What to expect at Apple's WWDC 2018
By Gadjo Cardenas Sevilla
Apple has announced that the WWDC 2018 Keynote will be livecast out of the McEnery Center in San Jose so the world can tune in to their Safari browsers (or Edge, Chrome or Firefox) or Apple TVs to see the announcements unfold. WWDC kicks off on June 4.
What's expected this year aside from the yearly updates to iOS, watchOS, macOS and other surrounding operating systems and ecosystems is more focus on Machine Learning, possibly a Siri redux hopefully making the pioneering but stunted smart assistant more of a player in the market.
Apple hasn't had a major event for 2018 but it has had various OS 11 and 11.3 issues as well as growing dissatisfaction with aspects of its hardware products like the keyboard on the MacBook Pro, reports of iPhone performance throttling due to sub-optimal batteries on older devices as well as a number of products announced but never shipped (AirPower, AirPods charging case).
I imagine some explaining will be in order when Tim Cook takes to the stage on the World Developers Conference on June 4, as well as a breakdown of Apple's focus as a business. iOS, the common thread to all iPhone and iPad ecosystems hasn't had a dramatic redesign since iOS 7 and isn't expected to offer much in terms of visual design in iOS 12.
What many are clamoring for at this point are new notebooks. A replacement or at least notable upgrade to 2010's MacBook Air line, possibly a refresh of current MacBook Pros with the latest Intel Core processors and better laptop keyboard design would be welcomed by hordes of long suffering Mac users who have held on tp four or five-year old laptops.
Could Apple use the media attention at WWDC to show off the much anticipated Mac Pro (apparently now built for modular expansion), I think it would be a great opportunity to preview the hardware just the same way the previous cylindrical Mac Pro was shown off at WWDC 2012.
Other expected announcements could include global HomePod release (or at least a cheaper variant) as well as new content plays for Apple TV or Apple Music, which Apple has invested heavily on.
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