It’s that time of year again when Apple announces new software goodies — I’m talking about WWDC. The 2024 event started with Craig Federighi leading an Apple team as they jumped out of a plane. It was low-key giving James Bond at the Olympics vibes, but I’m here for it. 

A lot was announced in the 90-minute pre-recorded event, from the latest iPhone software to Apple finally announcing its AI plans. Here’s a quick round-up: 

Apple Intelligence: “Apple Intelligence” is Apple’s moniker for its suite of interconnected AI features. It can generate pieces of text for you, summarize emails, and write replies, and you can even generate custom emojis now. Alongside that, Siri got a new AI-powered look with more in-app functionality and ChatGPT integration. 

iOS18: It wouldn’t be WWDC without a big iOS update. The newest iPhone software includes customization options like icon themes (sorry, designers) and the ability to place icons wherever you want. iMessage now has formatting options and new emoji reactions. It supports RCS (Rich Communication Services), a messaging protocol built for Android that lets users send more multimedia-rich texts, and you can text via satellite. The Photos app will have AI-assisted filtering and organization, catching it up to Google Photos.

MacOS Sequoia: Apple continued its tradition of naming MacOS after landmarks in the US, this time after Sequoia National Park (I still miss the big cats). New to Mac is a much better iPhone mirroring feature that lets you use your phone on your Mac more seamlessly. It’s great for demos and developing mobile apps. Mac also gets window tiling, a native tool for organizing your app windows, something makers have been solving for years with tools like Magnet and Cinch.

Alongside those announcements, Apple also announced iPadOS 18, which finally got a calculator app that includes an AI-powered Apple Pencil mode, WatchOS 11, and Vision OS 2, which comes with new spatial video enhancements. The Apple Vision Pro is also being released in more countries.

The internet is kind of like a double-edged sword. On one side, you have instant access to a limitless amount of information through articles, research papers, blogs, podcasts, and videos. Conversely, there’s so much information that you’ll likely forget what you consumed within a week.

That’s the exact problem Paul Richards, co-founder of Recall, was dealing with. No matter how many knowledge management tools he tried, he always spent more time organizing his notes than actually consuming the information. 

“When my frustration reached an all-time peak, I decided to take matters into my own hands and built my own tool.” Active Recall is the next step in Paul and his team’s mission to to bring order to information chaos. 

It’s an AI-powered web-based tool that aims to help you remember more of what you consume by utilizing better categorization, contextual recollection, and even some gamification. When you stumble upon something interesting, click the Recall icon in your browser bar, from there, Recall will get to work summarzing the piece based on key points. 

Once done, it will add it to your knowledge base and categorize it based on what it mentions. If it’s an article about GPT-5 rumors, it will likely mention OpenAI, Sam Altman, AI, and large language models. This is to make it easier for users to resurface content. Rather than relying on remembering the title or publication, you can just remember what it was about. 

It gets really interesting how it ties different bits of information together as you’re actively consuming content. Say you’re reading an article about Elon Musk. You might have a piece about colonizing Mars saved, one of Musk’s and Space X’s main goals. Recall will remember this and resurface it to you in the right context. 

Alongside that, Recall also gamifies information retention with things like AI-generated information quizzes, which ideally should help you retain more knowledge about what you’ve read. If you want to try it out, the team is offering 40% off for today only. 

Detail wants creators to share videos without editing software. Launched originally in 2020, Detail's latest update puts even more editing tools right into the recording experience, like text-based editing and remote recording. Detail is founded by Paul Veugen, whose past startups won Apple and Webby Awards. Read the story.

Descript, the popular audio & video editor, launched Underlord, an AI video assistant. If you’re a user, you know that Descript’s text-based editing was a game changer, but editing is still a time suck. Underlord can now redline changes for you, create clips, and more. Read the story.

Second is a codebase maintenance system from second-time YC founder Eric Rowell. Connect to your GitHub repo, select whatever maintenance module you need (e.g. Angular to React), review the AI agent's plan, modify as needed, and hit run. Read the Story.

Cello is a new all-in-one referral platform for B2B SaaS. Although a crowded space, the founders (a Forbes 30 under 30, serial founder + an ex-Twilio PM Director) say Cello is set apart through its seamless integration with your product, which motivated them to build it in the first place.

Elevate (formerly Bloom) offers US-based USD accounts for remote employees and freelancers, primarily in East and North Africa. Back in 2022, it became the first startup from Sudan to particpate in YC, and is now available in other emerging markets.

The ex-Head of Growth at Notion launched a tool for growth people: Roadway. It lets marketers self-serve data and pull insights with an AI assistant. Read the story.

Cartesia Sonic is an AI voice model – a state space model (SSM) that the founders invented while working as PhDs at the Stanford AI Lab. Sonic generates high-quality, lifelike speech fast (135ms model latency). Read the story.

Kino is a video app from the makers of Halide, the popular and Apple Design Award-winning photography app. Kino gives pros and amateurs more control, using the iPhone 15 Pro’s ability to shoot ProRes in Log format. Read the story.

🥇Oh, A Potato is a meal planner set apart by its AI-powered features. You can scan recipes from a book or save videos from Instagram — the app translates the instructions for you. The fun branding is prob thanks to the makers’ backgrounds in Product at Savage X Fenty, Adidas, Babbel, and Amazon.

Hex launched end-to-end no-code workflows. The data and analytics platform from ex-Palantir makers is already growing in popularity (we use it at PH) across people with varying technical backgrounds. This elevates its flexibility and collaborative potential.

Reforge launched a Chrome extension. It's an AI tool that integrates with tools like Notion and Google Docs to evaluate your work and give you advice based on experts like Andrew Chen or the ex-CPO of Tinder.

Stolkholm-based Mentimeter launched an AI builder to add polls and surveys to your interactive presentations.