It’s June so time for Apple’s annual World Wide Developers Conference (aka WWDC). This event is primarily aimed at Apple app developers but the keynote event that kicks of the event is used to announce the upcoming Operating Systems (OS) for iPhone, iPad, Watch, AppleTV and Mac. Occasionally there is a hardware announcement as well.
This year the keynote introduced the latest versions of the OS as well as a new MacBook Air and MacBook Pro 13”. I’m splitting this post in two – Hardware and software.
First up was the new MacBook Air.
Redesigned around the next-gen M2 chip allowing for a thin design (1.13cm) and light weight (1.24kg). Featuring a 13.6-inch (diagonal) Liquid Retina Display. 18 hours of battery life (Apple TV app movie playback). Magsafe charger. Headphone jack. Two Thunderbolt ports.
There are 4 colour choices – Silver, Starlight, Space Grey and Midnight.
Both variations come with the M2 8-core chip, either 8 or 10-core GPU, 8GB RAM (configurable to 16GB or 24GB), solid state storage of 256GB (upgradable to 512GB, 1Tb or 2Tb) or 512GB (upgradable to 1Tb or 2TB)
Pricing
8-Core CPU; 8-Core GPU; 8GB Unified Memory; 256GB SSD Storage $A1899
8-Core CPU; 10-Core GPU; 8GB Unified Memory; 512GB SSD Storage $A2349
Available from July 2022
The new MacBook Pro 13” features similar design to the previous model but using the M2 chip. It comes in two colour choices of Silver and Space Grey
Both variations come with the M2 8-Core CPU; 10-Core GPU and 8GB Unified Memory. Storage options are 256Gb or 512GB.
Pricing
256GB version $A1999
512GB version $A2299
Available from July 2022
Both these machines will run the next MacOS update known as Ventura. This OS update brings changes to…
Mail – improved searches. Improvements to your mailbox – undo send, scheduled send, follow up, adding rich links.
Spotlight – find photos in a variety of different apps.
Passkey and Safari – the ability to sign in more securely.
Messages – edit recently sent messages or unsend them. SharePlay via Message.
Photos – iCloud Shared Photo Library.
Stage Manager – “Stage Manager automatically organises your apps and windows in a single view on any Mac, so you can stay focused while easily moving between tasks.”
FaceTime – Handoff comes to FaceTime, switch between devices with a single click.
Continuity Camera – use your iPhone as a webcam
Improvements to Games.
Freeform – coming soon. Collaborate in real time
plus the usual security and system updates
Click on over toe the Venture preview page to learn more about the above and other changes.
Tomorrow we’ll look at the upcoming updates for the iPhone, Watch & iPad OS