WWDC Widgets for Apple TV, Safari, and Notes for iPadOS 17, and other Mobile App Launched at WWDC 2017
Apple will soon let you use FaceTime on Apple TV. The new capability leverages the iPhone’s Continuity Camera, allowing you to use your iPhone as a substitute for a webcam as you see and chat with the people you’re meeting with from your TV. It will even ensure that you’re in the frame using Center Stage.
As you can see from the above announcements, widgets were pretty big at this year’s WWDC. They are coming to watchOS 10, which you can browse through for a quick look at various information by turning your watch’s crown. A number of new watch faces are being added by Apple, and they can measure how long you spend in the sun, cyclists, and hikers.
There will be a new “game mode” on the Mac that will prioritize the graphics and the CPU over the other pieces of the system. Death and some of his other games will come to the MacOS, as Hideo Kojima announced that this was part of Apple’s push into gaming.
Apple announced some visual upgrades to macOS Sonoma, which will now support widgets that you can add to your desktop, along with new moving screensavers that you can also use as your wallpaper. There are some new features that are available for Safari, like the ability to pin web apps to your dock and make profiles for different browsing sessions.
There are other updates coming with iPadOS 17. It will also feature a personalized lock screen, just like on iPhone, and will finally come with the Health app.
Apple is adding interactiveWidgets that let you quickly access apps and features from the homescreen with iPadOS 17. There are also updates for the device’s Notes app, which will now be capable of detecting the fields in a PDF. It will allow you to work with others at the same time.
There is a new safety focused check in feature in the new mobile operating system that will allow you to share your email address and phone number with another Apple user, as well as a Namedrop feature that will allow you to easily swap phone numbers. Oh, and Apple’s dropping the “Hey” portion of its “Hey, Siri” trigger phrase.
Along with a new journaling app, Apple revealed a number of new features for iOS 17. Most notably, that includes a new StandBy feature that turns your iPhone’s screen into a smart home-like display when it’s tilted horizontally while charging, allowing it to display essential information, like the time and date.
The app is called Journal and it is available in the Apple App Store. As its name implies, Journal will encourage you to log your thoughts about recent activities or trips. Apple says the app is secured with end-to-end encryption and that your logs are stored locally on your device. The app will arrive later this year.
Source: https://www.theverge.com/2023/6/5/23749243/apple-wwdc-2023-biggest-announcements-vision-pro-macbook-air-15-inch-ios-17
The 15-inch MacBook Studio and the Vision Pro: An Extremely Thin, High-Performance Augmented-Reality Headset
The Mac Studio, which Apple calls a “performance powerhouse,” will come with options for either an M2 Max or M2 Ultra chip. The Mac Pro has an option for PCIe expansion, but only the M2 Ultra chip. The Mac Pro is more expensive than the Mac studio at $6,999.
Apple is marketing the device as the “world’s thinnest” 15-inch laptop and says it weighs just a little over three pounds. The device comes with up to 18 hours of battery life, 500 nits of brightness, and a 1080p webcam. You can place an order for $1,299 today and it will be available next week.
Apple also revealed a new MacBook Air with a 15.3-inch display. That’s a pretty big upgrade to its MacBook Air lineup, which has only featured 13-inch displays up until now.
Apple has a headset called the Vision Pro. The device, which lets you partake in both virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) experiences, is designed to combine the real and digital worlds both for the wearer and those around them. The primary interface displays apps over top of the real world for the wearer; meanwhile, people nearby can see the wearer’s eyes through the device using an external display feature that Apple calls EyeSight.
The device is powered by two chips: the M2 and a new R1 chip for real-time sensor processing. The Vision Pro, according to Apple, features a single strip of glass on the front along with a digital crown that lets it switch into and out of augmented and virtual reality. It comes with built-in speakers and a battery pack that can hold a single charge for two hours.
It is a better-looking device than any other augmented or virtual reality headset we have seen. The actual headset itself is quite thin, and most of the device’s heft and size is from the fabricky shield around it and the big, plushy band around the back. The goggles are curved and can wrap around most faces fairly nicely. The device is a nice silvery color, down to the cable coming out the left side and the battery pack at the bottom that provide two hours of battery life.
The Vision Pro’s front-facing display was gently pulsing with light, which will be the indication that someone is in the headset but can’t see out; we weren’t able to see the other view, in which the wearer’s eyes are projected through that front screen. The view will either be innovative or frightening. We will see.
And, of course, there’s the “what is this for?” debate. Unlike when the company launched the Apple Watch or even AirPods, there’s not a huge existing market for mixed reality devices; there’s the Meta Quest, a bunch of barely successful prototypes like Microsoft’s HoloLens and the Magic Leap, and not much else. A lot of people don’t know how these headsets work or how to use them.
How Contact Posters are Used in iOS 17: Virtual Presence, Name Drop, and 3D Face-Solutions for Work and Play
Apple blasted through a number of updates in iOS 17 coming later this year. New contact posters are on the front and center of a phone call. You can make your own design for yourself and it will appear on the caller’s screen when you call them. The Contact Posters of your friends live in the Contacts app, so when you pull a person’s information up or communicate with them anywhere in iOS, you see the images they’ve chosen to represent themselves. Contact Posters also come into play when you trigger another new feature: NameDrop.
Apple is pitching the device as a tool for both work and play, with features meant for streaming video, playing games, and taking business meetings all in one device. Its take on 3D avatars for virtual presence is unique: a setting called VisionOS scans your face to make a deepfake of you that it then projects to other people on the call. You appear onscreen as something that kind of looks like a Memoji, but photorealistic and even more horrifying.
The headset is very Minority Report. It doesn’t use controllers, instead it uses gesture controls from fingers and eyes to control the virtual interface. If you want to adjust the size of the digital screen in your vision, you can use a physical dial on the headset and see the room around you in real time.