Apple’s World Developers Conference kicked off Monday with a keynote address, and the company used the stage to announce a bunch of new software updates and lost hardware. Instead of following the all-virtual event format that Apple has been running during the pandemic, this WWDC was a strange pre-recorded video hybrid played in front of a live audience at the company’s headquarters in California. As expected, Apple spent a lot of time on software updates. But there is also a new MacBook Air and a new M2 processor.
Keep reading for all the news Apple has announced today and check out the rest of WIRED’s WWDC 2022 coverage.
New MacBooks
Photography: Apple
Hey, look, there’s a new MacBook Air! Normally, it would be amazing to see a laptop launched at a software event, but experts were expecting the expected laptop. The MacBook Air 2022 has a new case design that is 20 percent thinner than the previous model, and includes thinner bezels around the screen and a smaller notch for the webcam at the top of the screen. . Also, great news: it has MagSafe. The magnetic charge attachment appears on the new MacBook Air instead of the Thunderbolt charge that Apple has been advancing on lately. The MagSafe addition also releases the two Thunderbolt-USB 4 ports. Inside, there’s a new M2 chip (more on that below) that improves battery performance and life. Apple says the new Air has 18 hours on a charge, even while playing videos all the time. The new laptop weighs just 2.7 pounds, comes in four different colors and starts at $ 1,199.
There’s also a new 13-inch MacBook Pro with the M2 chip inside. Apple says it has a battery life of up to 20 hours and can be upgraded with 24GB of memory and a 2TB SSD. The Pro starts at $ 1,299.
The M2 chip
Photography: Apple
Apple’s new chip is based on the same proprietary hardware that the company has incorporated into most of its new machines. This second-generation chip has an 8-core CPU, which Apple says is 18 percent faster than the M1’s CPU. The GPU has up to 10 cores, and Apple claims to offer 25 percent more performance than its predecessor. It will be available on the new MacBook Air and the new 13-inch MacBook Pro.
iOS 16
Photography: Apple
The next version of the iPhone operating system will arrive this fall and will come with a lot of quality of life updates. The lock screen is becoming more and more customizable. Now, you can make several visual changes without having to unlock the screen. Just press and hold to change colors and fonts, or activate widgets that allow you to access things like your calendar, training apps, and photos. Apple also links its Focus app to the lock screen. Set a lock screen for each of your Focus modes, and your notifications and apps will be filtered to show what’s relevant to your current mode, helping you avoid those constant texting and distractions.
Apple also added some updates to Messages. Perhaps most notable is the ability to edit and even delete texts after submitting them. The voice-to-text dictation feature is also getting some improvements, such as the ability to flow between voice and finger input, which is enabled because the keyboard stays on the screen while dictating. Apple’s live text feature has been updated to allow you to copy text directly from videos, photos, and the translation application. In Apple Maps, a Multistop scheduling feature lets you map up to 15 different stops along the way.