Apple WWDC 2022: What to Expect
The cardinal matter to call back about Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) is the "DC" function. And no, we're non talking about the municipality, or the comics.
WWDC—which kicks off Mon at the McEnery Convention Center in San Jose, Calif.—is first and foremost a software developers' gathering. The primary focus is having the Apple diaspora of technerati, content pros, and determination makers all in one place for technical sessions and brainstorming over the direction of Apple's software universe in the coming year. That's what makes information technology the keenest venue for major updates to Apple's mobile iOS and computing-centric macOS operating systems.
Even so, Apple in the past has used the venue's keynote as a launch pad or teaser non just for Os updates (Apple tree macOS High Sierra and Apple iOS xi, every bit in 2022), but also for major hardware moves (tweaked MacBook Air, new iMacs in 2022).
Expect a mix of the two—hardware and software—at the 2022 shindig. Apple is overdue to tune up at least a subset of its laptops. And plenty other Apple shipping are circling the field that whatever i could make a surprise landing at WWDC. Let'due south take a quick look at what we look, category by category.
Laptop Refreshes Function I: MacBook, MacBook Pro
The MacBook lines—the straight-upwards ultraportable MacBook, the MacBook Pros, and the MacBook Air holdover—are the hardware that's ripest for change. With all of the mobile CPU changes since Apple's final major laptop refresh in 2022, nosotros'd consider information technology a thwarting if we didn't encounter at least some action on this front. For an overhaul, our bets are on the MacBook Pro and the MacBook Air.
Nosotros'd deem the MacBook ultraportable the to the lowest degree likely to see a major refresh, unless Apple pulls out a rabbit and redesigns the whole thing. That'south because its internals are essentially up-to-date (Y-Series seventh Generation Intel processors). Though it is inevitable that newer chips of this kind will come, we haven't seen any motion on Intel'due south side of the fence for equivalent 8th Generation ultra-low-voltage CPUs. So, at the moment, there is not a lot of incentive, given today's component upgrade cycle, for major MacBook tweakage.
The MacBook Pro—in its 13-inch and 15-inch iterations—is a better candidate for a large update. The ii sizes will likely go in unlike directions, though. The xiii-incher today tops out with dual-core 7th-Generation "Kaby Lake" fries, and a move to new-for-2018 quad-core "Java Lake" CPUs would be a large deal; the chip uptick would amount to more than a uncomplicated generational crash-land for functioning-minded users. Going from dual-core to quad-cadre (both with Hyper-Threading) would make a large divergence for multi-threaded content-creation tasks of the kind that keep the Mac faithful exactly that.
Equally for the 15-inch MacBook Pro, if we see a refresh centered around core components, we'd expect it to include the selection for eighth Generation Coffee Lake in six-core flavors. (The best you lot can get in 2022's existing line is a 7th Generation quad-cadre.) More cores, again, means more than joy for content creators. An outside hazard could be the selection for the beastly Intel mobile Core i9, simply given the lack of activeness on the discrete-graphics front to complement it, we'd place a side bet instead on Kaby Lake-G.
The Kaby Lake-Thousand processors are the contempo Intel/AMD collaboration that puts a quad-core Core i7 on the same dice with powerful AMD Radeon RX Vega graphics. That said, the battery-life cost that this chip has levied in aircraft models so far (such as the Dell XPS 15 2-in-1) might be a mitigating factor confronting it showing up in a new MacBook Pro. Still, it's a tempting thought, equally on-chip Vega has the potential for different thermal designs and maybe, as a result, a new-wait MacBook Pro.
Another new-await possibility is a redesign spurred by the popularity (or lack thereof) of Apple'due south Touch Bar, and the recent squabbles over the durability of late-model MacBook and MacBook Pro keyboard switches.
For more, bank check out our wish list for the 2022 Apple MacBooks.
Laptop Refreshes Part Two: What Nigh the Air?
And so there's the MacBook Air. This icon is still a popular budget laptop, but aspects of the design are, here in 2022, downright geriatric by any standard. (We reviewed the 2022 version of the MacBook Air last summer.)
The screen bezels on the current-gen MacBook Air are huge, and the laptop's last CPU refresh was merely the smallest of upticks, bringing information technology just to 5th Generation Cadre, also known every bit "Broadwell." Given the CPUs in the rest of the Apple 2022 laptop line, the MacBook Air is conspicuously lagging the Mac pack. The eleven.six-inch-screen model is dead, with just the 13-incher holding on.
It'due south possible Apple may finally fold the MacBook Air into the non-Air MacBooks, in the form of a 13-inch-screen MacBook model, or gyre out a new, equivalent depression-finish MacBook to take its place. Ourselves, we'd similar to run into Apple overhaul the Air in five ways:
- Slim it downwards.
- Reduce the bezels or boost the screen size (or both).
- Go the cadre components (CPU, storage) in line with 2022 standards, or at least 2022.
- Update the ho-hum i,440-by-900-pixel display to a Retina panel.
- Modernize the physical connectivity, with at to the lowest degree one USB Blazon-C/Thunderbolt 3 port. (The current model's fastest connector is a fading-in-relevance Thunderbolt ii.)
The rumor mill has also suggested that an ARM-based MacBook Air could be in the offing, but a roundtable last year at Cupertino seemed to put the kibosh on that possibility.
Mac Desktop Tweaks: No Pro, Maybe Mini?
The last chapter in the Mac desktops story was the late-2017 rollout of the high-end Apple iMac Pro all-in-ane (AIO), as a analogue to the cylindrical Mac Pro desktop workstation. The iMac Pro AIO model probably won't refresh at WWDC—its Xeon W processors aren't in step with any rumored CPU-update cadence on Intel'south part, and the automobile just isn't that sometime. However, the more consumer-minded iMac (not-Pro) AIOs could run across an iterative movement to 8th Generation Kaby Lake-R or Coffee Lake; they relaunched final summer with directly 7th Generation Kaby Lake CPUs.
Nosotros would not await to hear much, if annihilation, most the Mac Pro. A deep rethink of the standalone Mac desktop workstation is in the works, TechCrunch reported before this year. Whatever rejiggered Mac Pro probable will not ringlet out until erstwhile in 2022.
And then at that place's the long-running Apple Mac mini, which, in its electric current class, is running on aging dual-core CPUs and in its base models with traditional hard drive and Fusion Drive storage. It would seem a adept candidate for a hardware refresh—or, for that matter, aircraft off to Valhalla. Bold a Viking funeral isn't in the offing, we could well see the Mac mini motility to quad- or even six-core CPUs. As well, given the changes over the terminal couple of years in solid-land storage, we would non be surprised to run into a hardware chassis alter, made possible by a changeover to highly meaty M.2-course-factor solid-state drives, as opposed to Apple's long-running Fusion Bulldoze/hard drive approach.
That's just conjecture based on the times. Yet, the Mac mini has been static in recent years, and given the radical smallification we've seen in mini-PCs from the likes of Intel in its NUC line of mini-desktops, Apple has the opportunity to make a argument with the long-neglected Mac Mini.
iPhone, iPad, iOS: Relatively Low Profiles?
Our atomic number 82 analyst for mobile, Sascha Segan, is convinced that observers hungry for new iPhone hardware on the WWDC menu should, well, expect grumbling stomachs.
Plenty of rumors have circulated around a putative "iPhone SE two," but Segan says don't count on information technology at WWDC. "That is something that a lot of iPhone lovers take been trying to volition into reality," he notes. "Merely the most recent rumors say that it isn't happening this summer, if it happens at all. Apple may just fall back on using the iPhone 6s as its 'low-cost' iPhone."
The AirPower wireless charging pad that decloaked in 2022 might go a mention; it still hasn't seen a release or a release date.
More likely to materialize at WWDC is a preview of features that will come in the eventual iOS 12 release, which, of grade, would trickle down to Apple's current mobile devices. Bloomberg reported this week that iOS tweaks this time around will eye on digital health initiatives, including tools for monitoring digital-device usage and getting smartphone overuse under control. (Encounter our recent feature on tech addiction.)
Upticks to the contempo augmented-reality features for iPhone/iPad are as well likely in the offing, as well as iterative tweaks to video calling and the functionality effectually Animojis. The Information likewise reported the likelihood of enhancements to the well-nigh-field-advice (NFC) functionality in late-model iPhones that might enable the chip to work with smart security solutions, such as smart locks, to open doors or vehicles. Many major iOS features, however, will be pushed to 2022, according to reporting earlier this year by Ina Fried of Axios.
As for the iPad, Apple rolled out some tweaks to the mainstream iPad tablet at an education-focused event earlier this year in Chicago. The refreshed $329 iPad will now come in a version geared toward educators that at present includes back up for the Apple tree Pencil, and with a $30 discount per iPad for schools. It'due south possible nosotros may see some activity on the creator-friendly Apple iPad Pro, only given how new the line is, relatively speaking, we're not sure if Apple tree has almanac updates in mind for this line, and if it might move to a new Apple tree SoC now or when the next iPhone does.
Consumer Devices: Apple tree Goggle box, Beats
Our senior analyst for consumer electronics, Will Greenwald, doesn't look much new on the Apple tree TV front. Hardware refreshes for Apple Goggle box have traditionally been few and far between, he notes, with the usual cadence for updates being in September, rather than at WWDC.
That said, Google floated new Android TV/Chromecast hardware at Google I/O, and Apple Goggle box's form cistron has been a long-running constant, unlike offerings from Roku, Google, and Amazon, which yous tin can become in stick or dongle course factors. An Apple Television set Stick or similar device to supercede the non-4K Apple Tv would not be a huge surprise. If that's the case, though, Greenwald suggests that any glimpses of development hardware will likely exist kept backside airtight doors, not exhibited on the WWDC big stage.
As for the long-rumored, white whale of a dedicated Apple TV—a full-on goggle box with Apple-hardware guts—don't agree your breath. Not fifty-fifty the rumor mill has turned upwards any inklings by Apple tree to secure production of LCD panels large plenty for TVs, and there isn't a precedent for putting tvOS or iOS into 3rd-party hardware. We'd put the chances of an Apple-fabricated or -branded Boob tube as highly unlikely (considering of the logistics), and of Apple TV hardware in another manufacturer's TV similarly so (on the footing of philosophy).
The rumor mill has, however, bandied about a Beats-branded, perhaps Siri-enabled speaker to complement Apple's HomePod in the smart speaker line at a lower toll bespeak. Will that come up to pass? We'll be on the ground at WWDC to check out all the Apple latest—whatever it turns out to be.
Source: https://sea.pcmag.com/apple-pencil/21370/apple-wwdc-2018-what-to-expect
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