Apple’s WWDC 2017 Quick Summary

The first news that Apple announced in the WWDC event is Amazon Prime Video finally coming to tvOS later this year. So yeah to all though who have one. Apple’s CEO Tim Cook has said that there will be more on Apple TV later this year.

Although some of us might have expected Apple to announce its new watch, Apple only announced the revamped watchOS 4. It packs new watch faces, better Workout and Activity apps, improves fitness equipment integration and has a redesigned Music app. Oh yes, there is a Siri watch interface with new animation for Siri which looks dope.

Yes, Mac users finally get a new OS. They call it macOS High Sierra. The first developer beta is out today, while the initial public beta will come before the end of this month. Under the hood, High Sierra has a lot of changes. Apple has changed its HFS file system with the brand new Apple file system (APFS). This will be the standard from High Sierra. It is said to provide better performance, security and data reliability.

The all new iMac (21-inch & 27-inch) offers a 5K display has been offered with a brighter display (43%), Intel’s Kaby Lake processors upto 64gb of RAM and Fusion Drive on the 27 inch model, faster SSD i.e. up to 2TB. They also come with better graphics that seamlessly supports VR.

Apple also announced updates to MacBook and MacBook Pro which will be getting the Intel Kaby Lake processors. They will also be getting faster SSD and better graphics. The have also announced a lower price for 13 inch MacBook Pro.

Apple also trailered the new iMac Pro looks similar to the 27-inch iMac. It offers better internal cooling, all thanks to the dual centrifugal fan setup. The high-end iMac Pro gets upto 128GB of RAM,  4TB SSD, Intel Xeon with up to 18 cores,  4TB SSD and a 16GB Radeon Vega GPU.

Yet another Pro version from an existing product comes “The Apple iPad Pro” with 10.5 inch and 12.9-inch screens. The new iPad Pro 10.5 inches and 12.9 inch is available to order from June 5th priced at $649 for a 64GB and $1099, for a 512GB respectively. Sadly units will ship with iOS 10. Upgrade to iOS 11 is planned for this fall.

Apple finally launched the much rumored Apple’s version of a smart speaker. Yes, you read it right apple’s grand final product of the conference was a speaker. HomePod is targeted towards music. The HomePod is less than 7 inches tall. It has a seven tweeter on the bottom, and a 4″ Apple-designed woofer up top with auto bass EQ. Six microphones are always listening for the “Hey Siri” trigger phrase which activates the speaker. It will also identify different parts of a song and try to focus the sound for the best possible listening experience. The speaker will be priced at $349, which is much more than the Amazon Echos and Google Homes. No surprise there!