The Apple WWDC 2022 Keynote Live Blog (Starts at 10am PT/17:00 UTC)
by Ryan Smith & Gavin Bonshor on June 6, 2022 8:00 AM ESTAs we round the corner after Computex and transition into June, it's time once more for Apple's annual World Wide Developers Conference. As always, Apple kicks off WWDC with their big keynote event, which though aimed first and foremost at developers, is also used as a venue to announce new products and ecosystem strategies. The keynote starts at 10am Pacific (17:00 UTC) today, and AnandTech will be offering live blog coverage of Apple's event.
With WWDC going virtual once again this year, we're expecting another rapid-fire, two-hour run through of Apple's ecosystem. WWDC keynotes have historically covered everything from macOS and iOS to individual Apple applications and more. On the hardware side of matters, in previous years we've seen things like the official announcement of Apple's shift from x86 to Apple Silicon; and while 2021 was light on hardware, one never quite knows what Apple has in store. Apple has yet to launch an Arm-based Mac Pro, so there's still some big surprises left in their bag, and of course there's always the chance of the periodic product refresh.
So join us at 10am Pacific to see just what Apple is working on for this year and beyond.
01:00PM EDT - Thank you, as always, for joining us for this year's WWDC presentation
01:00PM EDT - And Apple is kicking things off right on time
01:01PM EDT - (I never realized this before, but Apple's HQ building looks like a stargate)
01:01PM EDT - And here's Tim to kick things off
01:02PM EDT - As a general reminder, this is first and foremost a developer-focused show. But still, the morning keynote is a chance for all audiences to get a look at Apple's plans for the future of its platforms
01:02PM EDT - And with any luck, we get some new hardware as well
01:03PM EDT - Apple of course never stops courting developers. Both because they're the minority platform in the PC space, but because the company wants to be on the cutting edge of software as well as hardware
01:04PM EDT - Apple expects millions of developers to engage with WWDC this year
01:04PM EDT - The total developer community is now 34 million devs
01:04PM EDT - And all of WWDC is free for them
01:05PM EDT - Now handing things off to Craig Federighi
01:05PM EDT - Starting things with iOS
01:05PM EDT - iOS 16
01:05PM EDT - iOS is getting a new set of personalization features
01:06PM EDT - The lock screen is getting updated with it's "biggest update ever"
01:06PM EDT - Now rolling a promo video
01:07PM EDT - Now showing off the new lock screen
01:07PM EDT - A new filter mode for the lock screen wallpaper, as well as an editor for all of this
01:08PM EDT - Change the filter, as well as changing fonts and colors for the clock
01:08PM EDT - And placing widgets on the lock screen
01:09PM EDT - Apple also provides suggested photos for the wallpaper, as well as the ability to have it rotate photos throughout the day
01:09PM EDT - And specialty wallpapers/lock screens that show things like the current weather conditions
01:09PM EDT - And that's the new lock screen
01:09PM EDT - Now on to notifications
01:10PM EDT - Notifications now roll in from the bottom of the lock screen instead of the top
01:10PM EDT - And a new feature called Live Activities
01:10PM EDT - Live Activities will come iwht its own API for developers
01:11PM EDT - This allows a notification item to update itself, rather than updates having to be delivered as additional notifications (think: sports scores)
01:11PM EDT - Now on to Focus
01:11PM EDT - Focus is being extended to the lock screen, changing lock screens based on the current focus mode
01:12PM EDT - And Focus Filters
01:12PM EDT - Filters allow for Focus in apps, hiding elements/pages to keep the user focused
01:12PM EDT - Now on to Messages
01:12PM EDT - Adding three "highly requested" features
01:13PM EDT - 1) Edit just-sent messages
01:13PM EDT - 2) Undo send - immediately recall a message
01:13PM EDT - 3) Mark any thread as unread
01:13PM EDT - I'm curious how long the undo/edit window will be
01:14PM EDT - And a new feature/API: Shared With You, for sharing inside Messages
01:14PM EDT - Now on to talking about Apple's SharePlay feature
01:14PM EDT - Apple is looking to make it easier to discover SharePlay
01:15PM EDT - SharePlay is being extended beyond FaceTime. It will be available in Messages in iOS 16
01:15PM EDT - And on the subject of Messages, Apple is updating Dictation as well
01:16PM EDT - Dictation is used 18 billion times a month
01:16PM EDT - Dictation is already happening on device
01:16PM EDT - And Apple is introducing a new Dictation paradigm that allows for using both voice and touch together seemlessly
01:17PM EDT - Automatic punctuation!
01:17PM EDT - (Take it from a writer: punctuation is under-loved)
01:17PM EDT - Now on to Live Text
01:18PM EDT - Live Text will now be available alongside videos
01:18PM EDT - Can also be used within the Translate app
01:18PM EDT - And there will be a Live Text API
01:19PM EDT - Apple is also updating Visual Lookup. Among other things, using their ML hardware to allow it to automatically cut-out items being analyzed
01:19PM EDT - Now on to Wallet
01:20PM EDT - Starting with drivers licenses
01:20PM EDT - 2 states so far, 11 more in progress
01:20PM EDT - And Apple is limiting the amount of information Wallet presents to what's necessary
01:21PM EDT - And (virtual card) keys can be shared with other users via Messages
01:21PM EDT - Apple Pay
01:21PM EDT - Tap To Pay is coming this month (as previously announced)
01:21PM EDT - So iPhones can be used to accept payments from other iPhones and other sources like RFID-enabled credit cards
01:22PM EDT - And Apple is getting even deeper into the financial services market
01:22PM EDT - Apple Pay Later
01:22PM EDT - Split up a purchase into 4 payments, with no interest or fees
01:22PM EDT - All of this is tracked in Wallet
01:22PM EDT - Apple is also making it possible for merchants to send tracking/shipment notifications directly to Wallet
01:23PM EDT - Now on to Maps
01:23PM EDT - Apple has launched its redesigned maps to 10 countries/regions thus far
01:23PM EDT - Another 11 are coming this y ear
01:24PM EDT - Apple is adding Las Vegas and 6 more cities for highly detailed cities
01:24PM EDT - New feature: multi-stop routing
01:24PM EDT - Siri can add stops to a route
01:25PM EDT - Transit mode is making it easier to see the cost
01:25PM EDT - And transit cards for Wallet
01:25PM EDT - Look Around is being added to MapKit, so that devs can add the view to their apps
01:26PM EDT - And that's Maps
01:26PM EDT - Now to sports
01:26PM EDT - (Craig, of course, is on Team Swift)
01:27PM EDT - Quickly recapping sports-related developments, such as Friday baseball on Apple TV+
01:27PM EDT - Apple News is getting an update to make it even better for sports news
01:27PM EDT - A new section: My Sports
01:27PM EDT - League standings, highlight clips
01:27PM EDT - Available in US, UK, Canada, and Australia
01:28PM EDT - Now on to Family Sharing
01:28PM EDT - Recapping Family Sharing: shared content with up to 5 users
01:28PM EDT - This year Apple is making it easier to create accounts for kids
01:29PM EDT - New UI/interface for setting up kids accounts and their restrictions
01:29PM EDT - Screen Time requests can be responded to within Messages
01:29PM EDT - On to Photos
01:30PM EDT - Photos is getting some new sharing functionality
01:30PM EDT - iCloud Shared Photo Library
01:30PM EDT - Share photos seamlessly and automatically
01:30PM EDT - A separate shared library that up to 5 other people can add photos to
01:31PM EDT - Can select photos based on date, who's in them, etc
01:31PM EDT - Camera can also send photos to the shared library when they're taken
01:31PM EDT - And even using proximity of other users to determine if new photos should be uploaded to the shared library
01:32PM EDT - And last: privacy
01:32PM EDT - For personal safety, Apple is adding a tool to quickly turn off shared access
01:32PM EDT - New feature: Safety Check
01:33PM EDT - Safety Check allows the user to review and reset the access granted to others
01:33PM EDT - To cut ties and get to safety
01:33PM EDT - Stops sharing location via FindMy and resets privacy permissions
01:34PM EDT - Recapping iOS 16
01:35PM EDT - And now on to HomeKit
01:36PM EDT - Apple is focusing on smarthome functionality and how to grow the ecosystem
01:36PM EDT - Recapping Apple's Matter interconnect standard
01:36PM EDT - And updating on how it's being adopted
01:37PM EDT - "All new" home app
01:37PM EDT - Redesigned how accessories are viewed and organized
01:38PM EDT - Tiles redesigned as well to make them easier to see/notice
01:38PM EDT - New Home app coming to i-devices and the Mac
01:38PM EDT - Now on to CarPlay
01:38PM EDT - Available on 98% of new cars in the US
01:39PM EDT - Apple has been working with automakers to further enhance the use of CarPlay
01:40PM EDT - Next-generation CarPlay offers content for all of a driver's screens
01:40PM EDT - So even as much as the instrument panel
01:40PM EDT - Widgets powered by the iPhone
01:40PM EDT - CarPlay powers the entire instrument cluster
01:41PM EDT - Different curated themes for gauges
01:42PM EDT - Vehicles with the tech will start to be announced late next year
01:42PM EDT - And that's iOS 16
01:42PM EDT - Now on to Spatial Audio
01:42PM EDT - Personalized spatial audio profiles
01:42PM EDT - And Quick Note is coming to iOS
01:43PM EDT - And, of course, more Memoji customizations
01:43PM EDT - And now on to Apple Watch
01:43PM EDT - With Kevin Lynch
01:44PM EDT - New themed watch faces
01:44PM EDT - Lunar calendars and more
01:45PM EDT - WatchOS 9's Podcast app will feature search and listen now
01:45PM EDT - WatchOS 9 is also getting new features for fitness
01:46PM EDT - Adding three new running form metrics for tracking running performance
01:46PM EDT - Using ML and accelerometers to determine how the user is moving
01:48PM EDT - Power metric. How much power you're consuming (in Watts, no less!)
01:48PM EDT - (Do you consume more power than an RTX 3080?)
01:49PM EDT - The fitness app is coming to iOS 16
01:49PM EDT - So basic fitness tracking running off of an iPhone
01:50PM EDT - It only offers a subset of what the Watch can do
01:50PM EDT - Now on to WatchOS's Sleep app
01:50PM EDT - Sleep Stages
01:50PM EDT - Using heart rate and accelerometer input to determine what sleep stage a wearer is in
01:51PM EDT - Apple Heart and Movement Study participants will also be able to submit data
01:51PM EDT - Atrial Fibrillation
01:52PM EDT - WatchOS can now keep a history of AFib events
01:52PM EDT - Expecting FDA clearance for AFib History soon
01:52PM EDT - Medications
01:53PM EDT - WatchOS 9's Medications app can be used to track what mediciations have been taken. And supply notifications for when a medication needs to be taken
01:53PM EDT - This also works in the iOS Health app
01:53PM EDT - The iPhone camera can be used to scan medications
01:54PM EDT - And Medications can flag drug-drug interaction checking when new drugs are added
01:54PM EDT - And health information can be shared
01:55PM EDT - And when it's being shared, there will be periodic reminders of what's being shared and with whom
01:55PM EDT - And that's WatchOS 9
01:55PM EDT - And now to the Mac
01:55PM EDT - With John Ternus
01:55PM EDT - Starting with chips
01:56PM EDT - Nearly the entire Mac product line has been transitioned to Apple Silicon/M1
01:56PM EDT - The next generation of Apple Silicon
01:56PM EDT - M2
01:56PM EDT - Takes the breakthrough perf and capabilities of M1 even further
01:56PM EDT - Recapping current M1 family
01:57PM EDT - Apple is staying focused on power-efficiency. Keep power consumption low when increasing performance; don't raise power to keep performance growing
01:57PM EDT - 20B transitors, built on "second-gen" 5nm process
01:57PM EDT - 100GB/sec of unified memory bandwidth
01:57PM EDT - 50% more than M1
01:58PM EDT - M2 supports up to 24GB of memory
01:58PM EDT - 128-bit LPDDR5 interface
01:58PM EDT - 8 core CPU. Next generation
01:58PM EDT - 4+4 configuration
01:58PM EDT - Efficiency cores have been significantly enhanced
01:58PM EDT - 18% greater MT performance over M1
01:59PM EDT - Touting 87% of the perf of a 12 core laptop chip at 25% of the power
01:59PM EDT - 10 core GPU on M2
01:59PM EDT - Up to 25% higher graphics performance at the same power level
01:59PM EDT - Up to 35% higher perf at highest power state
02:00PM EDT - And, of course, Apple is well ahead of Intel's integrated GPUs
02:00PM EDT - M2 gets the next-gen Secure Enclave and Neural Engine
02:00PM EDT - 40% more neural ops than M1
02:00PM EDT - Media engine adds ProRes support. 4K and 8K video
02:00PM EDT - (15.8T neural ops)
02:01PM EDT - Taking the performance and efficiency of M1 even further
02:01PM EDT - The first Mac to get the M2 chip
02:01PM EDT - MacBook Air
02:01PM EDT - "World's best-selling laptop"
02:01PM EDT - All new, completely redesigned MacBook Air
02:01PM EDT - Rolling promo video
02:02PM EDT - The new MacBook Air, powered by M2
02:02PM EDT - The wedge shape is gone
02:03PM EDT - Aluminum unibody enclosure
02:03PM EDT - 11.3mm thick
02:03PM EDT - 2.7 pounds
02:03PM EDT - Available in 4 finishes
02:03PM EDT - 2 USB/TB ports. Magsafe charging. Audio jack with support for high impedence headphones
02:04PM EDT - Liquid Retina display
02:04PM EDT - It has a notch
02:04PM EDT - 13.6-inch display
02:04PM EDT - 500 nits max brightness. 25% brighter than before
02:04PM EDT - 1 billion color support. So 10bpc color
02:04PM EDT - New 1080p FaceTime camera (2x the res of the previous)
02:05PM EDT - The speakers and mics and located between the keyboard and display
02:05PM EDT - Three mic array
02:05PM EDT - 4 speaks altogether for audio
02:05PM EDT - Full-height function row for the function keys
02:05PM EDT - Up to 20% faster than M1 MBA in Photoshop filters
02:06PM EDT - And still a fanless design
02:06PM EDT - Up to 18 hours of video playback
02:06PM EDT - MBA supports Fast Charging with a 67W adapter. 50% in 30 minutes
02:06PM EDT - Apple is also introing a new compact charger with 2 USB ports
02:07PM EDT - Now rolling another promo video
02:07PM EDT - Body changes aside, this looks like a pretty straightforward and sensible update to the MBA. Nothing ground-breaking, but the MBA typically isn't where Apple rolls out big new features
02:08PM EDT - I'm curious to see how the actual battery capacity compares to the M1 MBA. That'll give us a better idea of Apple's power efficiency expectations
02:08PM EDT - M2 is also coming to a new 13-inch MacBook Pro
02:09PM EDT - 39% faster than the M1 version in GPU-heavy workloads
02:09PM EDT - Available with up to 24GB of memory
02:09PM EDT - No body or feature changes, from the looks of things
02:09PM EDT - 20 hours of battery life
02:10PM EDT - MBA starts at $1199
02:10PM EDT - 13-inch MBP starts at $1299
02:10PM EDT - Available next month
02:10PM EDT - The M1 MBA is staying in production. Will be $999
02:11PM EDT - And that's the next generation of Apple Silicon and the new Macs
02:11PM EDT - Now on to macOS
02:12PM EDT - macOS 13 Ventura
02:13PM EDT - New window organization feature: Stage Manager
02:13PM EDT - Stage Manager automatically moves windows from inactive apps off to the side
02:14PM EDT - So almost, but not quite automatically hiding inactive apps
02:14PM EDT - Apps can also be grouped to be kept active together
02:15PM EDT - Draging files from the desktop into a Stage Manager group
02:15PM EDT - Spotlight searching is getting a big update
02:15PM EDT - Quick Look for results
02:16PM EDT - And searching text inside of images via Live Text
02:16PM EDT - Results can be presented in a full window
02:16PM EDT - Rich results are also coming to i-devices
02:17PM EDT - Now on to Mail
02:17PM EDT - Undo Send
02:17PM EDT - And scheduled Send
02:17PM EDT - Mail Search has been overhauled
02:18PM EDT - Instant suggestions as you type
02:18PM EDT - And using synonyms
02:18PM EDT - Also coming to iOS/iPadOS
02:18PM EDT - Now to Safari
02:19PM EDT - Recapping Safari features and new dev features added in the last year
02:19PM EDT - New feature: Shared Tab Groups
02:19PM EDT - Share a whole tab group with another user
02:20PM EDT - Apple is looking to replace passwords with Passkeys
02:21PM EDT - Essentially using biometrics to unlock a key, which is used in what sounds like a challenge-response interaction
02:21PM EDT - Been working with the FIDO alliance
02:21PM EDT - https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2022/05/how-apple-google-and-microsoft-will-kill-passwords-and-phishing-in-1-stroke/
02:21PM EDT - Now on to Gaming
02:22PM EDT - Starting with Metal
02:22PM EDT - Rolling out Metal 3
02:22PM EDT - Unleashing the full potential of Apple Silicon for years to come
02:22PM EDT - MetalFX Upscaling
02:23PM EDT - So Apple is doing their own upscaling tech
02:23PM EDT - Spatial upscaling + temporal AA
02:23PM EDT - Which sounds like something a bit below XeSS/DLSS/FSR2
02:24PM EDT - Resident Evil Village is coming to the Mac
02:25PM EDT - Showing off footage of the game running on macOS
02:26PM EDT - Available later this year
02:26PM EDT - Now on to Continuity
02:26PM EDT - Handoff is being extended to FaceTime
02:27PM EDT - Seamlessly moving a call from the iPhone to a Mac, and vice versa
02:27PM EDT - And iPad as well
02:27PM EDT - Continuity Camera. Use iPhone as your web cam
02:27PM EDT - Since the iPhone has larger and more capable cameras than the small FaceTime cameras placed in a laptop lid
02:28PM EDT - This all works wirelessly
02:28PM EDT - Continuity Camera supports the Center Stage features
02:28PM EDT - New feature: Desk View
02:29PM EDT - Using the ultrawide camera on the iPhone to simulate a overhead view of a user's desk
02:29PM EDT - Continuty Camera can be used with any video conferencing app
02:29PM EDT - Apple is also working with Belkin for stands
02:30PM EDT - Coming later this year
02:30PM EDT - And that's macOS Ventura
02:30PM EDT - Now to iPadOS
02:31PM EDT - iPadOS of course gets most of iOS's new features, as well as a bunch of features announced for macOS
02:31PM EDT - And a version of the Weather app for the iPad
02:31PM EDT - And a new API: WeatherKit, for adding weather to third-party apps
02:32PM EDT - Collaboration
02:33PM EDT - Can select a Messages group to collaborate with
02:33PM EDT - Faster collaboration with groups the user is already communicating with
02:34PM EDT - More uses of shared tab groups - you can see who is on what tabs, and they can dynamically add tabs to the group
02:35PM EDT - Collaboration features will also work with apps like Notes and Keynote
02:35PM EDT - Also coming to iOS and macOS
02:35PM EDT - New app coming later this year: Freeform
02:36PM EDT - (Does this remind anyone else of Google Wave?)
02:37PM EDT - Freeform is being built into the full suite of Apple OSes
02:37PM EDT - And now iPad Gaming
02:37PM EDT - Metal 3 is coming to iPadOS, with the same upscaling and loading features
02:38PM EDT - Also rolling out a new API to download large assets in the background
02:39PM EDT - The Game Center dashboard is being updated with activity tracking
02:39PM EDT - Coming in an update to iPad 16 later this year
02:39PM EDT - (So not in the initial launch version?)
02:39PM EDT - "Desktop-class apps"
02:39PM EDT - Bringing more Mac-like features to iPadOS
02:40PM EDT - Undo/redo
02:40PM EDT - A bunch of File features like changing file extensions and viewing folder sizes
02:40PM EDT - Customizable toolbars in iPadOS
02:40PM EDT - New APIs for developers to allow devs to build it into their own apps
02:41PM EDT - New feature: Reference Color
02:41PM EDT - Allowing it to be used as a reference, calibrated display as part of a workflow
02:42PM EDT - New display scaling setting
02:42PM EDT - Increase the pixel density of the iPad display to see more
02:42PM EDT - iPadOS 16 adds support for virtual memory swap
02:42PM EDT - So we're back to page files
02:42PM EDT - Stage Manager coming to iPadOS as well
02:43PM EDT - Demoing Stage Manager on the iPad
02:44PM EDT - Same feature set as on the Mac. Groups, resizing windows, etc
02:44PM EDT - And you can use Stage Manager with external displays
02:44PM EDT - Up to 8 apps simultaneously
02:45PM EDT - And that's iPadOS 16
02:46PM EDT - And back to Tim
02:46PM EDT - Developer betas today for OS releases
02:46PM EDT - Public betas next month
02:47PM EDT - Full releases this fall
02:47PM EDT - Apple has a huge week ahead. The Platform State of the Union is this afternoon
02:47PM EDT - 175 sessions
02:48PM EDT - And that's a wrap! Off to look into the M2
32 Comments
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Oxford Guy - Saturday, June 11, 2022 - link
We don't need engineers, just marketeers to make funny faces that can be slapped onto a YouTube clip.Watch us take something out of a box! It's like magic!
meacupla - Monday, June 6, 2022 - link
I have just one comment to make.Why did apple choose this specific thumbnail for their WWDC?
Not only do they have that uncanny valley thing going, Why did Apple decide it was best to decapitate them from their bodies?
Oxford Guy - Saturday, June 11, 2022 - link
Whatever those things are supposed to be, they're ugly and creepy.Hifihedgehog - Monday, June 6, 2022 - link
Apple Freeform is just Microsoft Whiteboard or a shared OneNote, which already integrate into Teams... yawn.iceman-sven77 - Monday, June 6, 2022 - link
Metal 3 & DirectAccess was a joke. Copying 2-3 year old features from Microsoft. And still no support for advanced features like Ray-tracing.RSAUser - Monday, June 6, 2022 - link
You won't see ray tracing support for a while as the GPU isn't really strong enough for it, e.g. Nvidia side it only really starts being okay at 3070 level, and Apple is still going through a translation layer.GC2:CS - Monday, June 6, 2022 - link
Why would Apple drop A9 and A10 iPhones compatibility but keep A9 iPads ?Mac OS also droped quite a load of devices.
M2 seems like an A15X. But why so little so late ? M1 was avalable like 2 months after A14.
Looks like there is some serious slowdiwns in pipelines across the semiconductor indiustry.
techconc - Monday, June 6, 2022 - link
@GC2:CS - Why so little so late? Probably because TSMC's next process node wasn't ready. If they're staying on 2nd gen 5nm process, this is basically what they have to do.That said, honestly, 18% CPU increase, 25% faster GPU, 40% faster NPU, better media blocks with ProRES, higher memory bandwidth, etc. seems like a pretty decent generational bump to me.
vlad42 - Monday, June 6, 2022 - link
It's not like there have been significant performance improvements to Apple's CPUs in a few years now. It has been 10% - 15% total performance increases for the past few generations and that includes clock speed. Most of the gains touted have been in various accelerators such as the NPU, GPU, image processor, etc.If I remember correctly, Andre found the A15 only had about a 5% IPC/performance per clock increase. The rest of the gain was from increased clock speed.
As far as slow downs are concerned, TSMC's 3N is still fairly new and was unlikely to be viable for the large M# series chips Apple needs. I remember a lot of people complaining about the increased prices for the M1 based laptops and Mac Mini compared with the outgoing equivalent Intel skews. Apple is probably trying to address that by sticking with 5N while putting M2 on a 3N-like process would have kept prices high.
Oyeve - Monday, June 6, 2022 - link
Nothing really WOW, yet again. And another notch?