Apple releases macOS Sonoma 14

Apple releases next major release of macOS – Sonoma.

macOS Sonoma brings all‑new capabilities that elevate your productivity and creativity. Discover even more ways to personalize your Mac with stunning screensavers and widgets that you can add to your desktop. Elevate your presence on video calls with a new way to present your work that keeps you a part of the presentation. Safari profiles and web apps help you organize your browsing in all-new ways. Game Mode boosts your gaming performance. Sonoma also brings big updates to Messages, Keyboard, and Accessibility. And when you upgrade, you get the latest security and privacy protections available for Mac.

Screen Savers

  • Stunning screen savers of locations from around the world seamlessly become your desktop wallpaper when you log-in
  • Shuffle settings for rotating through screensavers by theme including Landscape, Cityscape, Underwater, and Earth

Widgets

  • Widgets can be placed anywhere on the desktop and adapt to the color of your wallpaper while working in apps
  • iPhone widgets can be added to your Mac when your iPhone is nearby or on the same Wi-Fi network
  • Interactive widgets let you take actions directly from the widget such as running a shortcut, pausing media, and more

Video Conferencing

  • Presenter Overlay keeps you front and center while sharing your screen in FaceTime or third-party video conferencing apps (Mac with Apple silicon)
  • Reactions layer 3D effects like hearts, balloons, confetti, and more around you in video calls and can be triggered with gestures (Mac with Apple silicon, Continuity Camera with iPhone 12 and later)

Safari and Passwords

  • Profiles keep your browsing separate for topics like work and personal, separating your history, cookies, extensions, Tab Groups, and favorites
  • Web apps let you use any website like an app, complete with an icon in the Dock for faster access and a simplified toolbar for easier browsing
  • Enhanced Private Browsing locks your private browsing windows when you're not using them, blocks known trackers from loading, and removes tracking that identifies you from URLs
  • Password and passkey sharing allows you to easily share accounts with trusted contacts

Messages

  • Live Stickers sync from iOS and iPadOS to macOS, giving you access to the Live Stickers you create on your iPhone and iPad
  • Search filters for people, keywords, and content types like photos or links help you more easily find what you are looking for
  • Swipe to reply inline on any iMessage bubble

Gaming

Game Mode gives games the highest priority on the CPU and GPU, delivering more consistent frame rates and lower latency to wireless controllers and AirPods (Mac with Apple silicon)

Keyboard

  • Improved autocorrect accuracy makes typing even easier by leveraging a more powerful transformer-based language model
  • Inline predictive text shows single- and multi-word predictions that you can add by pressing the Space bar
  • Improved Dictation experience supports using your voice and keyboard together to enter and edit text

AirPods

  • Adaptive Audio delivers a new listening mode that dynamically blends Active Noise Cancellation and Transparency to tailor the noise control experience based on the conditions of your environment (AirPods Pro (2nd generation) with the latest firmware)
  • Personalized Volume adjusts the volume of your media in response to your environment and listening preferences over time (AirPods Pro (2nd generation) with the latest firmware)
  • Conversation Awareness lowers your media volume and enhances the voices of the people in front of the user, all while reducing background noise (AirPods Pro (2nd generation) with the latest firmware)
  • Press to mute and unmute your microphone by pressing the AirPods stem or the Digital Crown on AirPods Max when on a call (AirPods (3rd generation), AirPods Pro (1st and 2nd generation), or AirPods Max with the latest firmware)
  • Improved AirPods automatic switching now detects Mac up to 2X faster (AirPods (2nd and 3rd generation), AirPods Pro (1st and 2nd generation), AirPods Max with the latest firmware)

Privacy

  • Sensitive Content Warnings can be enabled to help prevent users from unexpectedly viewing sensitive images in Messages
  • Expanded Communication Safety protections for children now detect videos containing nudity in addition to photos shared through Messages and the system Photos picker
  • Improved sharing permissions let you choose which photos to share and add calendar events without providing access to your entire photo library or calendar

Accessibility

  • Live Speech lets you type what you want to say and reads it aloud in FaceTime calls or in-person conversations
  • Personal Voice helps users at risk of speech loss create a voice that sounds like them in a private and secure way using on-device machine learning
  • Made for iPhone compatible hearing devices can be paired and used with Mac (MacBook Pro (2021), Mac Studio (2022), and Mac computers with M2 chip)

This release also includes other features and improvements:

  • One-Time verification code AutoFill from Mail helps you quickly sign into sites in Safari, without leaving the browser
  • Inline PDFs and document scans in Notes are presented full-width making them easy to view
  • Grocery Lists in Reminders automatically group related items into sections as you add them
  • Visual Look Up for recipes helps you find similar dishes from photo
  • Visual Look Up in video helps you learn about objects that appear in paused video frames
  • Pets in the People album in Photos surfaces individual pets just like friends or family members
  • Option to say "Siri" in addition to "Hey Siri" for a more natural way to activate Siri (Mac with Apple silicon, AirPods Pro (2nd generation))
  • High performance mode in Screen Sharing supports color workflows and improves responsiveness while remotely accessing a Mac (Mac with Apple silicon)
  • Item sharing in Find My allows you to share an AirTag with up to five other people
  • Activity History in Home displays a recent history of events for door locks, garage doors, security systems, and contact sensors
  • Battery health management updated on 13-inch MacBook Air with M2 chip to better optimize long term battery health

Some features may not be available for all regions or on all Apple devices.

macOS Sonoma also includes several important security fixes.

Apple Newsroom: macOS Sonoma is available today

Release notes: macOS Sonoma 14 Release Notes

References:

Weekend good reads for Apple developers #2023/38

iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Pro are arriving to first customers. Hopefully, you've got the model you wanted and now you have some time to go through interesting reads.

And this is it for today. Have some fun over the weekend (especially if you got your new iPhone) and get back next Friday for another pack of great reads!

Weekend good reads for Apple developers #2023/37

Well, Wonderlust event brought us new iPhones and Apple Watches. We've made our first pre-orders and now we could enjoy the weekend with some great articles to read.

And that is it for this weekend. Come back next week for more great articles!

Weekend good reads for Apple developers #2023/36

Next week we'll see how new iPhone is better than previous one, so, we have weekend to read about development topics.

And that is it for today. See you after the event (and, after our next podcast episode).

Weekend good reads for Apple developers #2023/33

Great weekend for another big pack of great articles to go through.

And one video on SwiftData:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y3LofRLPUM8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y3LofRLPUM8

That's a lot. Weekend will be packed.

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.

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:

Apple starts WWDC23 with huge announcements

Apple started its annual developer conference with Keynote and Platform State of the Union. First day of WWDC is packed with announcements.

Mac hardware

Apple unveils MacBook Air 15" with M2, and M2 Ultra powered Mac Studio and Mac Pro. The new ‌MacBook Air‌ starts at $1,299. Prices for the second generation Mac Studio start at $1,999. Mac Pro starts at $6999.

MacBook Air 13" with M2 chip is now starting at $999.

iOS / iPadOS 17

iOS 17 gets new features focusing on communications and sharing. Contacts app is revamped with emphasis on photos and typography. Standby view is added for iPhone.

iPadOS has more customization for Lock Screen. Widgets now could be interacted with.

Also, AirDrop now has new experience when users hold their phones close to each other.

macOS 14 Sonoma

macOS 14 Sonoma now has "Game Mode" which improves performance for games, minimizes delays. macOS also gets interactive widgets that could be placed everywhere.

Safari gets a lot of privacy and security improvements. Improved support for web apps is announced.

watchOS 10

watchOS 10 brings support for widgets. New design language is introduced.

tvOS 17

tvOS 17 gets support for Continuity Camera hinting on new tvOS-powered devices with camera hardware.

Vision Pro and visionOS

Apple unveils Vision Pro mixed reality headset. Price is starting with $3,499, US sales are expected to start early next year. Other countries to follow later.

Device has 12 cameras, 6 microphone and many other sensors. Also, device has external display that could show user’s eyes (feature is called EyeSight). During FaceTime calls device will show face by using trained ML model and device cameras.

Vision Pro will be able to run iOS and iPadOS apps in windowed mode. Also, headset supports direct 3D experiences built using RealityKit, ARKit. Unity is also supported as development framework.

Windowed apps could be powered by SwiftUI which is updated to better support depth.

Apple to host labs in multiple cities for developers to try their apps on real device before public launch. Simulator is available as a part of development tools.

visionOS SDK is to be available later this month.

Agreements update

The App Store Review Guidelines, the Apple Developer Program License Agreement, and the Apple Developer Agreement have been updated to support updated policies and upcoming features, and to provide clarification. Please review the changes below and accept the updated terms as needed.

App Store Review Guidelines
  • Added to 2.5.18: “Apps that contain ads must also include the ability for users to report any inappropriate or age-inappropriate ads.”
  • Revised bullet point 11 of 3.1.2(a): “Cellular carrier apps may include auto-renewing music and video subscriptions when purchased in bundles with new cellular data plans, with prior approval by Apple. Other auto-renewing subscriptions may also be included in bundles when purchased with new cellular data plans, with prior approval by Apple, if the cellular carrier apps support in-app purchase for users. Such subscriptions cannot include access to or discounts on consumable items, and the subscriptions must terminate coincident with the cellular data plan.”
  • Added to 4.1: “Submitting apps which impersonate other apps or services is considered a violation of the Developer Code of Conduct and may result in removal from the Apple Developer Program.”
  • Revised 4.4: “Apps hosting or containing extensions must comply with the App Extension Programming Guide, the Safari App Extensions Guide, or the Safari Web Extensions documentation and should include some functionality, such as help screens and settings interfaces where possible.”
  • Revised 4.4.2: “Safari extensions must run on the current version of Safari on the relevant Apple operating system.”
Developer Program License Agreement
  • Purpose; Definitions; Sections 2.6, 3.2, 3.3.4, 3.3.38, 3.3.63, 5.1, 6.3, 6.6, 7, 7.3, 7.5, 7.6, 14.2; Attachment 7: Specified requirements and functionality for apps on visionOS.
  • Definitions: Updated requirements for Corresponding Products.
  • Definitions; Section 3.1: Specified requirements for universities and their Authorized Student Developers.
  • Definitions; Section 3.3.62: Specified requirements for use of the Tap to Present ID API.
  • Definitions; Sections 3.3.40, 3.3.64, 5.1, 10; Attachment 10: Specified requirements for use of mobile device management (MDM).
  • Definitions; Section 3.3.65: Specified requirements for use of the iWork Document Exporting API.
  • Definitions; Section 3.3.67: Specified requirements for use of the Sensitive Content Analysis Framework.
  • Definitions; Attachment 3: Updated requirements for development of Passes.
  • Section 3.3.9: Added requirements for use of third-party SDKs and certain APIs, clarified restrictions on use of data derived from a device.
  • Section 3.3.42: Added requirements for use of certain Apple Pay APIs.
  • Section 3.3.63: Specified requirements for providing a partially immersive experience in an app.
  • Section 3.3.66: Specified requirements for the use of the Shallow Depth and Pressure feature.
  • Section 6.7: Added information on App Analytics.
  • Attachment 2: Clarified requirements for use of the In-App Purchase API.
Apple Developer Agreement
  • Sections 4, 6: Updated requirements for access to and use of pre-release materials.

Beta download: Operating Systems

Apple Developer:

Apple Newsroom:

References:

Weekend good reads for Apple developers #2023/15

One week closer to WWDC (we're even considering taking a break for good reads on WWDC week). But we still have more than a month for weekends filled with great articles.

And finishing with great book available for free – Make Something Wonderful – Steve Jobs in his own words (also available in Apple Books). Book provides new perspective to Steve Jobs and is very inspirational.

See you next week!

Weekend good reads for Apple developers #2023/13

Lucky episode of good reads today! And we've got a lot to cover on last day of March.

We're finishing with video by David Smith on design.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jqb-lINegqc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jqb-lINegqc

With this – have a great weekend and see you in April!