Apple to showcase new features for its gadgets

Shares of Apple closed down 1% Monday.

There’s also an update for Apple Pay, in which you can send money from person to person, instead of just from person to business.

Siri updates will allow the virtual assistant to work across a customer’s different devices so, for example, an appointment made on a phone will be replicated on an iPad.

Users will be able to see Apple Maps, Apple’s navigation application, while driving – though they will be unable to input destinations. But the product seems directly inspired by existing smart speakers from Amazon and Google. That’s especially important because people are starting to access information, entertainment and search in a more “pervasive” way that’s less dependent on smarthphones, he said.

The HomePod will be available in December in the USA, United Kingdom and Australia in white and space gray.

But while Amazon and Google have stressed the daily practicalities of the artificial intelligence assistants that run Echo and Home, Apple framed HomePod more as a music-listening platform, with practicalities like reminders and calendar nearly an after thought. Google Home, powered by Google Assistant, retails for $129.

As well as its new home speaker system – the HomePod – Apple updated a range of its core products at the annual conference.

At the WWDC today, Cook said Apple was pleased with its current partnership with Amazon and mentioned some of the e-commerce giant’s original content like Transparent. They’ll also include higher performance graphics chips to support VR.

But this WWDC also saw the launch of several new hardware. These devices will only keep the most recent messages in local storage.

For photos, Apple is replacing JPEGs with a new format meant to reduce file sizes. Apple could use the keynote to shed more light on those plans.

Apple’s also expected to unveil a voice-activated, internet-connected speaker to rival Amazon’s Echo and Google Home.

“I’m dispensing with the updates, other than to tell you, Apple’s doing great”, Apple CEO Tim Cook said in brief opening remarks as he took the stage at the McEnery Convention Center in San Jose, Calif. Coming this fall, macOS will be called High Sierra.

The latest version of Apple’s Safari browser will be able to stop automatically playing videos as well as online trackers used for advertisers. It will not block the ads themselves, though. The base model 21.5 inch starts at $1099, with the 4K monitor add available for $1499.

Both iPad Pro models feature the same 12 megapixel rear camera with optical image stabilization and 7 megapixel FaceTime HD camera as the iPhone 7.

It also enhanced its workout app to, for instance, support high intensity interval training.

And AppleWatch is in line for some upgrades, one of which will see it share information and data with some gym machines.