What You Missed at WWDC17

If you’re anything like me, you love Apple products. I own something from almost every product line they have, and keep adding to the collection. Well, if you’re anything like me, you also watch all their keynotes on the day they happen. But, since you probably aren’t me, here are some of the highlights from the Worldwide Developer’s Conference (WWDC) in June and what you can expect from our favorite tech giant this fall.

iOS 11

iOS gets major updates every year. This year is no different. Next month Apple will release the newest version of their mobile operating system, iOS 11, and when they say they’ve given iOS an overhaul, they mean it. Starting with iOS on the iPad, they have added a dock that can be accessed from any app at any time. They have also reimagined multitasking and allow you to drag and drop between split-screens. Control Center is now able to save all of your multitasking windows and allow you to resume them at any time.

But what about the iPhone? Well, I’m glad you asked! iOS on the iPhone has some great new features as well. Have you ever taken a Live photo and thought that the main picture doesn’t look that great? Well not anymore, with iOS 11 you can select what frame of the Live clip that you want to be the main picture. On top of that, you will be able to modify the picture with effects such as Loop, Bounce, and capture those great moving water photos with Long Exposure.

Now with iOS as a whole they have improved some things. Siri is now more lifelike than ever and she’s even learning other languages. She’ll be able to translate for you when you go on vacation to China, Germany, or Mexico. She also is better at understanding you and suggest things that you might like to view or read. Control Center and Notification Center got design changes that are absolutely amazing. They announced that iOS 11 will launch with a new Do Not Disturb While Driving setting to limit cell phone use while driving.  For more information, visit https://www.apple.com/ios/ios-11-preview/.

HomePod 

Apple also announced their new speaker to rival the Echo and Sonos. It features an array of six tweeter speakers and a vertical bass speaker. It is wrapped in a seamless audio mesh that allows sound to travel through it with no loss of volume or quality. It also features everyone’s favorite new mixologist, Siri. You can ask Siri to play a certain genre, artist, year, or even ask her to update you on the score of your favorite team’s game. But what about when the music is too loud? Well, the HomePod’s microphone are designed to cancel out the audio it is playing and only listen to what is different. This allows it to hear someone across the room while the music is playing at full blast. For more information, visit https://www.apple.com/homepod/.

macOS High Sierra 

As expected, iOS gets an update, but macOS gets one as well. This fall macOS High Sierra will launch and has some great new features. Just like with iOS, High Sierra will launch with support for HEVC video files and HIPC picture encoding. These will allow you to have great quality files with twice the compression as before. Apple has also reimagined the entire file system. They are introducing the new APFS (Apple File System). This system has several new features, one of which is the speed of copying and duplicating files. The new system allows you to copy and duplicate files on the system almost instantly. For more information, visit https://www.apple.com/macos/high-sierra-preview/.

September Keynote Event

As always, Apple will host there annual keynote this September. You can watch it live on the Apple website or replay it later. The keynote will start at noon Central Time on September 12, 2017. They are expected to announce the official launches of iOS 11, macOS High Sierra, and the new iPhone models for this year. It will be available on the Apple website at https://www.apple.com/apple-events/september-2017/