Last month, Apple announced its annual Worldwide Developer's Conference for June 5-9. There will be a somewhat limited in-person aspect, but the majority of the experience will be online like other COVID-era events. So not only will you get to watch the keynote address, you'll be able to participate in a swath of developer-oriented programs.
Of course, most of us aren't excited to learn how to best optimize our code or implement a new OS-level feature — we want those sweet, sweet hardware and software announcements. The rumor mills have been cranking overtime for the last few weeks, so we think we know at least some of the upcoming announcements.
Mixed reality headset
By far, the biggest question mark for the event is this long-rumored headset. If reports are to be believed, it won't just be virtual reality or augmented reality, but both — mixed reality. Plus, it's rumored to be extremely expensive.
High-end PC VR is already over $1,000, so we expect Apple's premium experience will be much, much pricier. By all accounts, the hardware they've created is legitimately great, but we're unsure if there's a market for a luxury headset besides selling one to Mark Zuckerberg.
15-inch MacBook Air
We're probably not gonna get any hardware running the next-gen M3 chips anytime soon, so it makes sense for Apple to flesh out its laptop selection with a 15-inch model with an M2 chip.
They've got the 13", 14" and 16-inch form factors covered, so a thin 15-inch model fills in the gap nicely. The smaller M2 MacBook Air is an absolute beast, so we fully expect another powerhouse.
New operating systems
WWDC is, historically, where Apple shows off its new operating systems. macOS 14 and iOS 17 are all but assured to be delved into deeply here, and we can expect a substantial focus on accessibility this time around. Apple's seemingly taking it pretty seriously.
While we've heard that Apple will have to allow some sort of app side-loading to comply with EU law, we don't expect that to be mentioned on stage. It will likely be a limited functionality that will be EU-only, and downplayed at every stage from Apple.
We'd love to be proven wrong though, Tim Apple (if that is your real name)! By all means, make us look like fools here.
Also consider: Apple Will Soon Let People Use Their Own Voice For Text-To-Speech Conversations