That time of year again: june! Time for WWDC. A special WWDC: given my future plans, it'll be the last (in a while I guess) WWDC I'll be experiencing from the outside. So this is the perfect opportunity to do another predictions post. 😉
Will see
iOS 9
- more extensions: If not lock screen extensions, perhaps more interaction in Springboard. But not only that, more interaction between apps themselves (embeddable views?).
- opening up Siri (so you can use it to open your own app or even make use of her services inside of your apps)
- Side by side apps support for larger devices. Not sure if they're going to announce this now or leave it as a surprise when actually release the new iOS? Better multitasking overall (see a)
- an update to WatchOS. I can see us getting 1.1 soon, but 2.0 will probably add native Watch apps. I previously was of the opinion that they would wait longer for native apps to gather more battery stats from current usage, but since the battery is rarely an issue with daily Watch usage (for me at least) I can see them moving faster. It'll be interesting to see what the limits will be for Watchkit apps, because this is a whole different ballgame than the iPhone.
- More HealthKit & ResearchKit (including more integration with the Watch). Better ways to get data out (e.g. watch workouts?)
- HomeKit. The introduction last year was clearly intended to get hardware vendors on the bandwagon, but this year should see more functionality.
- Related to this: no new AppleTV hardware, but I do think we'll see an update to the software if only to accomodate the new HomeKit functionality (the AppleTV will act as a bridge between local hardware and your other devices, I think).
- Swift: not sure. Mixins would be nice. I think we'll see the two languages (ObjC and Swift) come together more to improve interop (e.g. more annotations in the frameworks, but also better ways to integrate Swift components in Objective-C code). Objective-C is not going away soon, folks.
- A retina Thunderbolt display. A standalone retina iMac, let's say. Announced, but not immediately shippable. Seems like something developers will be very happy with (the needed hardware to drive it, apart from that Mac Pro, will come later).
- general improvements to iCloud (more storage, better UI, improvements to CloudKit, ...). Probably in conjuction with a price drop for iCloud storage.
- a significant update to the dev tooling. This includes Xcode but also things for continious integration. Additionally, I have a feeling that deployment might become a bit simpler given the current hassle with extensions etc.
That last speculation is (IMHO) reinforced by the scheduled maintenance window today, which ends around the time the keynote should end (9PM CET = 12AM PST):
One can hope.
Also:
- iOS8.4 with Apple Music
But that's not really a surprise. I'm curious about the pricing, though.
OSX 10.11
- more integration with iOS. A better handoff, messages, ...
- the demise of HFS+ (because you never know)
- the breakup of iTunes into a Music only component and a sync app for syncing your iDevice with you Mac. Potentially I'd see them getting rid of that last part, forcing everybody to go to iCloud for syncing and backup (see price reduction above).
- iCloud will become more prominent, I think. This will anger the Snow-Leopard-Was-The-Best purists, naturally.
- a public UXKit (UIKit for the Mac)
Won't see
- Jony Ive on stage (👋 White Room)
- hints of new iOS devices
- no new Macbook Pro's (👋 Intel)
- A review of OSX by @siracusa. 😢
So there. There's probably more but these are the things from the top of my head. It's more than enough, and you can't guess it all.
To be clear: I have no insider knowledge. This is pure guesswork. 😁 And if I had, I wouldn't be doing a post like this.