Tech giant Apple has announced a slew of product refreshes at its Apple Worldwide Developers Conference.
The annual event is usually used to showcase new software and technologies in the macOS, iOS, iPadOS, watchOS and tvOS families, as well as other Apple software.
The iPhone maker last night previewed iOS 16, which it said delivers the biggest update to date on the lock screen, and new sharing, communication and intelligence features that together change the way users experience iPhone.
It said iOS 16 introduces iCloud Shared Photo Library to share a collection of photos; updates to Messages and Mail that help users stay in touch; and enhancements to Live Text and Visual Look Up.
“iOS 16 is a big release with updates that will change the way you experience iPhone,” said Craig Federighi, Apple senior vice-president of software engineering.
“We have reimagined how the Lock Screen looks and works with exciting new features that make it more personal and helpful; introduced iCloud Shared Photo Library for families; streamlined communication through new capabilities in Messages and Mail; and enhanced intelligence with updates to Live Text and Visual Look Up.”
MacBook Air changes
The company also introduced a redesigned MacBook Air and an updated 13-inch MacBook Pro, both powered by the new M2 chip.
With a new, thin design and more performance, Apple announced that MacBook Air also features a larger 13.6-inch Liquid Retina display, a 1080p FaceTime HD camera, four-speaker sound system, up to 18 hours of battery life and MagSafe charging.
It is now available in four finishes – silver, space grey, midnight and starlight.
M2 also comes to the 13-inch MacBook Pro. The new MacBook Air and updated 13-inch MacBook Pro join the 14- and 16-inch MacBook Pro with M1 Pro and M1 Max to round out the line-up of Mac notebooks.
Both laptops will be available next month, said Apple.
“We’re so excited to bring our new M2 chip to the world’s two most popular laptops – the MacBook Air and 13-inch MacBook Pro,” said Greg Joswiak, Apple senior vice-president of worldwide marketing.
“Completely redesigned around M2, MacBook Air is thinner, lighter and faster, with a bigger display, better camera and all-day battery life, in four beautiful finishes.”
The tech giant also announced M2, beginning the next generation of Apple silicon designed specifically for the Mac.
Built using second-generation 5-nanometer technology, M2 takes the performance per watt of M1 further with an 18% faster central processing unit (CPU), a 35% more powerful graphics processing unit (GPU) and a 40% faster Neural Engine.
Apple added the new processor delivers 50% more memory bandwidth compared to M1, and up to 24GB of fast unified memory.
“M2 starts the second generation of M-series chips and goes beyond the remarkable features of M1,” said Johny Srouji, Apple senior vice-president of hardware technologies.
“With our relentless focus on power-efficient performance, M2 delivers a faster CPU, GPU and Neural Engine. And along with higher memory bandwidth and new capabilities like ProRes acceleration, M2 continues the tremendous pace of innovation in Apple silicon for the Mac.”
Also previewed was watchOS 9, which brings new features and enhanced experiences to the wearable operating system.
Apple Watch users will now have more watch faces to choose from, with features that provide more information and opportunity for personalisation.
In the updated Workout app, advanced metrics, views and training experiences inspired by high-performing athletes help users take their workouts to the next level, it added.
Developer support
Meanwhile, Apple also unveiled new tools, technologies and application programming interfaces (APIs) for developers.
It noted that widgets on the Lock Screen enable developers to surface key information from their apps in a new way, while other new APIs across Apple’s platforms help them build more features.
According to the company, WeatherKit gives developers the ability to integrate Apple Weather forecast data directly into their apps, and Xcode Cloud – Apple’s integration and delivery service built into Xcode – is now available to every Apple Developer Programme member to help them create apps faster.
Metal 3 enables gaming developers to create graphics with accelerated performance, and developing for Apple’s platforms is now more intuitive with improvements to Swift, SwiftUI and Xcode, it stated.
With improvements to SKAdNetwork, Apple pointed out that ad networks and developers can better measure how ads perform while still preserving user privacy.
“We love collaborating with our developer community and providing them with new innovative technologies that enable them to build the next great generation of apps,” said Susan Prescott, Apple vice-president of worldwide developer relations and enterprise and education marketing.
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