learning, the iPhone creates personalized suggestions around your photos, activities, location, music, workouts, etc. Developers can take advantage of Journal and provide prompt suggestions from third-party app data. Here’s more.
Now over to Standby, which is a new full-screen experience for your nightstand. When you put your phone down at night, you can see the time on your phone, the alarm or personalize what’s on the display. StandBy also helps you use your iPhone as a dynamic photo slideshow device you some of your best shots and refresh them regularly. At the office, StandBy can turn your iPhone into a calendar with your upcoming events.
In terms of autocorrect, Apple has upgraded its autocorrect, now powered by an AI model that can more accurately predict the next words and phrases you might use. Over time, it’ll personalize, learning your most frequently-used words — including swear words. Read more.

Catch more new feature goodness here.

Apple Messages

Image Credits: Apple

Apple is introducing an overhaul of one of our most-used apps on the iPhone, the Messages app.

Notable tweaks: ability to view transcribed voice messages and an interface change that hides away iMessage apps.
New feature: the safety-focused “Check In” option that will allow iPhone users to let their friends and family know they got home safely — or where they were last.
Also, there is a faster and more convenient search experience and the ability to view a transcription of voice messages.

Learn more about Apple Messages.