Beautiful Virgin Islands

Sunday, Aug 23, 2026

Here Are The Things You Need To Know From Apple's Big June Event

Each June, Apple puts on a glitzy stage show attended by thousands of people and watched by millions more around the world. It’s the company’s flagship conference for developers, where it gives a sneak peek at new versions of the software that powers your shiny Apple toys - the iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, Apple TV, and its laptops and desktops.

But this year, nobody attended in person. Thanks to the coronavirus pandemic, Apple streamed it exclusively online for the first time in more than 30 years.

Here at the biggest things that were announced.


1) You’ll be able to run iPhone and iPad apps on your Mac.

CEO Tim Cook announced that some of Apple’s laptops and desktops will be powered by the company’s own chips instead of running Intel processors as they have been for the last 15 years.

This means that in the future, Apple will use the same chips that power its iPhones, iPad, and the Apple Watch to power Macs. Some of these devices, like the iPhone and the iPad, are more powerful than Apple’s existing laptops, so its computers will be faster, thinner, lighter, and more energy-efficient.

But it also means Apple’s laptops and desktops will finally be able to run iPhone and iPad apps without developers having to rebuild them from scratch.

Apple will release its first Mac with its own chips by the end of the year and is already working with Microsoft and Adobe to make sure popular Mac apps like Office and Creative Cloud run smoothly.


2) The Apple Watch will track your sleep.

A new version of WatchOS, the software that powers your Apple Watch, is coming in the fall. One big new addition is that it will let your Watch track your sleep - something that popular fitness trackers like the Fitbit already can do.

After installing the update, simply wear your Apple Watch to bed and set it to wake you up either with an alarm or a tap on your wrist. When you wake up, you’ll be able to see how long you slept right on the device or on your iPhone.


3) The Apple Watch will monitor your handwashing.

Since we’re living through a pandemic, the Apple Watch will now detect when you wash your hands, starting a small, bubbly timer to count down the 20 seconds you’re supposed to soap them up to kill germs. If you stop before, it will alert you. When your hands are sufficiently clean, it will reward you with a tiny tap on the wrist.


4) Your smart doorbell will recognize who is at your door.

Do you own a smart doorbell camera that works with Apple’s HomeKit? (Check your user manual if you don’t know.) When iOS 14 is released in the fall, your internet-connected doorbell will be able to zap that feed directly to your Apple TV.

The facial recognition won't work on everyone. You'll have to approve certain faces in photos stored on your iPhone to let your smart doorbell recognize who’s at the door and inform you when they show up.


5) Your default browser and email app can be whatever you want them to be.

iOS 14 will finally let you switch out the iPhone and iPad’s default browser (Safari) and the default email app (Mail) for any other browser or email app you want.

Apple didn’t actually announce this in its presentation today, but eagle-eyed reporters spotted the feature in one of the slides in the keynote.


The timing is important. Apple is facing increased scrutiny from antitrust bodies around the world for allegedly monopolistic practices on the App Store. Allowing users to set non-Apple apps as defaults could be useful to take some of the heat off.

Newsletter

Related Articles

Beautiful Virgin Islands
0:00
0:00
Close
Trump Imposes 50% Tariffs on Canadian Goods After Bilateral Trade Talks Collapse
Australia Combines Indigenous Fire Knowledge With Satellite Tech to Combat Catastrophic Wildfires
Father and Son Jailed in Scotland Over £900,000 Airport Cannabis Smuggling Operation
UK Fraud Reports Surge Sevenfold as Criminals Exploit QR Codes in Parking Meters and Phishing Emails
Brighton Thrash Aston Villa in Four-Goal Opening Half as Manchester City Trail Bournemouth
Erin Patterson Appeals Triple Murder Convictions After Hotel Mixed Sequestered Jury With Prosecution
The rise and fall of Hui Ka Yan, China’s richest man
Woke: Britain Considers Plain Packaging for Cigars as Specialist Shops Warn of Industry Collapse
Britain's Public-Service Productivity Remains Below 2019 as £80 Billion Output Gap Fuels WFH Debate
Mandelson Epstein Case in Jeopardy as U.S. Files Stay Out of Reach
Prince Harry and Six Others Ordered to Pay £9.5 Million After High Court Defeat
Petrol Bombs Set Luxury Cars Alight Outside Birmingham Wedding as Police Hunt Three Men
Bitcoin Surges Toward $80,000 as Short Squeeze and ETF Inflows Ignite Crypto Rally
Twenty-Nine US States Take Meta to Trial Over Alleged Child Addiction on Instagram and Facebook
Former Scottish National Party Executive Peter Murrell Jailed for Five Years Over £400,000 Embezzlement
Moderna and Merck's Personalized Cancer Vaccine Succeeds in Historic Late-Stage Melanoma Trial
Prince Harry and Meghan to Move Back to Britain With Their Children
England and Wales Have Fewer Than 1,800 Prison Places Left for Men
Suspected People Smuggler Arrested After Investigation Identified Him
Children's Doctors Warn That Vaping Can Lead Young People to Smoking
Hundreds of Thousands of Students Receive GCSE and Vocational Results Across England, Wales and Northern Ireland
Here Is What Can Never Happen in Your Country: Taiwan Is Giving Money to All Its People Because It Collected Too Much Tax
UK Inflation Rises to 2.9% as Energy Bills Jump
UK Issues New Conduct Guide for Asylum Seekers on Consent and Respect
A Sleepless Night on Wall Street: Nasdaq to Begin Nearly Round-the-Clock Trading
"The First in the World": 69-Year-Old Protested Artificial Intelligence—and Went to Jail
Ukraine's Ousted Defence Minister Calls for Wartime Presidential Election
China’s Lifelike AI Humans Move From Livestreams Into Real-World Service Roles
Sarah Ferguson Reportedly Retreats to Late Ex-Boyfriend's Swiss Chalet
Cristiano Ronaldo and Georgina Rodríguez Sign Prenup Protecting Their Separate Fortunes
Thieves Steal Antonello da Messina Renaissance Masterpieces From Sicilian Museum
Better.com Founder Who Fired 900 Employees on Zoom Is Ousted as CEO
Italian Speed Camera Issues Nearly 32,000 Fines in 10 Weeks, Worth More Than €3 Million
AI Manager at San Francisco Store Recommends Firing Human Employee
Google Launches Pixel 11 With Gemini AI at the Center of Its Hardware Strategy
Reform UK Unveils Plan to Cut Welfare Spending by More Than £50 Billion a Year
Prime Minister Andy Burnham Praised Extinction Rebellion for Doing a 'Great Service'
UK Wildfire Phone Alert Triggers Backlash as Users Switch Off Emergency Warnings
Heathrow Roads Reopen After Burst Water Main Floods Access to Terminals 2 and 3
Former NBA Players Enes Kanter Freedom and Royce White Say They Will Enter 2027 WNBA Draft
Former Cambridge Professor Jason Arday Found Dead Days After Resigning Amid Plagiarism Row
US Appeals Court Rules AI Agent's Website Actions Are Legally Attributed to the User
France's Constitutional Council Blocks Social Media Ban for Children Under 15
Liechtenstein Changes Royal Succession Rules to Allow Women to Inherit the Throne
Women Allege Rape and Sexual Abuse at British Army College for Teenage Recruits
Minnesota: Two independent investigators posed as Muslims (one wearing a burqa) and showed how they could vote in elections without identification.
China’s Kimi Launches AI-Focused Credit Card With Agricultural Bank of China and American Express
Former Labour Adviser Arrested on Suspicion of Spying for China Held Privileged Access as Top Party Donor
Turkish Parliament Passes Landmark Bill Granting Conditional Amnesty to Disarmed PKK Members
Donald Trump Warns FIFA Against Ousting Gianni Infantino Amid Revolt by Global Football Leaders
×