All the top announcements at WWDC 2019: iOS 13, iPadOS, macOS Catalina

MANILA, Philippines – Apple has just wrapped up the opening keynote its annual Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC) at San Jose, California, Tuesday, June 4, treating the world to a first look at some of the new features and updates coming to the company’s devices.

Here are some of the top announcements:

tvOS 13

tvOS 13, the newest Apple TV operating system, adds multi-user support to better personalize your viewing experience, allowing the app to make recommendations on what to watch in the TV app or listen to in Apple Music.

Additionally, the update features a new home screen that has full-screen previews of shows and movies. Meanwhile, Apple Music now lets you pull up lyrics that are in sync with the song you’re listening to in tvOS.

It also adds support for Playstation 4 and Xbox One game controllers in time for the launch of Apple Arcade later this year.

Apple announced that tvOS 13 is expected to launch sometime in fall.

watchOS 6

Apple is bringing more apps to their line of wearables with watchOS 6 such as Audiobooks, Voice Memos, and Calculator.

For health and fitness, the update adds Activity Trends, which shows metrics for tracking your physical activity; the Noise app, which lets you monitor how noisy your environment is; and Cycle Tracking, which can track and visualize women’s menstrual cycles.

Apple is also letting you purchase, install, and updates apps from the Apple Watch itself with the addition of the App Store.

The update is scheduled to roll out this coming fall.

iOS 13

Dubbed as the “next big release for iOS,” iOS 13 welcomes a number of new features, including an overhauled Reminders app, a revamped Apple Maps, new customization options in Memojis, new photo and video editing tools, and the highly-anticipated Dark Mode.

The update also introduces Quick Path keyboard, which lets you swipe across keys to type.

Apple touted improvements in performance, promising Face ID unlocks 30% faster and apps launch twice as fast with iOS 13.

Last but definitely not the least, are the addition of new privacy and security features. The best of which is “Sign in with Apple,” a feature that lets you log into sites and services with your Apple account, instead of Google or Facebook. You authenticate your login with your Face ID.

iPadOS

Apple in its pursuit to make the iPad a suitable alternative to desktops introduced the iPadOS at the event. With the new OS, iPads will now be able to support a mouse. 

While it is said to be built from the foundation of iOS, there are a number of features that are unique to iPadOS.

One of which is multitasking, which includes notable updates to Slide Over and Split View. Switching between apps with the Slide Over feature is now much quicker while Split View now accommodates split-screen view of the same app.

What’s more is that iPadOS presents the desktop version of Safari with support for download manager and keyboard shortcuts. The app is scaled properly for the iPad’s screen and optimized for touch inputs.

Both the iPadOS and iOS 13 also support external USB flash drives and SD cards, which allows you to transfer files easily between devices.

macOS Catalina

Apple at the event revealed that the latest version of macOS is going to be officially called Catalina. The biggest change coming with the update is iTunes being dissolved to three individual apps: Apple Music, Apple Podcasts, and Apple TV. (READ: iTunes is saying goodbye 18 years after its debut)

It also adds Sidecar, a feature that allows you to use your iPad as a secondary display or a touch controller for your Mac for apps that support both platforms.

This then bolsters the need for Project Catalyst, previously referred to as Project Marzipan, which lets developers port or create their apps to work for iOS, iPadOS, and macOS.

Mac Pro

Although WWDC is a software-focused event, hardware announcements are not entirely out of the question. This year, Apple unveiled a redesigned Mac Pro.

It houses an Intel Xeon processor with up to 28 cores, four graphics processing units (GPU) in what Apple calls an MPX module, and 1.5TB of 6-channel ECC system memory.

To go with it, Apple also unveiled the Pro Display XDR, a 32-inch 6K monitor that can maintain 1,000 nits of brightness with a peak brightness of 1,600 nits. The display has 1,000,000:1 contrast ratio, delivering image quality, which Apple calls Extreme Dynamic Range.

With the starting price tag of $5,999 for the Mac Pro and $4,999 for the Pro Display XDR, Apple’s latest Mac hardware are still geared towards professionals rather than casual users. – Rappler.com