Wonderlust event recap – new iPhones, Apple Watches

Apple hosted its Wonderlust special event. As expected, Apple unveiled new iPhones and Apple Watch models.

Apple Watch Series 9

New Apple Watch Series 9 gets new S9 system-on-chip with updated CPU and GPU. New screen now has brightness up to 1,000 nits. And lowest brightness is now 1 nit. S9 allows on-device Siri recognition for many use cases.

New "double tap" hand gesture (similar to previously implemented accessibility features) allows one hand responses and actions to be performed on Apple Watch.

New UWB chip will improve Apple Watch spatial awareness, allowing, for example, precise iPhone lookup with directions and distance display.

Apple Watch Ultra 2

Ultra 2 gets same S9 system-on-chip, screen is improved to have 3,000 nits maximum brightness.

iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Plus

iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Plus are powered by A16 chip introduced in iPhone 14 Pro models.

iPhone 15 models now gain Dynamic Island. Charging port is now changed to USB-C with USB 2.0 data transfer speeds.

Also, iPhone 15 main camera is now similar to iPhone 14 Pro with 48MP resolution.

iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max

iPhone 15 Pro is running on A17 PRO chip. iPhone 15 Pro has titanium frame to reduce weight. Mute switch is replaced by Action button. iPhone 15 Pro Max has 5x camera with pentaprism design. USCB-C connector in iPhone 15 Pro supports USB 3.0.

Also iPhone 15 Pro could record spatial videos that will provide depth when viewing in Apple Vision Pro.

iPhone 15 Pro Max now has base model with 256GB of storage.

iCloud Storage Tiers

Apple introduces new iCloud storage tiers – 6TB and 12TB available for purchase later priced $30 and $60 respectively.

FineWoven

Apple now replaces leather accessories with new FineWoven material. This includes Apple Watch bands as well as iPhone cases.

OS Updates

Release Candidates are now available for iOS/iPadOS 17, macOS 14 Sonoma, watchOS 10 and tvOS 17. As well as iOS and iPadOS 16.7. Xcode 15 is also available as Release Candidate.

iOS/iPadOS 17, watchOS 10 and tvOS 17 are to be released on September 18. macOS 14 Sonoma will be released on September 26.

You could watch event replay on YouTube.

Apple Newsroom:

Release notes:

References:

Weekend good reads for Apple developers #2023/27

While we wait for next beta of visionOS SDK there are still a lot of interesting topics to get familiar with.

And that a wrap for this week. Come back next Friday for another big pack of interesting reads.

Apple raises iCloud+ prices in several countries

Apple raised prices for various iCloud+ subscription tiers in several countries including UK.

‌iCloud‌+ SubscriptionPrevious UK PriceNew UK Price
50GB£0.79/month£0.99/month
200GB£2.49/month£2.99/month
2TB£6.99/month£8.99/month
MacRumors

Price increases are also reported in Poland, Romania, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Sweden, Tanzania, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates.

Notably, Apple One subscription prices remain unchanged in these countries.

References:

WWDC23 highlights

WWDC23 week is over, all announcements are already made, Apple and developers are going through highlights of the conference.

Apple lists important sessions on spatial computing, developer tools, Swift, UI frameworks, design, graphics and games, ML, privacy and security, and other topics.

Apple also asks developers to take part in survey that could shape the future of conference.

macOS 14 Sonoma

Developers highlight FaceTime reactions, presenter mode for screen sharing and various of other features.

Widgets availability for macOS should help bringing more apps to Mac from iPhone and iPad.

Another area of interest is support for web apps.

tvOS 17

Apple TV is to support VPN apps with tvOS 17. This will put tvOS on par with other Apple platforms.

Also, tvOS will improve sound for dialogs to make voice more audible. This feature requires second generation HomePod (original HomePod and HomePod mini are not supported) and Apple TV 4K.

iOS/iPadOS 17

DockKit SDK and Standby mode bring interesting capabilities for apps and also could hint on more standalone home devices.

Autocorrect in standard keyboard is expected to become much better with iOS 17.

iCloud

iCloud Drive now could be switched off and third-party apps will still be able to sync via iCloud.

Vision Pro

Analysts expect that more affordable version of Vision Pro will be released in 2025.

M2 Ultra

Benchmarks for M2 Ultra show significant improvements over M1 Ultra chips. New chip is 20% faster than previous generation.

Apple Developer:

References:

Weekend good reads for Apple developers #2023/19

Sun is back here in Bay Area, weekend is probably going to be quite hot. And we've a lot to read – even couple of not-so-technical articles. Let's dive in.

Hope you have time to read these great articles and we'll meet again next Friday!

Another CloudKit support library

Just recently we announced Canopy, and now there is another library to sync data over CloudKit.

CloudSyncSession is a Swift library that builds on top of the CloudKit framework to make it easier to write sync-enabled, offline-capable apps.

CloudKitSession

In case of CloudSyncSession data is not persisted locally by the library. Overall, design principles are described in documentation:

  1. Persistence-free. Data is not persisted to disk.
  2. Testable. Code is structured in a way to maximize how much behavior can be tested.
  3. Modular. To the extent that it makes sense, different behaviors are handled separately by different components.
  4. Event-based. State is predictable, as it is updated based on the series of events that have previously occurred.
  5. Resilient. Recoverable errors are gracefully handled using retries and backoffs. Non-recoverable errors halt further execution until the app signals that work should be resumed.
  6. Inspectable. The current state of the session can be evaluated for troubleshooting and diagnostics.
  7. Focused. This project aims to solve a particular use case and do it well.

GitHub: CloudSyncSession

Reference: CloudSyncSession

Tact CloudKit code is released as open-source library Canopy

Tact developers released library to work with CloudKit as open source – Canopy.

Canopy helps you write better, more testable CloudKit apps. It isolates the CloudKit dependency so you can write fast and reliable tests for your CloudKit-related features, and implements standard CloudKit-related behaviors.

GitHub: Canopy (documentation)

Reference: CloudKit code from Tact is now available as Canopy open-source library

iCloud and other services to stop working on older OS releases

Apple plans to shut down iCloud and other Apple services for older OS releases according to @StellaFudge.

https://twitter.com/StellaFudge/status/1643410897635799042
https://twitter.com/StellaFudge/status/1643410897635799042

iOS 11 – 11.2.6, macOS 10.13 – 10.13.3, watchOS 4 – 4.2.3 and tvOS 11 – 11.2.6 are expected to loose access to iCloud services later this year. No formal confirmation from Apple is yet issued though.

References:

Weekend good reads for Apple developers #2023/4

Weekend is coming with several great reads this time. Let's dive in!

This is a lot for a weekend, so choose wisely. :)

Apple releases iOS and iPadOS 16.3, watchOS 9.3 and macOS Ventura 13.2

Apple publishes updates to some of its operating systems. iOS, iPadOS, watchOS and macOS 13.2 get updates. tvOS and HomePod software are not yet updated. Also, no new Xcode is released.

This update also brings iCloud Advanced Data Protection to all users worldwide.

iOS 16.3

This update includes the following enhancements and bug fixes:

  • New Unity wallpaper honors Black history and culture in celebration of Black History Month
  • Security Keys for Apple ID allow users to strengthen the security of their account by requiring a physical security key as part of the two factor authentication sign in process on new devices
  • Support for HomePod (2nd generation)
  • Emergency SOS calls now require holding the side button with the up or down volume button and then releasing in order to prevent inadvertent emergency calls
  • Fixes an issue in Freeform where some drawing strokes created with Apple Pencil or your finger may not appear on shared boards
  • Addresses an issue where the wallpaper may appear black on the Lock Screen
  • Fixes an issue where horizontal lines may temporarily appear while waking up iPhone 14 Pro Max
  • Fixes an issue where the Home Lock Screen widget does not accurately display Home app status
  • Addresses an issue where Siri may not respond properly to music requests
  • Resolves issues where Siri requests in CarPlay may not be understood correctly

Some features may not be available for all regions or on all Apple devices. For information on the security content of Apple software updates, please visit this website: https://support.apple.com/kb/HT201222

iPadOS 16.3

This update includes the following enhancements and bug fixes:

  • Security Keys for Apple ID allow users to strengthen the security of their account by requiring a physical security key as part of the two factor authentication sign in process on new devices
  • Support for HomePod (2nd generation)
  • Fixes an issue in Freeform where some drawing strokes created with Apple Pencil or your finger may not appear on shared boards
  • Addresses an issue where Siri may not respond properly to music requests

Some features may not be available for all regions or on all Apple devices. For information on the security content of Apple software updates, please visit this website: https://support.apple.com/kb/HT201222

watchOS 9.3

watchOS 9.3 includes new features, improvements and bug fixes, including new Unity Mosaic watch face to honor Black history and culture in celebration of Black History Month.

For information on the security content of Apple software updates, please visit this website: https://support.apple.com/kb/HT201222

macOS Ventura 13.2

This update introduces Security Keys for Apple ID, and includes other enhancements and bug fixes for your Mac.

  • Security Keys for Apple ID allow users to strengthen the security of their account by requiring a physical security key to sign in
  • Fixes an issue in Freeform where some drawing strokes created with Apple Pencil or your finger may not appear on shared boards
  • Fixes an issue where VoiceOver may stop offering audio feedback while you are typing

Some features may not be available for all regions, or on all Apple devices. For detailed information about the security content of this update, please visit: https://support.apple.com/kb/HT201222

Updates to previous platforms

Apple also updates OS releases for devices which could be be updated to latest software. These updates were releases with security fixes:

  • iOS 12.5.7
  • iOS 15.7.3
  • iPadOS 15.7.3
  • macOS Big Sur 11.7.3
  • macOS Monterey 12.6.3

References: