Apple WWDC 2017 Rundown
Hello guys and welcome back! Apple's WWDC event just happened yesterday and I watched it live, eager to see what will they reveal this time. I have got to say, I was very impressed and also a bit disappointed at their reveals, but this time the pros outweighs the cons. So without further ado, here's a rundown of what they revealed at their event.
They started off by revealing what they have been doing with tvOS, and it seems like they have partnered with Amazon to bring customers TV shows and films from Amazon Prime directly to their Apple TV, which is neat considering the amount of good shows that are on Amazon Prime, especially The Grand Tour haha. That was all they revealed for tvOS.
They then moved on to watchOS, and revealed the new features of watchOS 4. They are introducing the integration of Siri and their Machine Learning (ML) program to give customers customized notifications. Their ML program can also analyze the time of day and give notifications to the user based on the time of day, so if it was in the morning it would give a notification about their first meeting of the day etc. They also introduced new watch faces, such as the new kaleidoscope watch face and new characters such as Woody and Buzz Lightyear. watchOS 4 will also let users program their music playlist to start when they start working out, as well as allowing their Apple Watches to sync with gym equipment to display accurate results about their workout, such as calories burned etc. This was all for watchOS, if you want to find out more click here: https://www.apple.com/watchos-preview/
Next up is macOS, and they introduced the new name of the next update, which is macOS High Sierra. Wasn't expecting the name but I felt like they could've came up with a more interesting name, but I think it's fine since the next update is just adding some additional features and technology to the current Sierra update. The new update includes tons of new features, but I'm just going to touch on the major ones. Siri now has a more natural voice compared to the current iteration, Safari had a speed boost and crushes every other desktop browser in terms of speed, Photos now has more editing tools that let people make their photos more vivid and they introduced Metal 2, their background technology that lets apps harness the power of the computer's GPU. Metal 2 will make apps run more faster and smoothly and will also enable Macs to handle Virtual Reality (VR) software. This is beneficial for most developers and VR is a booming business nowadays. If you want to find out about the other features, visit this link: https://www.apple.com/macos/high-sierra-preview/
Now we come to the mother load of the event, which is the updates to the iMac and Macbooks. The new lineup of iMacs and Macbooks will get the latest 7th Gen Kaby Lake Intel processors for faster and more efficient CPU usage. They will also get better SSDs with faster read and write speeds, and their displays will also get upgraded, the newer displays have better brightness and color accuracy with up to 600 nits and more pixels on the screen. At this point I thought they were done, but no, they decided to make a new model of the iMac, the iMac Pro. When I saw it I was blown away with the appearance and the specifications of the new lineup. The iMac Pro are for those users who want go big or go home with their setup and have a lot of workload. The iMac Pro will have a new Space Grey finish and the specs, oh boy they are just insane. To put into perspective, the highest end model of the iMac Pro will have an 18-Core Xeon Processor, up to 128GB of RAM, 4TB of SSD storage and AMD Radeon VEGA graphics. Holy cow! I bet the price will definitely be above $10,000. If you want to find out more about this beast, click here:
After the Macs, they moved onto iOS. They announced iOS 11 and sure enough it contains some interesting features. First off, you can now use iMessage to send money to your accomplices using Apple Pay, there will be a built in program in iMessage that will allow you to send money, this is in case if you owe someone some money or want to donate for a good cause. They have completely redesigned the App Store, something they haven't done for 7 years. The new App Store will have tabs specifically for Games and Apps and a new Today tab that tells you what are the new hot trending apps today. I personally like the idea but it just doesn't catch my eye, I still think the current iteration of the App Store is still the best, but we'll see. They also redesigned the control center, now everything is on one page for easier access. iOS 11 also opens up opportunities for developers to integrate Augmented Reality (AR) into their apps as the new update also introduces the new ARKit for developers to integrate AR into their apps, this will open up to more engaging and lively apps. If you want to know more about iOS 11, click here:
Next up is the introduction of the new iPad Pro. It has a new 10.5 inch display which is also better in terms of color accuracy and brightness than the current iPad Pro. The new display will also have a refresh rate of 120 Hz, double the amount of the current display, this means animations and movies will play buttery smooth on the display. This will also reduce the latency of the display with the Apple Pencil, from 38 milliseconds down to only 20, this will allows more responsive gestures with the Pencil. The new iPad Pro also adds tons of multitasking capabilities, allowing the user to maximize efficiency throughput of their work. Find out more about the new iPad Pro by clicking here:
The last thing they announced was they were making a new device, this caught me off by surprise as I thought they would be unveiling the iPhone 8, but I guess we would have to wait until their next event sometime in the fall. They announced their new product, the HomePod, a wireless speaker that aims to "rock the house" and is completely integrated with Siri and your Apple Music. This means you can speak to your speaker and tell it what you want to hear. The HomePod has an A8 chip built in to run all the operations swiftly and the technology inside is pretty neat. It has a seven tweeter array, a six-microphone array and a built in woofer to maximize bass output and volume output. The HomePod is cylindrical shaped, kind of like the Mac Pro, it's made out of a meshed fabric that supposedly helps with the sound output. It's about 7 inches in height, which means its portable, easy to carry around and it doesn't stand out from your surroundings. The HomePod is able to sense its surroundings and depending the layout of your home, it will adjust the sound based on its location, and steers the music in an optimal direction. To find out more about Apple's new product, click here: https://www.apple.com/homepod/
So that's it for WWDC 2017, tons of new reveals and updates that will surely attract the average Apple consumer. Personally I was very impressed with the event, but at the same time somewhat disappointed. The things I was disappointed at was the redesigned App Store and STILL no group FaceTime calls, come on we have been requesting for it for so long and it still hasn't arrived yet. iOS 12 perhaps haha, anyways that's all folks, stay tuned for my next post, whether it would be life related or technology related. Adios!
Comments
Post a Comment