Thanks to Steve Jobs and the ever-recurring innovation headlines Apple Keynotes one in the past almost legendary status achieved with fans. Although Apple is currently treading a path of drought in terms of innovation, with WWDC17 Apple's innovative strength is coming back.
More than a developer conference
WWDC stands for World Wide Developers Conference. And although the WWDC is exactly that - a developer conference - Apple uses this opportunity to record more than just software topics. Apple had fallen off the innovation train in the near past, at best it had switched from an ICE to the tram, it had bitten the apple and then simply put it aside. What we mean to say: Apple could no longer keep up with its own speed of innovation. Accordingly, there was a lot of pressure on the company with the apple. The expectations and the awareness, "But something has to happen now!" had become a basic mood of all viewers that was difficult to ignore. Especially the keynote from last year left a lot to be desired. But the pressure, which Apple is only too well aware of, does not only come from the ranks of consumers. The competition is also making life difficult for Apple – and Siri in particular. Google is taking big steps towards artificial intelligence (AI) and Amazon's Alexa is stealing all the attention from her older sister Siri.
Double time at its finest
Wow. The pace and the tonality of the 2-hour presentation makes one thing clear: Apple is aware of the mistakes of the last year. Without much talk about the brand, motivation and mission, you step into a waterfall of innovations, adjustments and improvements. Apple fans should be satisfied, if this is even possible. In general, however, one has the impression that Apple wants its fans - especially in relation to the Mac - lent an ear. Less unnecessary, more usable, still overpriced. But at least the latter has never really harmed Apple, has it? There was even new hardware to see at WWDC17. Even if the HomePod no longer has anything to do with first movers and is torn up in one or the other subreddit, overall the WWDC17 was refreshingly good. At this point, we don't want to annoy you with irrelevant talk either, so we'll start with a summary of all relevant changes and announcements.
The innovations
Two hours of keynote, packed with innovations. Both software and hardware. But what really came of it? In the following section we have compiled the most important topics from WWDC17.
Amazon Prime goes Apple TV. What was only a matter of time should now be realized this year. The competition's streaming service is given a "warm welcome". However, it is unclear when exactly we can expect this. Probably not until the end of the year.
watchOS 4 throws the honeycomb overboard. Thank God! Well, the honeycomb arrangement of apps on the Apple Watch isn't entirely gone, but a list has been added to it. Anyone who has more than a few apps installed will thank Apple. From now on, simply choose between the new "List View" and the old "Grid View" in the menu. The Apple Watch operating system will be available in the fall.
AppleWatch communicates with fitness equipment. In addition to some small changes to watchOS and the Apple Watch, the watch should be able to communicate with fitness equipment in the future. What exactly this looks like has not yet been announced. However, a large number of devices should be supported.
Siri on the watch face. One of the major new features for the Apple Watch is controlling visible info via Siri. Artificial intelligence constantly weighs up what the wearer of the watch wants to know in the background.
macOS gets “High Sierra” update. Apple's core isn't the iPhone, it's the Mac. At least according to CEO Tim Cook. In view of this, there was rather less new for the associated software. Improved functions for Safari are promised, improvements in image editing and face recognition and editing mails in split screen are some of the features. However, the real star of the macOS update works in the background. Because with High Sierra comes the already announced APFS – short for Apple File System. This is expected to increase speed when processing data.
iMac with better display, current processor and new graphics card. The hardware innovations are not groundbreaking either. Apple treats the iMac to the latest Kaby Lake processors from Intel and promises more graphics performance. In fact, even up to 80%. The iMac should now also be able to work with VR. There was a display with better display performance and color reproduction on top.
iMac Pro is the "best Mac ever". Up to 18 core CPU, 4 TB SSD, Radeon Vega graphics card, 128GB random access memory. The facts speak for themselves. But the same goes for the price, which is around 5000 euros. For the lowest equipment mind you. The iMac Pro replaces the Mac Pro, at least temporarily, and will be available at the end of the year.
MacBooks lose out. Just like Apple, we'll be brief here: Also Kaby Lake processors and a slightly faster SSD. By far the smallest update of the day.
Countless changes for iOS 11. New voice, translation function and machine learning for Siri, a new design for the App Store and the control center and iCloud access for the messaging app iMessenger. And these are just the most important of the upcoming updates.
iOS 11 falls into two parts. Long overdue! The iPad gets its own, modified iOS 11. With the division of the iOS, many advantages for the iPad are introduced: Drag & Drop, compatibility with other cloud providers in addition to the iCould, and a keyboard with directly integrated umlauts.
New iPad Pro. After the big and small version, now comes a 10,5-inch iPad Pro. Due to the dimensions and the narrower edges, a full keyboard now has room on the screen. With twice the frame rate, the iPad Pro now manages 120 frames per second, making unsightly juddering effects a thing of the past. In general, the graphics performance should increase by 40%. The iPad Pro also got a new drive, namely in the form of the A10X chip with 6 cores. And finally some good news: The new iPad Pro can already be ordered.
Aside with you, Alexa. At the very end - just like on the day of the WWDC - comes the highlight. Apple listens to the fan community and presents completely new hardware: the Apple HomePod. The iPod's namesake is a clear attack on Amazon's Alexa, albeit an even weaker one. The core of the HomePods is an A8 processor. The "one last thing" of the evening isn't much more than a loudspeaker that integrates Siri, but options such as playing music and saving appointments set a clear course in the direction of the echo. After all, Siri was there first. We're excited to see who will ultimately win the race. Siri or Alexa?
