Apple unveils macOS Sonoma for Macs, iOS 17 for iPhones: Follow along for WWDC live updates

Apple announced new audio and home experiences, including new features for its AirPods headphones.

The company introduced adaptive audio, which blends transparency and noise cancellation to match the environment that users are in. It works when listening to music and taking calls.

–Ashley Capoot

Apple just announced its latest Mac software. It’s called macOS Sonoma, named for California’s vineyard country. Here’s what’s new:

• New Gaming functionality, taking advantage of Apple’s more powerful graphics processing units and Apple’s Metal 3 framework.
• Expanded video-conferencing functionality through FaceTime. New overlay functions allow customers to appear on-top or alongside their presentations.
• New AR functionality for full-screen reactions that’ll also be available in Zoom, Teams, and WebEx.
• Game Mode will prioritize the game’s utilization of processing power, allowing more consistent framerates.
• Widgets are coming to the macOS on the desktop. They used to live in the Mac’s Notification Center. Like the iPad, they’ll be interactive and developer-enabled.
• Screensavers, like on tvOS, will be coming to macOS.
• Safari is getting some under-the-hood improvements and enhanced Private Browsing functionality.

— Rohan Goswami

Apple just announced the latest iPadOS 17 software for the iPad.

Here’s a rundown of the new features:

• Multiple timers for iPad, at last. “We truly live in an age of wonders,” Apple executive Craig Federighi said.
• The Health app has been added to the iPad as well.
• Machine-learning tech for PDFs to identify fields even if they’re not built into the PDF.
• Expanded functionality for iPad’s widgets, including enhanced interactivity for third-party developers. Apple showcased functionality for Quizlet.
• New customization options for the iPad lockscreen, similar to how iPhone users can customize their lockscreens. Weather, photo shuffle, and emojis are all part of the offering.
• Live Activity, a la iOS, which creates a widget-like functionality for users to track scores, delivery orders, or other developer-customizable continually updating information.

— Rohan Goswami

Apple introduced a new experience called Standby, which will show up for users when they place their iPhone on its side using a stand.

The iPhone screen will show the time, and users can pick from a variety of different clocks. Users can also swipe to engage with widgets like weather and home controls. The screen adapts to low light to help users sleep.

Users can also ask Siri to do tasks like play music or set timers, completely hands-free.

Apple just announced iOS 17, which includes a bunch of changes coming to the iPhone.

Apple is unveiling updates to three apps, Phone, Facetime, and Messages.

• Personalized contact posters, either using photos or Memoji, will allow users to choose their contact card for other users. Live transcription, in real-time, will also be coming for phone voicemails.
• Facetime will finally get a voicemail functionality, allowing users to leave a video message for their friends.
• And messaging will be revamped with more powerful search functionality and a catch-up feature for group chats. You can also see the location of your friends while messaging them.
• New stickers live in a “drawer,” with apparently expanded options including emoji expansion and rotatable optionality.
• Live photos can also be made into an animated sticker.
• A Check-in feature lets you tell a family member or friend when you’re home. Or, if you’re delayed, it’ll tell your friend that, too
• Messaging apps will now have a different layout, expanding to take up the full screen.
• Users can now bump two iPhones or Apple Watches together to share contacts, music, internet, or other shared activities with each other, a feature called “NameDrop.”

— Rohan Goswami

Apple just announced a new Mac Pro, its highest-end desktop computer, with the M2 Ultra chip. It’s the last Apple computer to ditch Intel for Apple silicon. It starts at $6,999.

It’ll feature the M2 Ultra’s 24-core CPU, support up to a 76-core GPU, eight Thunderbolt 4 ports, and up to six of Apple’s high-end Pro Display XDR.

Both products can be ordered today for availability next week.

It’s a game-changing move for high-end Apple computers, which historically relied on Intel chipsets until recently.

— Rohan Goswami

Apple just announced a series of updates for Mac Studio. It can be configured with either Apple’s M2 Max or M2 Ultra chips.

–Ashley Capoot

Apple just unveiled the 15-inch MacBook Air. It’s 11.5mm thick, just over 3 pounds, and powered by Apple’s own M2 chipset. The video demo showcased a standard headphone jack, two USB-C ports, and Apple’s MagSafe charging dock.

The laptop will ship in four colors, including Midnight and Starlight. The laptop features an 18-hour battery with an 8-core CPU and 10-core GPU

It costs $1,299. The 13-inch version will now cost $1,099. Customers can order it today and it’ll be available next week.

— Rohan Goswami

Apple CEO Tim Cook has just arrived on stage. He’s expected to unveil Apple’s virtual reality headset and the slew of developer and tech features that have typified past WWDCs. “This is going to be a historic day,” he said.

“This morning’s announcements, deep integration with hardware software and services, it’s something only Apple can do. Today we’re going to make some of our biggest announcements at WWDC. As well as introducing some exciting new products.”

— Rohan Goswami

Apple has a long track record at bringing disruptive products to sleepy markets and galvanizing demand. The company pioneering products, the iPod, the iPhone, and the iPad, disrupted their respective sectors.

Virtual reality products have struggled for years to gain consumer adoption and maintain institutional support. Microsoft made a play with the HoloLens, and Meta’s bet-the-house move on its Reality Labs vertical has disappointed some investors and analysts.

But Apple’s reputation as an innovator may allow it to succeed where others have failed, with time.

Read more about why that might happen from CNBC’s Kif Leswing.

— Rohan Goswami

Foste +Partners and namesake partner Norman Foster, Baron Foster, designed the Steve Jobs Theater in what the firm described as an “extraordinary eight-year collaboration” between the two companies.

Steve Jobs Theater boasts the “largest carbon-fiber roof in the world,” Foster+Partners says, and like Apple’s headquarters buildings and many of its marquee Apple Stores, is clad in glass.

1,000 people can sit in the below-ground auditorium, which has hosted WWDC events, investor meetings, and product demos for top Apple executives — including, reportedly, a “polished” demo of the rumored mixed-reality headset.

— Rohan Goswami

Though Apple is expected to announce its mixed-reality headset Monday, Ming-Chi Kuo, a renowned Apple analyst, suggested that consumers shouldn’t expect to buy it for a while.

Kuo wrote in a tweet Monday that mass shipments of the headset are expected to begin late this year or early next year. He added that shipments will likely be lower than the market consensus.

“However, the focus for investors now is not on shipments but on whether the new product announcement will convince people that Apple’s AR/MR headset device is the next star in consumer electronics,” he wrote.

–Ashley Capoot

In keeping with tradition, the Apple Store is temporarily down. Apple often makes changes to the store ahead of major product launches and events.

The company’s website says, “We’re making updates to the Apple Store. Check back soon.”

–Ashley Capoot

Apple’s WWDC event is usually all about software. It’s where the company typically announces some of the new features that are coming to its products later in the year. So, we’re almost guaranteed to see iOS 17 for iPhone, for example, and the latest version of macOS for Macs. Plus, toss in possible talk of new software for the Apple Watch, Apple TV and more.

Sometimes you get some new hardware, too. Apple announced the M2 chip and new MacBooks last year, for example. It also launched the updated Mac Pro back in 2019. So new Macs could be on the menu in addition to the headset.

— Rohan Goswami

Developers, media, and Apple VIPs are streaming into Apple’s campus, Apple Park, in Cupertino, California.

We’re expecting a pre-recorded video with information about Apple’s new iPhone software, Apple Watch software, and potentially, the company’s long-awaited mixed reality headset.

Apple employees are trying to keep the energy high, starting chants — “Dub Dub” is the nickname for the event. Most attendees seem excited. — Kif Leswing