Apple WWDC 2022: My Highlights & Thoughts

Yesterday, Apple held its annual World Wide Developer Conference at its circular headquarters. Here are some highlights and my thoughts.

Yesterday, Apple held its annual World Wide Developer Conference at its circular headquarters. This year's event was a hybrid one, with most presentations pre-recorded. This year, Apple invited news reporters to be there in person to watch the keynote via large screens and see on-hand demonstrations.

It was a day packed with many updates, including a rare hardware announcement, all packed into about 90 minutes.

One thing you have to admire about Apple, they have mastered the pre-recorded, edited presentations. They have discovered creative ways to add a little humor here and there.

In some ways, I prefer this way of keynote versus the previous ones via a stage with awkward demonstrations.

iOS 16

The two highlights for iO16 are the update to iMessage, allowing users to now unsend messages and even edit sent messages.

The second highlight is changing the lock screen to be customizable, having widgets, and moving notifications from the top of the screen to the bottom. Previous to the WWDC, there was a rumor the new iPhone would have an always-on display.

It's tough to say that we will see something like that this year. But, it wouldn't surprise me if this update to the lock screen lays the groundwork to take advantage of an always-on display.

And it looks like 9to5Mac has already identified code that says as much.

Apple mentioned Quick Note coming to iOS. Makes me wonder if we are actually going to be able to one day use the Apple Pencil on an iOS device?

MacOS

The new update for macOS, named "Ventura," has a new organization/collaboration tool called Stage Manager.

It's a unique and creative solution that provides users a cleaner way to multitask and have many apps/windows open on a single screen.

I can see this as more helpful to those who use smaller screens versus us who are lucky enough to have large computer screen monitors to hook our MacBooks into.

New MacBook Air & 13in MacBook

Apple introduced the newest generations for the MacBook Air and the 13in MacBook. Both will be powered by Apples new M2 silicon chip. This MacBook Air is thinner and packs some amazing specs with a starting price of $1099. Check out The Verge's hands-on article and video here for more details.

Homekit

On the surface, this appeared to be a big update, but to be honest, I was not impressed with this announcement which concludes with two things:

• Integration with the new Smart Home Standard called Matter. Matter will release this Fall 2022.

• A redesign of the Home app.

Don't get me wrong, the Home app has needed some love for a while now. But as someone who has tried to use Homekit, the backend of my Smart Home setup, I am still worried this is not enough.

Right now, Apple provides those who pay for iCloud Storage the option to use iCloud to back up their camera recording with two caveats:

• It will only record in 1080p. So even if you have a camera rated as 2K or 4K, when you connect it to Homekit, Homekit will force you to only view and record in 1080p.

• Homekit ONLY records and stores based on activity. There is no option for continuous recording. If you live in an area where there is not a lot of activity, this might not be an issue. But I live in a city. There is a lot of activity. This is not as good as it seems.

iPadOS

Apple waited until the very end of their keynote to present iPadOS 16. One of the biggest consistent complaints with iPadOS has been its lack of genuine Pro features and existing Pro apps.

Even Federico Viticci, a long-time iPad evangelist, admitted he switched to a Macbook this past year, having grown tired of the lack of pro features in iPadOS.

And Apple provided a solution that wasn't exactly what everyone wanted, but it was a unique step forward. The same app Apple presented as a new feature in macOS is also coming to iPadOS: Stage Manager,

When a user turns on Stage Manager, it will finally allow iPad users to have many apps open on the same screen as overlapping and resizable windows.

Still, many were hoping to see a Final Cut Pro app for iPad. Or a Logic Pro app for iPad. Apple gave no hints.

Granted, Apple could once again be laying the groundwork for these pro apps when they announce the new generation of iPad hardware later this year or early next year.

The Collaboration features for iPadOS (and macOS) are interesting. But on the surface, they appear to rank Apple's own iWork apps over other apps such as WORD or Google Docs.

Another excellent update is seeing that those who want to connect their iPad to an external monitor will finally be able to use the full screen. Before, when connecting an iPad to a full monitor, it displayed only within the resolution and width of the iPad and didn't update to accommodate the external monitor.

We will have to wait and see. I appreciate the potential of iPadOS 16 and can't wait to try it out in Autumn when Apple release version 1.0. I've learned the hard way not to dive into any public betas since I don't have many iPads.

Those are the highlights to me of this year's WWDC. A lot more Apple discussed, and still much more to be revealed in the coming weeks as beta testers dive into the new operating systems.

But I'll wait my turn to try them out for myself. Will you?