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SnowHaze - The secure browser developed by Swiss students
by Dominik Bärlocher
Apple WWDC: The new iMac Pro is a monster and is coming in December
5.6.2017
Translation: machine translated
Apple unveiled new products on Whit Monday. The show is stolen by the iMac Pro, which offers truly impressive performance. Other things are also improved, but don't come close to the sensation of the black desktop computer.
As usual, Apple's keynote begins with a laugh-inducing sketch: a newcomer in Cupertino is briefly placed in a server room because there is no room in the office. He wants to plug in his decorative water feature and unplugs something. Unfortunately, this is the server that controls all apps on all iDevices. It triggers the app-ocalypse.
Tim Cook takes the stage. "I'm so happy that this will never happen. Because it can't happen," he says. Then the announcement. "This will be the biggest WWDC ever". There it is again, the "Best Ever" that benefits every iPhone, every iPad, every iPod and every Apple Watch. Best Ever.
Television
AppleTV supports the streaming services of many US cable channels. However, this function is only really useful in the USA, as most of the channels are US channels. Until now. Because Amazon is joining in with tvOS. This could be the first step towards the widespread use of tvOS in this country too.
Apple Watch
WatchOS receives a new update. WatchOS 4 should allow further personalisation. A new watch face is to be fed with Siri data and thus allow a kind of news feed on the watch. This feed will be personalised. In the morning, it will show the route to the office with traffic information and the first meeting. Once in the office, the watch face changes and displays other appointments and things that the user often uses at this time of day. There are also some decorative watch faces. Mickey and Minnie Mouse are now joined by Woody, Buzz Lightyear and Jessie from Toy Story.
The activity tracker has also been updated. It has new challenges that aim to make you more active as a user, but should not set unrealistic goals, as the tracker's previous data is taken into account. High intensity interval training is also supported. The fitness scene knows the short sets with a short break and long duration as HIIT. WatchOS will also be able to interact with fitness devices equipped with NFC and exchange data.
The Apple Music app for WatchOS is being redesigned. It now also has automatically curated, theme-based music for your taste. The Spotify app's Daily Mix can be used as a comparison. Interacting with music on WatchOS is set to become easier and graphically simpler. And talk to the activity tracker. With the appropriate settings, a workout mix can be linked to a workout. The playlist then plays when the corresponding workout starts.
Furthermore, Apple Core integrates Bluetooth into the Apple Watch, which allows interaction with other Bluetooth devices with an open API.
The successor to Sierra is called High Sierra
MacOS is being overhauled. A lot will be possible in the new version, the successor to Sierra. But Sierra is history. Because the upcoming version of MacOS is called High Sierra. High Sierra is not intended to be a radical update, but rather a massive improvement on Sierra. This is because the new version integrates deep technology. But apps on the surface will also be revised.
Safari, the world's fastest browser under High Sierra according to Tim Cook and co, will block autoplay by default. This will make sites like CNET.com tolerable again. And if you think the video teasers on our site are stupid, they're static too.
Safari now also offers protection against tracking. Trackers are automatically recognised and then blocked.
The Photos app under MacOS will be able to recognise faces even better. Image recognition will finally be synchronised across all devices. New image editing tools will also be integrated, including curves.
Then the sensation: the MacOS file system will be changed. After thirty years, HFS has had its day. MacOS will now run under the Apple File System, APFS. High Sierra will be able to interact with local data much faster, which will dramatically improve the speed, or rather the perception of the speed, of the OS. APFS has been in use on iOS since version 10.3 and has more than proven itself there. Therefore: Out with HFS, in with APFS.
The graphics have also been tinkered with. The Metal graphics engine is being replaced by Metal 2. New APIs, more speed, smarter image analysis. Metal 2 is so fast that it should essentially speed up everything that is displayed graphically. In addition, machine learning features have been built in to accelerate the further development of Metal.
Metal is also available as a feature for VR. Attention gamers:
- Steam VR is coming to the Mac
- The Unreal VR Engine is coming to the Mac
The hardware in the iMac
The iMac currently comes in 4k and 5k resolution. Although this is very good, it has been improved. With 500 nits and 43% additional brightness, content on the screen looks better than ever. Furthermore, the new iMacs are equipped with Kaby Lake processors and a Fusion Drive with up to two terabytes of data volume. In addition, the graphics cards have been upgraded to deliver up to 300% more graphics performance, depending on the configuration of the device. The 27-inch model is even said to be perfect for VR development.
A demo shows the planet Mustafar from "Star Wars", where Darth Vader has his citadel.
Macbooks will be easily upgraded
New Macbooks? New Macbooks! The new devices are equipped with Kaby Lake processors and faster SSDs. Plus, of course, the upgrade to High Sierra as soon as it is released. The devices will be delivered immediately. However, it is not yet known when Switzerland will receive the notebooks at the time of going to press.
iMac Pro: The monster on the table
A new, greatly improved iMac will be released at the end of the year. It will be called the iMac Pro, will be black and offer workstation performance. The technical data, as far as is known:
- Octa Core Xeon CPU or 10 Core Xeon... or 18 Core Xeon.
- Radeon Vega GPU with up to 16GB VRAM
- Up to 4TB SSD data volume
- 4 Thunderbolt ports
- 10Gbit network connection
- Up to three 5k displays can be attached
- Card reader
The iMac Pro will be released in December. This announcement is therefore noteworthy, as Apple's Pro hardware has stagnated in the desktop sector for years and has fallen off the radar of many. Many users have therefore fallen back on the iMacs.
iOS gets a major overhaul
- 96% of customers are satisfied with iOS
- 86% of customers have upgraded their devices to iOS 10
Of course, Tim Cook announces the successor version iOS 11. The new update improves iMessage by redesigning the app drawer. Stickers and emoji will be more accessible. Messages from iMessage are synchronised to all Apple devices, which also applies to deleted messages. In other words: iMessages will be cloud-based.
Apple attacks the wallet. Apple Pay supports person-to-person payments as part of iMessage. So you can quickly send two francs or so to your colleague. However, it seems unlikely that this feature will come to Switzerland due to the local banking situation.
Siri's voice is being upgraded. Tim Cook demonstrates that Siri now has improved intonation. It is not known whether this also applies to the German language. Siri can also translate newly spoken sentences. These two features are combined in the Chinese language, as the language is heavily dependent on intonation.
Good news for the Apple Control Centre, which used to be a bit of a mess. All settings are now displayed on one page. The individual settings can be enlarged using 3D Touch. This allows even more settings to be displayed.
The new app store
The app store has been completely redesigned. This manoeuvre is long overdue, as the growth of the store has always added new features and these have somehow been built into the graphic interface. Everything is now clearly organised. The app store is redesigned with tabs that filter apps by category such as "Games" or "Apps".
The iPad Pro is growing
The iPad Pro is getting bigger, but not bulkier. Not only have the edges become narrower, but the screen has also been enlarged to 10.5 inches.
In addition, the hardware has been given a decent upgrade, making the iPad Pro more interesting for graphics professionals. Image editing will be easier and faster thanks to the Metal Engine and updated hardware. Nevertheless, the battery should not suffer and should still last ten hours a day.
iOS 11 will have extended functions on the iPad. Apps can be displayed in windows and thus be next to each other. In addition, the iPad can finally drag and drop, which makes the new File Explorer on the device efficient. On the keyboard, the special characters behind the letter can be accessed quickly by dragging on the letter.
Update: The iPads in the Pro series are available for pre-sale. There are 42 devices in total across all colours, models and sizes. I'll link the 512GB versions. You can find the rest with our search:
10.5 inch [[product:6344752,6344759,6344776]] [[product:6344781,6344850,6344856]]
12.9 inch [[product:6344727,6344729,6344738]] [[product:6344741,6344747,6344749]]
More to come shortly
- Apple is doing well, says Tim Cook
- More than 16 million developers are at work in the Apple Store
- Apple users take one trillion pictures per year
- Image compression is improved. This saves storage space.
- The keyboard will become even more content aware. It will suggest words that were relevant in things you looked at in other apps
- Apple will now be able to display internal maps of buildings, such as Geneva Airport
- Apple Maps can now show the lane you need to turn into
- Apple HomeKit now supports speakers
- Developers have been paid out 70 billion dollars for app purchases in the App Store
- Apps will be added to the App Store even faster
- Apple introduces a wireless speaker called HomePod. It measures the echo of the sound and thus optimises the sound in the room. It can be connected to another speaker to create a stereo system and has Siri built in, similar to Amazon Echo.
Journalist. Author. Hacker. A storyteller searching for boundaries, secrets and taboos – putting the world to paper. Not because I can but because I can’t not.
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