WWDC 2017: iOS 11, iMac Pro, HomePod and More

WWDC 2017 kicked off on June 5 in San Joe, unveiling new iPad, iMac Pro, speaker HomePod as well as software update to iOS, MacOS, WatchOS. Missed the keynote? Now take 5 minutes to quickly catch up on everything important that Apple announced in the event.

iOS 11

iOS 11 will be officially available in this fall. Devices including iPhone 7/7 Plus, iPhone 6s/6s Plus/6/ 6 Plus, iPhone SE, iPhone 5s, iPad Pro, iPad Air 2, iPad Air, iPad 5, iPad mini 4/3/2, iPod Touch 6 will receive the update. iOS 11 comes with quite a few significant new features.

iMessage: iMessages can be synced across all your Apple devices via iCloud.
Apple Pay: It is integrated into Messages, allowing you to send and receive money with messages.
ARKit: It is new set of APIs that make it easier for developers to create applications and games with AR experience.
Siri: Siri becomes more clever and human-like. Its voice becomes more natural in tone, rhythm with both female and male voices. And it can provide real-time translation from English to Chinese, French, German, Italian, and Spanish. Applying on-device learning, Siri can also predict what users want next.

Camera & Photos: Two new photo formats HEVC and HEIF are added to iOS 11. Camera has been improved with its low-light performance. And Live photos can now be trimmed, looped and more.
Do Not Disturb While Driving: Your iOS device can perceive that you are driving and won't push notifications. Of course, it will send message and let the sender know that you're driving and if the sender reply with "urgent", you'll get the notification.
Redesigned elements: Control Center, Apple Music and App Store.
More Improvement on iPad: iOS 11 bring more cool stuffs to iPad. For example, the File app that can organize all files of your iOS devices, iCloud Drive, Box, Dropbox; new Dock that allow you to access apps more quickly; Split View for multitasking; Drag and Drop to move text, photos, and files from one app to another.

macOS 10.13 High Sierra

Yes, it is High Sierra. You can tell from its name that it is very alike to its predecessor macOS 10.12. Basically, there is not much new about macOS 10.13. But Apple did improve its overall performance and provide better support for VR technology. The new Mac operation system is coming to Mac mini, iMac, Mac Pro, MacBook, MacBook Air, and MacBook Pro.

watchOS 4

watchOS 4 is added with more new watch faces: Siri watch face, Kaleidoscope face, Disney character watch faces. And the new Activity feature can remind you whether you have reached exercising goals everyday. watchOS 4 can work with gym equipment, sharing info like your heart rate, speed between your watch and the equipment.

HomePod

As Apple's answer to Amazon Echo, Google Home, the Siri-powered speaker HomePod makes its debut in WWDC 2017. Equipping with Siri and HomeKit functionality, the speaker can not only play music, but can help you control your HomeKit-enabled accessories, check on weather and news, recommend and search songs. Of course, to a speaker, audio quality should be the priority. By applying Spatial Awareness, HomePod can sense the surroundings and provide virtual surround sound in whatever space.

Price: $349
Launch date: December

iMac Pro

HomePod is long-expected by Apple fans while the iMac Pro is kind of surprising. The iMac Pro is introduced as "the most powerful Mac we've ever made". Powered by 8/10/18-core Intel Xeon processors, The computer will be equipped with AMD's upcoming Radeon Vega graphics processors, offering up to 16GB of video memory. iMac Pro also offers up to 128GB of 2666MHz ECC memory and solid state drives with up to 4TB of 3GB/s storage.

Price: $4,999
Launch date: December

New iPad Pro

The new iPad Pro will be offered in two sizes: 10.5 inch and 12.9 inch. With Apple's new A10X chip and six cores inside, iPad Pro is 30% faster in CPU and 40% faster in graphics performance comparing to the older models. And Apple especially highlights iPad Pro's display performance. With the new feature called ProMotion, iPad Pro refreshes faster with the refresh rate of 120Hz, doubling the 60Hz refresh rate of the old models.

Price: 10.5-inch iPad Pro starts at $649 while 12.9-inch starts at $799 for 64 GB.
Launch date: accept order right now.

That's pretty much all you need to learn about the big announcement of WWDC 2017. Any thing that interests you? Share with us below.