Today’s announcements from Apple: the extra concise edition

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Today Apple kicked off their annual World Wide Developers Conference (WWDC) in San Jose with their signature keynote event. Though the week-long event is for software developers, the keynote is of interest to general users of Apple products since it is used primarily to show off the features of the upcoming software updates.

If you’re looking for in-depth coverage there are plenty of other sources out there. But here I’ll be covering the basics: what, when, and starting price.

Software

As expected, this year’s WWDC keynote announced Apple’s annual software updates

macOS 10.13 High Sierra

Free, available in the fall (probably September)

Compatible with all Macs that support 10.12 Sierra

  • Major improvements to Safari privacy and speed
  • Enhanced Photos app with better editing, editing in third party apps, and third party projects
  • APFS file system for enhanced speed, security, and reliability
  • H.265 HEVC reduces video file size up to 40%
  • Metal 2 improves graphics performance up to 10x
  • External graphics processor support

iOS 11

Free, available in the fall (probably September)

Compatible with 64-bit devices. That includes all devices that were compatible with iOS 10 except iPhone 5, iPhone 5c, and iPad 4.

  • Messages fully sync across devices and optimizes local storage
  • ApplePay Person-to-Person
  • Redesigned Control Center packs more on a single screen, customizeable
  • Redesigned, smarter Siri with improved voice, translation, multiple answers when query is unclear, ability to type to Siri
  • Files app replaces iCloud Drive, adding support for third party cloud storage services, adds a few Mac Finder features such as favorites, multi-select, tags, drag and drop
  • Notes has a document scanner
  • Maps gets lane guidance, speed limits, indoor maps for malls and airports
  • “Do Not Disturb While Driving” holds messages for when you stop driving, autoreplies to incoming messages that says you’re busy driving
  • One-handed keyboard
  • Screen recording
  • AirPlay 2 supports multiroom audio
  • QR codes autodetected in Camera app
  • H.265 HEVC compresses video up to 2x
  • HEIF compresses images up to 2x

watchOS 4

Free, available in the fall (probably September)

Compatible with all models of Apple Watch

  • New watchfaces include Siri that automatically chooses relevent information to display
  • Support for multiple music playlists
  • Redesigned dock
  • Flashlight function
  • Bluetooth connections for devices

tvOS 11

Free, available in the fall (probably September)

Compatible with Apple TV 4, no change in requirements from tvOS 10

  • There are only minor user-facing changes. Most changes are behind-the-scenes changes for devleopers that allow more powerful apps.

Hardware

Generally, Apple’s WWDC keynote does not involve many hardware announcements. But this year we got several.

HomePod

$349, White or Space Grey
available December

  • Powerful speakers
  • Smart audio processing
  • Siri capability for music and more

iPad Pro

10.5-inch: 64GB $649 / 256GB $749 /  512GB $949
12.9-inch: 64GB $799 / 256GB $899 / 512GB $1,099
+$130 for cellular option
Preorders today, ships next week

  • 30% faster processor, 40% faster graphics
  • 64 GB storage
  • Improved display
  • 10.5-inch iPad has same body size as last year’s 9.7-inch iPad

Mid-2017 MacBook Air

$999 13-inch MacBook Air, available now

  • Bump in processor speed

Mid-2017 MacBook

$1,299 12-inch MacBook, available now

  • Increased processor and SSD speed

Mid-2017 MacBook Pro

$1,299 13-inch MacBook Pro w/ function keys
$1,799 13-inch MacBook Pro w/ Touch Bar
$2,399 15-inch MacBook Pro
available now

  • Increased processor and SSD speed
  • 15-inch also got increased video processor speed

Mid-2017 iMac

$1,099 21.5-inch
$1,299 4K 21.5-inch
$1,799 5K 27-inch
available today

  • 40% brighter display
  • Better performance for almost every spec
  • USB-C and USB-A ports

Late-2017 iMac Pro

$4,999 / available December

  • Most powerful Mac ever
  • 8-Core Xeon processor, configurable up to 18-Core Xeon processor
  • AMD Radeon Vega graphics processor up to 16 GB VRAM, 11 Teraflops
  • Configurable up to 128 GB ECC RAM
  • Configurable up to 4 TB SSD
  • 4 USB-C Thunderbolt 3 and 4 USB-A ports
  • 10gbps Ethernet

Other details

In addition to the big releases, these are some other random details that were either shown only in in brief text on the screen or found on the website after the keynote finished.