Update: Apple CEO Tim Cook and co. have taken to the stage and announced mind-boggling number of new features and design tweaks coming to iOS, tvOS, macOS, watchOS, and iPadOS (yeah, that's a thing now) later this year.
Here's everything that Apple has been announced so far ~
- Apple iOS 13: twice as fast, system-wide Dark Mode, and Memoji for all
- Your Apple Watch is getting new watch faces, straps, and features soon
- Redesigned Apple iPad operating system boasts Mac-like features, upgrades Pencil
- Sony PS4 and Xbox One S users will love this brilliant new Apple TV feature
What follows below is the original story published before the start of WWDC...
Apple will kickstart its annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) in San Jose, California today. The week-long event is widely-expected to see the first-look at the next major operating systems releases from Apple, including iOS 13, macOS 10.15, tvOS 13 and watchOS 6.
The Californian technology company will hold dozens of workshops and talks for developers to ensure that third-party apps can be updated to support the latest features when the new operating systems roll-out in September, which is also when we're expecting to see the successor to the iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max.
Apple will open the conference with a keynote presentation at 6pm BST tonight. That's 10am PDT, or 1pm EDT. If you haven't managed to get a ticket for WWDC 2019, Apple will livestream the keynote presentation online for anyone to tune-in.
Apple will host the stream on apple.co/live. To watch, you'll need to be running a recent version of Safari on your Mac, running macOS 10.12 or later. Or the Microsoft Edge web browser on your Windows 10 machine.
It is possible to tune-in using a new version of Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox on Windows 10, too. However, Apple doesn't recommend these browsers over the two mentioned above – caveating in its disclaimer that these "may" work for some.
Of course, it's possible to watch the WWDC 2019 keynote on Safari on your iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch, too. Just make sure your device is running iOS 10.0 or later and head to the apple.co/live web address, too.
If you prefer to watch Tim Cook and co. on the big screen, fire-up your Apple TV (2nd generation or more recent) running the latest version of tvOS and you should find a stream for the WWDC already within the Apple Events channel.
Apple will also stream the presentation on Twitter using its @Apple account.
Watch the WWDC19 keynote June 3 at 10 a.m. PDT at https://t.co/yLa2e4Xr2R.Tap the ❤️ and we’ll send you a reminder on event day. #WWDC19 pic.twitter.com/3uPYxoeGNuMay 29, 2019
So, what are we expecting to see announced by Apple on-stage today?
The Cupertino-based company is promoting WWDC 2019 with the tagline: “Write code. Blow minds". We're likely to see new versions of iOS, macOS, tvOS, and watchOS, which power iPhone, iPad and iPod, Apple Mac desktop and laptop computers, Apple TV and Apple Watch smartwatches, respectively.
Not much is known about the operating system announcements yet. However, Apple purportedly pulled a dramatic iOS redesign that reimagined the homescreen, which is currently a simple grid of icons that represent each app installed on the device, ahead of WWDC 2018 to focus on stability improvements instead.
It's unclear whether this overhaul to iOS is back on track and will be previewed at the WWDC 2019 opening keynote tonight. Elsewhere, Apple looks set to bring the system-wide Dark Mode, which swaps interface elements that are usually white to darker shades – this can ease the eyes when working late and save battery power on OLED displays, introduced in macOS later year to iOS 13.
The Reminders app on iOS also looks set to get a major overhaul in a bid to catch-up with third-party apps that offer much more functionality, Apple-centric blog 9To5Mac has reported. Reminders will now be sorted into categories Today, Scheduled, All and Flagged to make the app smarter.
“WWDC is Apple’s biggest event of the year. It brings thousands of the most creative and dedicated developers from around the world together with over a thousand Apple engineers to learn about our latest platform innovations and to connect as a community,” said Phil Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing.
“Our developers are incredibly passionate about creating the next generation of mind-blowing experiences for the world through apps. We can’t wait to get together with them and share what’s next."
Other rumours suggest that Apple will dismantle iTunes in the next iteration of macOS. Instead of a single behemoth that incorporates your offline music library, music purchases, music streaming, podcasts, ebooks, audiobooks, tv shows and movies bought from iTunes and the upcoming Apple TV+ streaming service, Apple will break these out into separate apps. This is similar to iOS, which has individual apps for Music, Books, TV and the iTunes store.
Apple watchOS 6 is expected to bring new watch faces, as well as sleep-tracking.
