The early days of the iPhone were rough: no support for Microsoft Exchange email, no cut-and-paste, no App Store, etc. As intrigued as I was when the iPhone went on sale in 2007, I didn’t buy one until there was a second generation. Even so, it was clear from the beginning that the iPhone was the start of something huge. I feel the same way about the Apple Vision Pro. These are early days, and I know that only a small number of people are using one, with most people sitting on the sidelines. But once you use one, it is clear that the potential is enormous, especially when the hardware gets lighter and less expensive. I was happy to see Apple introduce some nice updates coming in visionOS 27, as noted by Ryan Christoffel of 9to5Mac. But I was even happier to see this video in which Justin Ryan of Spatial Insider interviews Steve Sinclair of Apple to discuss the improvements for the Apple Vision Pro in visionOS 27—especially the part at the end in which Sinclair discusses Apple’s commitment to this platform: “It’s still early innings for spatial computing, and so there’s a lot of things that we’re doing, and we’re learning, and we’re continuing to improve on, and continuing to invest in. And so I would hope that updates like visionOS 27 and all of the things that we’re adding and all of the capabilities that we’re unlocking—whether it’s for consumer use or it’s for business use—serves as evidence that we are invested in this platform and we’re invested in this idea of spatial computing and building these capabilities that just can’t be done on any other device.” That’s good to hear. There are so many things I enjoy doing with my Vision Pro that simply cannot be done on any other device. I look forward to using the new features in visionOS 27 announced this week, and I’m excited to see where Apple takes this platform next. And now, the other news of note from the past week:
- Jason Snell of Six Colors wrote a great overview of Apple’s major WWDC announcements.
- While Apple focused on a few cool new features in iOS 27 during its WWDC keynote, it also quickly showed a slide with a huge list of items in small print. Rishi Ó of the Oneberri Blog figured out what all of those small things are and listed them, organized by category. There is surely something in this list for everyone.
- Apple is expected to introduce a foldable version of the iPhone later this year, and as Andy Ihnatko notes on his website, Apple may have tipped its hat to that upcoming device in a part of the WWDC keynote video.
- Building on what Ihnatko noticed, Dan Moren of Six Colors explains how Apple’s platform updates may offer insight into future Apple devices.
- Hartley Charlton of MacRumors explains how the Liquid Glass interface is changing in iOS 27.
- David Snow of Cult of Mac discusses the improvements to the Apple Wallet app in iOS 27.
- Juli Clovers of MacRumors discusses the new health and fitness features in iOS 27.
- Felipe Esposito of Macworld explains how your iPhone will be faster when you run iOS 27.
- Esposito also notes that the keyboard in iOS 27 will provide a visual indication that you can tap to more easily paste from the clipboard.
- Tim Hardwick of MacRumors discusses the improvements to Apple’s Messages app in iOS 27.
- Anurah Chawake of Cult of Mac explains how you can use natural language to add calendar events in iOS 27.
- Ryan Christoffel of 9to5Mac describes the new Dual Camera feature coming to FaceTime in iOS 27.
- Christoffel also describes the changes to Apple Maps in iOS 27.
- Christoffel also describes the new features in visionOS 27.
- Jonathan Reed of MacStories explains what is new in watchOS 27.
- It has been an incredibly long time since I owned an iPad that has a built-in cellular modem. I almost always have Wi-Fi access, and when I don’t, I can tether the iPad to my iPhone. Thus, I never thought it was worth it for me to pay for a monthly cellular plan for an iPad. Nevertheless, I know how incredibly convenient it can be to just start using an iPad and instantly have Internet access thanks to a cellular connection. When I purchase my next iPad, I may have to consider a cellular version in light of an announcement by AT&T this week. As reported by Jess Weatherbed of The Verge, AT&T now offers a day pass for the iPad for only $3: 24 hours of unlimited data with no contracts or subscriptions.
- Wirecutter recently updated its list of Best Travel Gear and Accessories. There are lots of iPhone accessories listed, of course, but there are also other items you might want to use when you travel.
- During the recent Tony Awards, the Broadway adaptation of Apple TV’s Schmigadoon won four awards, including Best Musical. As Marcus Mendes of 9to5Mac notes, now that Apple has won its first Tony, that means that Apple now has an EGOT.
- And finally, every year for WWDC, Apple taps some of its brightest engineers to create videos that help app developers take advantage of the new capabilities in its latest operating systems. I routinely give presentations as a lawyer, so I appreciate the time that goes into making great presentations like these. This year, I was especially delighted to learn that my brother Conner, who has worked at Apple for two decades, was selected to create one of these WWDC videos. He is part of Apple’s computational music team, and in his video, he explains how developers can take advantage of Apple’s new Music Understanding framework. This technology runs on-device and provides an app with information about a song—the key, rhythm, structure, pace, instrument activity (such as vocals, drums, or bass), and loudness—so the app can act on that information. It’s like a music appreciation course for an app. For example, Apple itself used an early version of this framework to improve its own Final Cut Pro app; you can create a slideshow and have the video time the transitions between pictures so that they occur at the end of each measure. A developer might use this technology to identify songs in a catalog that are all in the same key—useful for people like me who prefer to play the piano in the key of C. A music app for runners might use this framework to select songs with beats per minute that match the runner’s pace. I look forward to seeing all of the cool things developers invent for their apps by leveraging the technology my brother and his team at Apple have developed. Here is his video, a video that—in my (admittedly very biased) opinion—came out great!