Apple WWDC 2019
Apple has announced a major refresh to its product line that includes the Mac, iOS, macOS, Apple TV, iPad and Apple Watch.
Mac Pro 2019
The biggest announcement of the event was the refresh of the Mac Pro line up which Apple fans have been demanding since the introduction of the Mac Pro 2013. The Mac Pro 2013 did not allow Apple users to upgrade its components due to its cylinder design form factor. The newly announced Mac Pro 2019 has gone back to the tower design resembling a cheese grater, however, the design change will allow Apple lovers to upgrade in the future. Users will be able to upgrade the system up to a 28-core Intel Xeon processor, up to 1.5TB of RAM which enables the machine to zip through big tasks with ease. However, the Mac Pro 2019 is targeted at professionals who require that amount of power. The price starts from £4,730 and that is for the base model, which has an 8-core Intel Xeon procession, Radeon 580x graphics processor and 32GB RAM.
Alongside the Mac Pro 2019 announcement, Apple also unveiled a professional monitor called the Pro Display XDR. The 32inch display features the world’s first 6K display that has next level in high dynamic range (HDR) which Apple calls Extreme Dynamic Range. The 6K display also features a Nano Texture surface that should get rid of reflections with affecting image quality. The standard version will set you back £3,950 and the Nano-textured equipped version will set you back £4,730. There is a disclaimer in the price, the price is only for the screen and the stand is sold separately for £999.
MacOS Catalina
Apple has unveiled its new macOS desktop operating system as well by introducing a lot of new features which will see the replacement of iTunes with three new services: Apple Music, Podcasts and TV. The new OS will have a feature called Sidecar which will enable you to use your iPad as a second screen. Apple also discussed Project Catalyst which is a new technology that is designed to help developers turn iPad apps into desktop MacOS apps.
iOS 13
This year’s new iOS 13 seems to be full of small updates rather than a big overhaul of the operating system. iOS 13 will see the introduction of the system-wide Dark Mode, performance improvements such as Face ID will be 30% faster and apps will download and update more efficiently. Lately, Apple has been hot on the privacy side with past product and service announcements. They went one step further and introduced a new login system that is designed to give more control over what information users share when they login to multiple third-party services. The service creates a dummy email address which will forward messages to your real inbox. The benefit is that the company will never know your real email address and cannot save your personal details on their system.
watchOS 6
watchOS also get improvements such as new watch faces, voice memos, calculator app, menstrual cycle tracking, hearing health feature and App Store dedicated to the Apple Watch.
iPadOS
iPadOS will be the software running on Apple tablets which looks to improve productivity on tablets such as multitasking and browsing. The operating system will allow you to plug in a USB-C memory stick into the iPad Pro.