Top Stories: WWDC Recap With iOS 18, Apple Intelligence, and More

WWDC 2024 kicked off on Monday with a jam-packed keynote revealing iOS 18, macOS Sequoia, and more, all fueled by upcoming Apple Intelligence technology.

top stories 15jun2024
We've highlighted the major announcements below, but be sure to check out our recap post that includes a video going over the highlights plus links to all of our coverage from the big day!

Apple Announces iOS 18 With Customizable Home Screen and Control Center and Much More

Apple this week announced iOS 18, which includes a wide range of new features and changes for the iPhone, including new customization options for the Home Screen and Control Center, a redesigned Photos app, the ability to use any emoji as a Tapback in the Messages app, an option to lock apps behind Face ID or Touch ID, and much more.

Generic iOS 18 Feature Real Mock
The tentpole feature of iOS 18 is Apple Intelligence, which is Apple's new suite of generative AI features coming to the iPhone, iPad, and Mac later this year. Read on for more details about Apple Intelligence.

'Apple Intelligence' Unveiled for iPhone, iPad, and Mac

Apple Intelligence can summarize text and notifications, create custom emoji and images, and more. Siri is also getting smarter with Apple Intelligence, with richer language understanding and more per-app controls. Siri will also be able to access ChatGPT.

apple intelligence
These new AI-powered features will be available on the iPhone 15 Pro or newer, or any Mac or iPad equipped with an M1 chip or newer. Apple Intelligence will be available when iOS 18, iPadOS 18, and macOS Sequoia are released to the public later this year, but the features will have a beta label at launch.

Apple Unveils macOS 15 Sequoia With iPhone Mirroring, Passwords App, More

macOS Sequoia is the name for this year's major update to the Mac operating system!

sequoia
Key new features beyond Apple Intelligence include the ability to mirror your iPhone onto your Mac, the same Passwords app coming to the iPhone with iOS 18, improved window tiling, and more.

macOS Sequoia is currently in beta, and it will be widely released later this year.

Apple Previews watchOS 11 With New Health and Workout Features

watchOS 11's key new features and changes for the Apple Watch include the ability to pause your Activity rings without disrupting your award streak, a new Vitals app that provides overnight health metrics, Live Activities support in the Smart Stack, and more.

watchos 11 features
Like the other software updates unveiled at WWDC, watchOS 11 is currently in beta for developers and will be widely released later this year.

tvOS 18 Adds 'InSight' to Identify Actors and Songs in Apple TV+ Shows and More

While it did not receive too much attention at WWDC, tvOS 18 is coming to the Apple TV.

tvos 18 insight
The software update includes a handful of new features and changes, including an "InSight" feature that can identify actors and songs in Apple TV+ shows, updates to the Enhance Dialogue feature and subtitles, additional screen savers, 21:9 video playback support for playing movies and shows on projectors, and more.

Apple Announces visionOS 2 With Ultra-Wide Mac Virtual Display, Travel Mode on Trains, and More

visionOS 2 is the first-ever major software update for Apple's Vision Pro spatial computer, which launched in the U.S. earlier this year and will be available in eight more countries by mid-July.

visionOS 2 Mac Virtual Display
visionOS 2 can turn existing 2D photos into spatial photos with machine learning, adds new hand gestures for frequently used features like Home View and Control Center, introduces a larger ultra-wide version of Mac Virtual Display, expands Travel Mode to trains, supports a physical mouse, and more.

MacRumors Newsletter

Each week, we publish an email newsletter like this highlighting the top Apple stories, making it a great way to get a bite-sized recap of the week hitting all of the major topics we've covered and tying together related stories for a big-picture view.

So if you want to have top stories like the above recap delivered to your email inbox each week, subscribe to our newsletter!

Popular Stories

iOS 26

iOS 26.1 Coming Soon: New Features for Your iPhone and Release Date

Monday October 27, 2025 7:55 am PDT by
The upcoming iOS 26.1 update includes a handful of new features and changes for iPhones, including a toggle for changing the appearance of the Liquid Glass design, "slide to stop" for alarms in the Clock app, and more. Below, we outline key details about iOS 26.1. Release Date Given that Apple has yet to seed an iOS 26.1 Release Candidate, which is typically the final beta version, the...
iOS 26

6 New Things Your iPhone Can Do in iOS 26.1

Wednesday October 29, 2025 4:22 am PDT by
Apple is about to drop iOS 26.1, the first major point release since iOS 26 was rolled out in September, and there are at least six notable changes and improvements to look forward to. We've rounded them up below. Apple has already provided developers and public beta testers with the release candidate version of iOS 26.1, which means Apple will likely roll out the update to all compatible...
maxresdefault

Apple TV 4K Could Still Launch Before 2025 Ends: All the Rumored Features

Monday October 27, 2025 4:51 pm PDT by
Apple is designing an updated version of the Apple TV 4K, and rumors suggest that it could come out sometime in the next couple of months. We're not expecting a major overhaul with design changes, but even a simple chip upgrade will bring major improvements to Apple's set-top box. Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more videos. We've rounded up all the latest Apple TV rumors. ...
iOS 26

Apple Seeds iOS 26.1, iPadOS 26.1, and macOS Tahoe 26.1 Release Candidates

Tuesday October 28, 2025 1:07 pm PDT by
Apple today provided developers and public beta testers with the release candidate versions of upcoming iOS 26.1, iPadOS 26.1, macOS Tahoe 26.1, tvOS 26.1, watchOS 26.1, and visionOS 26.1 updates for testing purposes. The RCs betas come a week after Apple released the fourth betas. The new betas can be downloaded from the Settings app on a compatible device by going to General > Software...
M6 MacBook Pro Feature 1

M6 MacBook Pro: Release Date, Pricing, and What to Expect

Monday October 27, 2025 9:15 am PDT by
Apple this month refreshed the 14-inch MacBook Pro base model with its new M5 chip, and higher-end 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro models with M5 Pro and M5 Max chips are expected to follow in early 2026. However, these machines will represent the final update to the current design, with Apple reportedly developing a completely new version of the MacBook Pro packed with next-generation hardware...
iPhone 17 Pro Cosmic Orange

8 Reasons to Wait for Next Year's iPhone 18 Pro

Thursday October 30, 2025 4:42 am PDT by
Apple's iPhone development roadmap runs several years into the future and the company is continually working with suppliers on several successive iPhone models at the same time, which is why we often get rumored features months ahead of launch. The iPhone 18 series is no different, and we already have a good idea of what to expect for the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max. One thing worth...
M5 MacBook Pro

Waiting for New Macs? Apple Just Shared Bad News

Friday October 31, 2025 7:32 am PDT by
Apple has just given a strong indication that it will not be releasing any additional new Macs for the remainder of the year. Apple's CFO Kevan Parekh dropped the hint during the company's earnings call on Thursday:On Mac, keep in mind, we expect to face a very difficult compare against the M4 MacBook Pro, Mac mini, and iMac launches in the year-ago quarter.Parekh essentially gave a heads up ...
macos tahoe

Here Are Apple's Release Notes for macOS Tahoe 26.1

Tuesday October 28, 2025 1:21 pm PDT by
Apple today provided developers and public beta testers with the release candidate version of macOS Tahoe 26.1, which means the update will likely see a public launch next week. The release candidate includes notes on what's in the update, so we have a full picture of the new features that Apple has included. macOS Tahoe 26.1 adds AutoMix support over AirPlay, improved FaceTime audio...
ipad mini 7 feature blue

OLED iPad Mini: Release Date, Pricing, and What to Expect

Wednesday October 29, 2025 7:13 am PDT by
Rumors are stoking excitement for the next-generation iPad mini that Apple is reportedly close to launching. So what should we expect from the successor to the iPad mini 7 that Apple released over a year ago? Read on to find out. Processor and Performance Apple is working on a next-generation version of the iPad mini (codename J510/J511) that features the A19 Pro chip, according to...

Top Rated Comments

Surf Monkey Avatar
18 months ago
Seems like the bulk of the keynote was about style over substance, which is a bad situation for a company that no longer has a sense of style.
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
TechnoMonk Avatar
18 months ago
I am enjoying the iPad OS developer beta. Notes and math notes are great for plotting, and surprised how intuitive calculator app is when it comes to detecting hand written input. Gonna try the CSV data to create tables and data visualization.
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Realityck Avatar
18 months ago

Seems like the bulk of the keynote was about style over substance, which is a bad situation for a company that no longer has a sense of style.
They get being able to see/use a iPhone and freely move data/files between the two on the Mac then I will complain a lot less. :D

Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
SFjohn Avatar
18 months ago

Nobody was talking about the energy impact of millions of Apple intelligence device requests either locally or in the cloud.
I don’t think ChatGPT is net zero, so this is going against Apple’s Green thinking, just saying.:rolleyes:
Probably why ChatGPT is optional and requires permission each time you use it… ???
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
JosephAW Avatar
18 months ago
Nobody was talking about the energy impact of millions of Apple intelligence device requests either locally or in the cloud.
I don’t think ChatGPT is net zero, so this is going against Apple’s Green thinking, just saying.:rolleyes:
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
nt5672 Avatar
18 months ago
Yep, I pretty much quit watching after the Keynote. Not much that interests me as a developer except improvements in the terrible development tools. Which, if the Xcode beta is any indication, have not improved much. Still crashes in multiple areas. Fails to render documentation. Givens nonsense errors. The list is still way too long.

Anything that Apple introduced this year will take 1+ years to get working. Maybe some of these features will be ready by WWDC25.
Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)