Renson Mwakandana
WWDC, Apple’s annual developer conference kicks off today, June 6. The week-long event will begin with a keynote on Monday which will include announcements on new software features across Apple’s many platforms.
There will be a significant in-person crowd for Worldwide Developer’s Conference (WWDC) for the first time since before the COVID-19 outbreak began. Throughout the week, there will be numerous sessions on programming APIs, Swift capabilities, and so on.
However, new operating systems (OS) and hardware announcements are the main draw for most people around the world, and we’ll see a couple of those during the keynote from Monday.
It’s worth noting that WWDC isn’t usually centered on consumer product announcements. It’s a place where Apple shows developers new technologies and tools. There have been notable outliers over the years, and while new developer announcements are often about software, they can also be concerning hardware.
Any new hardware will almost certainly include Mac desktops or laptops, as well as new categories that Apple wants developers to support.
What to expect in this year’s WWDC?
1. iOS and iPadOS 16
The next major release of iOS to be the star of the show at WWDC, as it has been for the past few years.
Little was known about what to expect from iOS 15 when it was unveiled last year, but there’s less to go on this time around. The greatest source we have is Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman’s latest email newsletter, in which he claimed to know about some of the planned changes. He speculated that the iPhone could acquire an always-on lock screen display similar to the Samsung Galaxy (or, of course, the Apple Watch). To preserve battery, it would lower the display and limit the refresh rate to 1 Hz while still displaying vital information.
Gurman also mentioned that iOS 16 would include new Health and Messages applications, as well as enhancements to the overall user experience. Apple wants to update notifications in iOS and iPadOS, according to Gurman in another newsletter.
2. macOS 13
Apple will alter the System Preferences pane in macOS to make it more like the one seen in iOS, according to Bloomberg reporter Mark Gurman’s newsletter—yet another step in a long sequence of modifications that align macOS more closely with the iPhone software.
3. WatchOS 9 and tvOS 15
According to multiple sources, the Apple Watch will receive a new power-saving mode similar to that present on iPhones, as well as UI improvements and (of course) new watch faces.
Apple showed off various accessibility capabilities last month, including the ability to mirror the Apple Watch on the iPhone to access accessibility features that the Watch doesn’t support on its own. Given that the device’s focus is on exercise and health, new fitness functions are a possibility.
4. MacBook Air and other M2 Macs
The successor to the M1 system-on-a-chip, likely to be called the M2, is one piece of hardware to count on at WWDC 2022.
The M2 will almost probably outperform the M1, although it will not be as powerful or efficient as the M1 Pro, M1 Max, or M1 Ultra. That’s because it’s designed to replace Apple’s lower-end M1 in its (comparatively) lower-performance laptops, with the M2 Pro, M2 Max, and M2 Ultra to follow.
