Apple revealed a ton of exciting news at WWDC 2022, giving us a glimpse at the highly-anticipated macOS Ventura, iOS 16, the M2 chip, a new MacBook Air, and much more.
If you missed the conference live because school or work, we round up all there is to know – both officially and unofficially – about iOS 16, including the top features and release date information.
iOS 16
- The lock screen is getting an overhaul. It’ll allow for more customization, plus support for widgets — including widgets for third-party apps. Notifications will now “roll in” from the bottom of the screen, while a “Live Activities” API will let developers update notifications in real time (think sports score tracking.)
- You’ll be able to edit or “unsend” recent messages in iMessage — or mark a thread as unread.
- SharePlay (which lets you, for example, watch a streamed movie in sync with a friend) will now work in iMessage, not just over FaceTime.
- Live Text will be able to translate and replace text it detects in a photo, allowing you to more easily read through something like a menu in a language you don’t know. You can read more about that here >>
- Apple is getting into buy now, pay later; Apple Pay Later will let you split an Apple Pay purchase over four payments with zero interest; Apple says it’ll work anywhere Apple Pay works.
- Apple’s big Maps overhaul is coming to a bunch of new places this year, including “France, Switzerland, New Zealand, Belgium, Israel, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Monaco, Palestinian Territories, Saudi Arabia and the Netherlands.” It’s also getting improved multistop route support.
- Apple News will now let you follow news specifically focused on your favorite sports/teams.
- If you use Family Sharing to limit your kids’ iPad screen time, said kids will now be able to request more time via iMessage.
iPadOS 16
The upcoming iPad update, iPadOS 16, combines the best features from iOS 16 and the upcoming macOS update. With impressive upgrades to mail, weather, and productivity tools, there’s never been a better time to become an iPad user.
One of the biggest announcements is the new collaboration feature. This allows you to start collaborating within Pages, Messages, and Notes. Apple also gave us a sneak peek of a new app called Freeform, which is a live collaboration board perfect for brainstorming sessions.
Once again, that’s only a taste of what’s to come. We’re still working on more detailed coverage of iPadOS 16, but if you keep checking back here, we’ll add a link as soon as it’s live.
watchOS 9
- Four new watch faces: Astronomy, Lunar, “Play time,” and “Metropolitan.”
- New “banner” notifications will keep you updated without always taking over the whole screen.
- Apple Watch will be able to track a few new running metrics, including vertical oscillation (“how much you move up and down” while running), stride length and ground contact time.
- The Fitness app on iOS will now be enabled even for those who don’t have an Apple Watch, so everyone can close those rings.
- Sleep tracking will use the heart-rate monitor and accelerometer to determine how much time you spent in four different sleep stages (Awake/REM/Core/Deep) while trying to catch some Zzz’s.
- Apple Watch will be able to track your “A-fib history” to help doctors monitor heart arrhythmia and determine if treatment is helping.
The M2 Apple Silicon Chip
In addition, Apple announced a new processor at WWDC 2022: the M2 processor. The M2 processor takes the capabilities of the M1 Apple silicon chip even further by increasing performance and decreasing power consumption. Apple also added two more cores to its GPU, increasing performance by 25% while only using half as much power as the previous GPU.
A new Apple silicon chip is only worth something if there’s a Mac you can get it with, of course. So that wasn’t the end of Apple’s announcements…
New Macbooks
The newest MacBook Air features some of the biggest changes to the MacBook Air design since its initial release. The MacBook Air no longer has its classic wedge shape, it now looks like a thinner MacBook Pro. It also features a display that’s 25% brighter than the previous model. And there is also a new 1080p camera that has twice the resolution.
To back it all up, the MacBook Air comes packing Apple’s brand new M2 Apple silicon chip.
Not to be left out, the 13″ MacBook Pro is getting the M2 treatment as well, with Apple promising CPU gains of up to 40% over the MacBook Pro M1. The Pro will start at $1,299, also shipping “next month.”
macOS Ventura
- “Stage Manager” mentioned above is coming to macOS as well, pitched as a way to focus on one or two apps at a time. You can “group” running apps together; tapping into a group will minimize other apps, while putting the selected group front and center.
- Spotlight is getting a bit of an overhaul; it’ll be able to pull rich results into a new scrolling view and allow you to do things like quickly preview a found file without actually opening it.
- The Mail app is getting support for undo send, scheduled send and timed reminders. Search within Mail is getting smarter, automatically correcting for typos and knowing how to search for synonyms. Read more about the new Mail app here >>
- Safari will now be able to use “passkeys” instead of passwords — a system built along with Google and Microsoft to allow you to log in to websites and apps with biometrics (like fingerprint sensors or facial recognition) without any text-based passwords in the mix.
- Apple’s game-development focused API Metal is learning some new tricks, including upscaling and faster resource loading.
- Continuity Camera: Your iPhone’s camera is almost certainly much better than the one built into your laptop — so Apple is going to let you use your iPhone’s Camera for video calls on macOS. Clamping the iPhone onto your laptop looks a little goofy, but the impact on quality is probably worth it for important calls. There’s also a wild “desk view” feature that uses the iPhone’s wide angle lens, combined with some tricky image manipulation, to capture what you’re doing on your desk in a simulated overhead view.
CarPlay
CarPlay saw an update reinventing the car experience. Working with automakers, Apple implemented widgets to provide information at a glance. This next generation of CarPlay uses new layouts to optimize users’ driving experiences.
Personalization settings allow users to curate themes and styles for gauges, so users can get the most out of it when they’re driving. Apple worked with major vehicle retailers to expand on this experience, and vehicles will get this new implementation starting early next year.
