Move over the mind-blowing inventions of the past, because Apple just raised the bar at the WWDC 2023, leaving attendees in awe and sceptics scratching their heads. This year’s event was a playground of cutting-edge technology, where machine learning, transformer models, and virtual reality collided to create a spectacle that had jaws dropping faster than a neural network can crunch numbers. Apple’s daring foray into the realm of the extraordinary has left us all wondering, “Are we still in reality, or did we just slip into a parallel universe of mind-bending possibilities?”

Apple Vision Pro

“Mac introduced us to personal computing and iPhone introduced us to mobile computing, Apple vision Pro will introduce us to spatial computing,” said Tim Cooke.

Meet Apple Vision Pro, a groundbreaking computer that seamlessly merges the real and digital worlds through augmented reality. With Vision Pro, you can interact with digital content as if it exists in your physical space, using your eyes, hands, and voice as natural and intuitive tools. It revolutionises the way you perceive your surroundings, transforming them into an infinite canvas where apps can be used anywhere and resized at will. 

Capture precious moments in a whole new way with photos and videos. Immerse yourself in movies, shows, sports, and games on a large virtual screen with immersive audio. Connect with others as if you’re sharing the same physical space. Vision Pro brings digital content to life around us, marking the dawn of spatial computing—a new era in personal technology.

M2 Ultra

Apple is expanding its M2 chip family by introducing the M2 Ultra chip, which pushes Mac performance to new heights. This powerhouse chip incorporates the groundbreaking Ultra fusion architecture and joins forces with the M2 Max die to deliver unparalleled performance. The M2 Ultra chip boasts a 24-core CPU, doubling the performance of the M2 Max. In terms of graphics capabilities, the M2 Ultra’s 76-core GPU achieves a 30% increase in speed compared to the M1 Ultra. 

Additionally, the 32-core neural engine is now 40% faster. The M2 Ultra chip sets new standards for memory capacity, supporting an impressive 192 gigabytes of unified memory—50% more than the previous M1 Ultra chip. This expanded memory capacity enables the M2 Ultra to handle massive machine learning workloads, including large transformer models, surpassing the limitations of other chips on the market.

iOS 17 and Transformer-based Autocorrect

Apple has unveiled its latest software update, iOS 17, which introduces significant enhancements to the keyboard intelligence, promising an improved typing experience for iPhone users. Autocorrect is now powered by on-device machine learning, with Apple continuously advancing the underlying models over the years. 

The keyboard now incorporates a SOTA transformer language model, greatly enhancing word prediction accuracy. With the power of Apple silicon, the iPhone can efficiently run this model with every keystroke, resulting in a more capable and reliable autocorrect system. “When you just want to type a ducking word, autocorrect will learn that.”

Dictation, another integral part of the keyboard, has also received an upgrade. It now utilises a transformer-based speech recognition model, leveraging the power of Apple’s neural engine to deliver even more accurate dictation results. 

macOS Sonoma

Apple has recently unveiled macOS 14, the latest iteration of its desktop operating system. Continuing the tradition of naming versions after California towns, this release is named Sonoma, after the picturesque wine country in Northern California.

One of the notable features in macOS 14 is the introduction of widgets, a feature borrowed from the mobile side of Apple’s ecosystem. These widgets are designed to dynamically adjust to your usage, ensuring they don’t dominate the screen while you’re engaged in other tasks. Furthermore, these interactive widgets allow for seamless actions, such as selecting images directly from the widget window, enhancing the overall user experience.

Gaming Mode and toolkit

Apple is revolutionising the gaming experience on Mac with the introduction of Game Mode. This presents an incredible opportunity for developers to bring their games to a wider audience than ever before. The advancements in Metal 3, Apple’s graphics technology, have further enhanced gaming performance. Games like Resident Evil Village have seen significant gains in performance, thanks to Metal Effects and upscaling capabilities. 

Traditionally, evaluating game compatibility and optimising performance for Mac could take months. However, with the new game porting toolkit, developers can accomplish this in a matter of days. The toolkit streamlines the conversion of game shaders and graphics code, allowing developers to fully leverage the powerful features and performance of Apple silicon. As a result, the total development time is significantly reduced, empowering developers to bring their games to the Mac ecosystem more efficiently.

Safari Updates

Apple’s own browser is built from the ground up again to be powered by WebKit technology used by over a million apps. Apple prioritises privacy, and the latest update enhances private browsing by locking windows, blocking trackers, and removing tracking from URLs. New feature of  secure password and passkey sharing through iCloud Keychain. Profiles help separate work and personal browsing, while students can create unique collections.

Additionally, Apple introduced web apps for faster access to sites. With simplified toolbars and seamless integration, web apps provide an app-like experience without extra developer work. Safari makes accessing favourite websites effortless on Mac.

Airpods

With Adaptive Audio, AirPods Pro takes personalised audio to the next level. By utilising machine learning, these earbuds can learn your listening preferences over time and adapt to the surrounding conditions to provide an optimal media experience. Whether you’re in a quiet room or a noisy environment, AirPods Pro will dynamically adjust the audio to deliver the best sound quality and clarity for your specific situation.

But that’s not all. Apple has introduced an exciting new feature that enhances your interactions with others while wearing AirPods Pro. Conversation Awareness automatically detects when you start speaking, and in response, it intelligently lowers the volume of your music or audio playback. This allows you to focus on the voices and conversations happening around you, without the need to manually adjust your audio settings.

Apple Health App

In a not-so-surprising announcement, Apple introduced a new Health app for the iPad. The new app will launch as part of iPadOS 17 later this year. With this, users will be able to see their health data, such as electrocardiogram results, on a larger screen. 

This new feature gives users the access to users’ health data securely, so that they can see their health information across Apple ecosystem of products, iPad, iPhone, Apple Watch, etc, alongside compatible third party apps and devices all in one place. 

For developers, HealthKit is coming to iPad, unleashing new ways to build health and fitness experiences for the devices. So far, Health app was available on the iPhone, now it is available on iPad, which gives users more control when it comes to viewing health metrics, perceptions, lab tests and more. 

Apple Watch

Apple just dropped another update to their WatchOS with WatchOS 10. This builds on the focus of privacy and health that is one of the key features of the Apple conference this year. Apart from adding more widget to the screen, the company has integrated Mindfulness into the software. This enables the watch to track your mood and logging features. 

Moreover, the company has decided to put more focus on mental health this time. In an interesting note, the new update to the WatchOS also enables users to measure their screen time on the watch by tracking their eyes. 

Journal App

In addition to these, Apple has announced an upcoming app called Journal, set to debut on iPhones later this year. The Journal app aims to help users reflect on and relive their special moments by providing personalised suggestions based on various aspects of their day, such as photos, locations, music, and workouts.