MacRumors

Ahead of next week's Worldwide Developers Conference, Loup Ventures analyst Gene Munster today shared his predictions for the features and services that Apple will unveil during the event.

Munster expects Apple to debut new Siri, AR, AI, and Digital Health functionality, including a Beats-branded accessory (presumably a speaker) that includes Siri integration, much like the HomePod. Some of Munster's predictions have been previously covered in rumors shared by Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, but Siri integration in a lower-cost Beats product is a new prediction.

We expect Monday's keynote to be highlighted by extending the reach of Siri (most likely adding new domains, opening HomePod to more capabilities, and integrating Spotlight), along with additional AI tools (new Core ML extensions).

We also anticipate new features around digital health (privacy and device management) and ARKit (development tools).

Expect Siri integration with Beats.

Collectively, these announcements advance the ease of use and intelligence of Apple's mobile and desktop experiences.

According to Munster, Apple may be planning introduce a $250 Beats-branded product that will offer Siri integration similar to the HomePod, allowing Apple to "advance its digital assistant ambitions" with a more affordable option. Apple currently sells a Beats Pill+ speaker for $179.95, and the device has not been updated in some time.

Apple is going to announce a new "Decade Collection" at WWDC according to a Best Buy leak, but that collection is limited to existing headphones in new colorways and does not appear include new products or a new speaker. It's possible that Apple does have a new Beats product ready to unveil, and a recent somewhat sketchy rumor did suggest that Apple's "low-priced" HomePod would be under the Beats by Dre branding.

That rumor would make some sense if Apple is indeed planning on introducing a Beats-branded speaker product that includes Siri integration. Siri competitor Alexa is available as an option on many speakers outside of Amazon's own, and Apple could be planning to follow in Amazon's footsteps. Obviously, though, it's not clear if the rumor and/or Munster's prediction are accurate.

Munster has several other predictions for features and services coming at WWDC. Specifically, he expects Apple to introduce new Siri domains, with support for "things like navigation and email" and integrated Spotlight Search to better improve Siri's performance compared to Alexa and Cortana, the AI assistants used by Amazon and Microsoft, respectively.

Munster also believes Apple will introduce new domains for CoreML, the machine learning SDK that Apple introduced with the launch of iOS 11. Munster doesn't offer details on what the new domains might be, but at the current time, CoreML offers features for developers like real time image recognition, search ranking, text prediction, handwriting recognition, face detection, music tagging, text summarization, and more.

Previous rumors have said Apple plans to introduce support for multiplayer augmented reality games, and Munster believes Apple will also introduce "subtle new developer tools" to improve AR development and lead to more compelling AR apps.

Similarly, rumors have indicated Apple is working on a Digital Health tool that will let parents better monitor the amount of time children are spending on iOS devices. Munster says Apple could also include additional features that notify users when data is being shared with developers and new device management features aimed at curbing "screen time and digital anxiety."

Munster's full range of predictions for WWDC can be read on Loup Ventures, and our iOS 12 roundup contains all of the other iOS-related rumors that we've heard thus far.

During WWDC, Apple will be launching a Close Your Rings Challenge that's designed to motivate developers to close the three Apple Watch activity rings each day of the week, with the challenge starting on Sunday, June 3 and lasting through Thursday, June 7.

To participate, developers will need to download the Challenges app from the App Store and sign up on the developer website for a unique invitation code. Move ring calorie goals will be set by weight for the challenge, and developers are able to team up with up to four friends to earn points.

If everyone on the team closes their rings each day, teams will be eligible for bonus points. All individuals who earn 200 points or more during the challenge will earn a reward on Friday, June 8, which will be given out at the McEnery Convention Center.

Participants will earn one point for each 1/12 of the Move ring that's completed (capped at 36 points), 1 point for each 1/12th of the Exercise ring that's completed (capped at 36 points), and 1 point for each 1/12th of the Stand ring (capped at 14 points) that's completed every day.

Individuals will earn 12 bonus points for closing all three rings on the same day, while teams will earn four bonus points for each teammate who closes all three rings that day.

Through the Challenges app on the iPhone, participants will be able to view a Challenge leaderboard and if in a team, team rank and status. Team members will be able to send motivating nudges to one another, and an Apple Watch complication is available for viewing daily point total.

Apple does not mention what the prizes are for winning the challenge, but for similar employee challenges in the past, Apple has given out unique pins, Apple Watch bands, and t-shirts.

The Close Your Rings WWDC challenge is limited to those who are attending WWDC, as the prizes will be given out in person at the end of the week. Attendees who want to participate can get an invitation code on Apple's developer site.

Apple today announced that the HomePod will be available in Canada, France, and Germany beginning June 18, but ahead of then, the speaker has gained support for languages and dialects spoken in each country.

Today's new 11.4 software update for HomePod enables Siri to speak in French, German, and Canadian English in any region, including the United States. Apple says Canadian French will be added in a subsequent software update coming later this year, but it has not provided a specific timeframe as of yet.

The new software update should be pushed to the HomePod automatically after updating to iOS 11.4 on a paired iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch, but it can also be installed manually through the speaker's settings in the Home app.

To change a HomePod's default language, open the Home app on a paired iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch running iOS 11.4, 3D Touch or long press on the HomePod's icon, tap on Details, and tap on Languages. There are now six languages, including the previous options of U.S. English, U.K. English, and Australian English.

Canadian residents who purchased a HomePod in the United States, for example, can now switch from American English to Canadian English.

While the switch from American English to Canadian English doesn't yield any significant differences, it does allow the language of a paired iOS device to be set back to Canadian English as well, as in Canada, a HomePod and paired iOS device must be set to the same language for Siri to deliver Personal Requests.

Despite support for Canadian English, the HomePod still isn't completely localized for Canada, as Siri still doesn't work with music charts, for example, as demonstrated by MacRumors reader Pedro Marques in the video below.

In addition to introducing support for Messages in iCloud, AirPlay 2, and stereo pairing for the HomePod, the new iOS 11.4 update, released this morning, introduces fixes for several high-profile bugs that have been plaguing iOS 11 users for months now.

First and foremost, the update addresses the "Black Dot" unicode bug that could crash apps on iOS devices with a specific character sequence involving certain emojis. Following the release of iOS 11.4, this particular sequence of characters will no longer cause apps like Messages to crash.

Apple says the update also successfully fixes an issue that caused iMessages to appear out of order on some devices, a frustrating bug that's been around for quite some time and has been the subject of many complaints.

The third major bug addressed in today's update is one that caused an app on the Home screen to appear in the wrong location, often hovering out of place above other apps. This is another bug that received widespread attention given the high number of users who saw the problem occur.

- Addresses an issue that could prevent logging in or accessing files on Google Drive, Google Docs and Gmail in Safari
- Fixes an issue that could prevent data syncing in Health
- Fixes an issue that could prevent users from changing what apps can access Health data
- Fixes an issue where CarPlay audio could become distorted
- Fixes an issue where selecting music from your iPhone could fail when playing music over Bluetooth or when connected to USB on some vehicles

The iOS 11.4 update is available for download on all devices capable of running iOS 11, which includes the iPhone 5s and later, the iPad mini 2 and later, the iPad Air and later, and the 6th-generation iPod touch. You can download the update by going to Settings --> General --> Software Update. All of the new features in iOS 11.4 are outlined in our video below.

Apple today updated its HomeKit site, which is where the company lists all of the available accessories and smart home products that offer HomeKit support, with a new AirPlay 2 section.

This section of the site lists all of the upcoming speakers and receivers that will be updated with AirPlay 2 support now that the AirPlay 2 protocol is available.

AirPlay 2 devices include the HomePod, of course, which is the first and only AirPlay 2 device available following today's iOS 11.4 update, along with speakers from companies that include Bang & Olufsen, Denon, Libratone, Marantz, Naim, and Sonos.

Sonos, perhaps the most popular and well-known company introducing AirPlay 2 support, plans to add it to the Sonos One, the Play:5, and the Playbase. AirPlay 2 will work with other Sonos speakers, but one of these three Sonos devices will be required.

Today's list is limited to manufacturers who have already pledged support for AirPlay 2, but it is likely to grow as additional companies announce AirPlay 2 functionality. A full list of speakers gaining AirPlay 2 support is below:

None of these speakers are available with AirPlay 2 at the current time, but many of them will gain support for the feature following firmware updates that will likely start trickling out now that iOS 11.4 has launched.

Alongside iOS 11.4, watchOS 4.3.1, and tvOS 11.4, Apple today released a new 11.4 software update designed for the HomePod, which introduces major new features for Apple's smart speaker.

This is the second update that's been released for the HomePod since it became available for purchase back in February.

The new HomePod software will be installed automatically on the HomePod after you update to iOS 11.4, but you can also manually update and check your software version by following the instructions in our HomePod software how to.

As Apple announced this morning, the new HomePod software, paired with iOS 11.4, introduces support for AirPlay 2 and HomePod stereo pairing.

AirPlay 2 is an updated AirPlay protocol that's simpler, more advanced, and more robust, enabling multi-room audio capabilities. With AirPlay 2, you can play music in any room to any room, move music from one room to another room, or play the same song in multiple rooms using an iOS device through an app or Control Center, the Apple TV, the HomePod, or Siri voice commands on any of the aforementioned devices.

AirPlay 2 controls can be accessed within any app and in the Control Center on an iOS device running iOS 11.4. In the Control Center, you will see a list of all of the available AirPlay 2 devices in your home, and you can effortlessly send audio to a single device, to multiple devices, or switch audio between devices.

The HomePod is the first AirPlay 2 device and one of the only AirPlay 2 devices on the market right now, but Apple plans to allow third-party speakers from companies like Sonos, Bose, Libratone, and more to add support for AirPlay 2.

Today's update also allows two HomePod speakers to be set up as a stereo pair, which is ideal for larger rooms as the arrangement offers up more room-filling sound. When paired, each HomePod is able to automatically adjust audio to take into account the other HomePod, for excellent sound from each device.

The HomePods are able to take advantage of the built-in A8 chip in each speaker to play a left or right audio channel while also separating out ambient and direct energy for what Apple says is an almost three dimensional soundstage.

Stereo pairing uses an Apple-designed wireless peer-to-peer direct link to allow the HomePods to communicate with one another and play music in sync. The two speakers will act as one when paired, and just one will respond to incoming Siri requests.

Setting up stereo sound is as simple as turning on a second HomePod. Whenever a second device is set up, you'll be prompted to form a stereo pair with a popup interface, with this information also available in the HomePod's settings in the Home app.

The new HomePod software also introduces one other small but important change -- it will allow users to check calendar appointments on the HomePod using Siri voice commands.

The HomePod is currently available only in the United States, the UK, and Australia, but Apple will expand availability to Canada, France, and Germany on Monday, June 18. While the HomePod is not launching in Canada, France, and Germany until mid-June, new languages, including Canadian English, French, and German are available on the HomePod starting today and are accessible through the HomePod settings in the Home app on an iOS device.

Ahead of the 2018 Worldwide Developers Conference, which kicks off on Monday, June 4 with a keynote event, Apple has updated its official WWDC app for iOS devices, introducing a revamped design, a new organizational system, and a list of available sessions and labs that will be hosted by Apple employees at the event.

According to Apple's release notes for the app, the update introduces a new look that is designed to make it simpler to find favorites, downloaded videos, sessions, and labs so developers who are unable to attend are able to quickly access WWDC resources.

Topic-based organization of videos, sessions, and labs has been added to make it easier to find discussions covering specific aspects of the software, such as "Building apps for watchOS" and "Building Modern Apps."

The app has been updated with a new 2018 schedule that outlines when various sessions and labs will be held. Notably, Apple last year eliminated the Apple Design Awards ceremony, but will be reintroducing it this year on Monday afternoon.

Some of the app sessions have placeholder names as they cover topics and features that will be announced at Monday's keynote event when new versions of iOS, macOS, tvOS, and watchOS are unveiled.

For developers who are on-site and attending WWDC, the app offers up on-site tools like maps and start times for labs, sessions, and events. For those unable to attend, it includes live video streams of the keynote, labs, and sessions.

Like last year, Apple is also offering a tvOS app for the fourth and fifth-generation Apple TV so developers can also watch WWDC sessions on their television sets.

The Worldwide Developers Conference starts on June 4 with a keynote that will take place at 10:00 a.m. Apple will live stream the keynote on both its website and on the Apple TV, and MacRumors will also provide live coverage on MacRumors.com and through the MacRumorsLive Twitter account.

Apple's WWDC app can be downloaded from the App Store for free. [Direct Link]

Apple today released iOS 11.4, the fourteenth update to the iOS 11 operating system that was first introduced last September. iOS 11.4 comes a month after the release of iOS 11.3.1, an update that introduced a bug fix for a display repair issue.

iOS 11.4 is available on all eligible devices over-the-air in the Settings app. To access the update, go to Settings --> General --> Software Update. Eligible devices include the iPhone 5s and later, the iPad mini 2 and later, the iPad Air and later, and the 6th-generation iPod touch.

Right now, AirPlay 2-compatible devices include the Apple TV and the HomePod, but in the future, AirPlay 2 will be available on third-party speakers from manufacturers like Bang & Olufsen, Bluesound, Bose, Bowers & Wilkins, Denon, Libratone, Marantz, Marshall, Naim, Pioneer and Sonos.

With AirPlay 2, you can play the same song on multiple speakers throughout the house, move music from one room to another, or play music in any room from any room using an iOS device, HomePod, Apple TV, or Siri voice commands. AirPlay 2 devices are now displayed in the Apple Home app as AirPlay 2 is integrated with HomeKit.

Using AirPlay 2, you can control where music is playing through the Control Center or within apps on an iOS device or ask Siri to play music in any room (or multiple rooms) with an AirPlay 2-enabled device.

HomePod is also gaining support for stereo pairing, which is designed to let two HomePods work in unison.

The iOS 11.4 update also introduces Messages in iCloud, a feature that has been in the works for several months and was first promised as an iOS 11 feature in June of 2017. Messages in iCloud is designed to store your iMessages in iCloud rather than on each individual device, allowing for improved syncing capabilities.

At the current time, incoming iMessages are sent to all of the devices where you're signed in to your Apple ID, but there is no true cross-device syncing. Messages in iCloud will let you download all of your iMessages on new devices, and a message deleted on one device will remove it from all devices, which is not the case right now.

Older messages and attachments are also stored in iCloud rather than on device, saving valuable storage space across all of your Macs, iPhones, and iPads.

For the iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus, there is a new (PRODUCT)RED wallpaper available, which is not available on iPhone X, and in betas, the iOS 11.4 update included USB Restricted Mode, which may have made it into release.

USB Restricted Mode introduces a week-long expiration date on access to the Lightning port on iOS devices if your phone has not been unlocked, a feature that limits law enforcement access to the iPhone and the iPad using tools like the GrayKey box.

In addition to these features, iOS 11.4 also includes several bug fixes, as outlined in Apple's release notes. Full release notes are below:

iOS 11.4 includes AirPlay 2 multi-room audio, support for HomePod stereo pairs, and Messages in iCloud. This update also includes bug fixes and improvements.

AirPlay 2
- Control your home audio system and AirPlay 2-enabled speakers throughout your house
- Play music at the same time on multiple AirPlay 2-enabled speakers in your house, all in sync
- Control AirPlay 2-enabled speakers from Control Center, the Lock screen, or AirPlay controls within apps on your iPhone or iPad
- Use your voice to control AirPlay 2-enabled speakers with Siri from your iPhone or iPad, HomePod, or Apple TV
- Take a call or play a game on your iPhone or iPad without interrupting playback on your AirPlay 2-enabled speakers

HomePod stereo pair
- This update supports setting up your HomePod stereo pair using your iPhone or iPad
- HomePod pair automatically senses its location in the room and balances the sound based on the speakers' locations
- Advanced beamforming provides wider soundstage than traditional stereo pair
- HomePod will automatically update to support stereo pairs, unless auto updates are disabled in the Home app

Messages in iCloud
- Store your messages, photos, and other attachments in iCloud and free up space on your devices
- All your messages appear when you sign into a new device with the same iMessage account
- When you delete messages and conversations they are instantly removed from all your devices
- To turn on Messages in iCloud, enable Messages in iCloud settings (Settings > [your name] > iCloud)
- Your conversations continue to be end-to-end encrypted

Other improvements and fixes
- Enables teachers to assign their students reading activities in iBooks using the Schoolwork app
- Fixes an issue where certain character sequences could cause Messages to crash
- Addresses a Messages issue that could cause some messages to appear out of order
- Addresses an issue that could prevent logging in or accessing files on Google Drive, Google Docs and Gmail in Safari
- Fixes an issue that could prevent data syncing in Health
- Fixes an issue that could prevent users from changing what apps can access Health data
- Resolves an issue that could cause an app to appear in an incorrect location on the Home screen
- Fixes an issue where CarPlay audio could become distorted
- Fixes an issue where selecting music from your iPhone could fail when playing music over Bluetooth or when connected to USB on some vehicles

iOS 11.4 may be one of the final updates to the iOS 11 operating system, which will be followed by iOS 12. Apple will unveil iOS 12 at the Worldwide Developers Conference next week.