Top Stories: WWDC 2022 Schedule, New Apple Watch Pride Bands, and More

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It's Memorial Day weekend in the United States, and that means WWDC is right around the corner and anticipation is building for what we might see at the opening keynote. Software updates are a given, but will we see any new hardware?

top stories 28may2022
Other news this week included the annual release of new Pride-themed Apple Watch bands, iPhone 14 Pro rumors, and Sony's latest headphones that compete against the AirPods Max, so read for all of the details!

Apple Shares WWDC 2022 Schedule Starting With Keynote

One of the most exciting times of the year for Apple fans is fast approaching, with WWDC now under two weeks away.

apple wwdc 2022
Apple this week shared a schedule for WWDC, which will kick off with the keynote on Monday, June 6 at 10 a.m. Pacific Time. At the weeklong developer conference, Apple is expected to preview its latest software, including iOS 16, iPadOS 16, macOS 13, watchOS 9, and tvOS 16.

WWDC will be an online affair again this year, but some lucky developers were randomly selected to attend a special day at Apple Park on June 6 for a tour and to watch the keynote video in person.

New Apple Watch Pride Edition Bands Now Available

In celebration of Pride month this June, and in support of the LGBTQ+ community and equality, Apple this week released new Pride Edition versions of the Sport Loop and Nike Sport Loop for $49 each.

2022 Pride Apple Watch Bands
A new Pride watch face is also available for the Apple Watch Series 4 or newer. The watch face's colorful threads move as the Digital Crown on the Apple Watch is rotated, the display is tapped, or the wearer's wrist is raised.

iPhone 14 Pro Screen Refresh Rate Upgrade Could Allow for Always-On Display

Display industry consultant Ross Young this week shared his expectation that the ProMotion displays used in the iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max will be capable of dropping to a refresh rate as low as 1Hz. This upgrade could pave the way for an always-on display and/or longer battery life.
Beyond iPhone 13 Feature 2
The Apple Watch has featured an always-on display since the Series 5 was released in 2019, allowing for the clock and other on-screen elements to be viewed at any time.

iPhone 14 Pro Renders Highlight Multiple Design Changes

Speaking of the iPhone 14 Pro, leaker Jon Prosser and graphic designer Ian Zelbo have shared some brand-new renderings of what the iPhone 14 Pro is expected to look like, reflecting a number of design changes rumored for the device.

iPhone 14 Pro Purple Side by Side Black
In addition to the much-discussed shift from a notch to a "hole and pill" design for the front camera and Face ID, the renderings include a larger camera array that will necessitate a change of the corner radii of the entire device for a slightly rounder appearance.

Sony's New WH-1000XM5 Headphones vs. AirPods Max

Sony last week came out with an updated version of its popular over-ear noise canceling headphones, so we picked up a pair to compare them to the AirPods Max to see which headphones are better.

WH 1000XM5 vs AirPods Max thumb
Sony's new "WH-1000XM5" headphones are priced at $399 in the United States, while the AirPods Max retail for $549. Watch our video for a comparison of the headphones to see which is a better value and check out our complete review of Sony's latest cans.

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Each week, we publish an email newsletter like this highlighting the top Apple stories, making it a great way to get a bite-sized recap of the week hitting all of the major topics we've covered and tying together related stories for a big-picture view.

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Top Rated Comments

PrecisionGem Avatar
PrecisionGem
47 months ago
Some new more classic watch faces with hands would be nice. Seems we have enough pride faces and bands by now. I would think that the market for traditional faces still a bigger market. I could be wrong however.
Score: 8 Votes (Like | Disagree)
44267547 Avatar
44267547
47 months ago

Does Apple not understand that all the camera upgrades after the 12 Pro look ridiculously un-portional to the actual size of phone?
Well apparently, Apple does understand, because they’re still manufacturing approximately 160 million iPhones annually sold throughout the world, and it seems the consumer probably doesn’t share your mindset, especially given that the majority of smart phones are used in cases, which negates your point to a degree.
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Corsig Avatar
Corsig
47 months ago
I never thought a watch band would get so much coverage
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)
CarlJ Avatar
CarlJ
47 months ago

You can actually design your own watch face and share it with the world, you know...
That doesn't mean what you think it means. That lets you take one of the existing built-in Apple Watch faces and customize it the same way you'd do by selecting "Edit" on the watch face itself - that is, you can choose complications and colors and such - and then share that to other people (ooh, exciting). It's nothing at all like making an actual new watch face.

If Apple had released the ability to build actual new watch faces, I would have made several already, at least one of them likely following the pattern of one of my Raspberry Pi clocks that's been running for the past five years.
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)
CarlJ Avatar
CarlJ
47 months ago

Some new more classic watch faces with hands would be nice. Seems we have enough pride faces and bands by now. I would think that the market for traditional faces still a bigger market. I could be wrong however.
It’s not a zero sum game, we can have “traditional“ faces and “Pride” faces. The “traditional” faces still outnumber the “Pride” faces, no quota is necessary. Me, I just like the pretty colors. (And, come on, they’ve released literally hundreds of Watch bands over the years, and only, what, maybe half a dozen Pride bands - and you want them to cut back on the Pride bands?)

Personally, I find it completely absurd that most of the “traditional” watch faces on the Apple Watch have “hands” that continually run “over” the complications. In mechanical watches (not in the sense of wind up but in the sense of having physical hands), this was a mostly* necessary limitation of the mechanical bits. In a watch that has a pixel-based display, it’s just playing olde-timey make believe for no good reason - they should make the complications appear to “float” over the hands, so they’re visible all the time. As it is, we end up with analog faces where you can see the date in the traditional place - unless it’s around 3 o’clock, when the hour hand covers up the date, or it’s around 15 minutes past any hour, when the minute hand covers up the date - if so, just wait a while - you didn’t need to know the date right now, did you? If you had, you should have worn a watch (oh, wait). Traditional watchmakers didn’t design it that way because they wanted the day/date to play peek-a-boo, it was a limitation they couldn’t easily overcome. Aping that mechanism just makes it look like you want to carry around a cute little picture of a “watch”, rather than wanting to be able to know/check the time and date.

*: FWIW, I did once see an Omega watch that had a digital display incorporated into the underside of the crystal - the digits/letters (day/date, stopwatch, etc.) floated over the hands. It was flawed, but still tempting. It was also like $1200, IIRC.

I’d rather see them put some real effort into faces that can give both analog and digital representations of the time equal footing - both are useful for different ways of understanding the time. They get kind of close with some of the modular faces, but invariably either the analog face is too tiny to take in at a glance, or the analog face dominates the dial. I want one where the analog display and the digital display are both easy to completely take in with the merest of glances. The analog part does not have to have a strong resemblance to traditional analog faces, just recognizable hour and minute hands pivoting around a central axis with tick marks making the hours clear. Extra points if seconds are shown by a dot or series of dots crawling around the outside edge of the display (I have this running on two clocks on my living room that I built five years ago - I can tell the exact time [digitally] or get a sense of the time [analog] with a single glance from anywhere in the room). I’d want the analog and digital time, the day/date, the activity rings, and two lines for current-or-next event (calendar) and current-or-next task (reminders/OmniFocus). Bonus points if the calendar/task lines are treated like the old Siri watch face, where some more pressing thing, like a running stopwatch or timer, will override the other information display.
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)
logain Avatar
logain
47 months ago
That pride flag heads graphic is hairist. Loads of hairstyles, not a single balding male hairline.
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
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