7 things we learnt from Apple's WWDC Keynote

Just as was predicted, the WWDC Keynote last night was a long one and covered a fair few interesting areas, including hardware.

But don't bother going off and hunting down the information, because we're super awesome here at Pocket Gamer, we've done it for you. What are the most important bits of information from last night? Well..

Apple Watch OS 4

To kick things off yesterday, the Apple Watch is getting a bit of a tweak this autumn. Aiming to be the best workout pal/home assistant a piece of tech can be, the upcoming watchOS is looking pretty neat.

To really pump you up in terms of exercising, your Apple Watch will give you daily inspiration and give a little extra push in the evening to help you meet your goals. In the long run, you've also got monthly challenges and feel-good celebrations when you reach your targets - but no celebratory cheese burgers for you.

In terms of work outs, your Apple Watch will not only keep better track of your stats, it'll also be able to connect with compatible gym equipment to keep track of necessary metrics.

Siri will also be prominent in the update as it'll turn into the busy human's best friend, keeping track of appointments and nudging you about important bits and bobs.

Then, just for fun, there're two new watch faces coming: kaleidoscope and Toy Story-themed ones.

MacOS

Again, coming to light this autumn, High Sierra will be bringing a number of factors and new technologies with it. Promising to be faster, safer, and more responsive, it looks like the file system will be getting a total makeover as the Apple File System plans to take over.

Thanks to the new Metal 2 built-in to your Mac, your computer's GPU will be a happy bunny as it's given capabilities like machine learning, VR, and external GPU support for highly demanding apps. It's an creative's dream, really.

Intelligent Tracking Prevention will stop pesky internet ads from following you around the place. Best of all, High Sierra says 'goodbye' to autoplaying videos with sound - meaning no more jump scares for you when something plays obnoxiously loudly in a tab you can't find.

iMac Pro/VR

I won't go into too much detail here, but the iMac Pro is looking to be an impressive (and expensive) piece of kit. This is like the Mac-Daddy of Macs. With an 8, 10, or 18-core Xeon processor and Turbo Boost speeds up to 4.5 GHz, this bad boy's got the power to do a lot.

This is where stuff got interesting in terms of VR. With the new Vega GPU, the iMac Pro not only lets you immerse yourself in the VR world; it lets you create it.

Even the macOS High Sierra could possibly see an advance in VR as Valve announced that it's made SteamVR available for Mac in its beta. The external graphics enclosure, Thunderbolt 3, will be able to connect to the Mac via USB and will give developers a little extra push in terms of graphics. Both SteamVR and HTC Vive will be supported.

iOS 11/ARKit

Aside from being a 32-bit gamer's worst nightmare, iOS 11 is going to be bringing a ton of stuff to the table when it launches later this year.

Firstly, we'll finally be getting a Files app to help you organise and keep your files all in one handy-dandy place. That includes the files from your iPad, iPhone, iCloud, and other services like Dropbox.

There'll also be a Dock feature, letting you open and switch apps without fuss. The more you use it, the better it'll learn about what apps you're likely to want to use. Oh, and you'll soon be able to multitask by using the Slide Over or Split View features.

ARKit is a new framework that'll bring AR to iOS devices and will allow developers to build experiences. Thanks to its intelligent systems, games and apps will be ten times as awesome and immersive.

Apple Pay opens up further by letting you securely pay person-to-person by sending messages.

Photos will be getting a bit of a polish up as the camera app gets new filters and will take up less memory, thanks to the next-generation compression tech. Live Photos will also be twice as lively as you're given the option to Loops, Bounce, and select a Long Exposure.

One of the most important new features is the new Maps lane guidance, airport and shopping centre maps, and best of all a Do Not Disturb feature for when you're driving. Seriously, that's awesome.

Siri's getting a boost, now able to translate sentences from English into Chinese, Spanish, French, German, or Italian, as well as getting brushed up voice audio in both its male and female tones.

Finally, the Control Centre now displays all in one, tidy page. If you want to see more in the menu, however, you can use 3D Touch to open up further options.

App Store

For the first time in its nine year reign, the App Store will be getting a revamp. Aside from making a more intelligent search system, Apple will shortly be introducing three new tabs which'll help you to discover new apps/games.

The Today Tab is a daily destination which stays up to date with the best and brightest apps/games available that day.

The Games Tab, shockingly, is all about games. Apparently it'll take a mobile gamer's love of gaming to the next level, I guess by recommending even more epic games to play.

The Apps Tab, if you could guess it, makes it easier for you to find the right apps for you. Whatever you need to help you organise your life, you'll find it right here.

There'll also be Daily Stories to keep an eye out for, giving us a behind-the-scenes look at exclusive world app/game premiers. And, of course, there'll be a section for game/app of the day to keep things nice and fresh.

iPad Pro

We learnt yesterday that there's a new iPad Pro on the way. With a 10.5 inch display, there's enough room for a full-size on screen keyboard and smart keyboard. Both the 10.5 inch and 12.9 inch will have true tone displays with 600 nits brightness, 1.8% reflectivity, and a wide P3 colour gamut. The refresh rate will also be up to 120Hz with the Apple Pencil dropping to just 20 ms. Yeesh.

With a six-core CPU, A10X chip with 64-bit architecture, and 12-core GPU, the latest iPad's battery will last about 10 hours. That's one impressive piece of kit. The rear camera will remain at 12MP and the FaceTime camera will sit at 7MP.

Again, the Dock, Files app, App Switcher, and Drag and Drop feature all come into play here.

HomePod

If you're still here, the HomePod was the last on the agenda and it's an equally surprising bit of tech.

Just under seven inches tall, it's covered in mesh fabric. It's packed with 7 beam-forming tweeter array Precision acoustic horns, an Apple designed woofer, and has an A8 chip installed to make it sound bloody great. Well, that and it's spatially aware - detecting the pieces of the room to then optimise its sound accordingly.

There'll be six microphones in the speaker which'll make it more responsive when you speak to Siri, the musicologist and home assistant.

This bad boy'll set you back $349, shipping in December to Australia, UK, and US, which isn't as bad as I was expecting.