Apple WWDC 2022 Day 1 Recap: Everything of Note from Apple’s Still-Ongoing Digital Event

Apple's annual WWDC event is sure to excite the masses this year as major announcements prove the company is pushing bounds in many profound ways, most prominent among them being in a next-gen M2 chip, Macbook Air redesigns (featuring that aforementioned chipset), iOS 16, WatchOS 9, and so much more. It's clear the company is proving to set itself apart from the rest in terms of quality and advancement, showcasing new more accessible features on its macOC Ventura platform, as well as iPadOS multitasking, CarPlay updates, and enhanced security features.

In all, it's a good day for Apple enthusiasts.

Next-Gen M2 Processor

The company has allotted the gamut for its M1 chipset, witnessed through the long line of iterations including M1 Pro, M1 Max, M1 Ultra, and the base M1, proving that it's time for the next step. Apple's new M2 chip will run on custom Arm silicon utilizing a 5nm process with 20 billion transistors, which is around 25% more than the base M1 processor.

According to Apple, M2 performance will be about 1.9x faster than modern "10-core PC laptop chip[s]" and will run primarily on 24Gb of unified memory and 100Gbps of memory bandwidth. The M2 processor will boast four high-efficiency cores and four subsequent high-performance cores, aided via 4MB and 16MB of shared cache on the respective core sets. The M2's media engine will have the ability to play HEVC video and 8K H.264 formatting, allowing systems to run both 8K and 4K streams simultaneously.

The internal GPU of the M2 chip will see up to 10 cores, larger cache and memory bandwidth capacities. Apple itself cites a potential 35% boost in performance over the M1 chip with the next-gen processor running at the max power. The first systems to see the M2 chip will be Apple's upcoming new Air iterations.

iOS 16 and iPadOS 16

Of major note for Apple users is the announcement of iOS 16, which comes aplenty with some interesting new software upgrades. Slated for full debut by fall 2022, Apple's iOS 16 will have customizable lock screens with widgets, editing capabilities in messages, text recalling, and several additional enhancements for Maps, Photos, and Wallet. Car Play will also be getting a full reworking under the new software, made all the more streamlined through support from several auto manufacturers.

The other operating system on Apple's beefier product, the iPad, will consist of all-new multitasking proponents under the Stage Manager platform, giving iPad users the flexibility in overlapping and resizing their windows on the device. Yet another newly introduced toolset gives collaborators much more unchained capabilities through its Freeform whiteboard, allowing several various users to work together on projects in office applications, like Pages.

macOS Ventura

Named after the Southern Californian coast city, macOS 13's brand-new identity will feature some incredibly interesting tools, most prominent among them being the aforementioned Stage Manager proponent introduced to iPadOS. The new software will also allow Apple users to seamlessly utilize their own iPhone as a camera through the device in order to make video calls. Other key feature updates include several necessary Mail app tweaks and Spotlight's new photo discoverability feature and in-image text reading capabilities.

watchOS 9

Apple's sophisticated watch product is getting all-new features for its health tracking capabilities, sleep monitoring for specific stages, irregular heartbeat history implementation, and new watchfaces. Apple is aiming all of its Watch feature sets toward athletes, highlighting Fitness Plus updates, easy switching between activities (ie swimming, cycling, etc), and new running metrics. Apple's watchOS 9 will now also feature medication reminders for those inclined.

Apple CarPlay

Apple is working alongside some of the most prominent automakers in the business in delivering some awesome enhancements to CarPlay, but of major hype amid WWDC 2022 was the addition of Apple widgets finding their home within the driver's headsetup display. Obviously, this proponent will only work with newer rides, but gives Apple users full potential for their vehicle integration, allowing drivers to literally replace the car's existing instrument cluster for their own customized iteration featuring trip info, fuel and/or battery capacities, speed, weather, and more.

While these may well have been the major highlights amid Apple's WWDC 2022 event, the firm is only just getting started. The event is slated to last until June 10th and has already maintained incredible hype in the rally of interesting tech upgrades across the Apple platform, including Safety Check, Pay Later, MacBook Air upgrades, Passkey enhancements, and so much more.

This article is owned by Tech Times

Written by Ryan Epps