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Six tricks: Apple's new HomePod speaker banners slew of major announcements

San Jose, California - iOS 11, macOS High Sierra previewed; all-new powerful iMac flaunted

Tim Cook promised six announcements at the beginning of the keynote of the Worldwide Developers Conference. In the end, it was another slew of innovations that offered seemingly infinite possibilities.
Apple's biggest event lived up to its billing, after weeks of speculation and anticipation.
In the first WWDC back at the San Jose McEnery Convention Center in California after 15 years, a video depicting an "apppocalypse" was played, reminding developers to "keep making apps; the world is depending on you".
"An awful lot has changed [since the WWDC was last held in San Jose]. But what hasn't changed is our commitment to the developer community and our ability to do amazing things together," Cook, the CEO of the world's most valuable company, said.
And with his pledge that this year's WWDC was going to be the "best and biggest" ever, Cook kicked off the over-two-hour keynote, full of Apple's usual flair and surprises.


tvOS
The first of the six "important" announcements was about tvOS. With the recent introduction of the TV app on the Apple TV, iPhone and iPad, discovering content was made easier and better.
It was launched with the support from only a handful of video channels, but today over 50 partners are integrated into it. To boost this, Cook announced that Amazon Prime Video will be coming to the Apple TV later this year, which will add thousands of videos, including original content.
 
Apple Watch
Though Apple has never given official figures about its one and only wearable, Cook said it's the No.1 smartwatch globally and is only set to grow further.
Kevin Lynch, vice-president of technology at Apple, introduced watchOS 4, which introduced three new watch faces - Siri, Kaleidoscope and characters from Toy Story. The crown on the Watch can also be used to scroll up and down through app windows.
The first new face, Siri, extends the capabilities of Apple's AI assistant; each raise of the wrist, the on-screen information is updated depending on the time of the day, daily routines and data from relevant apps such as Activity, Alarms, Calendar, Maps and Reminders, among others. In addition, a redesigned Music app was also unveiled, which automatically syncs song mixes to most listened tracks.
Person-to-person payments with Apple Pay will also be made available, using Messages or Siri.
The watchOS update will be rolled out in the fall. Prices for the Apple Watch remain the same: Series 1 starting at Dh1,099; Series 2 and Nike+ both starting at Dh1,499; and Watch Edition starting at Dh4,999.


Macs, macOS
Cook described the Mac as "important to fuelling the world's passion for creativity".
Craig Federighi, Apple's senior vice-president of software engineering, previewed macOS High Sierra. He teased that the name may be misconstrued - the present macOS is called Sierra, which brought Siri and Apple Pay, among others, to Macs - but said the new name was "fully-baked" in jest.
"High Sierra is all about 'deep technologies'," he said, "to provide a powerful platform for future innovations."
High Sierra's new features include the company's own Apple File System, which Federighi says guarantees break-neck speeds and helps protect against data from power outages and system crashes, while also keeping files safe with native encryption.
High-efficiency video coding was also introduced, enabling video streaming and playback of 4K video that are also up to 40 per cent smaller than the current standard. Metal 2, Apple's developer kit, was also unveiled, which features a refined API and souped-up performance to help developers accelerate apps, while also adding machine language support. Combined, the new Macs will, for the first time, add support for virtual reality content creation. Among big-name VR companies coming onboard are Valve, Unity and Epic. Final Cut Pro X will later this year add support for professional 360-degree workflows.
As for apps, Photos has a new always-on sidebar that shows albums and organisation tools; Safari now has Autoplay Blocking and Intelligent Tracking Prevention; and Siri responds with a more natural voice.
As for the hardware side, iMacs will now be 43 per cent brighter, support up to one billion colours and move into the latest 7th-generation Intel Core Kaby Lake processors. In terms of memory capacity, the 21.5-inch model can now be configured to up to 32GB of memory, while the 27-inch version up to 64GB - both double the previous generation's. On the latter, Fusion Drive will be the standard, which features up to 2TB of storage and up to 50 per cent faster solid state drives; this will also apply to the higher-end 21.5-inch iMac. Two Thunderbolt ports supporting USB Type-C will also be added. Furthermore, the entry-level 21.5-inch iMac will now have up to 80 per cent faster graphics, while the Retina 4K version will have up to three times faster graphics.
Apple also decided to go "nutty" and unveiled an absolute monster: the newest 27-inch Retina 5K will also come in a new space grey colour and mouth-watering specs: up to an 18-core Xeon processor, up to 22 teraflops of computing power and up to 128GB of memory. The new iMacs ship in December.
MacBooks were refreshed as well, with all models moving to Kaby Lake processors and getting up to 50 per cent faster SSDs, with the 15-inch MacBook Pro model will have faster standard graphics.
 
iOS 11
As expected, the newest iteration of Apple's mobile operating system was unveiled. Cook says iOS has an "industry-leading 96 per cent satisfaction", and even took a shot at rival Google's Android platform, which he says "suffers from horrible fragmentation".
iOS 11 features a more powerful Siri, which can now translate five languages - Chinese, French, German, Italian and Spanish. On-device learning was also added; Siri takes note of what's being browsed in Safari and can make suggestions on, for example, Messages or Mail.
The Portrait Mode in the Camera app can now be taken with optical image stabilisation, True Tone flash and HDR. Loop and Bounce effects, as well as Long Exposure, have also been added to Live Photos. Apple also introduced a new file format - High Efficiency Image File - reducing the size of a photo in half while maitaining the same quality.
On Maps, a new Do Not Disturb While Driving feature was added, safety being in mind while on the road. An iPhone can detect while you are driving, which will automatically silence notifications and keep the screen dark. Maps will now also display speed limits.
Augmented reality was also flaunted on iOS 11 with ARKit, a new platform that will help developers create high-quality AR content, akin to what is seen in Pokemon GO.
Other new features on iOS 11, among others, include a redesigned App Store and Control Center, and person-to-person Apple Pay capabilities.


iPad
The long-rumoured 10.5-inch iPad Pro was finally confirmed, and it's more powerful than ever. A better 12.9-inch version was also revealed.
Bannering the new tablets is the new 64-bit A10X chip; with a six-core CPU and 12-core GPU, it promises better and faster performance up to 30 per cent and 60 per cent, respectively, compared to the A9. The redesigned Retina Display - the brightest on an iPad to date - features Apple's new ProMotion technology, which provides refresh rates up to 120Hz. The Apple Pencil was also given an upgrade, now more responsive with an industry-best 20-millisecond latency.
With iOS 11 on the iPad, new features were also introduced, most notable the new Dock similar to what is seen on Macs; multi-touch Drag and Drop that allows content to be transferred between apps in any mode, including Split View and Slide Over; the new Files app that organises files whether locally or on cloud storages; and a new document scanner in Notes.
The 10.5-inch iPad Pro starts at Dh2,499, while the 12.9-inch version starts at Dh2,999.


HomePod
Probably the biggest announcement of the day also served as a notice to Amazon's Alexa and Google Home.
The new Siri-powered HomePod, Apple's first entry into the category, was described by Apple's senior vice-president of worldwide marketing Phil Schiller as a "breakthrough".
"Apple reinvented portable music with the iPod, and now HomePod will reinvent how we enjoy music wirelessly throughout our homes," he added.
HomePod was designed with six microphones, allowing seamless communication even while music is playing. It uses spatial awareness to sense where it is in a room and automatically adjusts the way it sends out audio. Designed to work with Apple Music, it displays intelligence by learning a user's personal preferences, helping discover new audio tracks.
As a home assistant, HomePod allows users to send messages, get updates on news and even control smart home devices using Siri.
HomePods were on display at the event, but won't be available until December. It will initially be rolled out in Australia, the UK and the US for $349 (Dh1,280). It will be available in other countries early next year.

In his concluding remarks, Cook beamed confidence with Apple's new offerings, and looked forward to a more powerful developer community.
"We've shared lots of things with you this morning," he said. "I hope everyone here has a fantastic week."
- alvin@khaleejtimes.com