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M2 MacBook Air and MacBook Pro: The MacStories Overview

Yesterday during their WWDC keynote event, Apple unveiled the updated M2 Apple Silicon chip. While the M2 might not be quite as revolutionary of an upgrade as the M1 was over previous Intel chips, it’s still a very solid year-over-year improvement which continues to boost Apple ahead of the competition.

Debuting with the M2 inside are the all-new MacBook Air and the upgraded 13” MacBook Pro. While the MacBook Pro has very few changes other than the new processor, the MacBook Air sports a completely new industrial design. Let’s take a look at Apple’s latest entires into the Mac lineup.

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iOS and iPadOS 16: The Tidbits

iOS 16.

iOS 16.

As is always the case when Apple releases the first developer betas of new major versions of iOS and iPadOS, there are hundreds of features that don’t make an appearance in the keynote or aren’t mentioned in Apple’s marketing pages. Very often, those “smaller” features turn out to be some of the most beloved and useful tweaks to the operating systems we use every day. I installed the iOS and iPadOS 16 betas on my devices earlier this week, and I’ve collected some of the most interesting details I’ve spotted so far. Let’s take a look.

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AppStories, Episode 277 – WWDC 2022: Keynote Overview and Reactions→

In today’s first special WWDC 2022 episode that was recorded live in the Club MacStories+ Discord community, Federico, John, and Alex cover the highlights of Apple’s keynote, including iOS and iPadOS 16, macOS Ventura, and watchOS 9.

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On AppStories+, we answered Club MacStories members’ questions about the keynote announcements live in our Discord community.

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watchOS 9: The MacStories Overview

During yesterday’s WWDC keynote event, Apple announced watchOS 9. As usual, health and fitness are the core areas of focus in the update, with the Workout app in particular getting packed with new features and metric views. The Sleep app will now track in-depth sleep stage data, and an all-new Medications app is making its debut as well. Throw in some minor quality-of-life system changes, a handful of new watch faces, and some nice accessibility improvements, and we’re looking at a fairly standard watchOS update this year.

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iOS and iPadOS 16: The MacStories Overview

iPadOS 16.

iPadOS 16.

At its keynote held earlier today online and, for a limited audience of developers and media, in Cupertino, Apple unveiled the next major versions of iOS and iPadOS: iOS 16 and iPadOS 16. Both OSes will be released for free this fall, with developer betas available today and a public beta to follow next month.

After last year’s iOS and iPadOS 15, which were largely quality-of-life updates that mostly focused on improving the foundation set with iOS 14, Apple is back this year with a round of sweeping features for iPhone and iPad that are poised to fundamentally alter how we interact with our devices. From an all-new Lock Screen experience with support for widgets and personalization and a more powerful Focus mode to desktop-class features in apps for iPad and, yes, a brand new multitasking mode called Stage Manager, both iOS and iPadOS 16 are substantial updates that will rethink key interactions for average and power users alike.

As always, you can expect in-depth coverage from me and the rest of the MacStories team over the coming weeks, throughout the summer, and, of course, when the OSes will launch to the public later this year. But in the meantime, let’s dive in and take a quick look at what’s coming.

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macOS Ventura: The MacStories Overview

At this morning’s WWDC keynote presentation, SVP of Software Engineering Craig Federighi took the stage to announce the latest update to Apple’s desktop operating system: macOS Ventura. Ventura introduces a host of improvements, with many going hand-in-hand with their iOS and iPadOS 16 counterparts. A new windowing mode is perhaps the most intriguing addition, but the clearest wins come in the form of smaller app-specific features such as scheduling outgoing emails in Mail or marking conversations as unread in Messages. Altogether, Ventura looks like a very solid year-over-year upgrade for macOS.

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2022 Apple Design Award Winners Revealed

Last week, Apple announced the finalists for the 2022 Apple Design Awards: 36 apps and games in six categories: Inclusivity, Delight and Fun, Interaction, Social Impact, Visuals and Graphics, and Innovation.

Today, the company announced two winners (one app and one game) in each category for a total of twelve 2022 Apple Design Award winners.

Congratulations to all of this year’s winners and finalists:

Inclusivity

Delight and Fun

Interaction

Social Impact

Visuals and Graphics

Innovation

We’ll have more 2022 Apple Design Award coverage soon, so stay tuned.

You can follow all of our WWDC coverage through our WWDC 2022 hub or subscribe to the dedicated WWDC 2022 RSS feed.

WWDC 2022: Apple Publishes Keynote Video

Run, Craig, run!

Run, Craig, run!

Today’s keynote was a fast-paced affair that covered a lot of ground including upcoming updates to iOS, iPadOS, macOS, and watchOS. If you didn’t follow the live stream or announcements as they unfolded today, you can replay it on Apple’s Events site or catch it on YouTube.

The keynote video can be streamed here and on the Apple TV using the TV app. A high-quality version will also available through Apple Podcasts as a video and audio podcast.

You can follow all of our WWDC coverage through our WWDC 2022 hub or subscribe to the dedicated WWDC 2022 RSS feed.

WWDC 2022 Keynote: By the Numbers

Whenever Apple holds a keynote event, the company shares a variety of numbers related to things like user counts for certain products, software performance improvements, and customer satisfaction. With the company announcing the future of key platforms like iOS, iPadOS, macOS, watchOS, and tvOS, there was unsurprisingly a lot of data mentioned during today’s WWDC keynote.

We’ve collected some of the most interesting numbers shared on-stage during the keynote:

  • Apple has now opened 17 developer academies around the world
  • According to Tim Cook, “many millions of developers” engaged with last year’s online-only WWDC
  • There are now 34 million registered Apple developers
  • Dictation is used 18 billion times each month. That’s a lot of words
  • Improved Maps will launch in 11 more countries later this year
  • According to Apple, over 130 products are in the pipeline with support for the Matter home connectivity standard
  • 98% of cars sold in the United States now support CarPlay; and according to a survey, 79% of U.S. buyers would consider a car with CarPlay integration

Mac Numbers

  • The second-generation chip in the Apple Silicon family, called M2, features:
    • 20 billion transistors, 25% more than M1
    • 100 GB/s of unified memory bandwidth, 50% more than M1
    • Up to 24 GB of unified memory
    • Up to 18% better performance than M1
    • 1.9x performance compared to a 10-core laptop chip while using 1/4 of the power
    • Up to 35% better GPU performance than M1
    • Specifically, Apple says it offers 25% better graphics performance at the same power, but up to 35% at max power
    • 40% more Neural Engine operations than M1
  • The new MacBook Air with M2, announced today, comes in 4 colors
    • It’s 20% thinner, weighs 2.7 lbs, and is 11.3mm thick
    • It has a 13.6” display with thinner borders
    • The display supports 500 nits, which is 25% brighter than before, and 1 billion colors
    • It has a 1080p camera with twice the resolution and twice the low-light performance
    • The Air has a 3-mic array and 4-speaker sound system
    • It supports up to 18 hours of video playback according to Apple’s benchmarks
    • It supports 67W fast-charging, so you can charge up to 50% in 30 minutes
    • It starts at $1199
  • As for the new 13” MacBook Pro, also carrying the M2 chip:
    • It’s 40% faster than the previous model
    • Supports up to 24 GB of unified memory
    • Supports up to 20 hours of video playback
    • This is not a number, but it comes with the Touch Bar. The Touch Bar!
    • Starts at $1299
  • The M1 MacBook Air continues to be a product in Apple’s lineup, and it now starts at $999.

You can follow all of our WWDC coverage through our WWDC 2022 hub or subscribe to the dedicated WWDC 2022 RSS feed.