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WWDC 2024 – MacOS
Craig Federighi: Next, let’s talk about macOS. [Music]. The all-star combination of the power of Apple silicon and the legendary ease of use of macOS have made the Mac more capable than ever. And we’re so excited to take macOS to new heights and embark on the next chapter of our journey of productivity and creativity! But what should we call it? Well, that brings us once again to the annual escapades of our legendary crack marketing team. Distracted briefly from their marathon hacky sack session, they stumbled into their minibus and wove a trail toward the Sierras, eventually rolling to a stop in a beautiful national park. Staring skyward up the towering trunks surrounding them, they felt a deep kinship with anything that could get that high. They knew they’d found their spot. Welcome to macOS Sequoia.
The incredible features we talked about in iOS 18 and iPadOS 18 are going to be amazing for the ways you use Mac. You can be even more expressive in Messages, Math Notes provide a helpful typed experience, and you can easily plan a hike in Maps. These new features are terrific on the Mac, and macOS Sequoia introduces even more features to help you effortlessly get things done. Let’s start with Continuity. Continuity helps you do so much more when you use Apple products together. It powers some of your favorite features, like Universal Clipboard, Universal Control, and Mac Virtual Display on Apple Vision Pro. And macOS Sequoia makes Continuity even more magical. For all those times when we want to use our iPhone, only to realize it’s tucked away in a bag over in another room, there’s a brand-new continuity feature called iPhone Mirroring. With iPhone Mirroring on Mac, I can see what’s on my iPhone, and can control it too, all while barely lifting a finger. Let me show you how it works. To access my phone, I just click here in my Dock. Boom! And there’s my iPhone, mirrored in a window right on my Mac. I can fully interact with it, all wirelessly. I can see my custom wallpaper. My icons are right where they belong. And I can use my phone normally, like swiping through pages of my Home Screen. And I can open any of my iPhone apps, like the Philz Coffee app, for a bit of extra energy from my favorite local coffee shop. I can use my Mac trackpad to interact with the app. And I can use my Mac keyboard too, like to add special instructions. Let’s make this ice-cold.
To make this even more magical, we’re bringing iPhone notifications to Mac. They appear alongside my Mac notifications and I can even interact with them when I don’t have my iPhone handy. Here’s one from Duolingo. What’s neat is, when I click on it, bam! I’m taken right into the Duolingo app on my iPhone, so I can practice my Spanish and extend my streak. [Foreign language] As you can hear, my iPhone’s audio even comes through my Mac. So, you might be wondering what’s on my iPhone screen while I’m using iPhone Mirroring. It stays locked, so nobody else can access it. And it works seamlessly with StandBy. StandBy stays visible, so I can get information at a glance as I use my phone with iPhone Mirroring. And iPhone Mirroring makes it effortless to combine the power of my Mac and the convenience of its big screen, with the things I get done on my iPhone. I’m using a template in the Unfold app to make a post, and I’ve got one last video to add. On Mac, I’ve been using Final Cut Pro to stitch some clips together. Watch how easy it is to use my devices together. I can grab the exported video and just drop it right into the template. Perfect! So that’s iPhone Mirroring! And macOS Sequoia has fantastic updates to how you arrange your windows, share while video conferencing, and organize your passwords. Now, when you drag a window to the edge of the screen, macOS automatically suggests a tiled position on your desktop. You can release your window right into place. Quickly place tiles side by side, or place them into corners to keep even more apps in your view. And new keyboard and menu shortcuts help you arrange your tiles even faster.
Now, let’s talk about video conferencing. When you’re on a video call, say goodbye to oversharing with the new presenter preview. It lets you see what you’re about to share before you share it, and works with apps like FaceTime and Zoom. And when you want to express yourself or just hide the laundry behind you, you can now replace your background with some beautiful built-in backgrounds, or your own photos! Background replacements use Apple’s industry-leading segmentation so you look your best while on a call. Now let’s talk about how we’re building on the foundation of Keychain to help you manage your passwords. For over 25 years, we’ve been adding features to make logging in to your accounts easier. And now, we’re introducing the Passwords app. Passwords makes it easy to access your credentials and have them securely stored, all in one place. Everything is organized for you, from your passwords to verification codes to security alerts. You can find the app on Mac, iPad, iPhone, Vision Pro, and on Windows, with the iCloud for Windows app. All the passwords securely sync across your devices, and if you use AutoFill, your passwords will automatically populate in the Passwords app. Now, here’s Beth to tell you about Safari.
Beth Dakin: Safari offers an experience like no other browser on Mac. In macOS Sequoia, Safari is the world’s fastest browser, enabling you to fly through the web with lightning speed. And it offers up to four hours more battery life than Chrome when streaming video. Safari is also a trailblazer in privacy, with industry-leading Intelligent Tracking Prevention and private browsing that’s actually private. It not only protects your history, it prevents websites from seeing what you do while you browse. And it’s built on WebKit, which supports the latest exciting web technologies and standards. If you missed anything we’ve added to Safari in the last few years, it’s time to check it out! Safari has everything you need to feel at home, like profiles, translation, and more. And in this release, we’re making it even better, with easier ways to discover content and streamline your browsing. When you’re on a site, Safari can now help you discover more about the page with Highlights. Safari uses machine learning to automatically detect relevant information and highlight it for you as you browse. Highlights share helpful information, like directions, summaries, and quick links to learn more about people, music, movies, and TV shows. So, if you’re planning a trip, you can effortlessly discover a hotel’s location and phone number right there. You can listen to an artist’s music or check out a new show with just a click. And even get a summary, so you can get the gist before reading on. Summaries are also integrated into a redesigned Reader. Reader instantly removes distractions from articles, and now it can provide a table of contents and includes a helpful summary, right next to the article. We’re bringing a distraction-free experience to video on the web as well with Viewer. When Safari detects a video on the page, Viewer helps you put it front and center, while still giving you full access to system playback controls, like AirPlay and Picture-in-Picture, and video automatically moves into Picture-in-Picture if you click away. And that’s a quick look at what’s new in Safari. Back to you, Craig.
Craig Federighi: Let’s talk about gaming. We’re so excited to see more and more game developers embracing the Mac with great games like these, including the most recent game of the year, “Baldur’s Gate 3,” all leveraging Metal 3 to deliver smooth frame rates, provide high-quality visuals, and take full advantage of Apple silicon. Every Mac in the lineup can play today’s most cutting-edge games, like “Death Stranding: Director’s Cut.” And so can iPhone 15 Pro and any iPad with an M-series chip. And for developers, this creates a unified gaming platform across iPhone, iPad, and Mac, spanning well over a hundred million devices and growing rapidly. These devices are capable of playing an entirely new class of games! And with iOS 18, iPadOS 18, and macOS Sequoia, we continue to deliver features for an even more immersive gaming experience. And since the introduction of Game Porting Toolkit, developers have been able to bring their games to Apple devices faster than ever, and gaming enthusiasts can experience more games on the Mac. And this year, Game Porting Toolkit 2 takes this to the next level, enabling developers to bring even more advanced games to Mac, with improved Windows compatibility and shader debugging tools. And it’s much easier to bring Mac games to iPad and iPhone with Xcode support that lets developers unify their game code and shaders across devices. And for players, there’s a lot to look forward to. And that’s more games. Like “Frostpunk 2,” coming to Mac next month. “Control,” providing a mind-bending story that just looks incredible with ray tracing. And there’s some exciting news from Ubisoft, the developers that released “Assassin’s Creed: Mirage” on iPhone and iPad just a few days ago. To tell you more about what’s to come from Ubisoft, here’s Marc-Alexis.
Marc-Alexis Côté: At Ubisoft, our mission is to enrich players’ lives by creating original and memorable gaming experiences. We see a huge opportunity to share our passion for games to more players in the Apple ecosystem thanks to the unified gaming platform with tight integration of Metal and Apple silicon. Just last month, we announced that “Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown” is coming to Mac, and we unveiled that the next big chapter of “Assassin’s Creed” is also coming to Mac on November 15 alongside PCs and consoles. We’re so excited about this game and can’t wait for you to experience it on Mac. [Video of Game] This is “Assassin’s Creed: Shadows”! We’re venturing into feudal Japan, which you can experience from the perspectives of Naoe, a Shinobi assassin, and Yasuke, a legendary samurai of African origin. Intricately detailed scenes like this are possible thanks to our next-generation Anvil engine supporting the latest advancements in Metal, enabling us to leverage the full power of Apple silicon with a gaming experience that delivers blistering frame rates and high resolutions. Our next-generation Anvil engine scales performance and quality across the Mac lineup and delivers stunning vistas embellished with ray tracing. And speaking of Apple Silicon, we’re thrilled to announce that in addition to Mac, “Assassin’s Creed: Shadows” will also be coming to iPad! With Ubisoft’s Anvil Engine now supporting the Apple ecosystem, we couldn’t be more excited about bringing our biggest titles to Apple devices. Download and play “Assassin’s Creed: Mirage” today. And “Assassin’s Creed: Shadows” will be available later this year! Thank you!
Craig Federighi: Thanks, Marc-Alexis. We’re so excited about these amazing games coming to Apple devices. And this year, even more games are on the way, creating a stellar lineup of titles to look forward to! So that’s gaming, which wraps up macOS Sequoia. It’s a big release that up-levels your productivity and creativity. You can quickly tile windows for your ideal workspace. A massive update to Safari helps you browse the web distraction-free. An amazing host of new gaming titles are coming to the Mac. And iPhone Mirroring lets you wirelessly use your iPhone, right from your Mac. macOS joins the announcements across our platforms. And this is a huge year for developers, with brilliant new features and APIs coming so they can supercharge their apps and experiences. Developer betas will be available today. Public betas will be available next month. And all of our OS releases will be available to users this fall. Back to Tim!
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