Apple WWDC 2022: New MacBook Air and updates to iPhone, Watch, iPad and Pay revealed
Apple has responded to one of the “most requested” changes to the iPhone while unveiling a powerful but thin new MacBook.
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Apple showed off a new look and a fresh colour for it thinnest and best-selling MacBook in the wee hours of Tuesday morning, along with a long list of software changes to its other devices.
The company’s Worldwide Developers Conference, streamed to Australia at 3am, revealed a new Mac operating system, a more powerful chip in the M2, and the biggest change to the company’s iPhone home screen to date.
But the headline hardware stole the show: a new MacBook Air with a flat, 1.1cm thick body, a bigger screen, new chip and an 18-hour battery life that will cost $1899 when it's released in Australia.
This is everything you need to know about what Apple showed off at WWDC.
FRESH MACS
MacBook Air
The long-anticipated new design for Apple’s most portable computer promises to be more durable despite featuring 20 per cent less volume than the previous model.
It no longer features a “wedge” design but sits 1.13cm off the table all around, and now comes in a “midnight” blue colour in addition to silver, starlight, and space grey.
Its borders have been slimmed to support a 13.6-inch screen, and its camera has been boosted to full high-definition resolution like the recent MacBook Pro.
The machine also uses a fanless design, like the previous M1 model, and adds power and battery life with a new M2 chip.
Older Apple fans will also appreciate that Apple is bringing back the MagSafe charger, leaving both the computer’s USB-C ports accessible while charging.
Unusually, Apple did not reveal a release date for the new computers, only saying they would be made available “next month”.
The two new Air models will command $1899 and $2349 in Australia respectively, with the top model featuring a 10-core GPU and 512GB solid-state storage.
M2
Apple's new M2 chip was also unveiled at WWDC, with the company promising the second generation Apple Silicon would focus on power consumption as well as performance.
The new MacBook Air will be the first to get the M2, though Apple said it would also be introduced to a new MacBook Pro.
MACOS
The tech giant also revealed its newest Mac operating system at the event, named Ventura.
It will include a new feature in Stage Manager that will automatically organise windows to help users focus on what they’re doing, as well as an update to Spotlight, allowing users to not only search for apps but individual tasks within those apps.
Mail will be updated with features to search, schedule, revoke and follow up on emails, and Continuity will be updated to switch between apps like the iPhone camera, and users will be able to enhance lighting conditions using an iPhone’s studio lighting.
Live Captions will also be made available in FaceTime calls and users will be able to hand-off video calls between Apple devices.
IOS 16
Lock Screen
Apple iPhone users will be able to change their lock screens like never before, editing the way the clock looks and is presented, as well as adding widgets to get quick updates.
New features will include the ability to edit lock screens it by swiping, tapping, choosing different typefaces and colours for its clock.
Widgets that can be added include shortcuts to the user’s calendar, weather and activity ring.
The new software will also suggest photos that could be used for wallpapers, and provide others that Apple has made.
Notifications will also now roll in from bottom of lock screen with the new software, and live activities will be shown to help track sports, transport, workouts, and music.
Focus
Apple will also change its Focus feature to be easier to set up and control what interruptions users see.
To activate Focus on an iPhone, users can swipe to the corresponding Focus lock screen.
With Focus filters, apps like Calendar, Mail, Messages and Safari can display only the content relevant to a user’s Focus, helping them to find better life balance.
Messages
Apple developers have added three highly requested features: the ability to edit any message sent in the event of typos or sensitive content. Undo Send means you can recall a recent misfire.
Users can also mark any thread as Unread in case you don’t have time to respond and want to come back to it later.
Messages dictated to the iPhone will also come with punctuation automatically.
Craig Federighi, Apple’s software engineering senior vice-president, said the “edit” and “undo send” buttons were one of the “most requested features to Messages”.
Live Text and Visual Look Up
Live Text uses on-device intelligence to recognise text in images across iOS, and will now expand to include video.
Users will be able to pause a video on any frame and interact with text on the screen.
Live Text will also provide shortcuts to quickly converting currency or translating languages.
Visual Look Up takes photos further by introducing a new feature allowing users to tap and hold on the subject of an image to lift it from the background and place it in apps like Messages.
Visual Look Up also expands to recognise birds, insects and statues.
Wallet
Apple is developing driver’s licenses and other wallet IDs in the US with secure wallet to store your IDs discretely, e.g. proving that you are over 21 without revealing your exact age.
Apple Pay will also be expanded with Tap to Pay on iPhone so more merchants can accept iPhone payment.
The company will also introduce a new financial offering, Apple Pay Later, that will spread payments over six weeks with zero interest and no fees. Upcoming payments are managed through Apple Wallet.
After placing an order you can use the order tracking Apple Pay Order Tracking feature.
Maps
More detail will be added to cities in Australia within Apple’s Maps app and users will also be able to plan multi-stop routes in Macs and send them to an iPhone.
Transit card balances will be displayed to see how much money you have on your card.
Map Kit will be improved with Look Around to be used with real estate apps such as Zillow.
Sports
Hundreds of publishers will be sourced for My Sports to display sporting highlights, plays and scores from favourite teams in your newsfeed, integrated across all your Apple devices – and this feature will be available in US, UK, and Australia.
Privacy and Safety
Protecting users’ personal safety will be enhanced through a new tool called Safety Check.
Designed for people in danger or an abusive relationship, this tool will allow users to reset all their passwords at once, cutting off anyone who could previously access their accounts.
Safety Check will also sign users out of iCloud across all devices and manage to has access to data.
Home
Changes to Apple’s Home app will allow users to see who’s at the door through connected devices, turn on the lights remotely, and set alarms.
The redesigned app will let users see all smart home devices in single view, adding new categories for climate, lights and security, as well as a multi-camera view from four connected cameras.
The new My Home app is coming to iPhone, iPad and Mac.
WATCHOS 9
New software will deliver four new watchfaces to the Apple Watch, with richer complications that provide more information and opportunity for personalisation.
In the updated Workout app, advanced metrics, views, and training experiences will be introduced to enhance workouts, and sleep stages will now be recorded from the Watch.
A new Medications app will be introduced to help users discreetly manage and track medications.
The Workout app will also detect different legs of an athletic activity such as a triathlon race.
IPADOS 16
Some of the biggest enhancements to iPads will come to those using M1 chips.
Those newer devices will get access to Stage Manager to manage apps on their screen, for example.
New collaboration tools will be added to apps including “Files, Keynote, Numbers, Pages, Notes, Reminders, and Safari”.
The iPad will also receive a new app called Freeform, which is designed to allow multiple people to share one canvas and let them scribble on it, share documents, images or web links. The app will launch later this year.
Originally published as Apple WWDC 2022: New MacBook Air and updates to iPhone, Watch, iPad and Pay revealed
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