WWDC 2023. Apple’s new vision — from incremental to breakthrough

Apple CEO Tim Cook speaks before the start of the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference at its headquarters on June 05, 2023 in Cupertino, California. Apple CEO Tim Cook kicked off the annual WWDC23 developer conference | Photo Credit: JUSTIN SULLIVAN

Staying up night before last to watch the WWDC 2023 — the much anticipated annual World Wide Developer Conference — required much less coffee than I anticipated. Apple Inc managed to shake things up in the techverse — and shake me out of my 12 AM drowsiness — yet again with an exciting slew of updates and announcements. All of which seemed to outdo the one before. Let’s look at the promise of magical personal tech that Apple is bringing closer to reality this year. 

Apple Vision Pro

Almost two decades since Minority Report, we can now be our very own Tom Cruise. Bringing augmented reality to our fingertips is the new Vision Pro — what Apple calls its first “spatial computer”. How fascinating it is to imagine that any surface — or the lack of one — can be our virtual playground!

Designed to respond to subtle eye movements and hand gestures, the device also responds to voice commands. Built around visionOS, a spatial operating system, you get to access media on a ultra-high-resolution display system. Apple Watch’s digital crown has been carried over to the Vision Pro, where it lets users scale up the virtual media displayed or tune it back so they’re more aware of their physical surroundings. 

Designed for both work and leisure, the Vision Pro is optimised for FaceTime calls and shows the participants in life-size tiles. Spatial Audio also promises to make the whole experience more immersive.

With family members on FaceTime, you can do things together like watching a movie, browse photographs, or collaborate on your next holiday plan. 

To minimise how rude one might seem with the Vision Pro on, there’s EyeSight which lets you see when a person is approaching you. If you’re engaged in apps or any other function on the Vision Pro, EyeSight also gives visual cues to others that tell them that you’re otherwise engaged. 

While you can have endless hours of entertainment with the device plugged in to a socket, you can also take it out for a stroll and use it for about two hours with its external battery. Just make sure you dial it down, when you’re crossing the road! It’s no surprise that the Vision Pro is priced quite steeply at $3,499 (₹2.8 lakh approximately), and there’s no clarity at the moment regarding an India launch. 

New MacBook Air

The MacBook Air just got sexier with Apple having redesigned it to be the “world’s thinnest 15-inch laptop”. With a 15.3-inch Liquid Retina display, the new MacBook is powered by the M2 chip and promises up to 18 hours of battery life. The acoustics have also been upgraded to a six-speaker sound system.

The new 15-inch MacBook Air delivers spatial audio along with a 1080p FaceTime HD camera. The system runs on macOS Ventura, which current users would already be familiar with. It’ll get the upgrade to macOS Sonoma — which I’ve profiled below — later this year. The MacBook Air with M2 is available in four colours — midnight, starlight, silver and space gray, and is priced at ₹1,34,900 and ₹1,24,900 for students. It will hit Indian shelves on June 13, 2023, and is available for pre-orders now. 

Upgraded professional Macs

Apple also announced the power-packed new Mac Studio and Mac Pro for professional users. The Mac Studio features M2 Max and the new M2 Ultra chip (also unveiled at the event), delivering a huge boost in performance in a trademark compact design.

The new Mac Studio now has a higher-bandwidth HDMI, enabling up to 8K resolution and 240Hz frame rates and also has the ability to support up to six Pro Display XDRs. The Mac Studio is priced at ₹2,09,900 and ₹1,88,900 for students. 

With up to 192GB of unified memory, the new Mac Pro with Apple silicon can render complex scenes with ease. Connectivity has been doubled now with eight built-in Thunderbolt 4 ports. The system also supports up to six Pro Display XDRs, along with Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.3 capabilities built-in. The Mac Pro — depending on the configuration — starts at ₹7,29,900 and ₹6,87,900 for educational institutes and is now available for orders in India.

iOS 17

Personalisation seems to be the name of the game with the new iOS 17 updates.  From cool-looking, customisable Contact Posters that will pop up when you call someone to being able to see a Live Voicemail transcription from a caller, and immediately deciding if you want to take that call or let it go, there’s definitely more power in the user’s palms.

Both FaceTime and messages get more fun with new reactions, emoji stickers and the ability to create Live Stickers by “lifting” subjects from photos.

A rather thoughtful, and increasingly necessary, addition to messages is Check In — a feature that allows the user to notify family members and friends that they’ve arrived at their destination safely.

Watch OS 10

Apple Watch users can look forward to this upgrade which shines light on their mental health by enabling users to log in their feelings and emotions through the day.

UI upgrades include a new feature — Smart Stack — that lets you swipe through information such as the weather forecast, events for the day, Spotify or boarding passes from Wallet, all stacked on top of one another.

New watch faces include Palette and the two endearing characters from the popular comic strip Peanuts — Snoopy and Woodstock! With the new ability to connect to Bluetooth-enabled  cycling accessories, automatically generated waypoints, and the ability to search for trails nearby, Apple is making sure the active and the adventurous continue to gain value from the smartwatch experience.

iPadOS 17

In addition to new ways to customise the lock screen and interact with widgets, iPad users will soon be able to easily edit and auto-fill PDFs.

The much-beloved Health app makes its debut on the iPad with interactive charts. Private Browsing now allows users to lock the window they’re viewing with Face ID or Touch ID, and removes trackers used for cross-site tracking.

The new Screen Distance feature uses the same TrueDepth camera that powers Face ID on iPhone and iPad to encourage users to move their device farther away after holding it closer than 12 inches for an extended period of time. 

macOS Sonoma

With its wine-country inspired name, macOS Sonoma promises to bring more fun to the macOS experience. 

Users will be able to place widgets right on the desktop and these will blend in seamlessly with the wallpaper while users focus on work. 

Presenter Overlay, a new video effect, elevates a user’s presence by displaying them on top of the content they are sharing. On Safari, Private Browsing now offers even protection both from trackers and from people who might have access to the user’s device. In addition to advanced tracking and fingerprinting protection, the windows will also automatically get locked when users step away from their device.

tvOS 17

Connect easily with your loved ones on the big screen, with Apple tvOS 17 now supporting FaceTime. The device will also present you with an all-new Control Center on-screen.

The introduction of Split View will let users enjoy watching media in the background together via SharePlay, while still seeing everyone on a FaceTime call. To add to the fun, you’ll also be able to see yourself sing along to your favourite tracks and add fun filters through Apple Music Sing.

There are more aspects to each of the OS updates for the iPhone, Macs and the Watch which we will be able to write about in details when the updates are made available on Apple devices for free, later this year. 

With this slew of announcements, Apple continues to hit the ball of the park when it comes to innovation, personalisation and privacy-first technology. I, for one, cannot wait to experience the software and hardware first-hand in the coming months.