While last month’s WWDC will have gone down as its smallest physically attended event in history, Apple ensured it would also be one of its most memorable of all time. Gone was the slightly sycophantic enthusiasm of the tech journalist crowd, replaced with a slickly edited show that felt like it would be more at home in a movie theater than a live internet stream — at the very least it was worthy of a slot on Apple’s TV+ platform!
Tim Cook and Craig Federighi stepped up to the plate and delivered a knockout performance, with blow after blow of heavyweight announcements, including macOS Big Sur (did you guess the name right?), iOS and iPadOS 14, and possibly the biggest of all — the total shift of all Macs to Apple’s own silicon technology platform after a 15–year relationship with Intel. You probably remember, but back in 2005 Apple did the same when it transitioned from PowerPC to Intel. The reason? Performance per watt. This time round, the ARM–based processors are intended to enable Apple to achieve “a whole new level of performance,” in turn bestowing its Macs with the same industry–leading capabilities that its iOS devices enjoy right now.