Impressions from WWDC 2023: Something Only Apple Can Deliver

The most important thing that the WWDC 2023 keynote confirmed is something we all secretly already knew: Craig Federighi has had Jedi training (the flying iPad scene for those who did not watch the video yet). And watchOS seems now finally to be able to detect if its wearer might be a vampire by counting the numbers of hours in bright daylight.

“First impressions: Yes, Apple Vision Pro works and yes, it’s good.

After a roughly 30-minute demo that ran through the major features that are yet ready to test, I came away convinced that Apple has delivered nothing less than a genuine leapfrog in capability and execution of XR — or mixed reality — with its new Apple Vision Pro.” [Matthew Panzarino on TechCrunch]

And of course there is Vision Pro. But these things are not the only interesting pieces of information that Apple dropped at the kick-off of this year's world-wide developer conference:

  • iOS is getting a new predictive language model for further improving typing on the virtual keyboard. Using concepts from large language models (LLM) is of course a no-brainer, but the interesting fact here is that Apple states it is doing it on device which shows how far it has come already with its Neural Engine. Other interesting new features include StandBy with a reddish night mode which could be a reason for me to switch the always-on display on my iPhone 14 Pro back on
  • iPadOS gains a simple, but very useful feature for preventing nearsightedness to develop for kids by extending ScreenTime with a feature that monitors how close a kid holds the iPad in front of their face. Myopia is increasing world-wide at an alarming rate and researchers strongly believe that extended usage of digital screens by kids plays a strong role
  • watchOS gets its biggest redesign since its launch: new navigational concepts, more color, more consistent design across all built-in apps. The smart stack of widgets that can be accessed from any watch face also looked quite interesting. As a big Peanuts fan, I personally can't wait to see the new Snoopy watch face :-)
  • macOS finally gets widgets right: you can place them directly on the desktop, but they dim when an application window is active. I have already tried out the first developer beta and this little trick might just be the reason why many more people will use widgets on the Mac later this year
  • And new hardware: we basically got everything we expected: the 15inch MacBook Air, the M2 Ultra chip, updated Mac Studio's, an Apple Silicon-based Mac Pro and of course Vision Pro, a mixed reality headset or how Apple put it: a spatial computing platform -- the first of its kind

And it really seems to be the first of its kind. Because it does something that all the other [VR] headsets do not: it brings the real world into the equation which also means it solves my biggest problem with VR headsets: you can actually go to the fridge, you can drink a beer and you can eat chips without taking off the headset. You are even aware when other people enter the room. And you do not need any special controller: you just use your hands. In my opinion this makes a big difference.

“There are certain products that shift the way we are looking at technology and the role it plays in our lives. We believe Apple Vision Pro is a revolutionary product with the performance, immersion, and capabilities that only Apple can deliver.” [Tim Cook in the WWDC 2023 keynote]

I have some more thoughts on this and possible business applications, but let's save this for another day.

Maybe one more thing: there was nothing about Siri (despite the fact that they dropped the "Hey Siri" phrase by default). Also it seems so far no new APIs. Which again makes a lot of sense: ChatGPT and other generative LLMs make the complex intents-based Siri APIs look totally outdated. We need something new here, something much more simple. And it wouldn't be Apple if they just released "something": they will do some deep thinking about how generative AI could work together with our apps in a way that really makes sense and hopefully present it to us at next year's WWDC.