The best of WWDC
Apple has announced a range of new hardware products and software features at its annual developer’s conference. The biggest announcement of the evening was the HomePod, a Siri-powered speaker designed to rival Amazon’s Echo and Google’s Home.
We saw Apple’s the most powerful iMac ever made as well as the first-ever smart speaker. Now we all are excited about what’s next in iOS 11 and macOS High Sierra. This is the best news you missed from the big show.
HomePod is a Siri-Powered Smart Speaker
Finally, Apple has an answer to Google Home and Amazon Echo. HomePod is a compact, a slick-looking smart speaker will be launched by December 2017 and price is just $349 for this smart speaker. This connects to your Apple Music account and pumps out big sound to a whole bunch of fancy audio tech packed inside.
On Concord, this HomePod really stands out with its smarts. Spatially, the speaker is aware. This optimizes music playback whether it’s tucked in the corner of your kitchen or placed in the middle of your living room. You can control HomePod via Siri voice controls. Pair it with another HomePod, and sync it up with Apple HomeKit devices to make it the center of your smart home.
iOS 11 Gets Personal
iOS 11 comes to your iPad and iPhone this fall, delivering a bunch of big changes that makes using Apple’s mobile OS more fun and personal. Now you can send your friends Apple Pay Payments right within an iMessage conversation. As well as find out what pals have been listening to simply by firing up Apple Music.
You can also look forward to a more finely curated App Store with how-to guides and a dedicated Games tab. Here it puts every button you need on a single page as a reworked Control Center. iOS 11 even makes Siri smarter as it allows the voice integrate with third-party apps and translate languages.
ARKit Makes Augmented Reality More Immersive
For enjoying a whole bunch of cool augmented reality games on your iPad and iPhone, look forward. Apple’s new ARKit for iOS 11 gives developers the ability offering augmented reality experiences with more immersive, better motion tracking. The company gives us a few instances of ARKit in action. Showing a more stable version of Pokemon. Go as well as an awesome demo of the Wingnut AR demo allows the player to get immersed in an epic battle using just their iPad.
iPad Pro Gets Bigger, More Powerful
The new 10.5-inch iPad Pro packs a speedy A10X processor and 12-core GPU. It allows the tablet to support fancy new features such as HDR video as the Apple’s highest-end iPad is about to get more powerful. The new Pro boasts a 120 Hz refresh rate, that means even less latency when you are drawing with an Apple Pencil. You can also expect full-size keyboards and brighter display. Both on the display itself and on the separate smart keyboard add-on.
High Sierra Turns Mac Into a VR Machine
mac OS latest version is official. It’s ready to make your Mac a legitimate gaming and VR powerhouse. Mac OS High Sierra which is launching later this year. This optimizes GPU performance for improved multitasking, smoother gaming performance and better support for external graphics amps for those who need to enjoy high-fidelity gaming on their MacBook. High Sierra even supports Valve’s Steam VR platform meaning you might someday be able to use VR headsets such as the HTC Vive on a Mac.
Creative types can look forward to better editing options in the Photos app. At the time everyone will be able to reap the benefits of reduced crashing and better security. Mac OS consists of Safari app which will even block autoplay ads automatically means a much better browsing experience for those who hate dealing with pesky pop-ups.
New iMac 2017
The new iMac 2017 is released on 5th June. The firm refreshed the range at WWDC, instead of launching new iMac models towards the end of the year around September and October.
Apple has updated the whole iMac 2017 range with new displays which it says are the best ever. They include 500 nits of brightness, 10-bit dithering, and one billion colors. And also have Intel’s latest processor so you get a 7th-generation Kaby Lake CPU as standard. These chips have a higher base and turbo frequencies for improved performance. It is extended to Core i7. iMacs for 2017 also get up to 50 percent faster SSDs which can be up to 2TB and other features such as two USB-C ports that support Thunderbolt 3. The 27in iMac models get Fusion drives as standard and up to 64GB of RAM.
John Ternus, Apple’s vice president of Hardware Engineering said this “With major updates to iMac, and a refresh of our MacBook and MacBook Pro lines, the Mac is stronger than ever.”
You can order one now as Apple made them available straight away from the physical stores from 7 June and the Apple store. There are multiple models to choose from as you’d expect with various specs and sizes.
iMac Pro is the Most Powerful Mac Ever
Say hello to the iMac Pro as you will be looking for a powerful new machine to utilize those High Sierra features on. Dubbed “the most powerful Mac ever,” this beastly all-in-one sports a 5K Retina display, an 8-core Xeon processor and a beefy Radeon Vega graphics card that makes it ideal for gaming, VR and content creation. This is launching in December for $4,999.
Apple refreshed its existing iMac line with Kaby Lake processors and improved graphics while cutting some prices. You can even get a 4K iMac for just $1,299.
Siri Makes Apple Watch Smarter With WatchOS 4
Apple Watch is about to get a whole lot smarter. Watch OS 4 brings a slew of exciting, Siri-powered changes to Apple’s wearable that includes a refined interface. It puts more contextually relevant information right at your fingertips. For instance, you might see traffic and weather information in the morning. Also a quick photo memory in the middle of the day, and a reminder about your movie tickets at night.
You can also look forward to new watch faces, a revamped Workout app and an improved Music app that automatically sync your favorite music. Look out for the free watch OS 4 update this fall.
Amazon Video is Finally Coming to Apple TV
Finally, Amazon Prime Video comes to Apple’s tv OS platform as we heard the rumors. You can binge on Prime shows such as Transparent and The Man in the High Castle on your Apple TV.
MacBooks Get a Kaby Lake Refresh
The MacBook still got some love despite all the huge iMac and iOS announcements. Apple’s laptop gets refreshed with Intel’s 7th generation Kaby Lake processors as well as faster SSDs. So look forward to a bit of performance bump. The new models cost the same as the previous generation that ranges from the $1,299 MacBook to the $2,399 MacBook Pro.
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