The year's most exciting week for developers began yesterday, or as most of us like to say - it's Christmas for developers. Apple kicked off Day 1 of the Worldwide Developers Conference 2022 (WWDC) with a jam-packed Keynote. From new software reveals to futuristic hardware announcements, here's a recap of everything announced on Monday.​

iOS 16 & iPadOS 16

iOS 16 offers new intelligence, sharing, and communication features that will change the way you use your iPhones.​

• You can now customise the Lock Screen. iOS 16 offers a set of custom font styles to change how you can see your time. Add widgets & create different Lock Screens with unique combinations of backdrops, font styles, and widgets. Notifications will now be rolling in from the bottom of the screen to keep your Lock Screen clutter-free.​

• You can connect Focus modes with Lock Screens just like you could set custom Home pages for specific Focus modes in iOS 15.
• Focus filters will let you "focus" by filtering out distracting content from your apps.​

• Apart from a massive overhaul, the new Maps will be coming to 11 additional countries, including Belgium, France, Israel, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Monaco, Netherlands, New Zealand, Palestinian Territories, Saudi Arabia, and Switzerland. Apple Maps has also added support for multistop routing with the ability to plan 15 stops.
• The keyboard will stay open while Dictation is on so that you can use voice and text at the same time. Dictation now supports automatic punctuation and Emoji Dictation.​

• Something that we've been waiting for Twitter to do has come to iMessage -- you can now edit or unsend recent messages. You can also mark a thread as unread.​

• You can now "lift subjects from background" from an image or completely remove the background.
• Live Text now works with videos and is also available within the Translate app.
• Apple Pay Later will let you split the cost of your Apple Pay transaction into 4 payments with zero interest.

• Apple introduced the iCloud Shared Photo Library where all the members of the Family will be having equal access to share, edit or delete photos.
• SharePlay is now available in Messages.
• The Mail app has an improved Search bar and we can now undo send an email, schedule an email, and get reminders to follow up on emails.
• Passkeys are a more secure alternative to passwords that are safe from phishing and data leaks.
• Family Sharing has been updated with a Family Checklist and improved parental control including features where the child can request more Screen Time in Messages.
• The Health app includes a new 'Medications' feature that will help you manage, track, and understand your medicines.
• iOS 16 has a reimagined Home app that includes a redesigned Home tab.
• The next generation of CarPlay is "the ultimate iPhone experience for the car.", says Apple.​

• iPadOS 16 will include most of the features of iOS 16, with one of the exceptions being the lack of customization to the Lock Screen (at least in its first beta).
• Nevertheless, iPadOS 16 will include a great new way to multitask and Apple calls it - "Stage Manager". It allows you to resize and overlap windows which enables you to see multiple windows in a single view.​​
• The Weather app has finally come to iPad with iPadOS 16.​

• iPadOS 16 includes new Display Modes including Reference Mode and Display scaling mode.​

macOS Ventura

• Stage Manager (same as iPadOS 16) comes to the Mac with macOS Ventura which will seamlessly let you switch between apps and also group different apps together to create your ideal workspace.​

• Spotlight search has an Enhanced Image Search feature and a new search design. It also includes improved Spotlight quick actions.
• Safari includes features such as Shared Tab Groups, Sign in more securely using passkeys, and it is the "world's fastest browser" says Apple.
• Continuity Camera: Since our iPhones have a significantly better camera than our Macs, we can now use them as our cameras for the Mac for video calls on macOS. Continuity Camera has an interesting "desk view" feature that will use the iPhone's wide-angle lens. It also offers Center Stage and Portrait Mode! Pretty cool, right?​

• Freeform is a powerful productivity app that will allow you to brainstorm, plan, create, collaborate, and even share files or insert web links, video, audio, and documents.​

• System Settings has been beautifully redesigned with a brand new look and feel, including a sidebar.
• FaceTime calls now support Handoff.
• macOS Ventura also comes with most of the features seen in iOS 16 & iPadOS 16, including the updated Messages and Mail app, iCloud Shared Photo Library, etc.​

watchOS 9

• watchOS 9 includes four new watch faces: "Astronomy", "Lunar", "Playtime", and "Metropolitan". Now, even more watch faces support rich complications.
• The Workout app gives you more details about your workout, including Activity Rings, Heart Rate Zones, Power, and Elevation.
• You can now customize your workouts by setting work and recovery intervals as per your needs.
• Notifications will not take up the entire screen of your watch and show up as "banners."​

• You can track your sleep with more details about your sleep. Sleep Stages will give you information about how much time you spent in the Awake, REM, Core, and Deep sleep stages.
• Your Apple Watch can now also track "AFib History". You can "turn on AFib History to see an estimate of how frequently your heart is in this arrhythmia.", says Apple.
• The Fitness app will now also be available for iOS users who don't own an Apple Watch.
• The Medications app comes to your watch with watchOS 9. You can log your medicines right from your wrist.​

M2

Yes, you read that title right. Yesterday, Apple introduced the revolutionary successor of the M1 chipset, called M2. "M2 starts the second generation of M-series chips and goes beyond the remarkable features of M1", said Johny Srouji, Apple's Senior Vice President of Hardware Technologies. In comparison to its predecessor, M1, the CPU and the GPU Performance of M2 is 18% and 35% faster, respectively.​

New MacBooks

MacBook Air

​The first MacBook to have the M2 chip is Apple's most loved notebook - the MacBook Air. The new MacBook Air has been completely redesigned with a 13.6" Liquid Retina Display. This silent, fan-less designed MacBook has the following features:​

• A four-speaker sound system (without the speaker meshes)
• A 1080p FaceTime HD Camera
• 18 hours of battery life.​

It is available in four finishes: Space Gray, Silver, Starlight, and Midnight, starting at $1199 (US) (Indian pricing ₹1,19,900.00). The entry model is configured with 8GB unified memory and 256GB SSD Storage and includes a 2m USB-C to MagSafe 3 Cable with a 30W USB-C Power Adapter.​

MacBook Pro 13"

​With the M2 chip, Apple says the MacBook Pro 13" features CPU Performance that is up to 40% faster than the MacBook Pro 13" with M1. It features​:

• A beautiful Retina Display
• Studio-quality mics
• A FaceTime HD Camera
• 20 hours of battery life.​​

Unlike the new MacBook Air, it is available in only two finishes -- Space Gray & Silver, starting at $1299 (US) (Indian pricing ₹1,29,900.00). The entry model is configured with 8GB unified memory and 256GB SSD Storage and includes a 2m USB-C Charge Cable with a 67W USB-C Power Adapter. ​
Both the MacBooks are available to order now and will start shipping "next month".​

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