San Jose (California), June 4: In a fresh attempt to make its devices faster and agile like never before, the Cupertino-based iPhone maker has unveiled iOS 13 with features like Dark Mode and Apple sign-in, a sturdy Mac Pro desktop for creative professionals and a brand new iPadOS among several features that would bring personalised experiences to its millions of users.
The powerful iOS 13 unlocks the Apple device with Face ID 30 per cent faster, reduces app download sizes by up to 50 per cent, makes app updates over 60 per cent smaller and results in apps launching up to twice as fast.
“Last year, we delivered iOS 12 which is full of features from dynamic new AR experiences to amazing screen time and faster performance. iOS 12 has the highest customer satisfaction — an incredible 97 per cent — in the industry. Nearly 85 per cent of iOS customers are on the latest release,” Apple CEO Tim Cook told a packed house at the San Jose convention centre here on Monday during the company’s annual flagship developers’ conference “WWDC 2019”.
“In fact, iOS 12 has been installed on more systems than any version of iOS ever. That is in stark contrast to the latest offerings from those other guys like Android 9 which was released before iOS. Well, it saw only 10 per cent adoption,” Cook told more than 5,000 coders and developers from 86 countries.
iOS 13 comes with much-anticipated “Dark Mode”, advanced photo and camera features, the “Sign In with Apple” tool and an all-new Apple Maps experience.
Dark Mode is a new dark colour scheme that works across native apps to deliver a great viewing experience especially in low-light conditions.
Dark Mode is available to third-party app developers for integration into their own apps and can be scheduled to turn on automatically at sunset or at a certain time.
In iOS 13, most photo editing tools are now available for video editing, making it possible to rotate, crop or apply filters right within the Photos app.
“We’re excited for customers to experience what’s coming to iPhone this fall and can’t wait for them to see how great everything looks in Dark Mode,” said Craig Federighi, Apple’s Senior Vice President of Software Engineering.
“Sign In with Apple” makes it easy for users to authenticate with Face ID or Touch ID and has two-factor authentication built in for an added layer of security.
Apple also announced to deliver a new Maps experience with broader road coverage, better pedestrian data, more precise addresses and more detailed landcover.
The new map is available now in select cities and states, and will roll out across the US by the end of 2019 and to more countries in 2020, announced the company.
New iOS 13 features will be available this fall as a free software update.
Ending a six-year drought for creative professionals, Apple introduced the all-new Mac Pro and unveiled Apple “Pro Display XDR”, touted as the world’s best pro display.
The Mac Pro can run three streams of 8K video and 12 streams of 4K video in real time, virtually eliminating proxy workflows.
It features workstation-class Xeon processors up to 28 cores, a high-performance memory system with a massive 1.5 TB capacity, eight PCIe expansion slots and a graphics architecture featuring the world’s most powerful graphics card.
Pro Display XDR features a massive 32-inch Retina 6K display, an extreme 1,600 nits of peak brightness, an incredible 1,000,000:1 contrast ratio and a super-wide viewing angle.
“Pro Display XDR is the world’s best pro display and the perfect companion to the all-new Mac Pro,” said Phil Schiller, Apple’s Senior Vice President of Worldwide Marketing.
The new Mac Pro that supports up to six displays for a breathtaking 120 million pixels would be available in the fall.
Giving iPad users new capabilities and intuitive features, Apple also introduced a brand new iPadOS that is built on the same foundation as its iOS.
With iPadOS, users would be able to work with apps in multiple windows, see more information on a redesigned Home screen and more natural ways to use Apple Pencil.
iPadOS with Dark Mode feature will be available this fall as a free software update for iPad Air 2 and later, all iPad Pro models, iPad 5th generation and iPad mini 4.
The company also previewed watchOS 6, which empowers Apple Watch users to better manage their health and fitness, and gives access to dynamic new watch faces and the App Store directly on Apple Watch.
Giving its content streaming dreams new wings, Apple also previewed tvOS 13, the operating system that makes Apple TV 4K a personalised entertainment device for enjoying TV shows, movies, music, photos, games and apps.
The company also previewed macOS “Catalina” which is replacing iTunes with its popular entertainment apps — Apple Music, Apple Podcasts and the Apple TV app.
