Here’s What You Missed from Apple’s WWDC 2024

Apple’s developer conference came in with a bang, confirming a lot of the rumors we’ve been hearing for a bit. Don’t be surprised if I write at least three other articles this week about this event — there are a lot of great things coming out of this that I would LOVE to dive into further.

What Wasn’t a Big Deal

Let’s start with the more iterative updates:

• AirPods: Yes, there are some updates to the AirPods.
• RCS Support: RCS is finally supported. Give it to Apple to hold everyone back and act as the savior when they finally adopt something that’s been standard for everyone else.
• Home Screen Customization: You can customize your home screen a bit more. “Yay!”
• Password Manager: The password manager got better and now has an entire app dedicated to it.
• Game Mode in iOS: Introducing Game Mode for better gaming performance.

Now let’s get to the meat and potatoes of this presentation.

Apple Vision Pro: "I’m Still Standing"

Apple isn’t giving up on the Vision Pro and is actively updating it. Let’s see if this translates to eventually getting us a smaller, more approachable device. They listened to a lot of the main complaints and suggestions from early users and introduced Vision OS 2:

• Larger Virtual Display: Finally taking advantage of the almost infinite real estate of the Vision Pro, users can have an UltraWide display (equivalent to two 4K displays side by side).
• Spatial Photos: Converting any photo in your Photos app to a spatial photo.
• SharePlay: Coming to some Vision Pro apps, allowing shared experiences with other users. Let’s hope this extends to movies soon.
• Canon Lens: Canon is making a new lens to take spatial photos with their cameras. Is this going to be an actual thing?

Watch This: watchOS 11 Now Has a Training Mode

This year, we’re getting a training mode that takes personal data and metrics to see how the intensity and duration of workouts impacts your body over time and suggests breaks. Looks like they’re coming after WHOOP.

• Rest Days: Rest days on the Apple Watch, like getting sick or injured, will no longer break streaks.
• Vitals App: A new Vitals app that gives you a glance at “important health metrics” and new cycle tracking features for pregnancy, showing gestational age.
• Live Activities: Coming to the Apple Watch with new safety features, allowing friends to keep tabs on you during late-night runs. For workouts, this happens automatically.

A Calculator App?! On iPad?! And It Only Took 14 Years

Yes! The wait is over! We won! After years of waiting, Apple finally created a calculator app for the iPad. It’s almost a meme at this point, but they finally made a calculator and in a very Apple way and creating something useful by making it as banal as possible.

• Smart Script: A feature that makes your handwriting easier to read, alongside some personalization updates.
• Apple Pencil Support: Write your equations down with your Apple Pencil, and the app will solve them for you. It feels like a more polished and personal version of Microsoft’s Math app.

Continuity Is Almost Making Me Switch to an iPhone

I will probably write a whole article about this, but man, does Apple know how to wall a garden.

• Full Control: You can now fully control your iPhone from your Mac’s screen and transfer files between the two seamlessly.
• File Transfer: How many times have I tried to transfer something from my Galaxy to my Mac and had to rely on email or Google Drive? Not anymore. This might be the feature that changes everything for those who use a Mac and an Android phone.

And Finally, What We All Have Been Waiting For…

Apple Renames AI

That’s right, seems like the rumors were true, and we’re getting a lot of AI features. Oh, you think AI stands for Artificial Intelligence? Oh… No, no… In this garden, we only use Apple Intelligence.

• Image Generation: You can generate images based on photos, people from your contacts, or just pure imagination, but only in stylized formats (cartoon, sketch, or illustration). Apple reduces user control in the prompt and gives “topics” to direct the process, ensuring safe generation.

• Access LLMs from Any Text Field: Similar to Copilot or Google’s writing assistants.
• Full Context AI: Apple seems to be combining their in-device search with the AI assistant, making sure it has full context before responding by pulling information from apps, calendar, photos, and more.
• Mostly On Device: Apple is doing most of the processing on the device. When needed, the model will anonymize the information and context before connecting to Apple’s servers.
• Compatibility with ChatGPT: OpenAI struck a deal with Apple, making Apple Intelligence “compatible” with ChatGPT. This is interesting, as it shows Apple is using GPT-4 as a complement to its AI features, rather than the foundation of it.
• Genmoji: Have you ever tried to find an emoji, but it didn't exist? Well, now you can just generate them.

• Siri Upgrades: Siri has gotten an upgrade and will use Apple Intelligence to respond to queries, both through speech and text.

There’s so much more to talk about, but as I said, I’ll leave some of my thoughts to marinate and develop before I write them down. Let me know what your favorite announcements were!