Top Three Things That Happened At WWDC 2017 - Day One

WWDC is the place where Apple shows the magic it does with the software which powers its core devices. From iOS to new iPad product releases, this is where a developer gets to learn things and know what to work on regarding their future projects for Apple Products.

Day One of WWDC and here is the important stuff:

HomePods - The Expensive Alternative To Echo and Google Home

Consider it a thread roll or something else, HomePod is the product from Apple which will compete with Amazon Echo and Google Home in the field of virtual assistants. It also works with Apple Music and Apple promises that it has amazing speakers so it can also be your one stop for an entertainment solution. 

That is, provided you have $349 in your pocket as spare change and you aren't aware of the prices of the competitors. You can thank me later:

• Amazon Echo - $149
• Google Home - $109
• Amazon Echo Dot - $49 (Add an extra speaker)

iPad Pro Is Now Available In Two Sizes

We now have two variants of the iPad Pro one with 10.5 inches display and another with 12.9 inches display. Both of them are powered by a Hexa-Core Apple A10X Fusion Chip paired with M10 co-processor and a 12-core PowerVR GPU.

The 10.5 inches model has a Retina display with 2224-by-1668 resolution at 264 pixels per inch (ppi) whereas the 12.9 inches model has a 2732-by-2048 resolution at 264 pixels per inch (ppi). Both have 12 megapixels rear camera and 7 megapixels front camera. Expect around 10 hours battery life at most.

Pricing is as follows:

• iPad Pro 10.5 inches model costs around $649 for Wi-Fi model and $779 for the Cellular version. Both have 64GB storage and there are also 256GB/512GB variants.
• iPad Pro 12.9 inches model costs around $799 for Wi-Fi model and $929 for the Cellular model. Both again have 64GB storage and same storage variants as the shorter sibling.

iOS 11 Steals Features From Windows and Improves Multitasking

iOS 11 has a range of improvements and it'll be available as a public beta later in June. Following are some important features which were announced on stage:

• Siri has a new voice and it is now capable of translating. She is now more proactive offering relevant results regarding a query such as search results and more.
• Apple Pay now has person to person payment facility using an Apple Pay Cash Card.
• A High Efficiency Image File Format [HEIF] has been introduced which will shrink the size of photos in order to conserve space.
• Do not Disturb mode automatically texts someone back if they are calling while you are driving and if someone really needs to talk to you, he'll have to send an SMS "Urgent".
• Control Center has been redesigned and now includes Tiles like interface which was found on Windows Phones.
• Files app will allow users to manage the files on their drives including documents as well as syncing with widely used services such as Dropbox, OneDrive and Google Drive etc/
• App Store has been redesigned to bring more spotlight to new apps as well as a dedicated section to Games.
• ARKIT will allow developers to mix in virtual entertainment with the real world directly at the heart of the devices.
• iPhone 5s and above devices will support iOS 11 whereas all iPad Air and Pro models, as well as iPad Mini 2 and iPad fifth generation, are also included.

These are pretty much some of the important announcements related to mobile. Let us know what your favourite announcement was at WWDC 2017, Day One.