Apple announce upgrades to virtually all their products plus announce a new product a Home-Pod to be released this December
Now ever since I learned about Apple I was immediately excited especially since their values led them to make some really high-quality products. Couple that with the dreamer attitude of its founder's Jobs and Wozniak, it cemented a place close to my heart. Further on, this year at their annual Worldwide Developers Conference they went ahead and announced their new software and hardware updates.
A new product they announced which is to be released in December is Apples HomePod; it's new smart speaker.
This comes in an answer to Google Home and Amazon’s Echo line.
The speaker will respond to voice commands using Apple’s voice assistant, Siri, and is closely integrated with Apple’s Music services. The speaker will also be able to sense the size of the room using acoustics. It will also work with Apple services such as Messages and its smart home appliance platform, HomeKit. And just like its competitors, the HomePod will provide information on news, general knowledge, weather and sports scores.
Apple says their product beats it's competitors when it comes to sound quality and also security as all communications are encrypted. The HomePod will cost $349, which will make it the most expensive of its competitors.
Amazon was the first company to go commercial with their product Amazon Echo three years ago and are enjoying a healthy number of sales from its product.
Amazon and Apple also appear to have solved a feud they had when it came to streaming, and Amazon Prime Video is said to be coming soon to Apple TV. This will be an added treat to Apple TV customers as they will now have a larger pot of shows to choose from.
Apple unveils new watch OS 4 with new Siri face
The watch will use machine learning to give you the most helpful information at any time. Ensuring that "Every day when you raise your wrist the watch will dynamically update to give you the information relevant," says Apple.
Apple Music for the Watch can pull together playlists, automatically sync with the mobile app, and includes controls that make it easier to change tracks.
New update: macOS High Sierra
This new update includes features that allow Safari to be the fastest desktop browser in the world, this according to Craig Federighi. It also has a feature that disables videos from automatically playing and then also by using machine learning, stop websites from tracking you the user.
Mail now uses 35% less disk space to store mail, the photo app has new editing and organisational tools, as well as an update to its facial recognition software that will sync people tags across users' devices. In addition, updates to the Apple File System make it significantly faster and gives it higher quality video editing and storage capabilities.
iPad has capabilities of a handheld computer
The product which was launched by the late Steve Jobs back in 2010 has been having a gradual decrease in sales partly because people who already own them don't see a strong need to buy new ones and people without them are opting for much cheaper options like the Amazon Kindle Fire tablets going for $50. This though has not slowed down the upgrading of the device as the new version of the iPad Pro has a 10.5-inch display, 20 percent larger than the previous 9.7-inch model, and will start at $649.
Apple said the size made it perfect for displaying a virtual keyboard comparable to a full-size physical keyboard. The company also highlighted a feature called ProMotion that increases the refresh rate and makes motion smoother in video content.
Apple also worked to include an iOS 11 feature on the iPad that will, in turn, make it work more like an Apple computer.
The company introduced a cheaper version of the 9.7-inch iPad, priced at $329, in March and a 12.9-inch iPad Pro, compatible with an Apple stylus and keyboard, in 2015.
Apple introduced a new powerful desktop computer iMac Pro
The brand new iMac Pro will support up to 18 core processors and include a graphic chipset called Radeon Vega. The iMac Pro is a 5K desktop computer that comes in space gray color. Apple says it is the "most powerful Mac" and starts at $4,999. It will be available from December and features a 1080p FaceTime camera and real-time 3D rendering.
With this device, Apple is broadly catering to members of the professional community, like filmmakers and hard-core coders and game developers.
The company also announced upgrades of its 27-inch and 21.5-inch iMacs, which will start at $1,099, with additional models at $1,299 and $1,799.
Apple also lowered some prices for its MacBooks and said the Macbook Air, its entry-level lightweight laptop, would get a speed increase. The 21.5-inch model with 4K high resolution will start at about $1,300, with a new 13-inch MacBook Pro starting at $1,300.
iOS 11 features
Apple's upcoming mobile software iOS 11 includes a more helpful Siri, phone-to-phone payments within iMessage and a control center that collates all functions in one place. The Photos app in iOS 11 can create collages of pictures and videos called Memories that can spot key moments such as anniversaries, use of new video sharing app Clips that lets users add effects and filters to each other's films.
Plus there may also be a sleep monitoring addition, as Apple bought a sleep monitoring company Beditt earlier this month.
In iOS 11 Apple has introduced a feature that knows when users are driving and will launch a Do Not Disturb while Driving mode. This turns the user's iPhone screen black and can send automatic replies telling contacts they're driving. Driving tools also include an update to Apple Maps that can now give users lane advice.
Apple Music is also expected to start developing original video for future updates.
