Check The Highlights from Apple’s WWDC 2024

Apple Intelligence, iOS 18, and Vision Pro in Asia—here are the highlights from WWDC 2024.

Apple’s annual Worldwide Developer’s Conference, otherwise known as WWDC, kicked off with a keynote that unveiled what the company has been working on the software side of things. WWDC is always the event where the company announces their OS updates, and as such, they unveiled iOS 18 for the iPhone as well as updates for the iPadOS and the watchOS. But perhaps the biggest reveal that the San Cupertino-based company made was Apple Intelligence, the “personal intelligence system” that will come with the new operating systems on their devices. 

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WWDC 2024: The highlights from Apple’s announcements 

Introducing Apple Intelligence

As expected, Apple is finally integrating artificial intelligence into their software. Apple Intelligence, which can still be cheekily abbreviated to “AI”, will bring a slew of new features to Apple’s devices with the latest software updates like generating images in a new app called Image Playground, helping you edit and suMMArise text, and even taking passersby in the background of your photos. Apple also revealed that it will integrate ChatGPT in iOS 18, iPadOS 18, and MacOS Sequoia so that there’s no longer any need to jump from app to app. ChatGPT subscribers will also be able to use Pro features which will be integrated into the OS as well.

iOS 18 brings more customisation options to the home screen 

As it’s always done, Apple is a late adopter in making the home screen customisable. iOS 18 will now allow you to freely move and place apps around. You can also now change the colours of the icons, which means no more painstaking customisations using the Shortcuts app just to make your home screen look aesthetic. Other iOS 18 features include formatting for iMessage so you can bold and italicise, animated text effects to give your messages more emphasis, and the new Passwords app to keep all of your passwords securely in one place. 

Siri Interactions on AirPods

A fascinating feature that many have overlooked is something Apple is calling Siri Interactions for the AirPods. For those who turn on Siri announcements when wearing their AirPods, this feature now allows you to simply nod or shake your head to accept or reject in response instead of having to actually speak up. It’s a simple feature but a pretty neat one. 

iPadOS 18 brings the Calculator to iPad with additional features

There’s nothing groundbreaking about bringing the Calculator app to the iPad though it’s long been demanded by users. What is impressive though is a feature enabled by the new Apple Intelligence that allows you to write computations and equations on the Notes app and it automatically solves it for you. Even if you’re solving a number of equations that are related to each other, the solution will automatically change if you change any of the values. This will be a great help for students and perhaps a nightmare for teachers. 

Apple Vision Pro will be available in other countries

Almost a year to the day when it was unveiled at last year’s WWDC and about six months since its release in the US, the Vision Pro is finally coming to other countries. For Asia, the Vision Pro will be available in mainland China, Hong Kong, Japan, and Singapore. Pre-orders begin on June 14 and availability in stores will start on June 28. 

You can watch the entire WWDC 2024 keynote below. Read more about all the other announcements on Apple’s website.

This story first appeared on Lifestyle Asia Bangkok