First, Craig Federighi does a slow motion run at WWDC 2022 and now John Ternus winks at me. Why are the Apple execs trying to rizz me up as the kids say? Also, props to the production team for putting that drone and travel budget to good use this year.

Impressions:

iPad Air

• 11 and 13 inch model
• Cameras on the long edge - finally!
• M2, Wifi 6E, Double the bass on the larger model
• Apple pencil hover
• A keynote so short John Ternus had to record his speaking scenes on his regular BART commute
• Starts at 128gb and goes up to 1TB
• 11in - $599, 13in - $799

iPad Pro

• The ad of an entire recording studio being hydraulically pressed into an iPad is pretty creative
• 11 in at 5.3mm thin, 13 in at 5.1mm thin
• Thinnest apple product ever (even thinner than iPod Nano! Thinnest Apple product ever)
• The ghost of Jony Ive has had its last laugh with these wafer thin iPads
• Ultra Retina XDR - two layers of OLED to create a Tandem display panel to jack the brightness up to 1600 HDR brightness
• Nano-texture glass option
• M4 chip - 2nd gen 3nm architecture, new display engine, 4 performance/6 efficiency cores, 10 core GPU, Neural Engine with 38 trillion ops/sec, improved efficiency, 20% better thermal performance
• AI mentioned! (Probably gonna want to get used to Apple saying AI for the next few years)
• Camera on the long edge, and back camera is quietly reduced to just 1, probably a good trade off
• I was curious how Apple was going to differentiate the Pros now that the Airs have eaten up a lot of the features of the old pros and I think they largely did the work on the hardware side. Now it remains to be seen if they can finish the job with the software story at WWDC
• Starts at 256gb and goes to 2 TB
• 11in - $999, 13in - $1299

Final Cut Pro 2

• Live multicam - Enables streaming in 4 cameras at once and control multiple iPhone/iPad cameras, enabled by a new Final Cut Camera app
• External project support so you can edit directly off a drive and 4x more streams (Note that some of these features seem to be M4 iPad Pro exclusive)
• A keynote so short, Will Hui recorded his speaking lines between sets at the climbing gym and had to wear the same outfit to the recording studio scenes

Logic Pro 2

• Session Players - AI based base and keyboard players
• More effects to simulate analog hardware
• Stem Splitter - isolates parts like voice and drums in a song
• “Mr President, a second AI mention has hit the keynote”

Magic Keyboard

• Retained floating design
• Function row - As Craig says: “We truly live in an age of wonders”
• Haptic trackpad
• Aluminum base
• $299 and $349 for the different sizes - Apple wants you to know that Aluminum aint free so you get to pay $50 more for the bigger one

Apple Pencil Pro

• Squeeze function with haptic feedback to bring up menus
• Can rotate the pencil to change brush orientation
• Haptic feedback used to also add tactile feeling to snapping and other functions
• $129

iPad

• Price drop to $349
• I wonder if this means Apple can finally drop the old home button iPad and the first gen Apple Pencil - Edit: Seems like they’ve dropped the old iPad but kept the 1st gen Apple pencil given that it is something that existing users might still buy

Wow a brisk 38 minutes. I like that they’re not afraid to have the attitude of “we only got 38 min of content so thats how long its gonna run. Some of the older in person keynotes could really start to drag. You can feel Apple holding back on acknowledging Ai too much here to save it for WWDC.

Tim Cook’s intro went so hard I thought he was going to break into dance. The CGI and set budget for this show must rival some movies

Impressions:

M3, M3 Pro, M3 Max

• 3nm
• Performance cores - 30% faster than M1 - 15% faster than M2
• Efficiency cores - 50% faster than M1 - 20% faster than M2
• M3 - 8 core CPU - 10 core GPU
• M3 Pro - 12 core CPU - 18 core GPU
• M3 Max - 16 core CPU - 40 core CPU
• Big next gen GPU upgrade
• Dynamic caching which increased memory utilization efficiency in GPU
• Hardware accelerated mesh shading and ray tracing
• 2.5x faster rendering performance over M1

MacBook Pro

• Space Black is back! (on M3 Pro and M3 Max models)
• Newer design now comes with M3 base model now as well - I wonder if this is meant to replace the previous base model with touchbar (Update - yes it is, touchbar 13in Pro now gone)
• M1 Max goes up to 128gb memory now
• Apple making a big pitch to get the remaining Intel Mac users to upgrade for 11x performance and 11 additional hours of battery
• SDR content at 600 nits (20% improvement)
• $1599 - likely to accommodate the new lower CPU tier.

24in iMac

• Update to M3 …that’s all.
• They announced this one in practically a single run on sentence. I don’t think they spent more than 5 minutes on this update and that was with rehashing the existing features

MacBook Air

• Hang on, wait, the show’s over? I had the section header typed up for this already!

This meeting truly could have been an email. This was the shortest Apple event in recent memory. I never thought I’d miss the segments where they pull out some 3rd party devs to talk about how impressed they are. They could have just posted this whole show on TikTok so we could all watch it at our leisure during commute.

It’s been a minute since we saw something of a big wildcard strategy play from Apple but it’s become clear that the folks at Apple have renewed their efforts to court gamers to the ecosystem.

Big indicator here was the WWDC announcement of MacOS Gaming emulation that temporarily blew up the tech internet with videos of games like Cyberpunk 2077 running on Mac, a previously unthinkable proposition. And not just running, but running well. However, given Apple’s previous endeavors, it was easy to write this off as a one time thing; a side effect of the capabilities unlocked by the M series era of chips. Recall the M1 was demoed with Tomb Raider; a respectable but undemanding game that proved a point nonetheless that an Apple laptop was capable of gaming at a higher level than had previously been taken for granted by the public.

(I wouldn’t be surprised at all if gaming receives a big chunk of the attention at this weeks Scary Fast special event)

And then in September when Apple announced in no uncertain terms that they want iOS to be the best console in the world with a slate of AAA titles like Assassin’s Creed and Resident Evil all playing at full console quality with Console textures on the A17 Pro chip of the iPhone 15 Pro.

iOS is Apple’s biggest platform by far, and one of the most influential platforms in the world. It is also by some measures the largest gaming platform in the world. But it has also been derided by gaming culture as too casual, microtransaction centered, and generally not being legitimate. I am inclined to agree somewhat. Recall the collaboration with Nintendo to bring popular IP to the platform in the form of Super Mario Run and other related titles that failed to generate any large-scale commercial momentum?

I am doubtful that Ubisoft expects Assassins Creed to do the kind of numbers on iOS that they get on PC and console. So why are they getting into the iOS game?

Sure, the software stack is now unified so an iOS port can also be sold on Macs which are finally strong enough to handle games. External display and controller support has finally gotten good. And the ecosystem as a whole has reached a level which can support gaming development. Additionally, Macs are growing ever popular. I would also be surprised if Apple wasn’t doing quite a bit of dealmaking in the background to make this shift happen as well.

But there is something else too…

Vision Pro is the wildcard here. We saw during WWDC users casually sitting back while playing video games over controllers on a massive floating window. If the headset catches on in a big way, it could be the TV of choice for the next generation of users. This would be very bad news for the console industry which relies on the prevalence of TV. This is certainly not a for sure deal. But in many ways, spatial reality displays could shape up to be a 1:1 replacement for home television. It could also be the next computer of choice for people. This is a powerful motivator. Ubisoft and others know that the core fundamentals of their product delivery is at risk. You go where the customers are. and pushing console games onto iOS is a good way to be ready to capture the momentum of the coming boom.

Posting this a week late:

Apple video team getting bold about getting Tim Cook wrapped up in their shenanigans.

Impressions:

Apple Watch Series 9

• S9 chip, 5.6 billion transistors (60% more), 30% faster GPU
• Neural Engine for on device Siri for faster responses even without internet
• 2000 nit display (2x vs last gen), display goes as dark as 1 nit
• Gen 2 ultra wideband chip for precision finding for iPhones
• Double Tap feature - Looks like the accessibility feature got promoted to full fledged interaction type. Looks pretty neat
• new pink aluminum colorway

Visit from Mother Nature

• Tim Cook’s return to acting after the iPad Pro ad
• More companies should do their sustainability reports in short segments with Octavia Spencer as Mother Nature
• Carbon neutral by 2030
• Apple Watch entirely carbon neutral - Recycled aluminum, gold, tin, copper, tungsten, cobalt yarn
• All Watch manufacturing is powered by 100% renewable energy
• Apple will match 100% of expected electricity use of Apple Watch
• No more leather in Apple products, replaced by FineWoven which is “suede-like” - This makes sense in hindsight to help achieve carbon neutrality
• Apple is going really hard on sustainability message this year
• The median annual income of the actors in that ad is probably north of 5 million a year

Apple Watch Ultra 2

• All the features from the S9
• 3000 nit display
• Various software improvements
• 95% recycled titanium

iPhone 15

• Dynamic Island takeover of the entire lineup is complete
• Peak brightness 2000 nits (Peak HDR brightness now 1600 nits)
• Slightly contoured edges - looks nice
• The glass on the back is now also color infused - Imagine being a member of the design team trying to explain this subtle difference to their parents
• 48 MP main camera - pixel binning every 4 pixels into one pixel to produce a 24 MP photo
• Sensor cropping to achieve 2x optical zoom - this is similar to what Google Pixel does too. It’s a nifty trick
• Bigger battery - neat!
• Satellite for Roadside Assistance - Neat, seems like this still trickle down to almost every feature eventually. I think recent Huawei phones can send chat messages with this same technique so iPhone will probably get this soon too
• 75% recycled aluminum, 100% recycled cobalt and copper
• Solid update for people on old phones. Really adds a lot of the pro features people wanted $799 regular, $899 for plus

A16 Bionic

• 16 core neural engine
• 5 core GPU (50% more memory bandwidth)
• 6 cores(2 high performance, 4 efficiency)
• Gen 2 Ultra Wideband friend finding. This is the real announcement today. Crazy quality of life upgrade for friend groups

USB-C

• !!! It’s happening !!! We did it Reddit, we bullied Apple into complying !!! The EU maybe helped idk it was us all the armchair experts on Reddit commenting that did it
• AirPods Pro minor refresh with USB-C, dust resistance, and a mysterious new wireless protocol for low latency lossless between AirPods and Vision Pro
• Now what will people on this subreddit complain about?
• Watch the general public backlash on this be so huge cause “they’re changing the charger again!!!”

iPhone 15 Pro

• Titanium casing - lightest Pros yet
• Smaller border, same screen size
• “Same alloy used on the mars rover” - Ok this will be so useful for when I accidentally find myself on Mars after a drunken night out
• “Using aluminum on the inside creates synergistic properties with the titanium enclosure” - my mind just touched the void
• More repairable structural frame allows back glass replacement - neat!

Action Button

• Replaces the slider
• Press and hold with haptic feedback - hopefully no accidental activation risk
• Activate quick actions like camera, voice recorder, and shortcuts
• Strange feeling now that we have essentially looped back around to having shutter buttons on phones

A17 Pro

• This is the first time, I think, we have seen a clear differentiation in iPhone chips like this with a Pro designation
• 3nm, 10% faster performance cores
• Neural Engine 2x as fast for 35 trillion operations per second
• ProRes Codec, AV1 decoder
• USB 3 - 10 gigabits per second
• 20% faster GPU - Hardware accelerated Ray Tracing

Console Gaming Coming to Mobile

• The Division Resurgence, Resident Evil Village & 4, Assassin’s Creed Mirage
• I think Apple by doing this also makes these games compatible with MacOS. Are they leveraging iPhones market power for an ecosystem assist in Mac gaming? Interesting to think about
• Every year I think I only need the regular phone, then engineering pulls out some neat tricks that gets me to spring for the Pro models

Pro Camera

• 48 MP camera for ProRAW and HEIF (24 MP default photo)
• 12 MP ultrawide with some minor improvements
• Similar pixel math to simulate different 7 different optical zooms - Macro, 13 MM, 24 MM, 28 MM, 35 MM, 48 MM, 120 MM
• Support for direct capture tools like Capture One
• Pro Max exclusive 5x optical Zoom - 25% larger sensor - “tetra prism” to create a longer focal length (Regular Pro has 3x Telephoto no prism)
• Using ultrawide and main camera together to capture spatial content for Vision Pro - Concerns about people using their Vision Pro to take video are anticlimactically resolved now

Overall, a short event but pretty solid upgrades all around. I am mostly excited for this console gaming on phone thing. Seems like an interesting strategy.

I had some additional thoughts that didn’t quite figure into the impressions model of the previous post. I finally got the chance to rewatch it and there are some tidbits and omissions that I think were very interesting. Sometimes it really is just about what they DON’T tell you. Apple is mysterious like that sometimes…

• Rewatching the video, it is suggested that the Vision Pro LightSeal is swappable for different sizes (Link). I wonder how this will work. Of course this being the low yield product it is, the obvious answer is that the Headset may strongly suggest a fitting at an Apple Store.
• The headband looks like it will simply be the most comfortable one ever shipped on a stock headset device. Also appearing to come in different sizes or even different variations (Link). Perhaps we will see other first party designs or a third party market will spring up to accommodate different tastes.
• Interestingly, there is no overhead strap. It makes sense given the lightness but also to save you from the dreaded reverse mohawk that one often gets from wearing their Quest.
• Digital Crown has quietly become one of Apple’s great tactile control interfaces in the vein of the click wheel and mute switch. Its inclusion is always a pleasure and I see signs it is now being adopted in software as well. The new Final Cut for iPad has a half circle software click wheel that pops out to assist with fine tune adjustments.
• No specs provided regarding storage size but given that the price is described as ‘starting’ at $3499, I think its safe to say that there will be higher storage configurations.
• No field of view (FOV) info either. Although I cant imagine it being bad. If Apple wants us to use this to watch big screen movies or work for hours with our laptop screens, they simply cannot constrain the peripheral vision or it will be worse than just working in real life.
• There is no mention of a carrying case or any accessory for that matter. Accessories are alluded to, different straps, different face pads, but none in sight. Even in product shots, the Vision Pro rests on the table open to the elements. I wonder if this is so Apple can focus the energy and attention around pitching the platform
• External battery is a unique choice, the connector on the Headset side looks similar to the iMac cable but seems new. I wonder if the cable is detachable on the battery side. On initial inspection I would expect not.
• When I first heard the rumors that the battery was going to be a separate unit, I thought that it was the least Apple-like thing I have ever heard. However, after using the Magic Leap at CES which also takes the approach of trying to move as much weight off the head as possible, I am fully on board. The difference in head comfort is night and day.
• Notably, one thing Apple did not omit was the price. I had a thought that since this was clearly nowhere near production and with the focus being firmly on the platform, Apple may want to be more mysterious with the price to let hype build a bit. After all, that is what Apple did with the Apple Watch teasing the price announcement out for months.
• A release of early next year is quite interesting as rumor was that Apple was hoping to get this in before the holidays. It seems the reality of scaling production on what is likely to be the most complex piece of hardware Apple has ever shipped means that this will likely hit in Q1 of next year instead.

One final thought which may be controversial. I had this thought during the event that there is a philosophical difference between Apple and the rest of the industry. Today, Apple brought a computing platform to a console fight. In comparison, everything we have seen before has been essentially designed and geared to gamers who plug their headset into powerful rigs in their den and immerse themselves. The Vision Pro is a stab at what the future of general computing might look like. To become a real platform, this industry needs to push past gaming into the fields of productivity and communications. My money is on Apple for being the one to convince us.

I skipped the last hour of the event. What did I miss?

They used a shimmery effect for the transitions that is super cool. More subtle but no less impressive compared to the drone heavy shots of previous events. Apple events have always the best production value and this event marks a new high point in quality.

Impressions:

MacBook Air 15 inch

• Same I/O and design as the 13
• $1299 (1199 Education
• 13 inch M2 Air now $100 cheaper at $1099
• Funny to think any other event, a 15 inch MacBook Air would carry the show but this year it feels like something they are trying to get out of the way

Mac Studio

• M2 Max refresh
• I understand wanting to put the new chip in the best light but still comparing the system with Intel based systems is like comparing a Ferrari with a tricycle

M2 Ultra Chip

• It’s 2 M2 Max glued together
• I like how Intel is struggling to scale their designs while Apple Chip team is just like “haha double it”
• Supports 6 Pro Display XDRs
• For who? Who needs 6 Pro Display XDR? Forget the headset, the most expensive thing Apple announced today is the theoretical 6 Pro Display XDR set up.

Mac Pro

• Only comes in M2 Ultra config
• With the launch of Mac Pro with M2 Max, /r/apple can finally consolidate around just getting mad about Siri, yet another 50% performance improvement as a result of M2 Ultra! Apple Chip Team truly unmatched
• $6999

iOS 17

• Personalized contact posters - I know it’s most likely you have to accept changes like how contact photos work but imagine if you could set your poster to a dick pic and call your friends at work
• Live subtitled Voicemail - neat feature. Now you can read all about your cars extended warranty as the voicemail comes in
• Prerecorded facetime messages
• Making iMessage Stickers is super neat, I will totally be making stickers of my friends most unflattering pictures for convenient use
• Tap each others phone to share contacts, files, and sync video playback. Neat!
• AirDrop is one of the best features of iOS, nice to see it is getting some solid improvements
• Improved keyboard with better user learning and talk to type - much ducking needed
• StandBy - I wonder if we are seeing a precursor interface to a HomePod with display
• iOS 17 is a feature packed release. 35 min into this thing and we have 2 macs and iOS done. Gee I wonder what could be happening
• Tidbits: No more Hey Siri, just Siri, Swipe to reply in iMessage

IPadOS 17

• Craig catching that iPad and sending it off without looking has me feeling some kind of way…
• Interactable widgets - Finally!
• IOS style Wallpaper - Finally!
• They did seem to do quite a few iPad only features
• ‘We truly live in an age of wonders’ - Thanks Craig for acknowledging the dawn of the multiple timers era at Apple
• Health App on iPad
• Big Improvements on PDF, Adding field detection and autofill is such a good quality of life improvement
• Feels like this release is really for bringing iOS features to iPad OS

MacOS Sonoma

• Apple TV style screensavers - Anybody who has an Apple TV knows that these videos are truly beautiful, nice to see them make an appearance in Mac
• Desktop Widgets - Neat!
• Presenter Overlay - The implementation with the 3D effect is actually quite nice
• Safari - Nice privacy features, custom profiles, and WebApps - Neat!

MacOS Gaming

• Game Mode - prioritized performance and lower latency
• Rumors suggested that Kojima was going to be coming but I think a lot of people were hoping for something completely new, not a reissue of Death Stranding
• I know we all would like for things to happen faster but it’s clear Apple has been on a steady march to becoming a stronger gaming platform for the last couple of years now. This is going to be a very long journey

Audio & Home

• Craig stop, I’ll catch feelings
• AirPods Adaptive Audio - Apple’s strengths have always been in their transparency modes so it is nice to see that with the strength of software they are able to do interesting things like pick and choose what to hear
• AirPlay For Hotels that joins you to WIFI - Super nice quality of life feature
• SharePlay for Car - Now I can subtly insert police siren sounds into the car to spice up the driving experience
• Apple TV Facetime

Watch OS 10

• The announcement video is just gorgeous
• This is a fairly big redesign
• Widgets are back in a big way, WatchOS 1 fans rejoice
• Power user features for cyclists
• Solid updates across the built in apps
• Screen distance is such a neat novel feature. It’s for kids? I am a kid now
• Less than an hour and a half into it and we’re basically done with all platform updates. Imagine if Tim is like “What an amazing day, we’re giving everyone an hour back, thanks for coming”

THE THING THAT WE HAVE ALL BEEN WAITING FOR

• TIM is here GET HYPE
• !!!!!ONE MORE THING!!!!!!! It’s been a while since we heard that phrase

Vision Pro

• Rumors of the front facing display are true. I know there was some debate on this. Like a lot of other things Apple releases, the real implementation looks way less silly than people think it would.
• Floating iPad apps everywhere & Virtual keyboard
• “Spatial Computing,” “Spatial Interface,” Spatial-everything
• Interface is somewhat reminiscent of Apple Watch
• They are really pitching this as an AR experience. I think that maybe Apple would prefer you to think of this as a transparent glass rather than a pass through
• EyeSight to show your eyes and the software to help blend virtual environments and people is such an Apple way to address isolation in VR
• All the standard apps are here. This is an iPad on your face, folks
• Lot of demos of people just walking around their house with these on. You can almost see the transparent lens glasses Apple wants to turn this into with iteration
• 3D Camera feature is so neat, can’t wait to try this. But I am not wearing this with my family to the park
• Disney video was clearly done without having actually had access to how the Apple Vision Pro
• Optic ID to unlock the headset

Vision Pro Design

• Finally, Apple has managed to source another British fella to replace Jony for the voice over
• Single piece of laminated glass on front, Digital Crown to control immersion
• 12 cameras, 5 sensors, 6 microphones
• AirPods Max vibe to this design
• Active cooling - You just know that the engineering team struggled to try to be able to engineer this thing to not need it. Something to improve on in V2
• All day use when plugged in 2 hours on attached battery - not bad
• MicroOLED - 23 million pixels - that’s 64 pixels in the space of 1 iPhone pixel
• Audio Ray Tracing: Using sensors to adapt audio to reflect the configuration of the room. That’s such a specific innovation just to attain a slight increase in audio immersion I love it
• M2 chip + a new R1 chip for real time sensor processing
• Front sensors that make a 3D digital persona for facetime calls
• Filed over 5000 patents while engineering this headset

Price

• That’s right, this thing so big it deserves its own section
• $3499: early next year
• My wallet just cried out in pain
• I’m not going to make a judgement for you on if its worth. People blow this much on a trip or on their custom PC. If this is something so good you end up being able to use this every day and it brings joy to your life or makes you more productive, then who’s to say that it’s not money well spent?