At its 2023 Worldwide Developers Conference, Apple launched a new 15-inch MacBook Air, the M2 Ultra chip and watchOS 10 on Monday.
15-inch MacBook Air
According to The Verge, an American technology news website, the new model is 11.5mm thick, which Apple says makes it the world’s thinnest 15-inch laptop. It has two USB-C Thunderbolt ports, a MagSafe charging connector, and a headphone jack. Its 15.3-inch screen has 500 nits of brightness, a 1080p webcam, and gets a quoted 18 hours of battery life. It’ll come with Apple’s M2 chip. Beginning at USD 1,299, the new model will be made available the following week. Apple is currently changing the pricing of its smaller model. The price of the 13-inch MacBook Air with M2 is now USD 1,099.
As per the Verge, the new laptop represents a midrange release for Apple, which previously had a fairly large price gap between its 13-inch MacBook offerings and larger premium-priced models. The 15-inch Air will likely serve an audience that wants a large screen but doesn’t need the extra computing power (and cost) of 14-inch and 16-inch Pro models.
The 15-inch display size might potentially be a useful ground between Apple’s existing 14-inch and 16-inch options, reported The Verge.
M2 Ultra Chip
According to the Mashable website, the chip promises a 20 per cent jump in CPU performance and a 30 per cent jump in GPU performance. The chip also has up to 192 GB of unified memory. The M2 Ultra was dubbed as the most potent chip ever developed for a personal computer and was described as a “monster of a chip” by the company.
“M2 Ultra delivers astonishing performance and capabilities for our pro users’ most demanding workflows while maintaining Apple silicon’s industry-leading power efficiency,” said Johny Srouji, Apple’s senior vice president of Hardware Technologies, in a statement. “With huge performance gains in the CPU, GPU, and Neural Engine, combined with massive memory bandwidth in a single SoC, M2 Ultra is the world’s most powerful chip ever created for a personal computer,” reported Mashable.
The M2 Ultra will power the new Mac Studio and Mac Pro that starts at nearly $7,000, as per Mashable.
watchOS 10
According to The Verge, an American Technology website, Widgets are back on the menu, friends. Turning the digital crown will bring up your widget stack and let you scroll through for quick and easy access to information. It’s a major shift in how users have thus far interacted with the Apple Watch and is reminiscent of the Siri watchface introduced a few years ago in watchOS 3. Weather, Stocks, Home, Maps, Messages, and World Clock applications for the Apple Watch are also receiving a new appearance. Apps will be able to offer you more information by using the whole display of the watch.
For health updates, mental health is also getting the spotlight in watchOS 10 with the ability to log your moods in the Mindfulness app. Turning the crown allows you to scroll through emotions represented by abstract shapes. You’ll also be able to take standardized assessment quizzes in the Health app to determine your risk level for anxiety and depression, and then create a PDF to share with your doctor. The Health app will also let you see what lifestyle factors like sleep or exercise may be contributing to your state of mind, reported The Verge.
Apple is also introduced new cycling tools to its fitness offerings. To begin, new exercise views have been added, including personalised programmes, race routes, elevation, and cycling speed views.
The Apple Watch can now measure how much time you spend in daylight. Screen distance is another metric that will track how far away you are from a device. Both mental health and vision health data will be encrypted on the app itself, as per The Verge.
watchOS 10 will be available for Apple Watch Series 4 or later.
(Inputs from ANI)
