In addition to finally revealing its move in the AI product war, Apple showed off its upcoming operating systems at the Worldwide Developers Conference on June 10:
- iOS 18.
- iPad OS 18.
- macOS Sequoia.
- VisionOS 2 for Apple Vision Pro.
Full releases of iOS 18, iPad OS 18, and macOS Sequoia will arrive in fall 2024.
iOS 18 makes aesthetic changes and adds options for developers
iOS 18 will offer customization similar to Android. You can change the position and color of app widgets, and icons will have their own Dark Mode color schemes. You'll be able to customize which controls are available on the lock screen. Control Center has a new look, allowing seamless scrolling down from Control Center to media and other apps.
iOS 18 developer betas are available today, with public betas later this month and official releases in the fall.
SEE: iOS 18 will come with Apple Intelligence generative AI.
iOS 18 includes new privacy options for hiding and locking apps. You can use Face ID, Touch ID, or your password to unlock locked apps or the Hidden Apps folder. This way, you can decide which apps are accessible to anyone you give your phone to.
iOS 18 adds device pairing options for developers
For developers, Apple is adding new privacy options for apps that can access contacts or other devices. Users will be able to decide which contacts an app can see. Developers will be able to set what options they want to offer in terms of which devices on a network their app can access when devices are paired.
SEE: What do the 2024 iPads offer for professionals?
macOS 15 Sequoia adds AI and some quality of life benefits
The next macOS will be Sequoia, which will receive the same customization updates as iOS 18. It will have Apple Intelligence, which provides generative AI capabilities such as email digest in Mac apps like Mail and Pages.
Continuity, a feature that allows sharing between devices, is becoming even more seamless with the ability to control an iPhone from a Mac, including interacting with apps. Sequoia has some other interesting quality of life changes for work, like the way dragging a window to the edge of the screen will automatically place it on a tile folded to the side so you can see the entire window.
Apple Vision Pro gets visionOS 2 and international launches
The Apple Vision Pro headphones will soon be available outside the US. Customers in China, Japan, and Singapore will be able to purchase them on June 28. Australia, Canada, France, Germany and the United Kingdom will follow on July 12.
The new operating system for the headset will bring new APIs for developers, including capabilities that can “pin” spatial content to physical locations for manufacturing, healthcare, and other business applications. Professional photographers will have access to a couple of new workflows for creating 3D-looking “spatial” content for Vision Pro.
Additionally, Mac Virtual Display is getting a boost, expanding the screen area on Vision Pro to 4K widescreen for greater productivity.
