Private Access Tokens by Apple as Captcha alternative

 At WWDC 2022, Apple presented a new technology alternative to Captcha that's used by web developers for protecting key features or information within a web page against bots or spammers. 

Apple is also improving data privacy that doesn't store device data or usage patterns with private acces tokens. Apple is reinventing HTTP authentication with PrivateToken that is an server that verifies using cryptography for a value stored on iCloud. There is also Rate-limit that checks Apple device for identifying pattern whether it is repetitive by the device or a click farming.

Apple also presented Cloudflare's Token security that doesn't gather information about Apple device's usage patterns and user interactions. Apple is launching Private Access Tokens support for devices with iOS 16 or Mac os Ventura.

Apple is going to put efforts to more partnerships for PATs as a new web standard. 

  

WWDC 2022 Day 1, 2, 3 and 4 Part 2

 Apple WWDC 2022 event at Steve Jobs theater unveiled updates to Watch OS, iPad OS, CarPlay, Maps, X Code cloud, new Gaming with Metal 3 and Swift UI.

Day 1 Part 2

WatchOS 9:

"watchOS 9 introduces enhanced and modernized complications on some of the most classic watch faces, such as Utility, Simple, and Activity Analog, along with background colour editing for Modular, Modular Compact, and X-Large for additional personalisation. 

The Workout app, one of the most popular apps on Apple Watch, has been updated to provide richer metrics for measuring performance, as well as new training experiences to help users reach fitness goals.

Focus now allows users to select an Apple Watch face to automatically appear when they start a specific Focus on iPhone, such as the Photos face during a Personal Focus, helping users stay in the moment.

Swimmers can now track their efficiency with a SWOLF score — a stroke count combined with the time, in seconds, it takes to swim one length of the pool.

Fitness+ subscribers without Apple TV can now use AirPlay to stream workouts and meditations with on-screen metrics to compatible third-party TVs and devices, allowing them to train anywhere, anytime.

Sleep tracking in watchOS 9 provides even more insights with the introduction of sleep stages. Using signals from the accelerometer and heart rate sensor, Apple Watch can detect when users are in REM, Core, or Deep sleep. Users will see sleep stage data on Apple Watch in the Sleep app and can view more detailed information, like time asleep, alongside additional metrics, like heart rate and respiratory rate.

The new Medications experience on Apple Watch and iPhone helps users manage and track their medications, vitamins, and supplements, allowing them to create a medications list, set up schedules and reminders, and view information on their medications in the Health app."

watchos 9 is updated with innovative new features that even Android's wearos lack off with analytics positioned fitness matrices for swimmers, new sleep tracking, better control over medications tracking and finally AirPlay streaming integration to Fitness+. Another new feature is Apple Watch Mirroring for using AirPlay integration to more out of fitness matrices.

iPad os 16:

"Taking advantage of the power of the M1 chip, Stage Manager brings a new way to multitask with multiple overlapping windows and full external display support. Collaboration is easier than ever with new ways to start working with others in apps across the system using Messages, and the new Freeform app provides a flexible canvas to brainstorm on together. New tools in Mail help users be more productive, Safari adds shared Tab Groups to browse the web with others, and the browsing experience gets even more secure with passkeys. The new Weather app takes full advantage of the stunning iPad display, and Live Text now interacts with text in video. New pro features — including Reference Mode and Display Zoom — make iPad an even more powerful mobile studio."

iPad os 16 brings multitasking and focused productivity features with a new feature Stage Manager, free-form collaboration and external display support. Apple also introduced iCloud Photo Library for smarter photo storage and viewing experience. Apple also unveiled iOS' Live Text for translating text off videos and images and there is also Visual Look up that erases subjects off images or videos for creating a new image.

Day 2

Swift UI upgrade, Xcode Cloud and Xcode 14 improvements:

"Built into Xcode, Xcode Cloud is a continuous integration and delivery cloud service designed specifically for Apple developers. It enables developers and teams of all sizes to build, test, and deliver high-quality apps even more efficiently by automatically building apps in the cloud to free up their Mac for other tasks.

Xcode 14 features new enhancements to further improve developer productivity. Project builds are up to 25 percent faster, thanks to improved parallelism, and the Xcode application is now 30 percent smaller to download, with downloadable simulator runtimes for watchOS and tvOS. The new multi-platform target creates a single SwiftUI interface for use across iOS, iPadOS, macOS, and tvOS. Developer code is easier to maintain yet highly customization to take advantage of each platform’s unique capabilities. SwiftUI live previews are now interactive by default in Xcode, so changes are immediately live, and developers can create variants of each preview without writing any code, altering the colour scheme, text size, device orientation, or accessibility modes."

Apple launched Xcode Cloud that is more secure and easy to host Xcode 14 apps for build, test and deploy. Apart from Metal 3, Apple also announced new unity plugin Core Haptics for building games in 3D with Apple frameworks. Apple announced SwiftUI live previews for previewing projects live in Xcode.

Day 3

ARKIT 6 and APP Shortcuts:

"Geometry is updated, the anchor rotation is updated as well to reflect the new orientation of the plane. With iOS 16, we introduce a cleaner separation between plane anchors and their plane geometry.

Updated with details on 4K video, expanded video and capture capabilities with support for HDR video and high-resolution background image capture, Motion Capture improvements, and Location Anchors in new cities.

Developers can now use App Intents to enable their apps to be used with Siri and Shortcuts, with no user setup required."

ARKIT 6 is an incremental update with new ground breaking feature of 4K video capture support for HDR video and image capture of AR content. Apps shortcuts are updated with Siri integration without extra programming. 

Day 4

Vision Enhancements:

"What is great about this Quick Look Preview support is that we've removed the need for you to write a variety of utility functions to visualize the results. They can be overlaid directly on your images in the debugger or in an Xcode Playground.

Vision is updated with enhancements for better detection update for imaging sensors along with new introduction of Quick Look Preview that launches fast debug without writing utility functions. 

WWDC 2022 Apple Event Day 1 Part 1

 Apple announced a new hardware Macbook Air 13.6 with all new M2 SoC and also Macbook Pro 13 inch with M2 at WWDC 2022 day 1 aimed for developers for both online and after event meet-ups to journalists and tech bloggers. Apart from new hardware, Apple introduced iOS 16 with new features of Maps app finally adding multiple journey points, homescreen customization and more. Apple also announced new iPad os 16, Carplay update, Spatial Sound update and brand new Mac os Ventura.

Macbook Air and Macbook Pro:

"With an all-new, strikingly thin design and even more performance, MacBook Air also features a larger 13.6-inch Liquid Retina display, a 1080p FaceTime HD camera, four-speaker sound system, up to 18 hours of battery life,1 and MagSafe charging. It is now available in four finishes — silver, space gray, midnight, and starlight. M2 also comes to the 13-inch MacBook Pro, the world’s second best-selling laptop — delivering incredible performance, up to 24GB of unified memory, ProRes acceleration, and up to 20 hours of battery life,2 all in a compact design. "

After new M1 Pro and M1 Max options for Macbook lineups unveiled at first quarter of first Apple hardware event, Apple launches new groundbreaking M2 SoC powered Macbook Air 13.6 inch that offers 5-nanometer technology powering an 18 percent faster CPU, a 35 percent more powerful GPU, and a 40 percent faster Neural Engine while 50 percent more memory bandwidth compared to M1, and up to 24GB of fast unified memory. Apple also updated FaceTIme to full HD camera, four speaker sound system derived from M1 Max Macbooks and also improved battery life, all new 35W charging option with two USB-C ports for 2 devices charging and also 67W charging with 50 percent charging in just 30 minutes. 

Macbook Pro 13 inch with M2 offers similar features with more battery life and compact design.

macOS Ventura:

"macOS Ventura includes powerful features and new innovations that help make the Mac experience even better. New tools like Stage Manager make focusing on tasks and moving between apps and windows easier and faster than ever, and Continuity Camera brings new videoconferencing features to any Mac, including Desk View, Studio Light, and more,” said Craig Federighi, Apple’s senior vice president of Software Engineering. “With helpful new features in Messages, state-of-the-art search technologies in Mail, and an updated design for Spotlight, Ventura has so much to offer and enriches many of the ways customers use their Macs.”

Apple's latest macOS Ventura is an incremental update to Monterey os for multitasking innovated to new tools of Stage Manager for focused productivity experiences, updated Contiunity that upgrades video conference to imaging effects with Studio light and a new Desk view and also updated Spotlight for easy searches and discovery.

iOS 16: 

“iOS 16 is a big release with updates that will change the way you experience iPhone,” said Craig Federighi, Apple’s senior vice president of Software Engineering. “We have reimagined how the Lock Screen looks and works with exciting new features that make it more personal and helpful, introduced iCloud Shared Photo Library for families, streamlined communication through new capabilities in Messages and Mail, and harnessed enhanced intelligence with updates to Live Text and Visual Look Up.”

iOS 16 is also unveiled with brand new features like Live activities for more smarter homescreen, link focus for Homescreen more user friendly to user moods. The big updates also arrive for Safari with shared Group Tabs for productivity based websites grouping and a ground breaking Passkeys that stores on a device for an unhackable Safari browsing experience. Siri adds the ability to run shortcuts as soon as an app is downloaded without requiring upfront setup. Users can add emoji when sending a message, choose to send messages automatically — skipping the confirmation step — and hang up phone and FaceTime calls completely hands-free by simply saying “Hey Siri, hang up.”

Apple News introduces a new My Sports section to easily follow favorite teams and leagues; receive stories from hundreds of top publishers. Personalized Spatial Audio enables an even more precise and immersive listening experience. Listeners can use the True Depth camera on iPhone to create a personal profile for Spatial Audio that delivers a listening experience tuned just for them.

Elon Musk acquires Twitter for $44 Bn as private company

 

After just two weeks of news and rumor rounds, Tesla ceo Elon Musk delivers Twitter purchase with $44 Bn at $54.20 per share value. Elon Musk has been promoter of free speech and supporter of Twitter with millions of followers supporting Elon on his views about Space,tech and Automobile industries. Elon Musk hinted about his interested in acquiring Twitter at recent TED 2022 conference with acknowledgement to content moderation by saying “I think it’s very important for there to be an inclusive arena for free speech,”

Twitter acquisition is still a big surprise for Silicon valley after Twitter just few months ago announced Indian oriin Parag Agrawal as ceo. Parag Agrawal after Elon Musk's announcement said, “Twitter has a purpose and relevance that impacts the entire world. Deeply proud of our teams and inspired by the work that has never been more important.”

Elon Musk also announced his eagerness to improve Twitter with focus towards better algorithms to more transparent communication and content for users while the promise of less spams and spam bots. 

Apple TV+'s first Oscar movie win with CODA at Oscars 2022

 

Apple's millions of dollars of rights acquisition last year after Sian Heder's family drama movie CODA won Sundance turning out to be iPhone maker's first Oscar winner movie. CODA have won three Oscars with Best Picture, Best Adopted Screenplay and Best Supporting Actor at 94th Oscars in Dolby Theaters Los Angeles. 

CODA's worldwide rights were not acquired by Apple making it a limited release in some of the markets. Despite not releasing in all markets, CODA made $1.1 Mn in US while competing against Power of Dog and others in Oscars nominated categories to won those awards as Apple's rights purchase become wise decision.

Apple TV+ platform in terms of gaining popularity is fueled by an Oscar winning movie after its success with tv hit Tedd Lasso against other streaming services Amazon Prime and Netflix. 

Apple releases feature-rich iOS 15.4

 Apple releases iOS 15.4 with flashy new features on top of new third party improvements and improvements. Here is summary of new features and updates:

New Siri Voice:

Apple announces a key feature for reinforcing importance of diversity with new Siri American Voice 5 that included voices of Apple's LGBTQ+ community member. Apple's push has been since addition of black members' voices in iOS 14.5 last year.

New Emojis:

New Emojis are handshake emoji with the options of hands and there is also household objects emojis.

Face id:

Face id is updated with Face id for Mask and Add Glass options.

FaceTime:

FaceTime is updated with apps integration into Shared Sessions feature/

Third Party integrations:

Tap to Pay is updated with support for contactless payments now expands to more apps starting with Stripe. Pure Motions Plus of 120 Hz display refresh rate is now extended to apps with previous option of 60 Hz. iCloud Keychain is updated with Notes support. Apple Credit Card and Vaccine Cards are added to homescreen as new third party widgets.

Apple's Peek Performance event 2022

 

Apple have announced new iPhone SE 2022, two new colors for iPhone 13 and 13 Pro of Green and Alpine Green, M1 Ultra SoC, iPad Air 5, new Mac Studio pc and new Apple Studio display. Apple also announced new content partnerships for Apple TV+ exclusives.

There have been a lots of excitements and expectations after last week's rumor of Apple to launch their most affordable iPhone SE and Apple have reacted to market big time with the SE not just being affordable iPhone but with par to iPhone 13 series in terms of first time ever as same SoC as flagship iPhone with A15 bionic. The iPhone SE 2022 is really impressive in terms of performance with Apple's latest SoC, 5G support and12 Mega main camera with improved sensor to software features of smart HDR, Photographic Styles and Deep Fusion available on iPhone 13. The four color options and design improvements of new iPhone SE 2022 is also lite update to price at $429 compared to previous SE.

Apple also launched iPad Air 5 with M1 SoC replacing A15 bionic of previous generation, 5G, two new color options, improved 12 Mega camera with new features and updated front camera with center stage and twice fast new USB C at $599 starting price.

Apple's One more thing moment of the event is the new brand of products with Apple Studio. The new Mac Studio is rectangle design Mac pc that is launched as a flagship to Mac Mini and Mac Pro with better hardware, better cooling system and with M1 Max and brand new M1 Ultra SoC option starting at $1999. In terms of specs, Mac Studio is powerful with RAM support upto 128 Gb, ssd of 8 Tb and two USB c and four Thunderbolt 4.

Apple also announced new Apple Studio display monitor that is mid ranger to the flagship Pro Display XDR with 27 inch 5K resolutions, 12 Mega camera with center stage, four microphones, four Thunderbolt 4 and two USB C at $1599.