We’re only a week away from lastly studying how Apple plans so as to add a dose of AI to its core merchandise — and the place it will stack up in comparison with Google, OpenAI, and Microsoft, all of which have already hosted their spring developer conferences.
This yr’s Worldwide Builders Convention, or WWDC, will happen beginning Monday, June 10, and wrap up on June 14. The opening day is when the massive keynote occurs, with CEO Tim Cook dinner and a number of other executives taking the stage to announce the for-consumer updates. The times following are devoted to developer workshops and personal demo periods.
Naturally, builders and members of the press can be in attendance at Apple Park in Cupertino all through the week, whereas everybody else can catch a reside stream of the opening keynote, both on Apple’s web site or YouTube channel.
What is predicted at WWDC 2024?
WWDC is usually the occasion by which Apple takes the wraps off the subsequent main variations of its assorted working methods. Which means we should always anticipate demos of iOS 18, iPadOS 18, MacOS 15, WatchOS 11, tvOS 18, and VisionOS 2.0.
The occasion supplies builders with entry to consultants, together with highlights of recent instruments and options that may assist them create new and/or higher apps for the Apple ecosystem.
“We’re so excited to attach with builders from world wide for a rare week of know-how and neighborhood at WWDC24,” Susan Prescott, Apple’s VP of Worldwide Developer Relations, stated in a information launch. “WWDC is all about sharing new concepts and offering our superb builders with revolutionary instruments and sources to assist them make one thing much more fantastic.”
1. You may be listening to ‘AI’ so much
This yr’s WWDC guarantees one thing further, specifically a highlight on Apple’s endeavors into AI. With firms comparable to OpenAI, Microsoft, and Google already infusing their merchandise with generative AI, Apple is clearly behind within the race. Even when shoppers aren’t eager for AI enhancements to all their ordinary apps and companies, traders are anxiously ready to see what the corporate can pull off on this new period of know-how.
To catch up, Apple reportedly has been working by itself in-house AI tech so as to add to the next-generation iPhone and different merchandise. On faucet at WWDC is perhaps AI-based help for companies like Apple Music and a significant and much-needed overhaul for Siri.
However Apple has additionally allegedly been looking for a companion for outdoor assist, probably teaming up with OpenAI to deliver its chatbot experience to iOS and Google to deliver Gemini-powered AI options. Just some months in the past, the corporate bought a Canadian startup agency known as DarwinAI, which has designed methods to make AI methods smaller and extra environment friendly.
Extra not too long ago, rumors have instructed that some new AI options will embrace the flexibility to transcribe and summarize in Voice Memos and Notes, extra clever and useful searches in Safari, AI-generated emojis primarily based on conversations in Messages, and extra.
2. Remember the opposite acronym: RCS
To the shock of many, aside from the European Fee, Apple introduced final yr that iPhones would ultimately assist Wealthy Communication Companies (RCS), a protocol already adopted by Android telephones. Including this know-how ought to alleviate key ache factors when messaging between the 2 working methods, together with the dearth of typing indicators, disorientated group chats, and high quality loss when sending media recordsdata.
The choice to deliver RCS to the iPhone got here after mounting stress from the European Union’s Digital Markets Act (DMA), which burdened cross-platform compatibility. Whereas a more moderen assertion from Google instructed that Apple would combine RCS later this fall, highlighting the transition at WWDC may doubtlessly assist Apple’s protection in opposition to the DOJ’s antitrust lawsuit, filed in March. No matter when and the way Apple chooses to announce the brand new characteristic, it will be huge information for each iOS and Android customers.
3. MacOS 15, iPadOS 18, WatchOS 11, VisionOS 2, tvOS 18
Alongside iOS, count on AI characteristic upgrades throughout Apple’s software program portfolio, together with the now two-year-old VisionOS. Contemplating the corporate’s push to reposition the MacBook because the go-to AI PC, Apple will possible carry over a number of the new Siri and AI functionalities for iOS launched earlier within the occasion to MacOS 15. Likewise, iPadOS 18 is predicted to obtain an AI makeover that brings improved multitasking capabilities — probably to Stage Supervisor — and a brand new eye-tracking accessibility characteristic.
As for VisionOS and Apple’s fixed pursuit of selling its $3,500 Imaginative and prescient Professional headset, count on refined, quality-of-life enhancements, together with the flexibility to maneuver apps round within the residence display, extra first-party companies, and a extra versatile person expertise basically.