WWDC 2023 news: Apple Vision Pro, Mac Pro, iOS 17, and more

Apple is introducing Optic ID, its latest biometric security authentication technology and the first from the company to be based on the details of your iris. Optic ID will be used to unlock Apple’s new Vision Pro mixed reality headset that was introduced today at the WWDC 2023 event.

According to Apple, Optic ID works by analyzing a user’s iris through LED light exposure and then comparing it with an enrolled Optic ID stored on the device’s Secure Enclave. During the WWDC keynote, Apple’s VP of technology development group, Mike Rockwell, said the system could detect iris differences even with identical twins.

Apple’s Vision Pro headset will let you replace your face with a hyperrealistic avatar when you’re using FaceTime. As shown during WWDC 2023, you can scan your face using the headset to create a digital “persona” of yourself that will appear during video calls.

Unlike the cartoony avatars you can make with apps like Microsoft Teams and Meta’s Horizon Worlds, it looks like Apple is aiming to create a virtual version of your face that’s accurate to how you really look. In the video Apple showed at WWDC, a user holds the headset in front of their face, allowing the device to scan it with “an advanced encoder-decoder neural network” that Apple says has been trained on a “diverse group of thousands of individuals.”

Apple’s just-announced Mac Pro with an M2 Ultra chip isn’t a cheap computer — it’s designed for extreme workloads, after all — but you might be surprised to hear that the most expensive version of the machine is more than $40,000 cheaper than the maxed-out version of its Intel-powered predecessor.

If you get the new $6,999 Mac Pro tower and add the following upgrades:

Apple just announced a new Mac Pro, and we’ve just gotten our first photos of it. It doesn’t look too different — the 2019 cheese grater design is still here — but it has a big ol’ M2 Ultra chip on the inside.

Check out the photos in the gallery below. (One interesting tidbit: Apple took the heatsink off the chip!)

We finally got our first look at Apple’s highly anticipated mixed reality headset at today’s WWDC event, including a sneak peek at a new immersive way to watch your favorite Disney sports, shows, and movies. While most of the hype surrounding it has focused on productivity and VR gaming, Disney CEO Bob Iger took to the stage to showcase immersive experiences for the Apple Vision Pro that will be available via the Disney Plus streaming service when the headset launches next year.

The Vision Pro headset provides users with a way to watch Disney content while being immersed in a thematic virtual reality environment. Rather than watching a physical TV in a real, very messy lounge, users can virtually transport themselves to a new location, such as floating in the sky or surrounded by dunes in a sandy desert, in which to watch their favorite content. A notable example included in the Disney teaser demonstrated an episode of The Mandalorian being streamed from what appears to be Tatooine (an alien planet from the Star Wars franchise), fully immersing you in the environment of the content you’re watching.

This year’s Worldwide Developers Conference didn’t disappoint. During today’s keynote, Apple showed off its highly anticipated mixed reality headset for the first time, confirming many of the rumors that have emerged over the past several months.

While Apple’s Vision Pro headset took the spotlight this time around, the company made some other exciting hardware and software-related announcements as well. Here’s all the big news from the event.

The rumors of Apple breaking into the mixed reality headset space are now a reality with the Apple Vision Pro. During 2023’s Worldwide Developers Conference, Apple announced that, in addition to offering functions like VR FaceTime and watching movies in living room-K on “a screen that feels 100 feet wide,” the new face-mounted spatial computer will also be a gaming platform featuring titles from Apple Arcade.

At launch, over 100 Apple Arcade games will be available on the Vision Pro. The presentation didn’t highlight any existing VR games specifically or mention if any of the games featured had been updated for a VR experience. But users will be able to play games like NBA 2K23 on the Vision Pro using controllers ostensibly connected to whatever Apple device is running the game — a slightly more believable premise with the addition of “Game mode” to macOS Sonoma and a push to help developers port their titles to Apple’s platforms.

Apple just announced the new MacBook Air 15, a 15-inch version of the most popular laptop in the world. I just saw it in person. As you can probably guess, it’s just like the smaller MacBook Air, but now it’s bigger.

Apple has just announced its new $3,499 Vision Pro augmented reality headset, and Microsoft is ready to bring its Word, Excel, and Microsoft Teams apps to Apple’s new platform.

Apple briefly demonstrated Excel, Word, and Teams running inside the Vision Pro headset, with a user interface that can be controlled with your eyes. Microsoft appears to be using a similar simplified ribbon interface that’s available on its existing web versions of Excel and Word.

Apple has announced StandBy — a new feature that turns the iPhone into a sort of smart display when it’s docked on its side. The company announced this new trick onstage at WWDC 2023 while debuting iOS 17, which is expected to arrive this fall.

StandBy comes with iOS 17 and kicks in automatically when your iPhone is charging and on its side. It’s designed to be seen from a distance and can display the time with customizable clock faces, Apple Home controls, the weather, music controls, app smart stacks, and other features. At night, StandBy adapts the screen to lowlight, taking on a red tone to avoid being disruptive at night.

Apple has announced visionOS, the operating system that will power its new Vision Pro headset. Apple says it’s designed from the ground up for spatial computing.

The company revealed the operating system as part of its many announcements at the Worldwide Developers Conference 2023 event. The operating system is focused on displaying digital elements on top of the real world. Apple’s video showed new things like icons and windows floating over real-world spaces.

Apple’s latest version of Safari was announced at WWDC as part of the newly announced macOS Sonoma. The new browser version brings new privacy features that include the ability to lock your browser window, block trackers, and remove URL trackers. Safari can also now share passwords and passkeys to groups using iCloud Keychain. The transfer is done with end-to-end encryption.

Perhaps the biggest new addition to Safari is the ability to create profiles. Now when you’re browsing, you can sandbox your activities separately for things like work and personal browsing. The feature will help keep data and trackers from mixing between each other and help you browse more organized.

Apple is bringing FaceTime to Apple TV. As part of an upcoming tvOS 17 update, a new FaceTime app will be made available that uses your iPhone or iPad camera to bring video calls to your big-screen TV.

Apple is making use of its Continuity Camera feature so that you can launch the FaceTime app on Apple TV and it will wirelessly connect to your iPhone or iPad. You can even pick up a call that’s taking place on your iPhone and transfer it to your Apple TV.

Apple announced watchOS 10, its “milestone” next-gen smartwatch platform, today at WWDC. As in past years, it’ll be available for developers to start tinkering with today, while a public beta is expected sometime next month. Users can expect to see the final version arrive later this fall alongside the forthcoming Apple Watch Series 9.

Widgets are back on the menu, friends. Turning the digital crown will bring up your widget stack and let you scroll through for quick and easy access to information. It’s a major shift in how users have thus far interacted with the Apple Watch and is reminiscent of the Siri watchface introduced a few years ago in watchOS 3.

Hideo Kojima made a brief but interesting appearance during WWDC 2023, as Apple highlighted the power of its latest M2 chips and a new game mode in macOS Sonoma. During the gaming portion of the conference, the director revealed that not only is he bringing Death Stranding Director’s Cut to macOS but his other titles as well. However, Kojima didn’t specify when Director’s Cut will make its Mac appearance nor which other games in his omnibus he’s porting to Mac.

Kojima’s appearance at WWDC 2023 might tease that he’ll have some role to play during the Summer Game Fest event that kicks off later this week. Death Stranding Director’s Cut might make an appearance during the presentation as well as its sequel, Death Stranding 2. Announced during last year’s Game Awards, Death Stranding is also getting a movie with the producer of Barbarian attached to the project.