WWDC is in full swing and the keynote saw Apple jam – basically everything into 2 hours.

Here are the main points.

HomePods

The much touted “Apple Speakers” are called HomePods. They are wireless voice control speakers standing at 7 inches tall, comes with Siri and has spatial awareness. Made to work with Apple Music, it comes with Apple-designed woofer for deep, clean bass, a custom array of seven beam-forming tweeters. Fitted with six microphones, it claims to hear the user, even while loud music is playing.

Siri can perform as she would as an assistant – send messages, get updates on news, sports and weather, or control smart home devices. Powered by an A8 chip, privacy ensured, with encrypted communication.

HomePod will be available for US$349 (approx RM 1500)  in white and space gray starting in December initially in Australia, the UK and the US. HomePod is compatible with iPhone 5s and later, running iOS 11.

iMac Pro

High performance made for advanced graphics editing, virtual reality content creation and real-time 3D rendering. Sports a 27-inch Retina 5K display, up to 18-core Xeon processors, new Radeon Pro Vega GPU for up to 22 Teraflops of graphics computation, hailed to be the most powerful Mac ever made.

It supports up to 4TB of SSD and up to 128GB of ECC memory, and with four Thunderbolt 3 ports can connect to up to two high-performance RAID arrays and two 5K displays at the same time. Also features 10Gb Ethernet for up to 10 times faster networking.

Comes in space gray, iMac Pro is scheduled to ship in December starting at US$4,999 (approx RM 21500).

iMac and MacBook

The entire lineup gets a major boost with Kaby Lake.

iMac

The updated iMac gets Kaby Lake processors up to 4.2 GHz with Turbo Boost up to 4.5 GHz. Fusion Drive is now standard on all 27-inch configurations and the top-end 21.5-inch iMac. SSD storage options are now up to 50 percent faster, and iMac comes with Thunderbolt 3.

Powered by new Radeon Pro 500-series graphics with up to 8GB of vRAM. The 21.5-inch model delivers up to three times faster performance and the 27-inch model is up to 50 percent faster. Display is 43 percent brighter at 500 nits and with support for 1 billion colours, for more true-to-life viewing experience.

Also added a Retina 4K display and discrete graphics to the US$1,299 (approx RM 5600) 21.5-inch iMac.

MacBook and MacBook Pro

MacBook now features Kaby Lake processors up to 1.3 GHz Core i7 with Turbo Boost up to 3.6 GHz and up to 50 percent faster SSD, and supports up to twice the memory.

The updated 13-inch MacBook Pro gets Kaby Lake processors up to 3.5 GHz Core i7 with Turbo Boost up to 4.0 GHz, and the 15-inch MacBook Pro goes up to 3.1 GHz Core i7 with Turbo Boost up to 4.1 GHz. The 15-inch MacBook Pro now comes standard with more powerful discrete graphics with more video memory, and the 13-inch MacBook Pro adds a new $1,299 (US) configuration.

Also updated the 13-inch MacBook Air with a 1.8 GHz processor. Also, there’s a new US$1,299 (approx RM 5600) 13-inch MacBook Pro.

iPad Pro 10.5″, 12.9″

Bezel reduced by 40%, weighs a pound (less than 500g) – comes with new features that will come with the iOS11 updates (see below for more iOS 11). New tech called ProMotion – that has refresh rates up to 120Hz – for smoother user experience.

Powered by a new 64-bit A10X Fusion chip. A six-core CPU and 12-core GPU deliver up to 30 percent faster CPU performance and 40 percent faster graphics performance than its predecessor.

Features a 12-megapixel camera with optical image stabilisation, along with a 7-megapixel HD camera.

Available for order now, delivery starts next week. In stores next week for Australia, Canada, China, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, Russia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the UK. India, Turkey, UAE and other countries and regions will follow later this month. Brazil, Mexico, South Korea and other countries and territories will follow in July.

The 10.5-inch iPad Pro comes in silver, space gray, gold and rose gold and starts at US$649 (approx RM 2800) for the 64GB with Wi-Fi model and US$779 (approx RM 3400) for the 64GB Wi-Fi + Cellular model. The 12.9-inch iPad Pro is available in silver, space gray and gold and starts at US$779 (approx RM 3400) for the 64GB Wi-Fi model and US$929 (approx RM 4000) for the 64GB Wi-Fi + Cellular model.

iOS 11 updates for iPad

• A new dock system at the bottom, for more access to apps and documents
• Spaces made available for iOS – easier for split views and swapping between paired active apps.
• Files app for locating all file types, integration with iCloud and third party providers including Box, Dropbox, Google Drive, OneDrive
• Multi-Touch Drag and Drop, which is available across the system to move text, photos and files from one app to another, anywhere on the screen
• A new document scanner in Notes,  auto detects edges and allows for note taking.
• Support for inline drawing to write along text in Notes and Mail, Instant Markup to easily sign documents, annotate PDFs or draw on screenshots, and a new Instant Notes feature, which opens Notes from the Lock Screen by tapping Apple Pencil on the display.
• Handwriting now searchable

iOS 11

Siri now has a male voice too, with both voices getting additional pitch and intonation. Siri can now do translation, can translate English words and phrases into Chinese, French, German, Italian or Spanish. Added capabilities for more personal experiences and offers suggestions based on personal usage of Safari, News, Mail, Messages and more.

Camera gets SnapChat/Instagram like features including Loop and Bounce. (creating GIFs anyone?) Also a new Long Exposure mode for movement in pictures. In Photos, Memory movies are optimised to play in both portrait and landscape. With iOS 11, Apple introduces High Efficiency Image File Format (HEIF) that reduces the file size of every photo taken with iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus.

Apple Pay now allows you to make and receive payments through Messages, or tell Siri to pay someone, using the credit and debit cards they already have in Wallet. When users get paid, they receive the money in their new Apple Pay Cash account.

Do Not Disturb while driving helps drivers stay more focused on the road. iPhone can detect when you may be driving and automatically silence notifications to keep the screen dark. Users have the option of sending an auto reply to contacts listed in Favourites to let them know they are driving and cannot respond until they arrive at their destination.

Apple also brought out ARKit (and other developer Kits) to bring AR experience into iPhone and iPad using built in camera.

Apple Maps adds indoor maps for major airports and shopping centres around the world and lane guidance to avoid missing a turn or exit.

The developer preview of iOS 11 is available starting today, and a public beta program will be available to iOS users later this month. iOS 11 will be available this fall as a free software update for iPhone 5s and later, all iPad Air and iPad Pro models, iPad 5th generation, iPad mini 2 and later and iPod touch 6th generation.

macOS High Sierra

New file system called Apple File System (APFS), giving enhanced performance, security and reliability of data. APFS makes common operations such as copying files and directories instantaneous, helps protect data from power outages and system crashes and keeps files safe and secure with native encryption. macOS High Sierra also maintains complete read-and-write compatibility with previously formatted HFS drives and data.

High Sierra also includes support for industry-standard HEVC (H.265) enables video streaming and playback of 4K video files at incredible quality that are also up to 40 percent smaller than with the current H.264 standard.

Apple’s advanced graphics technology Metal gets upgraded to Metal 2. Adds support for machine learning used in speech recognition, natural language processing and computer vision. macOS High Sierra adds support for VR content creation, enabling developers to create immersive gaming, 3D and VR content on the Mac.

Coming later this year — Valve is optimising their SteamVR platform for macOS and enabling connection of the HTC Vive headset, while Unity and Epic are bringing their VR development tools to macOS. Also later this year, Final Cut Pro X will add support for professional 360-degree workflows with the ability to import, edit and export 360-degree video.

Additional app updates an refinements for Photos, with additional support for external editors including Photoshop, Pixelmator. Support for third-party project extensions for printing and publishing services, including Animoto, ifolor, Shutterfly, WhiteWall and Wix.

Safari Autoplay Blocking stops media with audio from automatically playing in the browser. Intelligent Tracking Prevention in Safari uses machine learning to identify and remove the tracking data that advertisers employ to follow users’ web activity.

Others

Amazon Prime is going to Apple TV.

AppStore gets a revamp. So it’ll look really different after updates. In fact the whole iOS 11 has new designs everywhere including the Control Centre, Notifications on lock screen and others.

There are China only upgrades. Apple didn’t mention much in detail, but mentioned in passing, with the above slide showing. Take it as you would.

Watch will be getting an upgrade to watchOS 4, with new watch faces including improved Siri, a kaleidoscope face, a toy story face, as well as Apple watch enable equipment in the gym that can sync data through NFC. watchOS 4 will be available this fall as a free update to Apple Watch paired with iPhone 5s and later on iOS 11. Developer preview out now.