This event follows on from WWDC in June where Apple set the stage for the rest of the year with the annoncement of Apple Intelligence. Although this a hardware event, I would still expect the major theme of the keynote to be centralized around Apple Intelligence, with this year’s iPhone hardware updates set to be evolution rather than revolution, especially on the Pro models, but what should we expect to see?
iPhone 16 & iPhone 16 Pro
This year’s iPhone 16 is set to receive a number of updates that were previously exclusive to the iPhone Pro lineup.
The iPhone 16 is going to have its RAM increased from 6GB to 8GB, matching the iPhone 15 Pro released last year. The main reason being to support Apple Intelligence, whose models take just over 3 GB of RAM by themselves. This means that the current 6GB of RAM in the iPhone isn’t enough to run Apple Intelligence alongside whatever Apple would consider a reasonable number of apps in memory so that a user can switch between the instantly.
The iPhone 16 is also set to gain the Action Button introduced in the iPhone 15 Pro, which will also mean we say bye to the Silent / Ringer Switch after 17 years.
The entire iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Pro lineup will gain an additional capture button, whose solve purpose will be to improve the photo and video capturing experience. Rumours are is that it will feature multiple levels of pressure sensitivity, but with a case I am bit skeptical and that it will actually just support press and long press.
The iPhone 16 Pro will gain the 5x zoom that was previously only present in the iPhone 16 Pro Max, and both model will get a larger display, with the iPhone Pro increasing from 6.1 to 6.3 inches and the iPhone Pro Max from 6.7 to 6.9 inches. Other than the increased screen and a new color option, the only signficant hardware update will see the Ultrawide camera increase from 12MP to 48MP, using the same pixel binning techniques already found in the main camera to output images.
Apple Watch Series 10 & Apple Watch Ultra 3
The Apple Watch Series 10 is set to be the first series in what will be the 4th generation of screen sizes, having last being updated with the Series 7 in 2021.
The Series 10 is set to have the 2 available screen sizes increased from 41mm and 45mm to 45mm and 49mm respectively, while maintaining compatibility with existing watch bands.
The Series 10 and Ultra 3 are set to get a major performance upgrade (in Apple Watch Terms anyway!), with the S10 chip. The main focus will be improved Siri performance, but Apple Intelligence on the Apple Watch isn’t on the cards this year.
Apple Intelligence
Throughout the summer Apple have been shipping iOS 18.0 and 18.1 Betas in parallel, with the later being the only one featuring Apple intelligence, and with it being such a major focus of the keynote I would expect to see a concrete date for iOS 18.1 in October announced , with iOS 18.0 shipping alongside the new iPhones next week.
The event will also feature an extensive recap of all of Apple Intelligence functionality was announced at WWDC, but without any additions … unless Apple have managed to strike a deal with Google for Gemini at the last minute which seems doubtful.
AirPods
The AirPods Pro 2nd Generation was updated to a USB-C Charging case alongside the iPhone updates last September, but all of the other AirPod models Apple still sells; AirPod 2nd and 3rd Generation and AirPods Max, all still use the Lightening port.
The AirPods Max is set to be updated to the same internals as the AirPods Pro 2nd Generation and it will also move across to USB-C. The AirPod’s are set to be updated to their 4th Generation, in addition to a USB-C charging case the rumours point to a less sophisticated version of the echo cancellation found in the AirPods Pro, meaning Apple will continue to sell a previous generation of AirPods alongside them. Currently the differentiation between the AirPods 2nd and 3rd Generation is quite small, meaning that most people go for the cheaper 2nd generation, which obviously Apple would prefer not to be the case.
Mac and iPad
This keynote already feels pretty full of hardware updates, so I wouldn’t expect to see any additional hardware updates until October when we will probably get another keynote. The one outside bet is an update to the iPad mini which was last updated with the A15 SoC in September 2021, which means it is currently unable to run Apple Intellegence. If the iPad mini is updated, it has to be eventually, it will be intersting to see if Apple keeps it on the A Series or move across to the M Series like the iPad Air.
Come October we will start to see the Mac lineup migrate across to the M4 SoC, which has remained exclusive in the iPad Pro for longer than I would have thought!
WWDC this year is set to be somewhat of an AI showcase across all of Apple’s platforms, but with no new hardware set to be unveiled how will Apple deliver its AI narrative?
visionOS and Vision Pro
visionOS being the newest of Apple’s OSs means that it’s the one that it is set to see the most significant updates over the course of the next few years, and therefore feature heavily at WWDC. visionOS is still currently pretty bare bones (not that I would know first hand being based in the UK!), but as you can’t currently rearrange apps that seems like an obvious candidate for visionOS 2. There have been rumours that internally the Vision Pro already supports mirroring 2 Mac displays, up from the 1 that is currently supported. Updating this would be a major improvement especially when developing for visionOS while wearing the headset.
WWDC will also see the announcement of the international availability of the Vision Pro, with it being fully rolled out by the end of the year. Given the narrative of less than expected demand I am surprised it has taken this long, but maybe reduced demand isn’t the case and its just been harder to secure all of the components required to manufacture them in the first place.
iOS and iPadOS
Unlike visionOS you have always been able to reorder apps in iOS and iPad OS, but the grid for organising apps has remained pretty much unchanged since the iPhone was introduced in 2007, besides the introduction of widgets on the Home Screen in iOS 14. This year we are expect to see increased flexibility to the Home Screen, removing the constraint of having to fill each screen from top left to bottom right, but while still maintaining the snap to grid structure. This will mean that you can keep all of your apps near the bottom of the device for easy access with your thumb, or organise them around the focal point of a wallpaper.
Another personalisation option will see the ability for users to customize the color of app icons, with developers opting in by including a layered vector app icon. I expect the majority of indie apps opting in, but not the bigger companies. Ironically a number of indie apps charge one way or another for app icons, so it will be interesting if this update makes that revenue steam obsolete.
AI
AI is the buzzword of the year, but the truth is Apple have been doing AI … or what they refer to as ML for a number of years, particularly with photos, both in the processing of images but also for recognising faces and places. Also we can’t forget the ML powered keyboard autocorrect that was introduced last year, which although was a welcome improvement was probably overhyped at the time. With this in mind, I expect Apple to subtly rebrand all of its previous ML efforts to be AI, with a (somewhat annoying) recap of the most significant AI driven features that are already available.
In addition to this I would expect Siri to become more conversational, while maintaining local processing where possible to limit the amount of data leaving to reduce privacy concerns. That being said I do expect some local AI features to be limited the iPhone 15 Pro and iPad Pro M4, due to the Neural and CPU performance constraints on prior device generations.
The biggest unknown will be how Apple decides to process off device requests, with all things pointing to a partnership with Open AI. I imagine the conversational interactions will be limited to Siri rather than a dedicated chat bot, with answers clearly marked as coming from Open AI to avoid any potential damages to Apple’s brand.
An area that Apple seems to be behind on is being able to point a camera at a subject and have the assistant give you more information about it. I expect to see this introduced on both the iPhone and Vision Pro, and despite its lack of portability also include layering of augmented reality content on the Vision Pro.
Apple’s operating systems have for a number of years donated user activities to the operating system in the form of intents, enabling context to be added to reminders and the ability to handoff between devices. I would expect this functionality to be enhanced with AI, reducing the need for explicit donations, and have a deeper level of integration with Siri, Spotlight and Shortcuts.
AI will also be integrated across iOS, iPadOS, watchOS and macOS, offering auto complete and replys in Mail and Messages, summarising notifications such as when coming out of Do Not Disturb, but I think Apple will be more cautious when it comes to the analysis of health data.
Swift 6
Swift 6 has been developed out in the open, so other than surprise inclusions from Apple at WWDC (looking at you property wrappers) we already know what we should expect.
The major change is the stricter concurrency model for the language, which is set to require some significant changes to satisfy, particularly as most apps are built on concurrency models that predate Swift such as Grand Central Dispatch and Operation Queues.
Another addition to the language that is likely to effect day to day development in Swift is the ability to specify what type a method throws in the case of an error, which should clean up error handling code dramatically.
Apple’s first keynote of the year is penciled in at an odd time, both the fact its at 3pm BST (7am PT) but also its only a month ahead of the already announced WWDC Keynote. This means that anything major with a software story, such as AI, probably won’t get a mention until then.
iPad Pro
The iPad lineup hasn’t seen much love recently, in fact in over a year, with the last update occurring in October 2022. This saw a complete redesign to the (base model) iPad, and the iPad Pro gaining hover support of the Apple Pencil as well as an internal spec bump. Moreover iPad Pro’s physical design has been unchanged since the 3rd generation iPad Pro was introduced in October 2018, but it is set to finally be revamped at this event.
The iPad Pro lineup is set to move completely across to OLED Displays, where currently the 12.9 and 11.1 inch have a Mini LED and LCD display respectively. This will mainly be for the higher contrast/HDR support, maintaining ProMotion but not gain the always on display of the iPhone Pro.
The iPad Pro is also set to see a reduction in its Bezel size as well as being thinner overall, with the selfie Camera moving across to the longer horizontal edge.
Magic Keyboard
The Magic Keyboard hasn’t received any updates since it was introduced in March 2020, at which point it breathed new life into the iPad when its inclusion of at trackpad meant that iPadOS cursor support moved beyond being an accessibility option.
The new Magic Keyboard is set to move to an aluminium enclosure, ditching the cantilever design to allow for greater adjustability of the viewing angle of the attached iPad’s display, in addition to making room for a function row of keys.
Apple Pencil
Apple is set to unveil the 3rd Generation Apple Pencil, that will feature support for a secondary action by squeezing (like the interaction with Air Pod Pro), as well as haptic feedback. More than a secondary action, I would instinctively like the top of the pencil to act as an eraser, but I don’t think we will get both this time round.
M4
Like everyone else this year, Apple is jumping on the AI bandwagon, with WWDC in June set to be full of AI related software announcements. Alongside the upcoming software changes there is a rumour that Apple will also update its hardware to have an AI focus … whatever that means. Moreover the M3 is based on the more expensive N3B 3nm process (when compared to N3E), which is something that Apple will want to move off of as soon as possible. This has lead to the left field rumour that the iPad Pro will be the first Apple Product to ship with the AI optimized M4.
In terms of CPU performance I wouldn’t expect a huge leap from the M3, but the cost savings of moving to the cheaper N3E 3nm process, in addition to tweaking the performance of the chip for AI (e.g. the neural engine) probably justifies the seemingly premature update from the M3, which itself was only introduced in October.
iPad Air
The iPad Air has been waiting even longer than the iPad Pro for an update, last seeing an update in March 2022.
The new iPad Air is set to essentially become the current old iPad Pro, being made available in both the 12.9 and 11.1 sizes and compatible with the existing Magic Keyboard and 2nd Generation Apple Pencil. Unlike the current iPad Pro, the iPad Air will be available in a variety of colors that aren’t just shades of gray.
There has been a lot of back and forth over the last month about whether there will be updates to the iPad lineup (we ended up just getting a low end Apple Pencil!) or the Mac lineup before the end of the year. This event is set to focus on the later, with the stream somewhat curiously set to start at 5 PM Pacific Time, which is midnight Monday evening in the UK. I am expecting the stream to be brief, lasting less than 30 mins, enabling them to clear the decks as they go into the holidays.
iMac
The iMac was in the first round of Apple Silicon redesigns, being updated in April 2021. Although the M1 Processor is still fast enough, the RAM ceiling of 16 GB is becoming a bit of a sticking point for some buyers considering purchasing it with the view of it be up to the task for a number of years in the future. The iMac is set to get updated to the M3, skipping the M2 generation of chips entirely, with no other major changes expected.
MacBook Pro 14 and 16 inch
The MacBook Pro 14 and 16 inch were only updated in January this year to the M2 Pro and M2 Max chips, which raised the RAM ceiling from 64 to 96 GB and enabled support for 8k displays up from 4k over HDMI, amongst over incremental changes. Having only seen a major redesign in Oct 2021, I would expect another incremental round of changes with the most notable being the inclusion of the M3 Pro and M3 Max chips, and judging by the iPhone updates this year, the focus of the announcement will be on GPU Performance improvements. This probably means we get to see another Resident Evil demo …
USB-C Peripherals
In September we saw the iPhone and AirPods Pro be updated from Lightning to USB-C charging, so with the update of the iMac we are set to see all of its peripherals; Keyboard, Magic Mouse and Magic Trackpad also be updated to USB-C. The most curious thing to see is if they revamp the Magic Mouse so it can used while being charged … maybe they will make it compatible with MagSafe so it can be docked and charged every time you are away from the computer?
It’s September, so we all know what that means? Its the annual iPhone Keynote, where we are set to see quite a lot of evolution rather than revolution this time round, but what exactly should we expect to see?
USB-C / Thunderbolt
Wether its solely down to EU legislation which comes into force next year, or a somewhat drawn out transition across all of Apple’s devices, this year will see all iPhones transition from Lightning to USB-C. Unlike when the iPhone transitioned from the 30 Pin Dock Connector to Lightning with the iPhone 5 in 2012, I’m expecting much less of an uproar as USB-C has become the standard charging port for devices and most people already have a charger.
The USB-C port on the iPhone 15 is set to keep the same USB 2.0 speed of the current iPhones which maxes out at 480 Mbps, while the iPhone 15 Pro will feature Thunderbolt/USB 4 speed allowing for up 40 Gbps, which will make moving large amounts of data back and forth such as 4K Videos a lot less painful.
All of the iPhone are set to come with braided colour matched USB-C cables, but somewhat ironically the iPhone Pro will not come with a Thunderbolt cable, you will have to pay extra for that!
The iPhone has feature a Ring/Silent switch since it was introduced in 2007, and this year it is set to be replaced with an Action button. Although the default action will still be muting the iPhone, it will be customisable like the Apple Watch Ultra’s Action button, with a number of out of the box options including running a Siri Shortcut.
Titanium
The iPhone Pro has featured a surgical grade stainless steel band since the iPhone X was introduced in 2017, and this year it is set to be replaced with aerospace grade titanium. Titanium will offer a different look to stainless steel with a reduction in the bezel size around the display, and the brushed finished will thankfully be much less of a finger print magnet. More significantly as most people keep their phones in cases, is that it will be much lighter, although not as light as aluminium bands found in the no Pro models.
Dynamic Island
The Dynamic Island that was introduced last year on the iPhone 14 Pro, is set to be made available across the entire line. There won’t be any physical changes, but the increased availability across will hopefully see more functionality unveiled in the future and greater adoption.
Periscope Camera
The iPhone Pro Max this year, which is set to be renamed to iPhone Ultra, will see it differentiation itself form the smaller iPhone Pro by making use of its size to incorporate a periscope lens, which will double the optical zoom of the telescope camera to 6x.
Wireless Charging
The iPhone 15s will support Qi2 charging, which like MagSafe uses magnets for alignment to enable 15W Wireless charging. Not to be outdone, the iPhone 15s will support up to 20W wireless charging using MagSafe, and while this is backwards compatible with the current generation of MagSafe in terms of accessories it will the require purchasing of new chargers.
AirPods Pro
To coincide with the iPhone’s all moving to USB-C the AirPods Pro 2 will be refreshed with a new USB-C charging case, but there won’t be a revision to the AirPods Pro themselves.
Apple Watch
The Apple Watch and Apple Watch Ultra are set to receive only a SoC update this year to the S9 (the first real update in terms of CPU cores since the Apple Watch Series 6 was introduced in 2020), with the Apple Watch Ultra also gaining a black titanium option.
It has been nearly 9 months since Apple last held a keynote in September last year for the iPhone, and this keynote is set to be a tale of what is or isn’t announced in terms of AR/VR and AI.
Reality Pro and realityOS
The persistent rumours of an Apple Headset have increased in intensity over the last 12 months, and unlike the the rumour of an Apple TV or Car this product appears to not be vaporware. The most pertinent rumour recently has been that with a bill of materials for the headset costing upwards of $1500, meaning that the retail price it is expected to be in the region of $2999. That being said with WWDC being a developer conference, I expect what we will see unveiled and made available only to be the developer kit, which means Apple wouldn’t need to divulge pricing information until closer to its release to the public.
The headset is set to feature a micro-OLED 4K display per eye and will be driven by the same M series chips found in Macs, giving it enough power to deal with and switch between both AR/VR experiences responsively. To enable mix reality experiences the headset will features over a dozen cameras and sensors to scan the environment, read facial expressions and detect movement.
The headset’s strap will be made out of the same Fluoroelastomer material as the Apple Watch Sports Bands, most controversially and very un-Apple like is the fact that the headset is set to be powered by an external battery pack. The trade off being the battery life can stretch to over 2 hours while maintain a sensible weight and therefore comfort of the headset for extended periods of use.
I expect to see another push for SwiftUI based development, with it being the defacto way you build realityOS experiences. It is however expected that iPad apps will be able to be used within the context of the mix reality world manifested by the headset, with what would be the on screen pointer of the iPad being controlled by gestures.
Mac Studio
The MacStudio was released in March last year featuring either and M1 Max or exclusively an M1 Ultra Chip. Soon after in July Apple revamped the MacBook Air with an all new industrial design and an M2 Processor. Subsequently the Mac minis and MacBook Pros were updated in January, which saw the introduction of the M2 Pro and M2 Max Chips. This has lead to Apple’s most expensive machine being the only one left using the older M1 series chips (well if we choose to ignore the Mac Pro which is still on Intel Processors!).
The MacS tudio is expected to be updated with the M2 Max and the newly unveiled M2 Ultra Chips, with minimal improvements elsewhere .. but we can hope they fix the whiny power supply!
Mac Pro
The final Mac that was proclaimed to be “for another day” last WWDC, the Mac Pro, still hasn’t made the jump to Apple Silicon, and unless all of the rumours about a headset has meant that an updated Mac Pro has flown under the radar, I wouldn’t expect to see it at this event.
iOS, iPadOS and macOS
Major updates for Apple’s flagship OSs this year are set to be few and far between. iOS is set to gain a nightstand mode for iPhone, where it can display glanceable information while on a nightstand.
The Dynamic Island introduced last year on the iPhone Pro is going to be rolled out across more devices inSeptember, so in iOS 17 the capabilities of the dynamic island are set to be expanded.
The iPad is set to gain Widgets on its Home Screen, with the introduction of limited interactivity on both the iPhone and iPad. The iPad is also set to have Health app being made available for the first time, alongside the annual update of new tracking categories such as recording a users mood.
One feature that is set to be released all OSs is a journaling app, which will not only allow you to capture your own textural thoughts about the day but pull in various pieces of information that your Apple devices already know about the you and the day such as weather, workouts and location.
watchOS
watchOS 8 is set to be the most significant OS update this year and the biggest watchOS update since… well if we are being honest besides the removal of quick access to friends from the side button and accommodating the removal of Force Touch, watchOS hasn’t had much of an update since its introduction.
The major change will see watchOS move to a more Widget based approach, giving more glanceable access to information than complications without the overhead of launching full watchOS apps which can be quite slow an cumbersome.
AI
The tech industry has been focused on AI the last few months, starting off with Stable Diffusion and more recently ChatGPT. The obvious AI inclusion in the Keynote would be introducing it to Xcode in the form of code analysis and generation, but I don’t expect to see that.
I’m sure when Siri is demoed it will now be framed as AI rather than just a voice assistant, but I think the bigger focus will be on the privacy benefits of running machine learning models locally on device rather than on a server. After all this the area Apple is uniquely positioned to own unlike server side AI, and they have already optimised Stable Diffusion for Apple Silicon
It is that time of the year again where Apple unveil its flagship phones, but for the first time in a while there is set to be major difference in the upgrades between the iPhone and iPhone Pro lines. The iPhone Pro is set to get possibly its most significant update to date, while on the over hand the iPhone is set to get one of the most modest updates that it has seen for a while.
iPhone Pro and Pro Max
Last year the iPhone 13 Pro displays were upgraded to a Pro Motion display allowing it dynamically refresh from 10hz to 120hz, while all other iPhone display are locked in at 60hz. This year, the iPhone 14 Pros are set to have their displays update so they able to refresh at as low as a rate as one 1hz, and like the Apple Watch since Series 5 that already supports this, it will allow for an always on display without a significant impact on battery life. During WWDC this year Apple already showed off the new customisation options for the Lock Screen, including Lock Screen Widgets. The always on display will allow these to be constantly visible but as with complications on the Apple Watch these will be severely limited in how often they can fresh.
The iPhones Pro will also ditch the notch for a hole punch camera and Face ID Sensors, which despite taking up less screen space, will actually mean that the usable and uninterrupted screen under the camera and sensors will start further down the display. It will certainly look more modern and act as a stepping stone towards eliminating the interruption to the display, but in terms of functionality and userbility it isn’t going to make any difference.
The rear camera of the iPhone Pro is set to be upgraded from 12 MP to 48 MP, which although on paper is a 4x bump, it will utilises pixel binning to output a a more detailed 12 MP image than you would get from the existing sensor rather than a larger image.
iPhone and iPhone Max
The iPhone 12 and and iPhone 13 both saw an iPhone mini in their line up, but due to sales numbers this time round this will be dropped for an iPhone Max model, feature a larger display 6.7 inch display (the mini was 5.4 inch and the regular iPhone is 6.1 inch). Other than this the iPhone and iPhone Max will essentially be the same as last year, to the point that they won’t even see an upgraded SOC and will still be using the A15 chip from last year.
Apple Watch Series 8
Rumours are thin on the ground with the only significant update is set to be introduction of a temperature sensor, but like the oxygen sensor introduced in the Series 6 the accuracy will mean that it can’t be backed up with any medical claims.
Apple is however expected to release an Apple Watch Pro, and although it will not exclusively to be marketed as a sport watch, it will predominately be aimed at customers currently served by Garmin. The Apple Watch Pro will feature the same SOC as the rest of the lineup, but will feature a 47mm display, 2mm more than the largest non pro Apple Watch, which beyond the extra screen real estate it will allow for significantly longer battery life, which is perfect for longer workouts or going multiple days without a charge.
Air Pods Pro
The Air Pods Pro haven’t been refreshed since their introduction in 2019, which means there is a significant number of people who have Air Pods Pro with next to no battery life, all of which are in the market for a refreshed model.
The Air Pods Pro are expected to receive a modest update, but the most exciting prospect will be the possibility of enabling lossless audio by using UWB.
The major topic of conversation in the lead up to WWDC, was will any of it be live? Will this one day format featuring the Keynote, State of the Union and Apple Developer Awards be the way WWDC is run going forwards? I guess we won’t know until next year, but it looks like we have a few things to look forward to this year too!
iOS
The majority of rumours around updates to iOS this year focus on support for the rumoured forthcoming iPhone Pro. The iPhone Pro is set to move from the notch to dual hole punch camera and sensor, in addition to receiving an upgrade to its Pro Motion display. Last year the iPhone’s Pro displays were updated to support 120hz, but this year they will also be updated to throttle down all the way to 1hz like the Apple Watch, enabling an always on display without the draw back of significant power consumption. To make use of this I am expecting to see improvements to the lock screen, notifications and widgets, to bring the experience closer to using watch complications.
iPadOS
The major area holding back iPadOS from being the computer for the rest of us, is its lacklustre support for multitasking and larger external displays. Now that both the iPad Air and iPad Pro now have the same internals as the MacBook Air and iMac, with the M1 SOC, and indeed a USB-C port, it’s certainly isn’t the hardware that is holding it back.
This year I expect to see iPadOS get full external display support beyond just mirroring , allowing unrelated windows to be spread across both the internal and external display. I would be surprised to see the ability overlap windows like macOS, but if this is limited to when connected to a keyboard and trackpad it is a possibility.
macOS
Information regarding this years macOS update is few and far between, but with the transition to Apple silicon occupying a number of Apple’s engineers for the last few years maybe this will be a small release, with mainly cosmetic changes and the migration of more apps from iOS using Catalyst and SwiftUI.
watchOS
New and updated watch faces, new workout types … isn’t that what we get most years?
Shortcuts
Shortcuts in reality was the biggest change to macOS last year, and indeed it’s becoming more and valuable on iOS as its triggers and actions our expanded. I expect shortcuts to see a number of improvements, with the ability to run them globally using a keyboard short cut on both macOS and iPadOS being top of my wishlist.
HomeKit and homeOS
The HomeKit ecosystem isn’t as large as either or Amazon’s or Google’s, but I’m a big fan of its reliability and local network support, and for the couple of devices I have purchased that don’t support HomeKit I have managed to bridge them across using Homebridge. That being said, the Home app is cumbersome to navigate, taking way to many to interactions to find anything, so if the device you are looking for isn’t in the current screen you end up feeling frustrated or having to ask Siri, which isn’t always an option, but to be fair has been reasonably reliable whenever I use it.
Moreover with the imminent launch of Matter (it has been imminent for a while now, with support for it present in the HomePod mini and iOS 15) it feels like Apple are going to double down on the Home and try and use its privacy focus to regain some ground on its compertion .
I expect to see support for more device types, with additional support in shortcuts.
AR Headset
Will they or won’t? If they do, will the initial version be aimed at consumers or priced as developer preview? On the latter question, I don’t think its Apple’s style to release something priced prohibitively so the majority of their customers can’t afford it. On the flip side. making it available exclusively to developers, akin to a transition kit might makes sense for a new hardware category, although they didn’t for the Apple Watch or iPad. That being said, I think we are still too early, although I would expect to see additional AR features announced and be available to developers in the latest versions of iOS and iPadOS.
Hardware
WWDC has leant heavily into it being a developer conference for the last few years, with announcements focusing on the software ecosystem. The exception to this rule is the Mac Pro, which Apple already alluded to during the last keynote that it is the final Mac yet to be updated to Apple Silicon. I would expect to see an unveiling of the new Mac Pro as a bit of crowd pleaser at the event, with a release at the end of the year. The Mac having made to Apple silicon first, namely the MacBook Air, will have to wait too later in the year for a hardware refresh.
SwiftUI
SwiftUI on paper is great, in fact if all you are doing is simple bits of UI it is. The problem is as soon as you step outside of its comfort zone you end up having to drop back to the platform libraries, which always feels in elegant even if you are only trying to support 1 platform. Moreover, even thought SwiftUI encourages small views, the way you structure apps, in particular navigation, means you end up with a heavily intertwined app akin to the Storyboard UI approach that proceeded it. This isn’t so bad for a solo developer working on an app with 20 screens, but a team of 10 working on 100 screens … that’s not so fun.
I am expecting SwiftUI to receive a major update to help iron out a number of the edges, in addition to improving the tooling in general … and not making macOS development with SwiftUI feeling like an after thought.
In what will be the earliest keynote a year for Apple since 2012, where in the March Apple announced the third generation iPad (the iOS device that holds the record of having shortest life span at only 221 days), we are set to have an Apple event with a number revisions to popular hardware.
Lets run down what could be unveiled from most to least likely!
iPhone SE
The iPhone SE will see its third revision, gaining 5G support at the same time where some carriers are starting to turn off their 3G Networks. Other than updating the radios and processor the updates to the iPhone SE will be modest, with continuing to lack Face ID or a multi camera array which the iPhone and iPhone Pro have, in addition their rounded edge to edge display.
iPad Air
The current generation of the iPad Air was met with great reception upon its release in October 2020, at that time feeling like the only compromise when compared to the smaller iPad Pro was Face ID vs the Touch ID side button. Since then Apple have differentiated the iPad Pro with the M1 Chip and Mini LED Display, and have refreshed the cheaper iPad mini. This update will see the iPad Air refreshed to the A15 chip and like the iPhone SE also incorporate 5G.
Mac mini
The fifth generation Mac mini containing the M1 chip has been available since November 2020, but due to its relatively low RAM ceiling of 16GB Apple has continued to sell the fourth generation Intel Mac minis originally released in 2018.
This update will see the Mac mini support the M1 Pro and M1 Max chips that were made available in the MacBook Pro last year, and although a chassis redesign isn’t completely off the cards I would imagine we will have to be satisfied with just he option of picking Silver or Space Grey.
Display
A revamped Mac mini seems like the perfect time to announce a stand alone display, with a price point more accommodating than the Pro Display XDR. The Pro Display will continue to be the only display sporting a 6K display, but a 27 inch 5K Mini-LED around $1000 appears to be on the cards … but would Apple want to wait until the same display is available in a larger iMac …
M2 Macs
There are a number of rumours circulating that Apple will use this event to update the MacBook Air and MacBook Pro with Touch Bar to an M2 Chip. In my personal opinion it would seem strange to do this before the M1 transition has completed (although I’m sure in the future chips revisions won’t overlap cleanly), as we are still waiting for the large iMac and Mac Pro to make the jump across to Apple Silicon. Moreover the MacBook Pro with Touch Bar feels like it is only there to hit a price point, so it would feel strange for Apple to give it much attention unless was receiving a major revamp of its own to better define its role in the lineup, which I don’t see happening!
One month after this years iPhone and Apple Watch Keynote, we are now set to see the developer’s machine of choice, the MacBook Pro, get a revamp. With all of the different possibilities what changes should we be expect to see with this update?
New Apple Silicon Chip
The MacBook Pro is set to be the first hardware upgraded to the second generation Apple Silicon processor, dubbed the M1X. The major change will see the RAM ceiling raised from 16 GB, and the number of high performance cores, known internally as Firestorm, increase up from the for 4 currently found in the M1 Chip.
The bare minimum I would expect to see was a double of both the RAM and Performance cores, but with the current 16” MacBook Pro topping out at 64GB of RAM we might be set for a quadrupling of RAM if not CPU performance.
Likelihood 10/10
Mini LED Display
Apple’s first product to move to a next generation display was actually the original Apple Watch in 2015, which was Apple’s first device to feature and OLED display. The iPhone followed suit with the iPhone X in 2017, with the entire flagship line migrating across to OLED displays last year. This year Apple have adopted another display technology, Mini LED, in the latest revision of 13” iPad Pro.
The Mac isn’t particular suited to having an OLED display, due to the screen being on for extended periods of time with fixed UI elements being on screen such as the dock and the menu bar, which could create issues with burn in which OLEDs do suffer. Despite Mini LED being the natural choice for the next generation of displays for Macs, they are still much more expensive and harder to produce than LCD displays, so this will probably be a year too early for this change.
Likelihood 5/10
All of the other Pro Products, that being the iPhone and the iPad, all feature dynamic refresh displays capable of topping out at 120 Hz, so having the MacBook Pro support this with either an LED or Micro LED Display seems like a formality at this point.
Likelihood 8/10
SD Card Slot
A focus of this update is likely to be that MacBook is going to be more pro focussed, and adding back the SD Card Slot shows that Apple are willing to concede that having more than 4 USB-C Points is a positive.
Likelihood 8/10
MagSafe Connector
USB-C has been a great way to charge MacBook Pros since their introduction, not only has the connector become the defect standard so there is usually one around (like a Nokia charger in the UK at the turn of the century), but it also offered the flexibility of being able to charge the MacBook Pro from any of the ports, on both sides.
I am expecting USB-C charging to remain, but with the addition of a magnetic charging port, as let’s be honest it was something that they should have never got rid of and I might have had a few lucky escapes tripping over the charging cable in the years since.
Likelihood 7/10
HDMI Port
Like the SD Card slot, lots of people missed the HDMI slot when it was removed mainly due to the ease of connecting a cable to present onto a larger screen. Even now presenting using the myriad of web based solutions that have been common place in the last 2 years still often leading to laggy and glitchy experience (those fancy Keynote transitions don’t look so good at 3 frames a second), but I think with distributed teams and therefore presentations becoming the norm, this might be one port to far to see added back.
Likelihood 5/10
Removal of the Touch Bar
The Touch Bar is an odd one, and to be honest I personally a fan of it, but the fact remains Apple have essentially ignored it since it was introduced in 2016. The biggest surprise was that it was still present on the 14” Apple Silicon MacBook Pro Introduced last year, as that would have required effort to make it work with the main ARM processor and not the dedicated coprocessors compared to when it was used in an Intel Mac. That all being said ether they either need to double down or get rid of the Touch Bar, and I think this even will signal the later.
Likelihood 6/10
New External Display
The options for Mac customers who want Thunderbolt connectivity and a Retina Screen have essentially just become the $5000 XDR, with LGs Ultra Fine displays becoming impossible to find. I would Apple to unveil a 5K Mini LED Monitor for around $2000 when the laptops make the jump, but as that is unlikely this time round we are likely to be left a bit longer waiting for a standalone display.
Likelihood 4/10