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.

Sponsored by:

  • Kolide – Endpoint security powered by people. Try Kolide for 14 days free; no credit card required.
  • Pillow – Sleeping better, made simple.
  • Sourcegraph: Universal Code Search. Move fast, even in big codebases. Try it now.

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

We deliver AppStories+ to subscribers with bonus content, ad-free, and at a high bitrate early every week.

To learn more about the benefits included with an AppStories+ subscription, visit our Plans page, or read the AppStories+ FAQ.

Permalink

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.

Read more


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.

Read more


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.

Read more


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.


Last Week, on Club MacStories: Federico’s Shortcuts for Mac Tips, a Pre-WWDC Town Hall, iPad ‘Pro’ Mode, and John’s WWDC Home Screen

Because Club MacStories now encompasses more than just newsletters, we’ve created a guide to the past week’s happenings along with a look at what’s coming up next:

Monthly Log: May 2022

WWDC13.

WWDC13.

WWDC Preview and Federico’s MacBook Pro Story Town Hall

Federico and I were joined by Lachlan Campbell to talk about:

  • Our expectations for WWDC
  • Federico’s story about the M1 MacBook Pro and what it means for long-time iPad Pro users

Automation Academy: Tips for Optimizing Your Shortcuts for macOS Monterey

Federico published the latest edition of Automation Academy with 8 fantastic tips for getting the most out of Shortcuts for Mac.

The Macintosh Desktop Experience: A Pre-WWDC 2022 macOS Check-In

I revisited the features introduced with macOS Monterrey to consider which have been hits and which were misses.

MacStories Weekly: Issue 323

Up Next

We have a big WWDC week planned for Club members:

  • Members of the Club MacStories+ Discord community can join us Monday through Thursday for live recordings of AppStories. In addition to covering everything announced at WWDC, we’ll be taking questions from the audience and releasing that as part of the extended AppStories+ version of the show for subscribers.
  • We’ll also be doing two daily app giveaways during WWDC in Discord and two more in MacStories Weekly on Friday.

Kolide: Endpoint Security for Teams That Slack - Try Kolide for Free Today! [WWDC Sponsor]

At Kolide, we believe the supposedly Average Person is the key to unlocking a new class of security detection, compliance, and threat remediation. So do the hundreds of organizations that send important security notifications to employees from Kolide’s Slack app.  

Collectively, we know that organizations can dramatically lower the actual risks they will likely face with a structured, message-based approach. More importantly, they’ll be able to engage end-users to fix nuanced problems that can’t be automated.

Try Kolide for 14 days free; no credit card required.

Honest.Security is one part guide and another-part manifesto that defines a user-first approach to security and IT compliance. It’s not just Kolide’s north star but also an aspirational roadmap. It’s our positive contribution to counterbalance the worrying upward trend of human-hostile cyber security, device management, and workplace surveillance philosophies that we’ve seen reach a fever pitch as organizations adapt to the long-term term prospects of remote work.

Our thanks to Kolide for sponsoring MacStories and all of our WWDC coverage this week.