#WeeklyRecap: Apple Silicon, iOS 14, fancy new phones, and more
What's the story
This week has been all about consumer technology, thanks to Apple.
The Cupertino giant hosted its first-ever online-only Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) and made some major announcements for iPhone, iPad, Watch, and Mac users.
Then, other tech giants also stepped in and announced tempting devices and feature updates to look forward to.
Let's take a quick look back at everything.
News #1
Apple and its WWDC announcements
During the WWDC 2020 keynote, Apple announced several major software products, including the iOS 14, iPadOS 14, watchOS 7, tvOS 14, and macOS Big Sur.
The platforms pack a bunch of new capabilities, but what drew most of our attention was the company's announcement to ditch Intel's chipsets for its own Apple Silicon processor, designed specifically for more performance gains on the Mac.
News #2
Facebook struggling with ad boycott, WhatsApp developing animated stickers
While Apple drew praise, social media giant Facebook continued to struggle with the boycott of its ad platform by advertisers like Coca-Cola and Unilever.
The crisis has reduced Mark Zuckerberg's net worth by $7 billion, but despite that, the social network has been working on features for its products, including animated stickers for WhatsApp and an old article warning for the main Facebook app.
News #3
Microsoft's Defender ATP for Android, Google's new product features
Among other things, Microsoft made headlines with the announcement of the preview version of Defender Advanced Threat Protection for Android.
Meanwhile, Google announced a major overhaul for Google Photos and added the ability to explore and wishlist good TV shows and movies on Search itself. The feature works in multiple languages and sources content from most OTT services.
News #4
Novel gadgets to fight COVID-19
Meanwhile, some interesting developments to help people fight COVID-19 also surfaced this week.
These include a NASA-built pendant that uses proximity center and a coin vibrator motor to trigger haptic feedback whenever your hands move towards your face, apart from a smart face mask, which, when worn, can make calls, translate/transcribe speech, and even amplify your voice in real-time.
News #5
Some new smartphones launched, some became expensive
For smartphone lovers, OPPO launched A11k and Reno 3A, Xiaomi launched Redmi 9, while Realme debuted Narzo 10A 4GB and flagship-grade Realme X3 and X3 SuperZoom.
In addition to these, some devices also became costlier, including ASUS ROG Phone 2, POCO X2 8GB variant, Realme C2, Realme 5s, Realme 6, Realme Narzo 10A 3GB variant, and Realme C3.