This year Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference wasn’t devoid of any excitement with lots of major upgrades to softwares and some essential additions in the hardware department as well. Where Apple’s iOS got an upgrade to the 11 series, a new smart speaker dubbed Home Pod was also introduced. Let’s take a quick look at all the major announcements at the event.
For all the updates from the event read the live blog here.
New MacOS Soars ‘High’
One of the biggest highlight of the event was the introduction of the new macOS which has been named macOS High Sierra.
The new OS gets some key additions like a faster web browser in Safari. It also promises to be faster, safer, and helps applications use less space than ever.
Apple TV now streams content from Amazon Prime Video.
Apple also introduced the new File System replacing the older version, which the company claims to be more safe, stable and faster. Apple’s web browser Safari gets new features like autoplay blocker, Intelligent tracking prevention and full screen split view. Apple also announced a new version of its graphics tool Metal called Metal 2. The upgrade means that Apple will now support virtual reality(VR).
Watch OS 4, More Watch Faces and a New Music App
Your Apple Watch is going to have a lot more watch faces the next time around. New Toy Story characters and Siri watch faces were introduced at the event. A new music app which automatically syncs your songs and playlist was also introduced.
There were also some fitness enhancements announced and bluetooth connectivity with medical and sports devices made available.
iOS 11, Some Key Features Introduced
With the revelation of the new iOS 11 there were a lot of improvements and upgrades that Apple showcased.
Siri now gets an more natural sound when responding to users. Siri will also perform translations now in multiple languages like Spanish, Chinese, German, Italian and more.
The Control Center has been re-designed to fit on one screen. Also, Apple Pay gets integrated into the iMessage App. Camera app gets better compression for images and video with now support for HEVC codec for better picture and video quality. Some new additions were made to Maps and now Apple CarPlay comes with a do not disturb feature while driving.
Apple also introduced the multi-room audio feature for pairing with multiple devices and also a new facelift version of the App Store.
New iPad Pro & iMac Launched
We truly weren’t expecting any hardware announcements at the event but woah! Apple did surprise us all with the upgrades to their iMacs and Macbook series. The didn’t end there as Apple also launched a new 10.5-inch variant of the iPad at the event.
Apple announced the iMac Pro with up to an 18-core processor, and a 5k display which will cost $4,999.
The new MacBook and MacBook Pros will have the new Kaby Lake processors from Intel, faster SSDs on the MacBook and faster graphics on the 15-inch MacBook Pro. Apple launched the new iMac in a dark grey variant this time.
And last but not the least the new iPad Pro10.5-inch was launched in a new avatar.
Both the 10.5-inch and 12.9-inch iPads are powered by the new A10X six-core CPU and support HDR video with a 120Hz refresh rate. Much faster than before!
They also feature a 12-megapixel rear-facing camera along with a 7-megapixel front-facing camera with battery back-up up to10 hours on a single charge.
Finally a Wireless Speaker from Apple!
And Apple reserved their best for the last with the introduction of their very own wireless smart speaker called HomePod. The speaker starts at $349 and will come to India next year.
The speaker supports Siri and runs of the A8 chipset. It also comes with six-microphone array and you can send messages, get updates on news, sports and weather, or control smart home devices via the speakers.
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