The Things That Matter From Apple’s 2017 WWDC Keynote

HomePod

The biggest hardware announcement out of WWDC is Apple’s HomePod, the rumored “Siri Speaker”—the company’s answer to the Amazon Echo, Google Home, and Sonos. It’s being positioned as a high-end Apple Music-streaming device that also happens to have access to Siri. Its ability to automatically detect the space it’s in and adjust the sound accordingly is cool, and something no other speaker currently does. You can also automatically pair multiple speakers.

Unlike the Echo and Home, the HomePod doesn’t tie into third-party services, but you can control HomeKit devices (it also serves as a HomeKit hub). At $350, it’s a high price compared with the $150ish range for most of the competition, and it won’t be out until December. If you’re in the market for one of these speakers right now, you’re probably better off going with an Amazon Echo.

MacBooks

The MacBook Pro and 12-inch MacBook lines got speed bumps—to the latest Intel processors—across the 2016 models, but not much more. Surprisingly, the 13-inch MacBook Air lives for another day, and even got a minor processor bump. The only model to get a price drop is the 2016 13-inch MacBook Pro (non-Touch Bar), which now starts at $1,300. It’s our pick for the best Mac laptop for most people, so the lower price is welcome. However, if you prefer legacy ports, too bad: The 2015, 13-inch model with USB-A, HDMI, and an SD card reader has been discontinued. (The 15-inch 2015 model is still available.)

iPads

Following the release of a new 9.7-inch iPad in March 2017, the iPad Pro line gained a 10.5-inch model, replacing the 9.7-inch Pro, as well as an updated 12.9-inch version. The former is the bigger news of the two: It packs a 20 percent larger display into a body only slightly larger than that of the 9.7-inch tablet. Both new iPad Pros have improved displays with dynamic refresh rates up to 120 Hz, lower latency for the Apple Pencil, and True Tone color adjustment. They borrow the cameras from the iPhone 7, including the 12 MP rear sensor. (For the first time, the 12.9-inch Pro doesn’t have worse cameras and screen than the smaller Pro.) Both sizes start at 64 GB of storage and go up to 512 GB, the highest capacity ever available in an iPad.

The iPad Pros will ship with iOS 10, but will take advantage of new tablet-specific features in iOS 11 when the software update is available this fall. The fifth-generation iPad is likely still the best iPad for most people, but for those who want more power out of a tablet, these are clear improvements.

iMacs

We’re currently finishing our guide to all-in-one computers, but we can almost certainly say the new base-model 27-inch iMac will be the pick for Mac users. All 27-inch iMacs now come with the Fusion Drive (a hybrid of an SSD and a traditional hard drive), a nice update that means faster performance. Apple also added a pair of Thunderbolt 3 ports without sacrificing any other ports, a welcome use of the space. The iMacs also have better displays across the board and new Kaby Lake processors. Specwise, this is clearly the best iMac Apple has released at the price; the previous generation with similar specs would’ve cost $200 more and still not matched in every area.

Apple also announced an iMac Pro, coming this December, that includes much faster performance and a number of pro-level features, but it’s much more computer than most people will need, and its starting price of $5,000 means it’s only for people who really want that power.

Apple TV

Apple announced that Apple TV will finally gain support for Amazon Prime Video “later this year,” filling one of the biggest holes in Apple TV’s content list. However, the current Apple TV hardware still lags behind that of similarly priced competition such as higher-end Roku models—for example, it can’t do 4K video or HDR video, which Amazon Prime supports.