What will be shown at WWDC22: iOS 16, iron novelties

Apple has officially scheduled the WWDC22 developer conference for June 6th. Training sessions for programmers will be held for 4 days (from 6 to 10 June). Anyone can view them for free on the site. developer.apple.com.

The conference itself will be held online. In this article I will tell you what Apple will present at the event.

Operating Systems

Apple will introduce new versions of all operating systems for smartphones, watches, tablets, Macs, TVs and even HomePod: iOS 16, iPadOS 16, watchOS 9, macOS 13, tvOS 16, audioOS 16.

New beta versions of operating systems can be downloaded to your device. Use the instructions and work profile on the site betaprofiles.com.

Separately, I want to warn Apple Watch owners: it’s better not to install a beta version at all. Because if there are any bugs, it will be impossible to roll back – the firmware is installed “over the air”.

Plus, if you decide to install a new OS on your watch, first install iOS 16 beta on your smartphone, and only then on your watch. Otherwise, you risk getting a “brick” from the watch.

Traditionally, there are not so many innovations related to operating systems in the open space. But some rumors before the presentation still leaked.

Rumor 1. iOS 16, codenamed “Sydney”, will bring changes to how notifications work and will get new health tracking features. Those. Apple Watch will also receive new software features.

There are leaks of larger widgets. Inside the company they are called InfoShack (“Information hut”). In fact, the widget will allow you to combine several widgets into one large one.

Rumor 2. iPadOS 16 should have a new multitasking interface.

Rumor 3. The new focus mode settings will appear. And the Apple News application, which does not work for us, should be updated.

You should not expect a global redesign of the operating system. As practice shows, people are better at accepting minor changes and finishing the system in the process of version updates than a global redesign at a time.

Rumor 4. About compatibility. The French publication “iPhone Soft” claims that iOS 16 will be compatible with A10 and newer chips. Those. iPhone 6S, iPhone 6S Plus and iPhone SE 2016 (1st generation) will be left behind. Support will start with iPhone 7.

Compatibility for tablets. iPadOS 16 will not run on iPad mini 4, iPad 5, iPad Air 2, iPadPro 2015.

Rumor 5. watchOS 9 will add a new low power mode so that the watch can run apps and some features without consuming a lot of power. The company also plans to update many of the built-in watch faces.

As for the rest of the operating systems, there are no rumors yet.

For developers

Especially for developers, a new version of the Swift 6 programming language will be rolled out. The xCode development environment will be updated to version 14.

The Swift Playgrounds educational development environment for iPad and Mac will be updated to version 5.

What specific new functions and APIs will appear is still unknown. Many probably want to get a full-fledged xCode for iPad or a cross-platform so that they can run development software on Windows.

Iron

There is information about the announcement of two new products based on the new Apple Silicon M2 chip.

Surely they will show the new MacBook Air on the M2 chip with a complete redesign, a color case, an improved FaceTime camera

and MagSafe interface.

But the MiniLED display is not worth the wait.

The second novelty is still unknown. There is accurate information that the MacBook Pro is being developed on 12″, Mac mini and iMac 24″ on M2 chips. But perhaps they will be shown this fall.

But the appearance of the Mac Pro at WWDC22 on the Apple Silicon platform seems more likely to me. Moreover, Apple has repeatedly made such announcements at developer conferences.

According to rumors, 2 top-end M1 Ultra chips will be responsible for performance.

But the question arises: how much adapted software will there be that is not created by Apple, i.e. third-party developers who can realize the full potential of such powerful chips?

In general, the Mac Pro is one of the few machines that has not yet been updated to the Apple Silicon platform. The fate of the big iMac (the successor to the iMac 27″), the latest model of which was released in 2020 by Intel, as well as the iMac Pro, is still not known. Maybe Mac Studio with an external monitor has already replaced this line, maybe not.

Ross Young announced that Apple will introduce a new 27″ MiniLED monitor in June. There is speculation that this will be a Pro version of the recently introduced Studio Display.

The source also reports that the number of MiniLED LEDs will be 2 times more than in the top $5000 Pro Display XDR.

Those. most likely, the new Pro version of the monitor will replace the Apple Pro Display XDR.

But don’t expect a demo of Apple’s mixed reality AR/VR headset at WWDC22. They say that in iOS 16 there are many references to a new type of product, but we will most likely see the hardware novelty during the life cycle of iOS 16. That is. until autumn 2023. And at WWDC22, a maximum of some new functionality related to augmented or virtual reality will be shown.