Technologies
WWDC 2023 Biggest Reveals: Vision Pro Headset, iOS 17, MacBook Air and More
From its expected AR/VR headset to new Macs to software updates like iOS 17, here’s what Apple unveiled at WWDC.
Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference kicked off on Monday with a keynote address showing everything coming to the company’s lineup of devices. WWDC has been typically where the company gives us a first look at new software for iPhones, iPads, Apple Watches and Macs. But this year, Apple revealed a bevy of new hardware, too.
The big announcement was the debut of the Apple Vision Pro headset, a «new kind of computer» as Tim Cook put it in the presentation. But with MacBook Air and other Mac hardware announcements — including new silicon — as well as software upgrades, no corner of Apple’s ecosystem lacked for updates.
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For a detailed summary of everything announced as it happened, give our live blog a look. Read on for the highlights of the presentation and links to our stories.
Apple Vision Pro, a new headset
The Apple Vision Pro is the company’s answer to the AR and VR headset race. It’s a personal display on your face with all the interface touches you’d expect from Apple, with an operating system that looks like a combination of iOS, MacOS and TVOS. And it’s not going to come cheap: The Apple Vision Pro retails for $3,499 and will start shipping early next year.
The device itself looks like other headsets, though the glass front hides cameras and even a curved OLED outer display (more on why later). The headset is secured to the wearer’s head with a wide rear band (no over-the-top strap), though as rumors suggested, there’s an external battery back that connects over a cable and sits in your pocket. There’s a large Apple Watch-style digital crown on the right side that lets you dial immersion (the outside world) in and out.
The Vision Pro has three-element lenses that enable 4K resolution, though you can swap out lenses, presumably for different vision capabilities. Audio pods are embedded within the band to sit over your ears, and «audio ray tracing» maps sound to your position. A suite of lidar and other sensors on the bottom of the headset track hand and body motions.
Technically speaking, the Vision Pro is a computer, with an M2 chip found on Apple’s highest-end computers. But a new R1 chip processes all the other headset inputs from 12 cameras, five sensors and six microphones and sends it to the M2 to reduce lag and get new images to displays within 12 milliseconds. The Vision Pro runs the new VisionOS, which uses iOS frameworks, a 3D engine, foveated rendering and other software tricks to make what Apple calls «the first operating system designed from the ground up for spatial computing.»
Interior cameras track your facial motion, which is projected to others when on FaceTime and other video chatting apps.
Apple Vision Pro can scan your face to create a digital 3D avatar.
To keep users from being cut off from the outside world, the EyeSight feature uses inside-pointing cameras and the headset’s outer display to show your eyes — essentially showing people around you what your eyes are focusing on. If you’ve dialed your immersion all the way on, your eyes will disappear on the outside screen. But you’re not totally cut off. While wearing the headset, if someone approaches you they’ll filter in to your vision.
The interface uses hand motions to control the device, though there are also voice controls. It’s tough to tell how these controls will work, and we’d expect that users will need some time to adapt to not using a mouse and keyboard.
This isn’t just an entertainment device. Apple is pitching its first new product in eight years as a work-from-home and travel device, essentially letting you open however many windows you want. It can work in the office as a display for Macs, and supports Apple’s Magic Keyboard and Trackpad devices.
The Vision Pro has Apple’s first 3D cameras and can take spatial photos, providing 3D depth with binaural audio to experience moments with more immersion. Of course, this spatial experience is extended to movies that’s «impossible to represent on a 2D screen,» Apple said during its presentation, continually teasing the exclusivity that non-headset wearers won’t even understand without trying out a Vision Pro. Disney CEO Bob Iger took the WWDC stage to vouch for the headset, and followed with a short video showing interactive 3D experiences that Vision Pro users will soon get to experience on the Disney Plus streaming service.
Now that Apple has all these new cameras and eye-tracking, it’s introduced a way to secure your data and purchases with Optic ID, which uses your eyes as an optical fingerprint for authentication. Camera data is processed at the system level, so what the headset sees isn’t fed up to the cloud.
Read more: Apple’s ‘One More Thing’ retrospective
New MacBook Air 15
As was rumored, Apple announced a new MacBook Air 15, a larger version of the MacBook Air 13 that launched last year.
The MacBook Air 15 is powered by an M2 chip and gets up to 18 hours of battery life. Configurations can come with up to 24GB of memory and up to 2TB of storage, retailing for $1,299 to start (or $1,199 with a student discount).
The 15-inch model is 11.5mm thick and 3.3 pounds, and has two Thunderbolt ports and a Magsafe cable connector — along with a 3.5mm headphone jack. It has an above-display 1080p camera in a notch, three microphones and six speakers with force-canceling subwoofers.
Read more: 15-inch MacBook Air M2 Preorder: Where to Buy Apple’s Latest Laptop
Mac Studio with M2
A new Mac Studio has landed and it comes with Apple’s latest silicon. The new model comes with an M2 Max chipset, or the new M2 Ultra chipset — essentially two M2 Max chips combined, which enables up to 192GB of memory.
The M2 Ultra stole the spotlight with new capabilities, with a 24-core CPU and streaming 22 videos at 8K ProRes resolution at once. It can support up to six Apple Pro Displays at once.
The Mac Studio starts at $1,999 and will be available starting next week.
Mac Pro with M2 Ultra
Apple wasted no time announcing that its new high-end desktop Mac Pro model would get the M2 Ultra as well. The new Mac Pro gets all the M2 Ultra upgrades as the Studio, including support for up to 192GB of RAM.
The Mac Pro has eight thunderbolt ports, two HDMI ports and dual 10GB ethernet ports, with six open PCIe Gen 4 slots. The new Mac Pro comes in both upright tower and horizontal rack orientations.
The new Mac Pro starts at $6,999 and will be available starting next week.
iOS 17
iOS 17 brings a ton of quality-of-life improvements, and the iOS 17 developer beta is available now to download. Finally, you can use more filters while searching within your Messages. In addition to pressing and holding on messages to reply, you can also simply swipe on specific messages to reply to them, and voice notes will be transcribed.
Say goodbye to gray screens when you get calls — now you can set full-screen photos or Memoji to contacts when they call you. And if someone leaves a voicemail, you can see it transcribed in real-time to help you screen calls if you don’t recognize a caller.
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A new safety feature, Check In, sends a note to a trusted contact when you reach a location — like when you make it home safe after late-night travel. If it’s taking you longer to get to a destination, you’ll be prompted to extend the timer rather than alert your contact. It also shares your battery and signal status. Check In is end-to-end encrypted.
Last year, Apple introduced an iOS feature to let you copy photo subjects and paste them as stickers — and now you can do that with video to essentially create GIFs to share with friends or even as responses to Messages. All emoji are now shareable stickers, too.
AirDrop has been a helpful tool to send files between Apple devices, but now you can share your contact info with Name Drop. You can choose what you want to share between email addresses, phone numbers and more.
Also, say goodbye to relying on Notes to jot down your thoughts — Journal is a new secure app for personal recollections. Apple is pitching it as a gratitude exercise, but iOS will auto-include activities like songs and workouts you’ve done to your personal log.
Apple Maps got an update that Android owners have had for years — the ability to use Maps offline, especially helpful when you’re outside network range while outdoors or conserving battery.
A new mode, StandBy, converts an iPhone to an alarm clock when it’s charging and rotated horizontally. It gets smart interactions like a large visible clockface along with calendar and music controls.
Lastly, as was rumored, you won’t have to say «Hey Siri» anymore. Just saying «Siri» will bring up the voice assistant.
Read more: Apple Finally Lets You Type What You Ducking Mean on iOS 17
iPadOS 17
iPadOS 17 brings more controls to widgets, which don’t just show more info at a glance — they have more interactive buttons to let you control your smart home or play music.
iPadOS 17 is bringing more interactive personal data to the Health app, including richer sleep and activity visualization.
The next iPadOS update brings quality-of-life upgrades like more lock screen customization and multiple timers (helpful when cooking), as well as improvements to the follow-you-during-video-calls Stage Manager feature for iPad selfie cameras.
With all the screen space on an iPad, Apple expanded what you can do with PDFs, which can be autofilled and signed from within iPadOS. iPad owners can collaborate in real time while tweaking PDFs, and the files can now be stored in the Notes app.
MacOS Sonoma
MacOS Sonoma, named after one of California’s most famous wine-producing areas, continues the WWDC theme of adding more widget functionality.
Sonoma also has some gaming upgrades like a new gaming mode that prioritizes CPU and GPU to improve frame rate. Apple is paying attention to immersion with lower latency for wireless controllers and speakers or headsets. The company is also courting developers with game dev kits and Metal 3. But the biggest gaming announcement is that legendary game creator Hideo Kojima’s opus Death Stranding is coming to Macs later this year. «We are actively working to bring our future titles to Apple platforms,» Kojima said during the WWDC presentation.
On the business side, Mac has improved videoconferencing with an overlay that shows slide controls while you’re presenting. Apple also introduced new reactions — like ticker-tape falling for a congratulations — that can be triggered with gestures.
PassKey, the end-to-end encrypted password chain tech Apple introduced last year, can now be shared with other contacts, and everyone included can edit and update passwords to be shared with the group.
Safari has security updates including locking the browser window when in private browsing mode, and profiles to separate accounts, logins and cookies between work and personal use.
AirPods and audio upgrades
Apple has a handful of improvements to its audio products. AirPods will get Adaptive Audio, which combines noise-canceling with intelligent audio to drown out annoying background noise while letting through important sounds — like car horns or bike bells. It’ll also pass through voices in case someone starts a conversation in person.
And it’s far easier to digitally take control of the music with SharePlay while somebody with CarPlay is driving — a prompt will go out to others in the car asking if they want to take control.
Apps in WatchOS 10 are getting a new look.
WatchOS 10
Yet again, widgets make an appearance with WatchOS 10, the next operating system upgrade for Apple Watches. Widgets are now accessible in a stack from your home screen — just use the digital crown to scroll between them.
Apple has focused on cycling this year, improving workouts by showing functional threshold data, an important metric for cyclists. It also connects over Bluetooth to sensors on bikes, and there’s a new full-screen mode for iPhones that allows you to use it as a full screen while cycling.
Hikers, rejoice! WatchOS 10 has upgraded its compass with cellular connection waypoints, telling you which direction to walk and how far you have to go before you can get carrier reception. It also shows SOS waypoint spots, and shows elevation view in the 3D compass view. There’s also a neat topographical view.
Apple is also expanding its Mindfulness app to log how you’re feeling in State of Mind, choosing between color-coded emotional states. You can even access this from your iPhone in case you’re away from your Apple Watch.
Health focuses for 2023
On top of the WatchOS Mindfulness updates, Apple introduced a neutral survey to self-report mood and mental health, which acts as a sort of non-medical way to indicate whether you may want to get professional help.
Apple also has a new cross-device Vision Health focus in the Health app, and a new feature on the Apple Watch measures daylight time spent outside to watch for myopia in younger wearers. Screen Distance uses the TrueDepth camera on iPads to warn people if they’re too close to the screen.
Technologies
Why Are Switch 2 Games So Expensive? Trump’s Tariffs May Not Be Sole Factor
It still comes down to money.
Wednesday’s reveal of the Switch 2 had a lot of buzz from Nintendo surrounding its successor to the Switch. One shocking bit, though, was the high price of its games. There’s a lot of confusion, especially with news of President Donald Trump’s increased tariffs on many trading partners, including Japan.
After the Switch 2 Direct, Nintendo released the full details of the upcoming console and games on its website. The price of Mario Kart World shocked gamers and led to some disdain, as the $80 MSRP was $10 more than what most new games cost today. This led many to wonder if this would be a new normal for game prices due to Trump’s tariffs or if Nintendo was just being greedy. The answer, however, might be something completely different.
Are Nintendo Switch 2 game prices hiking?
To start, some details need to be cleared up. Some people have posted on social media that the price of Nintendo’s Switch 2 games, at least in the US, will be $90. That is incorrect, as of right now.
One X user posted Switch 2 EU prices for Mario Kart World, which start at 80 euros for a digital version and 90 euros for the physical copy. Typically, US and EU games match in price, which caused some to assume that this pricing would be the case for the US.
Nintendo Switch 2 games will be more expensive physically than digitally.
Mario Kart World will be 90 freaking euros phisically. pic.twitter.com/iXuRwzlFqH— Centro LEAKS (@CentroLeaks) April 2, 2025
US retailers, however, already posted their Switch 2 game prices, and Nintendo-published games are listed at $80.
Will Trump’s tariffs cause the Switch 2 to cost more?
As for Trump’s tariffs, that is unlikely to be a driver of this price bump. Tariffs are not applied to digital goods, and when the prices were published, there were no tariffs on Japan. Plus, games are similarly expensive in other countries like Canada and the UK.
With that cleared up, why are Nintendo games on the Switch 2 so expensive? One likely reason is game storage.
Read More: All the Nintendo Games You Can Update to Switch 2 for Free
The Switch 2 uses what Nintendo calls game-key cards, which are Switch 2 cartridges that don’t have all the game data on the cartridge itself. This helps save on production costs as storage is expensive. The original Switch cartridges went up to 32GB of storage, which doesn’t seem like a lot these days, with some games taking up 100GB or more of storage, but this is for the original Switch. Only a few games, like The Witcher 3, went above 32GB because the graphics for the Switch weren’t on the high end like with a PC, PS5 or Xbox Series console, where a Witcher 3 install size starts at 50GB.
Switch 2 games are going to be bigger in size — there is little doubt about it. CD Projekt Red confirmed it would put its Cyberpunk 2077: Ultimate Edition on one 64GB cartridge, and there will likely be other games to surpass that 64GB. With the max size of the cartridge doubling in size, it adds to the price of the physical card, as not only does storage have to be bigger, but they will need to transfer data faster. That can get more expensive for physical copies, unlike optical discs, which are still the same price whether it has 20GB or 100GB on the disc.
What does all this mean for gamers?
This leads to a dilemma for publishers: Put the entire game on the physical card and sell it at a loss, increase the price of the physical copy with the full game on it or use the game-key card to have a card with minimal storage, requiring gamers to download the entire game.
Read More: The 17 Best Nintendo Switch Games Right Now
It appears that Nintendo went with door No. 2. This doesn’t come as much of a surprise, knowing the company. Anyone who wants to save money on games knows that Nintendo will seldom bring the price down of its own games. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, for example, is 8 years old and is still full price on Nintendo’s website.
According to an industry analysis from Niko Partners, this new pricing could become the new normal in a couple of years when it comes to physical cartridges.
«While there has been some sticker shock regarding the price of games increasing from $60 to $70 or $80, these price points are set to become industry standard over the next two years, especially so for Nintendo first-party games,» Niko Partners said in a statement Wednesday. «One reason for the higher price is the increased cost of the new and faster Game Cards themselves, with higher capacities being more expensive to manufacture than a PS5 Blu-ray disc.»
Nintendo didn’t respond to a request for comment about the higher price of its games.
That said, this doesn’t explain the lower price of Donkey Kong Bananza, which comes out in July; that’s listed on Nintendo’s site for $70. This could mean the game isn’t using a larger storage card, but that can’t be said for sure until the game comes out. It’s unclear how things will change in the future.
Technologies
Nintendo Switch 2 Pre-orders in US Delayed Due to Trump’s Tariffs
The Switch 2 launch is still happening on June 5, and preorders outside the US seem unchanged.
Nintendo Switch 2 preorders in the US were to start April 9, but it appears those plans have changed due to the new tariffs imposed this week by President Donald Trump. It’s unclear if this means Nintendo will also have to increase the price of the Switch successor, which currently starts at $450.
Nintendo said Friday that it’s delaying Switch 2 preorders in the US, but its June release date is unaffected.
«Pre-orders for Nintendo Switch 2 in the U.S. will not start April 9, 2025 in order to assess the potential impact of tariffs and evolving market conditions,» the company said in a statement. «Nintendo will update timing at a later date. The launch date of June 5, 2025 is unchanged.»
Nintendo didn’t indicate if preorder dates outside the US would change, but Eurogamer reports that preorders are live at various retailers in the UK.
A tariff of 24% has been applied by the US to goods from Japan. Were that rate to be applied directly to the Switch 2’s announced price, it would rise to $558, but it would be up to Nintendo how much of the tariff it will pass on to consumers.
This is a developing story.
Technologies
Twelve South’s Foldable Wireless Charger for iPhone and Apple Watch Is Up to 27% Off at Amazon
This handy accessory makes it easier to travel with your Apple gear and stay charged wherever you go.
Whether you’re traveling for business or off on a wonderful family vacation, charging your stuff shouldn’t be something you have to worry about. Taking extra chargers and cables can be a pain, and they all take up space in your bag. But the handy Twelve South Butterfly SE charger is a compact alternative that can wirelessly charge an iPhone and an Apple Watch at the same time. And it’s available with up to 27% off right now at Amazon.
That top line discount applies to the pink version, though the white model is only $7 more and other colors are seeing 15% off the usual $100 price tag if you have a strong preference. It’s not clear how long the discounts will last, though.
Hey, did you know? CNET Deals texts are free, easy and save you money.
The charger itself offers a way to wirelessly charge a iPhone and Apple Watch from a single AC outlet, and you can even charge your AirPods when your phone is done, too. And because this is a Qi2 charger you’ll get a full 15 watts of wireless charging for compatible devices — including the best iPhones.
When you’re not using the Butterfly SE, it folds up so it can be slid into a pocket, bag or luggage without taking up too much space. It really is the perfect partner for people who like to travel light.
Unfortunately, this charger doesn’t come with an AC adapter in the box, so you’ll need to provide your own. Make sure it’s rated for 20 watts or more. If you need to buy one, Apple’s 20-watt USB-C charger is just $15 right now.
Why this deal matters
We all carry multiple devices around with us these days. Anything that can make charging them more convenient is a win in our books, especially when you’re traveling. This charger takes up little space when it isn’t being used and charges quickly when it is.
