Home Forums FineTunedMac Community Lounge WWDC 2022

Apple's World Wide Developers Conference is only 27 days away and sites such as Mac World[, Lifewire, and MacRumors are speculating on what will be announced. If past WWDCs are any indication, the big news on the hardware side will be the next iPhone and maybe a MacBook, but the biggest announcements will be the next macOS, iOS, iPadOS, WatchOS, and TVOS features. There seems to be a consensus among the prognosticators 2022 may see some of the biggest changes to the various operating systems yet.

My questions for the MacFixit community are...

• What changes and/or new features would you LIKE to see in macOS, iOS, iPadOS, and why??
• Are there any features you particularly hope will remain UNCHANGED and why?

In a related development, as of yesterday, the iPod Touch has been discontinued. It was the last of its ilk, and its demise ended a 20 year iPod run.

I will start it off:

Changes or new features... (in no particular order):

• Apple has long been trending toward synchronizing the OS version numbers. For the same of simplicity, if nothing else, the next releases of macOS, iOS, iPadOS, WatchOS, and TVOS would all have the same version number.
• The next macOS would have the ability for kernel extensions to run in the user rather than system space. This would permit running kernel extensions with full SIP or Volume Protection enabled for increased security.
• Support for encryption of iCloud data
• The ability to lease iCloud disk space in smaller, say 256GB, increments up to 4TB.
• All Type C ports on all Apple devices should have the protocol (Thunderbolt 3, Thunderbolt 4, USB 3.0, USB 3.1, USB 3.1 Gen 2, USB 3.2, USB 4) clearly indicated for obvious reasons.
• Stand alone or monitor mounted camera for Studio, Mac mini, and Mac Pro models Capable of facial recognition.

WWDC 2022

If you didn’t watch the event you can get the key facts here and a 13 minute recap here.

I’m not sure what I expected from this year’s WWDC keynote, but my first impression was a yawn...

• The new MacBook Air looks like a sure bet to continue dominating its market niche
• Stage Manager will definitely change how I manage my work-flow
• Undo Send in Mail and Message,
• industrial strength apps, real multi-tasking, and File enhancements on the iPad Air and Pro were inevitable
• Passkeys on the other hand have game changing implications and can’t come too soon as far as I am concerned.

...but in general this felt like a catch your breath WWDC.

COMES THE DAWN:

It wasn’t until this morning that I finally groked the most important item from the WWDC was WHAT THE SUM OF THE CHANGES IMPLIED ABOUT APPLE’S FUTURE DIRECTIONS. I realized iOS 16, iPadOS 16, MacOS Ventura, and WatchOS 9 are not only individual products each with its own market niche, but taken together they are a game changing workstation of the future, with the phone, watch, iPad, and Mac working together seamlesly and automatically as its components. Each device contributing its most salient features: the iPhone and its camera, the iPad and Pencil graphic input, and the Mac its Storage and massive multi tasking ability with control and data freely from each to all of the others such that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Add iCloud sharing to that and the individual work station components don’t even have to be on the same continent, just the same Apple ID.