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Apple took to the stage at WWDC today to announce that video-calling service FaceTime is finally coming to Apple TV hardware for the first time, thanks to a robust tvOS update. This seems to be a full-featured version of the company’s proprietary live-streaming app that takes full advantage of the recently-released Continuity Camera feature.

For the uninitiated, this feature lets you use your iPhone as a replacement webcam for your laptop, so you’ll now be able to use your iPhone or iPad as the primary camera for TV-based FaceTime conversations. Apple says wireless integration happens automatically and that the service can also use the phone or tablet’s microphone when joining or initiating a call. The company says the software has been designed so that you always remain in the center of the frame. You can also quickly switch the feed between devices with just a swipe and interact using gestures. FaceTime will be available for Apple TV 4K devices starting this fall. 

FaceTime is the main draw of tvOS 17, but not the only improvement. The company redesigned the control center to make it more intuitive and, more importantly, added Find My Remote support. Just use Siri on your phone, tablet, or computer to locate any mischievous Apple TV remotes. Apple also noted that video conferencing apps like Webex by Cisco and Zoom will launch on tvOS later this year. 

Apple announced new audio features coming for AirPods users. The standout feature is Adaptive Audio, which will tune your device’s active noise cancelation (ANC) and transparency mode based on your environment. In addition, the company says it’s adding personalized volume, which uses on-device machine learning to predict your desired volume while making AirPods device-switching “significantly faster.”

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

Follow all of the news from Apple's WWDC 2023 right here.

Your Apple Watch will look very different in the near future. Among the many announcements Apple made during its WWDC keynote was one related to watchOS 10. As expected, the company is giving the smartwatch user interface an overhaul as part of perhaps the firmware's biggest update yet.

You may recall that the original Apple Watch UI was designed, in part, around Glances — a carousel of widgets for different apps and features. Apple eventually moved away from Glances to place more emphasis on apps, but now the company is looking to make widgets a larger focus of the Watch interface again.

This story is developing, please refresh for additional updates.

Follow all of the news from Apple's WWDC 2023 right here.

The latest update to macOS is called Sonoma and it's all about productivity and widget management. The new operating system adds widgets to the desktop and makes them movable, allowing users to place them anywhere. As one widget is in use, the others will fade into the background.

Sonoma — or, macOS 14 — will also communicate with widgets on your iPhone, with no need to install them directly on the desktop, via a feature called Continuity. With your iOS device nearby, you'll be able to access all of your phone's widgets on desktop. 

Apple

Sonoma also features improvements in Mac gaming power. The new OS introduces Game Mode, which reduces background tasks while prioritizing CPU and GPU performance, all in the name of smoother, higher-performance play. In related news, Death Stranding: Director's Cut will hit Mac this year, as will all future projects from Kojima Productions.

Last year's update, macOS Ventura, landed last fall and included Stage Manager, a feature that organizes apps and windows based on what you're actually using. Safari and Mail also saw some refreshes to better align with iOS 16.

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Apple's efforts to bring high-profile games to the Mac appear to be paying off. Hideo Kojima has revealed that Death Stranding: Director's Cut is coming to the Mac later this year. Future Kojima Productions games will be available on the platform, too.

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

Follow all of the news from Apple's WWDC 2023 right here.

As usual, Apple is unveiling a major set of updates for iPadOS. This year, we're on to iPadOS 17, and as expected it features a host of changes that have already been shown of for the iPhone in iOS 17, plus some updates specific to the tablet. 

For starters, widgets are now interactive, which means you can update them and take actions without necessarily jumping right into the app. You can start playing music via the Music widget, check off reminders, update smart home features and so forth.

Unsurprisingly, iPadOS 17 is also getting the lock screen redesign that Apple pushed to the iPhone last year with iOS 16. This lets you add widgets to the home screen, assign different focus modes to specific wallpapers, change the fonts of the clock and text and more. There's also a pretty cool Live Photo feature that animates your wallpaper when you wake the iPad. 

Apple is also bringing the Health app to the iPad for the first time. Naturally, it syncs data from the Health app on your phone and Apple Watch, but it looks like you can use it standalone as well if you don't have that other hardware.

PDF support is coming to the Notes app, which might not sound like the most exciting thing ever. But Notes is a pretty powerful app, and having it host PDFs for annotation could be quite useful. There's even a live collaboration feature that lets two people work on a shared PDF at the same time, and changes are reflected as both of you work.

Stage Manager is getting some improvements, too, giving you more flexibility for placing windows. This feature was a key bit of iPadOS 16, and it's good to see that Apple is answering some requests that people have had over the year.

Naturally, a lot of the same updates that are coming to iOS 17 will be here, as well. That includes an improved Messages experience, customizable contact posters, and the brand-new Journal app. 

Follow all of the news from Apple's WWDC 2023 right here.

During the keynote at Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference, rumors about a new 15-inch MacBook Air were confirmed with the announcement of the company's latest lightweight laptop. The new model adds two inches to the screen, which means if all you want is a bigger display, you no longer have to pay a premium for a Pro model. The machine runs on Apple's latest M2 chip, has a Liquid Retina display, up to 24GB of RAM and starts at $1,299. Units are available for pre-order now and should ship next week. 

There are plenty of other relatively lightweight laptops with 15-inch screens on the market. Here's how Apple's measures up to two of the more popular ones: the XPS 15 from Dell and ASUS's ZenBook Pro 15.

MacBook Air 15 vs Dell XPS 15 vs ASUS ZenBook 15

Follow all of the news from Apple's WWDC 2023 right here.

Apple has a new diary app landing on iOS devices. Simply called “Journal,” the app is meant to help you keep tabs on daily moments you might want to remember or otherwise reflect on. The app is set to debut later this year following the rollout of iOS 17.

The app’s existence was reported in April by The Wall Street Journal, which compared it to Day One, a journaling app that’s been popular for more than a decade. But Apple’s Journal app could also be much more powerful than the offerings from third-party developers.

In addition to offering a diary-like interface where users can record notes about their day, the app will also allow people to easily keep tabs on their daily activities. Because the app can pull details from other apps, like Messages and Podcasts, it can automatically suggest moments you may want to reflect on.

For example, if you completed a workout using the Fitness app, or listened to a new podcast episode, Journal could remind you of these activities in its “intelligently curated” writing prompts and suggestions. Or if you took a trip to the beach, Journal could automatically pull in any related photos similar to the “memory” collages created in the Photos app.

The company also plans to offer an API for developers who want to tie their apps into Journal’s curated suggestions. Those kinds of integrations between apps could prompt privacy concerns, but the company said it created the app with users’ privacy in mind. The app is end-to-end encrypted, with all information stored locally on users’ devices. Users can also control which apps will have details appear in Journal’s suggestions.

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

Follow all of the news from Apple's WWDC 2023 right here.

Apple confirmed at its WWDC conference today that its largest and most powerful desktop will be receiving a few upgrades, including the M2 Ultra chip. While it's been through several aesthetic variations over the years, including the maligned "trashcan" model, for better or worse though, the Mac Pro will look identical to its cheese grater-like predecessor from 2019. This version, however, will support positioning as either a tower or a rack-mount. 

Other lines of Mac products have moved away from using third-party silicon, and now the hulking Mac Pro joins them. It's former Intel Xeon W setup has been replaced with the aforementioned M2 Ultra. As was rumored, the decision develop a specialized M2 Extreme chip was shelved due to cost and technical difficulty. The Mac Pro will now come stocked with a 24-core CPU and up to a 76-core GPU. 

Once again though, the Mac Pro will cost a small fortune: $6,999 to start. That remains an unfathomable and likely prohibitive sum for most customers, but considering the prior model was just $1,000 cheaper and nearly everything else on earth seems to cost a lot more since 2019, it could be worse. Someone who is good at the economy please explain any of this to me. 

The Mac Pro can be ordered today, and will become available starting on June 13.

Developing...

Apple has introduced iOS 17, and some of its most important changes revolve around fundamental apps. Incoming calls can now include custom posters for certain contacts, and you'll get Google-style live transcripts. Messages, meanwhile, offers easier replies, audio message transcripts, in-line location info and a "check in" that automatically lets people know if you've arrived or are delayed. There's a revamped sticker interface that lets you turn emojis into stickers, add effects and even add stickers to third-party apps.

Sharing is easier, too. NameDrop lets you share contact details just by bringing your iPhone close to someone else's device. You can share photos that way, too, and leave AirDrop transferring content even when you have to step away. A developer framework will expand access to sharing in other apps, too.

Even typing is better. New AI modelling improves keyboard autocorrection, and you'll see in-line predictions for what you're writing. If there's an unfamiliar word, iOS 17 will recognize it over time.

And yes, rumors of a life journaling app are true. The new Journal app lets document how you're feeling, complete with suggestions for writing prompts based on events like trips. Developers can tap into these suggestions.

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

Follow all of the news from Apple's WWDC 2023 right here.