Apple WWDC Announcements (new toys and new operating systems)

I know a lot of my readers worship Apple products and use them daily.

With the latest superpresentation from Apple at their World Wide Developers Conference – let’s look at what the fruit based company can empty our wallets with.

First up, let’s talk hardware.

Apple iMac

The iMac’s are getting a speed bump Intel Kaby Lake CPU’s being installed, and 4k/21″ iMac and 27″/5k screens iMacs getting Radeon dedicated graphics processors. Fusion Drives (SSD and Hard Disks) are now standard on 27″ Devices, with new SSDs to improve performance (and if you’re anything like me – get an SSD based model).

New Apple iMac Lineup – Image, Apple.

Lead-in prices start at:

• 21″ Non Retina – $1,099.00/£1,049.00 upwards
• 21″ 4K Retina – $1,299.00/£1,249.00 upwards
• 27″ 5K Retina – $1,799.00/£1,749.00 upwards

New iMacs are in the shops now.

Apple iMac Pro

Apple in the past has been accused of ignoring the workstation and professional market – with the Mac Pro range languishing.

Well, it answered that with the space grey Mac Pro.

So, you want power? This thing is configurable from a mere 8 Intel Processing cores, through to a more meatier 10 processing cores, and then – if you can justify it – 18-core Intel Xeon processor cores.

That’s a lot of processing.

Graphics will be powered by Radeon Pro Vega discrete graphics which should make those rendering video or VR applications work with ease.  Combine that with a possibility of 128GB of memory, with a 4TB SSD to store your content on – this will be a beast of a machine.

What can one of these do? This for example.

Starting price for this will be $4999 – and will go as far as high as the sky goes. On the plus side, you’ll get a bucket load of miles if you buy it on a credit card. This is launching December.

MacBook Pro/MacBook

If you brought a MacBook/MacBook Pro recently – see if you can take it back. Kaby Lake has finally arrived on the Macbook Pro Platform.

MacBook and MacBook Pro Lineup – Image, Apple.

So yes, there’s a speed bump and updated SSD storage devices installed in these.  There are variants, so pay attention.

• 12″ Macbook with Intel Core m3 with 256GB storage – $1,299.00/£1,249.00
• 12″ Macbook with Intel i5 with 512GB storage – $1,599.00/£1,549.00
• 13″ MacBook Pro No Touchbar with 128GB of storage – $1,299.00/£1,249.00
• 13″ MacBook Pro No Touchbar with 256GB of storage – $1,499.00/£1,449.00
• 13″ MacBook Pro Touchbar with 256GB of storage – $1,799.00/£1,749.00
• 15″ MacBook Pro Touchbar with 256GB of storage – $2,399.00/£2,349.00
• 15″ MacBook Pro Touchbar with 512GB of storage – $2,799.00/£2,699.00

MacBook Air

Nope, the MacBook Air hasn’t been forgotten about. It’s had a CPU bump to 1.8Ghz. At least it hasn’t been wiped out for those who want a cheaper Apple device.

iPad Pro 10.5″

Long trailed, and finally arriving, Apple is launching a 10.5″ iPad Pro, in the form factor of a 9.7″ iPad Pro.

Apple iPad 10.5″ – Image, Apple.

With a 20% larger screen, this is one to play with for screen real estate, it’s going to be one for the Pro on the move… especially when the iOS11 launches (we’ll get to that in a bit). Both the 12.9″ and 10.5″ have got hardware updates, and are shipping.

Get your wallets ready – here are the prices for the new 10.5″ iPad

Storage  Price Wifi   Price Wifi and Cellar
64GB     $649/£619          $779/£749
256GB    $749/£709          $879/£849
512GB    $949/£889         $1079/£1019

HomePod

Apple is trying it again with a speaker – this time, it’s trying to build an assistant into its product. And it’s a Mac Pro HomePod

The Apple HomePod. Any resemblance to the Mac Pro is coincidence – Image, Apple.

It’s another smart speaker that has Siri inside to help with music choices, and integrates with Apple Music. Built with a reasonably designed woofer and 7 tweeters, as well as microphones and powered by an Apple A8 processor.

Starting prices are at $349. International pricing not disclosed, and launches December.

Let’s look at the software side

tvOS

Apple’s hobby remains a hobby, with the announcement that Amazon’s Prime Video service will be integrated into it soon. Nothing to see here.

watchOS

For those of you with Apple Watches, there are updates with new watch faces (including a Siri watch face) and more fitness tools for those of you who use this as a fitness tracker. Again, unless you’ve invested time with Apple Watch… not a lot to see, but a lot of under the hood improvements

MacOS 10.13 – High Sierra

If there’s a term I’d use – it’s incremental. There are some stand-out features like the use of a new storage system, with everyone to migrate to Apple File System which promises a lot of performance increases. There’s also a push for High-Efficiency Video Coding to provide smaller high quality video files.

There’s a big plan to Virtual Reality, with more frameworks being exposed, and the acknowledgement that users use external graphics cards.

iOS11 for iPhone and iPad

Some big changes ahead for iOS11 – and if you have an iPad, you need to pay attention.

The big one for those who are seeking to bump up their Manufactured Spending is the announcement of peer-to-peer payments for Apple Pay. I don’t need to spell this out for anyone do I?

Control Centre has been redesigned, with everything on one screen.

Control Centre Redesigned at iOS11 Single Page. pic.twitter.com/8YKbgx8czK

— Kevin-Economy&Beyond (@EconomyBeyond) June 5, 2017

As well as Siri Translate for those of us who suck at languages.

Siri Translate coming to… #WWDC17 pic.twitter.com/W9hTiKZDjx

— Kevin-Economy&Beyond (@EconomyBeyond) June 5, 2017

And for those who get lost in Malls and Airports, Apple will be upgrading its Apple Maps service for wayfinding in Airports.

Oh god. Apple Maps. Give me strength. Has Mall Support, Airport Support #WWDC17 pic.twitter.com/VElxhhJ0xZ

— Kevin-Economy&Beyond (@EconomyBeyond) June 5, 2017

The AppStore has been redesigned too.

However, the big changes are for the iPad, with some great new features for its iPad platform. For those wanting a touch-screen MacBook – it’s finally arriving as some of the MacOS features such as ..

The dock – yes the dock makes an appearance on the iPad at long last.

iOS11 on iPad and iPhone – Image, Apple.

And what goes well with a dock? A File Manager. HOW MANY YEARS HAS THIS BEEN IN THE MAKING?

AND AT F**KING LAST – A FILE MANAGER! #WWDC17 pic.twitter.com/izLCfoeeSP

— Kevin-Economy&Beyond (@EconomyBeyond) June 5, 2017

And to support these new features, drag and drop between applications will arrive too. It seems Apple is trying to fill in the gaps between its tablet line and its laptop line… and that’s a good thing.

A lot of people have been waiting for touch-screen MacOS devices – and iOS11 appears to fill that gap if it delivers the updates.

Updates for all the Operating Systems will hit around September/October… in time for another hardware refresh.

Overall

There is a lot to take in. The new hardware should calm the heels of those who thought Apple were holding back in the last round of releases (and they were).

Certainly the unexpected star of the show is the iMac Pro which looks gorgeous, and will be the eye of many a video editor/VR/AR designer.

The new iPad is a welcome arrival, and is reasonably priced – although Apple as usual is gouging for memory (but then, what’s new on that front?).

The new speaker? I can leave it – having three devices fighting when I say “Hey Siri” is going to be plenty enough as it is.

Certainly, iOS11 could be the reason I finally go and get myself an iPad – it’s becoming more computer like with a file manager and a dock… and promises lots of productivity.

Lots to look forward too – and lots to see how developers take the technology forward.

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