WWDC 2022: all the news coming out of Apple’s annual Worldwide Developers Conference

Apple developers got a taste of iOS 16’s new Nearby Interactions feature at WWDC last month that lets third-party smart devices talk to Apple’s ultra-wideband (UWB) U1 chips in the background for “new hands-free user experiences” — making things like activating a light bulb when just walking by it possible. Developers can take advantage of the real-time, precise location triggers with the new framework, and chipset makers can seek MFi certification for interoperability with U1, something that chip manufacturer Qorvo did this week (via MacRumors).

“Our extensive portfolio of UWB chips, modules and software will help accelerate the ecosystem of connected UWB products and accessories,” said Qorvo Mobile products president Eric Creviston in a press release. The company was awarded MFi certification for its DW3110 integrated Impulse Radio UWB wireless transceiver, so now other companies can buy this chip to integrate it into their own accessories and use Apple’s Nearby Interactions.

Apple’s upcoming MacBook Air with M2 processor finally has a shipping date. After a bit longer wait than usual, the new $1,199 laptop will begin shipping on July 15th, with preorders opening on July 8th at 8AM ET. The 13-inch MacBook Pro with a Touch Bar announced alongside it at WWDC 2022 is already available. While that familiar-looking model was first out of the gate with the second-generation chip, this MacBook Air is offering a whole lot more that’s new, like a MagSafe charger, 1080p webcam, and a revised design with a larger, notched 13.6-inch display.

Though the new MacBook Air has a lower starting price than its 13-inch Pro counterpart, it’s certainly the more colorful and unique-looking one. Unlike prior Air laptops, it shifts away from a wedge-shaped design to a more conventional slab and comes in a new darker color.

During its WWDC 2022 event last week, Apple revealed its M2 chip and the redesigned MacBook Air, which got most of the attention, though it won’t be the first laptop with the new CPU that you can buy. Apple will also offer the M2 inside the familiar frame of its still Touch Bar-equipped 13-inch Macbook Pro, which will be available for preorders starting this Friday, June 17th, before the new MacBook Air goes on sale in July.

We have a comparison chart ready so that you can reference this laptop’s capabilities versus the new Air as well as the 14- and 16-inch MacBook Pro laptops that were updated last year to offer M1 Max and M1 Ultra CPU options. Apple suggests active cooling, which the Air doesn’t have, as a reason to choose this model for people with particularly demanding workflows or who enjoy intense 3D gaming on their Mac.

At this year’s WWDC, Apple introduced a bevy of new features for the forthcoming iOS 16. That includes new lock screens and widgets as well as the ability to edit Messages. And, if you’ve got an Apple developer account, you can now download the developer beta to get a firsthand look. 

Fair warning: beta software isn’t the finished product. If you download the iOS 16 developer beta, you have to be prepared for some apps and features to be a bit wonky. That’s why we recommend downloading the beta onto an iPhone that isn’t your daily driver. If that’s not an option for you, it’s not a bad idea to wait for the public beta, which arrives next month. And as always, back up your phone before you download the beta in case anything goes wrong. 

I’m irrationally excited about a new feature coming to Apple’s Screen Time, the company’s gentler term for parental controls. When my kid wants that extra 15 minutes on her favorite app, her plaintive request will come through iMessage as well as a pop-up notification on my Apple devices.

Why is this exciting? Well, it’s a small thing, but if you miss that Screen Time notification, which is currently the only alert you get, you have to dive into the Settings app to manually address the request. This is fiddly and time-consuming, especially when you’re in the middle of making dinner, as it involves passcodes and multiple taps. With the request sitting handily in my Messages app with a dropdown menu that presumably will give me the same four options — approve for 15 minutes; an hour; all day; or, my favorite, don’t approve — I can handle the demand on my time rather than hers.

As part of today’s announcements at WWDC 2022, Apple briefly mentioned a new addition to its security tools that will apply to iPhone, iPad, and Mac platforms called Rapid Security Response. It didn’t go into a lot of detail about what Rapid Security Response is, but Apple is promising to have important security updates that get to your devices even faster. Currently, iOS and macOS users get their security updates rolled in with full system patches, usually with .1 or .0.1 version numbers, which can take quite some time for users to download and install.

Now, Apple says its Rapid Security Response updates include important security improvements that “can be applied automatically between standard software updates.” MacRumors reports that for users who’ve installed the iOS 16 developer beta, there’s a new toggle under the Automatic Updates section of settings for “Install System and Data Files” to apply new security configuration and system data files. It says that “some updates may only take effect once you restart your iPhone,” which suggests that some won’t require a reboot.

Apple is adding a new feature to iOS 16 to make the Hidden and Recently Deleted albums in Photos much more private. Starting with iOS 16, those albums will now be locked by default, and you’ll be able to unlock them using Face ID, Touch ID, or a passcode, according to Apple’s iOS 16 features page.

In iOS 15, those albums are hard to find, but they they aren’t behind any protection. That means somebody who might have unwanted access to your phone can easily see what’s there if they know where to look — which somewhat defeats the purpose of the Hidden album in particular. With the change in iOS 16, people won’t be able to see photos in either album unless you unlock them. This new feature will also be available in iPadOS 16 and macOS Ventura, and all three software updates are set to be available this fall.

Are you the kind of person who’d hesitate to charge gadgets from a public charger — like the ones coming to the seat of your plane? Apple’s first beta of the just-announced macOS 13 Ventura includes a feature seemingly designed to address tampering fears. It’ll make USB-C and Thunderbolt accessories explicitly ask for your permission before they can communicate with MacBooks powered by Apple’s M1 or M2 chips.

Here’s the full description of the feature from Apple’s release notes:

Apple announced some major new features for Mail that finally bring the email app closer to parity with Gmail and other popular email clients. I personally rely on Mail on Mac for my work emails, and I think I’ll be taking advantage of many of these updates once they’re available.

Perhaps the most useful will be an undo send feature, which will let you call back an email within 10 seconds of hitting the send button. It’s a feature that I’m a big fan of in Gmail, and I’ve used it more than I care to admit to save myself from sharing an embarrassing typo.

Apple revealed a new version of macOS at its Worldwide Developers Conference. The new operating system, macOS Ventura, includes a new Stage Manager tool, updates to Spotlight, Mail, and Safari, and other continuity features that bring the operating system closer to iOS.

Enabled from the Control Center, the utility will automatically organize your open windows on the left side of your screen while centering the one you’re working in. Users can also group windows together to easily open more than one at a time.

Apple announced Monday that iOS 16 will let you switch on haptics when you type, meaning you’ll feel a tiny vibration every single time you press a key on your iPhone’s virtual keyboard. Apple’s haptics — powered by the company’s Taptic Engine — are some of the best out there on mobile phones (though many Android devices have caught up), and now you’ll get to feel a satisfying pulse while you’re chatting with your friends or composing an email.

Previously, if you wanted haptic feedback on your keyboard, one option was to turn to... Google. The search company added haptic feedback to its Gboard keyboard for iPhone in 2019. I personally gave up on using third-party keyboards years ago because it’s a lot easier to just use Apple’s stock keyboard, and I haven’t tried haptic feedback on a keyboard for myself. With iOS 16, I’ll definitely give it a spin.

Apple announced an all-new Home app for its HomeKit smart home platform at WWDC this week. The new app will arrive with iOS 16 later this year and has a completely new design. Apple said that architecturally the app has been rebuilt from the ground up making it more efficient and reliable, especially for homes with multiple accessories.

The navigation has also been redesigned to make it easier to find, organize, and control devices, and a new Categories section for climate, lights, speakers and TVs, water (sprinklers and faucets), and security will let you access those devices in one place. This should make it simpler to turn off all the lights or lock all the doors, even though they are in different rooms.

The MacBook Air has been an iconic laptop design since Steve Jobs slid it out of a manila envelope in 2008. This year’s model, which Apple just announced at WWDC and is also the first Apple laptop to come with an M2 chip, abandons the famous wedge shape but also improves almost everything else about the Air.

The first thing you notice? Colors! The new design is 11mm thick and weighs 2.7 pounds, and while it is now a more traditional slab-shaped design, it comes in a very handsome dark blue called “midnight” and a light gold called “starlight” in addition to the familiar silver and space gray. They’re not quite as colorful as, say, the new iMacs, but the midnight color is a particularly cool dark option in the lineup.

Apple’s WWDC isn’t an event that traditionally packs in several hardware announcements, but nevertheless, a new MacBook Air took the stage during the keynote. The new 2022 model has been designed around the more powerful M2 processor, and its design comes closer to that of the 14-inch MacBook Pro, with a more squared-off look than the traditional wedge shape. It features MagSafe charging, two Thunderbolt USB 4 ports, and a headphone jack. It’s 11mm thick and comes in at 2.7 pounds. It will be available in silver, space grey, and new “starlight” gold and “midnight” blue colors. One nice touch is that each model includes a braided MagSafe cable that matches the colorway.

This MacBook Air will be available in July starting at $1,199. The product page is live, but Apple isn’t accepting orders currently. The starting model includes the M2, an eight-core GPU, 8GB of RAM, and 256GB of storage. If you want more power, storage, and RAM, the $1,499 model has a 10-core GPU, 8GB of RAM, and 512GB of storage. Each configuration can support up to 24GB of RAM and 2TB of storage. The M1-based Air will continue to be available for $999.

Apple revealed a ton of exciting news at WWDC 2022, giving us a glimpse at the highly-anticipated macOS Ventura, iOS 16, the M2 chip, a new MacBook Air, and much more.

If you weren’t able to catch the conference live, here’s a list of Apple’s biggest announcements.

Apple is finally bringing its first-party Weather app to iPad as part of iPadOS 16. Finally. The first iPad launched in 2010, and it hasn’t had the official Weather app that whole time.

The company shared a few screenshots at WWDC 2022, and if you’re familiar with the app on iPhone, it will look pretty familiar. The app’s background reflects the weather, and there’s a big dashboard of statistics. It’s basically the iPhone app but blown up to tablet size.

Apple is planning to allow macOS users to use their iPhone camera as a webcam. The new Continuity Camera feature comes as part of macOS Ventura, an upcoming update to macOS. Apple envisions MacBook users clipping an iPhone to the top of their laptops and using the camera to improve video calls in FaceTime, Microsoft Teams, WebEx, and more.

Continuity Camera simply takes the rear camera feed from your existing iPhone and converts it into a webcam that can be used in macOS apps. Continuity Camera even includes Center Stage and Portrait Mode support, so there are plenty of video modes for a variety of calls.

Apple released details about iOS 16 today at its Worldwide Developers Conference, including which phones will be eligible for the update — and which didn’t make the cut. To download iOS 16, you’ll need an iPhone 8 or later, meaning Apple is more or less ending support for the iPhone 6S, iPhone 7, and original iPhone SE.

The iPhone 7 and SE were released in 2016, while the 6S was released in 2015, meaning they received nearly six and seven years of software support, respectively. That is, frankly, a very impressive run. It’s also much longer than Android devices have historically had access to software updates, though Samsung and Google have recently made significant strides in that department. Their midrange and flagship devices now get up to five years of security updates.

Apple has officially announced iPadOS 16, the latest version of its iPad operating system launching later this year. It shares some of its new features with iOS 16 and macOS, like a redesigned Home app and support for Passkeys in Safari, but it’s also getting some improvements of its own. There’s a new weather app and new whiteboard collaboration software coming later this year.

Multitasking is getting a huge boost with this year’s iPadOS update, but only if you’re using an iPad equipped with an M1 chip. The Stage Manager feature Apple announced for macOS Ventura is coming to iPadOS 16, where it means apps can be shown as windows that are able to overlap with one another and can be dragged and dropped into place. It can benefit from the improved screen real estate of an external display (resolutions of up to 6K are supported), and can allow up to eight apps to be displayed simultaneously (four on the iPad itself, and four on the external display).

Apple is adding a new tool to remind people to take medications to the iPhone health app, the company announced today. Apple Watch is also getting additional sleep tracking features.

The new medications app will let users add any drugs they take by either scanning a label on a medication bottle or searching through a list of medicines. People can create custom schedules for each drug they are taking and receive alerts to remind them when it’s time to take one.

Alongside a redesigned MacBook Air powered by the company’s new M2 processor, Apple also introduced a charger for the laptop with an unexpected perk: a spare USB-C port. The charger has two USB-C ports, giving you the freedom to charge another device alongside the laptop.

An unannounced dual-port 35-watt charger from the company was leaked back in April, so it’s likely that’s exactly the product we’re seeing today. The M2 MacBook Air starts at $1,199. But Apple is also selling the charger standalone for $59. It’ll be available in the US, Canada, China, Japan, Mexico, Philippines, Taiwan, and Thailand. The dual-port charger will come by default with the upgraded $1,499 MacBook Air SKU, but you’ll have to pay $20 extra if you want to have it included with the base model.

watchOS 9 includes a new feature that will let people with irregular heart rhythms track the amount of time they spend in atrial fibrillation, Apple announced today.

The Apple Watch heart rhythm monitor already runs in the background to flag any irregularities that could be signs of atrial fibrillation. Now, users will get a weekly alert about the amount of time they spend in atrial fibrillation. They can also look in the Health app to see a breakdown of how other factors like sleep and exercise might be interacting with the heart rhythm. Users will be able to share a readout of their atrial fibrillation history with their doctors.

Apple is introducing its new M2 chip today at the company’s Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC). After the M1, M1 Pro, M1 Max, and M1 Ultra chips, Apple is now ready to move on to a more powerful M2 chip, with big promises of performance improvements.

Much like the original M1 chip, the new M2 uses Apple’s custom Arm silicon, and it’s built on a 5nm process complete with 20 billion transistors — 25 percent more than the original M1. All of these transistors should boost performance, and Apple is promising a 18 percent faster CPU, and 35 percent faster GPU inside the M2 compared to the original M1.

At its WWDC 2022 event, Apple just demonstrated how Safari in macOS Ventura will support “passkeys,” a sign-in standard that’s built with cross-platform support to enable logins that don’t use passwords at all. Apple isn’t alone in this effort either, as last month Google and Microsoft joined with Apple to announce their new step forward for a long-in-development plot to kill passwords once and for all.

By avoiding the use of passwords entirely, they should prevent users from falling victim to phishing attacks, social engineering, or bot attacks that plug in passwords snagged from databases of leaked passwords. Instead, you can use a device (like your phone or computer) as your primary authentication device, so using Face ID or Touch ID or entering the device PIN will be enough for you to log in on various services across the web.