It's Memorial Day weekend in the United States, and that means WWDC is right around the corner and anticipation is building for what we might see at the opening keynote. Software updates are a given, but will we see any new hardware?
Other news this week included the annual release of new Pride-themed Apple Watch bands, iPhone 14 Pro rumors, and Sony's latest headphones that compete against the AirPods Max, so read for all of the details!
Apple Shares WWDC 2022 Schedule Starting With Keynote
One of the most exciting times of the year for Apple fans is fast approaching, with WWDC now under two weeks away.
Apple this week shared a schedule for WWDC, which will kick off with the keynote on Monday, June 6 at 10 a.m. Pacific Time. At the weeklong developer conference, Apple is expected to preview its latest software, including iOS 16, iPadOS 16, macOS 13, watchOS 9, and tvOS 16.
WWDC will be an online affair again this year, but some lucky developers were randomly selected to attend a special day at Apple Park on June 6 for a tour and to watch the keynote video in person.
New Apple Watch Pride Edition Bands Now Available
In celebration of Pride month this June, and in support of the LGBTQ+ community and equality, Apple this week released new Pride Edition versions of the Sport Loop and Nike Sport Loop for $49 each.
A new Pride watch face is also available for the Apple Watch Series 4 or newer. The watch face's colorful threads move as the Digital Crown on the Apple Watch is rotated, the display is tapped, or the wearer's wrist is raised.
iPhone 14 Pro Screen Refresh Rate Upgrade Could Allow for Always-On Display
Display industry consultant Ross Young this week shared his expectation that the ProMotion displays used in the iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max will be capable of dropping to a refresh rate as low as 1Hz. This upgrade could pave the way for an always-on display and/or longer battery life.
The Apple Watch has featured an always-on display since the Series 5 was released in 2019, allowing for the clock and other on-screen elements to be viewed at any time.
iPhone 14 Pro Renders Highlight Multiple Design Changes
Speaking of the iPhone 14 Pro, leaker Jon Prosser and graphic designer Ian Zelbo have shared some brand-new renderings of what the iPhone 14 Pro is expected to look like, reflecting a number of design changes rumored for the device.
In addition to the much-discussed shift from a notch to a "hole and pill" design for the front camera and Face ID, the renderings include a larger camera array that will necessitate a change of the corner radii of the entire device for a slightly rounder appearance.
Sony's New WH-1000XM5 Headphones vs. AirPods Max
Sony last week came out with an updated version of its popular over-ear noise canceling headphones, so we picked up a pair to compare them to the AirPods Max to see which headphones are better.
Sony's new "WH-1000XM5" headphones are priced at $399 in the United States, while the AirPods Max retail for $549. Watch our video for a comparison of the headphones to see which is a better value and check out our complete review of Sony's latest cans.
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Top Rated Comments
If Apple had released the ability to build actual new watch faces, I would have made several already, at least one of them likely following the pattern of one of my Raspberry Pi clocks that's been running for the past five years.
Personally, I find it completely absurd that most of the “traditional” watch faces on the Apple Watch have “hands” that continually run “over” the complications. In mechanical watches (not in the sense of wind up but in the sense of having physical hands), this was a mostly* necessary limitation of the mechanical bits. In a watch that has a pixel-based display, it’s just playing olde-timey make believe for no good reason - they should make the complications appear to “float” over the hands, so they’re visible all the time. As it is, we end up with analog faces where you can see the date in the traditional place - unless it’s around 3 o’clock, when the hour hand covers up the date, or it’s around 15 minutes past any hour, when the minute hand covers up the date - if so, just wait a while - you didn’t need to know the date right now, did you? If you had, you should have worn a watch (oh, wait). Traditional watchmakers didn’t design it that way because they wanted the day/date to play peek-a-boo, it was a limitation they couldn’t easily overcome. Aping that mechanism just makes it look like you want to carry around a cute little picture of a “watch”, rather than wanting to be able to know/check the time and date.
*: FWIW, I did once see an Omega watch that had a digital display incorporated into the underside of the crystal - the digits/letters (day/date, stopwatch, etc.) floated over the hands. It was flawed, but still tempting. It was also like $1200, IIRC.
I’d rather see them put some real effort into faces that can give both analog and digital representations of the time equal footing - both are useful for different ways of understanding the time. They get kind of close with some of the modular faces, but invariably either the analog face is too tiny to take in at a glance, or the analog face dominates the dial. I want one where the analog display and the digital display are both easy to completely take in with the merest of glances. The analog part does not have to have a strong resemblance to traditional analog faces, just recognizable hour and minute hands pivoting around a central axis with tick marks making the hours clear. Extra points if seconds are shown by a dot or series of dots crawling around the outside edge of the display (I have this running on two clocks on my living room that I built five years ago - I can tell the exact time [digitally] or get a sense of the time [analog] with a single glance from anywhere in the room). I’d want the analog and digital time, the day/date, the activity rings, and two lines for current-or-next event (calendar) and current-or-next task (reminders/OmniFocus). Bonus points if the calendar/task lines are treated like the old Siri watch face, where some more pressing thing, like a running stopwatch or timer, will override the other information display.