Apple events are always something to look forward to and today’s 2019 Worldwide Developers Conference was no different. This year’s event from the San Jose Convention Center brought some surprises but confirmed many of the rumors that were floating around. Let’s take a look at some of the new products and changes coming our way.
New Mac Pro
A video editor’s dream machine, the new Mac Pro integrates six channels of ECC memory and 2933 MHz of ECC RAM, the return of PCI-E with eight slots, and two USB-A ports. The Pro has 12 DIMM slots and can fit up to 1.5TB of system memory. For video, the Mac Pro boasts a 14 teraflop Radeon Pro Vega II with 32GB of HBM2 (a configuration with a Radeon Pro Vega II Duo card will be available with 28 teraflop capacity). Want to know the price? The new Mac Pro starts at $5999.
6K Apple Pro Retina Display XDR
At 32 inches and 6015 x 2284 (6k) resolution (the first ever of its kind), this new Apple display features 1,000,000:1 contrast ratio, 10-bit color depth, and up to 1600 nits peak brightness (1000 nits full-screen sustained). On the back, four Thunderbolt 3 ports. The 6K Apple Pro Display XDR will list for $4999.
iOS 13
One of the biggest announcements was iOS 13 releasing this fall. The system update has changed the look of iOS and one standout feature is a new Dark Mode for a more dramatic interface. But other new features include High-Key Monochromatic effect for Portrait mode photos, Portrait Lighting control, an updated photos tab, and photo and video editing options. A new immersive 3D experience in Maps is among other iOS changes in the upcoming version.
iPadOS
Built on iOS, iPadOS is optimized for iPad with new and improved features including Slide Over and Split View (with multiple apps in Slide Over), apps in multiple spaces (see screenshot), a new Home screen redesign, Pinned Widgets on the Home Screen, and even lower latency with Apple Pencil, among other updates.
watchOS 6
watchOS 6Coming this fall with watchOS 6 for Apple Watch, improvements and additions include Watch Faces for different Apple Watch face designs and functionalities, enhanced Siri voice control that improves music discovery with Shazam, Activity Trends with comparisons of 90-day averages to 365-day performance, menstrual cycle tracking, and noise decibel monitoring for hearing health.
macOS Catalina
Coming soon the new macOS Catalina has split iTunes in separate music, TV, and podcasts in three all-new Mac apps. What might be the biggest feature of this new macOS is the addition of Apple TV app for Mac and soon Apple TV+. As talked about at the last keynote, Dolby Atmos will soon be available on Mac. And, Apple Music is also coming to Mac.
