I didn’t get to attend Apple’s WWDC (It’s on my bucket list) but that doesn’t mean the news from Apple’s event can’t reach our side of the world.
At Apple’s event today, they introduced a slew of new products and software. If you didn’t catch it, here’s what you missed:
HomePod (Aka The Alexa/Cortana/Google Home Killer)
Apple finally decided to jump into the AI speaker trend. With companies like Amazon (Alexa), Google (Google Home) and even Microsoft (Cortana) trying to battle to be your main AI in your home, Apple has thrown its hat into the ring by unveiled their speaker with Siri. It’s named the HomePod (They couldn’t come up with a better name?)
The HomePod uses spacial awareness to tune and better fill the room with sound based on the space it’s in.
The HomePod will be available in two black and white and will integrate Siri. The device is priced at $349 and will be ship in December.
Apple iMac Pro
Apple introduced the new iMac Pro at the WWDC event and it’s a monster in terms of hardware. It has a 5K display, an 8-core Xeon processor (which is upgradeable to 18-core (!)), 4TB of SSD storable space, four Thunderbolt ports and a built in 10GB Ethernet
The iMac Pro starts at $4,999 and ships in December. If you want to buy this beast, be prepared to pay at least 20,000 GHC for it.
iOS 11 Preview (iPhone and iPad)
Apple showed off a preview of iOS 11 on stage. Here’s a couple of the highlights for the new update
- Siri has now improved speech, as well as the ability to translate sentences into different languages.
- iMessages can be synced across devices including the iPhone and iPad.
- Apple Pay is now P2P, meaning you can now send money to your contacts on Apple devices.
- There’s a new safety feature on iOS 11 which recognizes when a user is driving and switches to Do Not Disturb to prevent distractions.
- The App Store has also been redesigned for better app discovery and also has an “App Of The Day” when users open the App Store
- On the iPad, multitasking has been improved and now lets users pull an app from the dock onto the screen, which automatically splits it in two for multitasking.
- And lastly……Apple now has a file system on iOS 11. Apple has come a long way since Steve Jobs once said on stage that a file system was a no go.
Apple AR
A new AR Kit will be released to let developers build augmented reality apps for the iPhone. An AR demo was shown on stage which had some pretty impressive graphics.
Unlike other kits which require hardware like Microsoft’s HoloLens, Apple is instead relying on its existing devices like the iPhone and iPad for Devs to use. Whether developers jump on board is another issue.
10.5 inch iPad Pro
There’s a new iPad coming. The new iPad Pro comes in a 10.5 inch model. It has a 12 megapixel camera and a 7MP selfie cam. It has USB. 3.0 and reportedly, 10 hours of battery life.
The new iPad Pro is available to order and ships next week. It starts at 64GB and is priced at $649.
From the demo which was shown on show, it looks like it might be a hit with designers on the go.
Apple Watch OS4
Fan of the Apple Watch? Well, there’s a new update for the Apple Watch OS. It now has Siri reminders. There’s also a focus on fitness as the Apple Watch can now send monthly challenges to encourage users to get more active.
The New MacOS Will Be Called MacOS High Sierra?
It was an interesting part of the presentation when it was annouced that the next version of the MacOS will be called High Sierra. And yes, there was a lot of weed jokes to accompany the name
And that’s it. There’s a ton of Apple stuff to unpack. If you’re Apple fan, there’s a lot of stuff to catch up to.
Source: Apple.com
