Apple's WWDC 2022 keynote was a bumper ride, introducing an all-new MacBook Air design, paired with the next-gen M2 Apple silicon. It's all powerful, far better looking, and I'm totally sold on it.
Well, except for one feature! What's going on with the cameras? Sure, Apple has finally put a 1080p Full HD sensor into this forthcoming laptop – and having done many calls on my 2020 MacBook Air, I can confirm the older 720p camera is poor – but that's about as far as it goes.
As you can see from the image above, the new MacBook Air with M2 has a notched display. Given the issues some software has caused with that in the 16-inch MacBook Pro, I'm not exactly enamoured by its presence, but could probably learn to live with it.
Continuity Camera
But, no, that's not my biggest gripe. That's to do with something sort-of different, but sort-of related (if Apple gets its way anyway): Continuity Camera. This feature, as outlayed at the WWDC 2022 keynote, seems to think that people are going to use their iPhone as a webcam. I know I'm not going to attach a clamp case to my phone and dangle it off a MacBook screen anyway.
The reason this is grinding my gears – and this is after a really great WWDC, which showcased stacks of great new iOS 16 features, among plenty more – is that the solution is surely simpler? Just put better cameras in MacBooks? With so much conference calling now a staple of life, it's a more desirable feature than ever.
Although credit where it's due: Continuity Camera can use the iPhone's advanced Studio Light for software-based illumination and, thanks to its multiple lenses, can also present a Desktop Mode whereby a top-down render of your actual desk can be displayed in real-time too. That, I must say, is pretty darn cool. Now just make the next MacBooks do that without the need for an iPhone webcam please.
