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Gurman: WWDC 2018 to Have Software Focus, New Macs, iPad Pros, and Larger-Screen Apple Watches Coming Later

Thursday May 31, 2018 9:41 am PDT by Joe Rossignol
Apple's annual Worldwide Developers Conference commences on Monday with an opening keynote, where the company previews the next major versions of its software platforms, and usually shares some other announcements.


Ahead of the keynote, Bloomberg's well-sourced Mark Gurman has outlined what he expects Apple to discuss on stage:
  • A series of Digital Health tools in the Settings app on iOS 12 that will help users monitor how much time they spend using their devices and individual apps, helping to address concerns about smartphone addiction.
  • ARKit 2, including a new mode that allows for a multiplayer mode in augmented reality games. Another mode is said to allow objects to be dropped into an area and virtually remain in place.
  • Apple could reveal its reported plans to allow iOS apps to run on Macs as early as this year. The wording suggests it's not entirely clear if Apple plans to discuss the project at WWDC or later.
  • Minor new features for snoozing notifications, tracking the stock market, making video calls, and sending Animojis via FaceTime.
Overall, Gurman expects this year's software updates across iOS, macOS, tvOS, and watchOS to be more "muted," with "bigger changes later," as Apple has decided to focus more on the quality and stability improvements this year, according to an internal meeting the company reportedly held earlier this year.

Planned new iOS 12 features that have been shelved until 2019 are said to include a redesigned home screen with more information, an artificial intelligence upgrade to the Photos app, and new file-management tools for iPads.

Unfortunately for those hoping to see Apple refresh its product lineups at WWDC, Gurman suggests that "a suite of new gadgets is unlikely," although a surprise hardware announcement or two cannot be entirely ruled out. Hopefully, an update will also be provided about Apple's AirPower charging mat.

Gurman claims Apple is working on refreshed MacBook, MacBook Pro, iPad Pro, and Apple Watch models, and a new low-cost MacBook, but he doesn't expect any of those devices to be ready until "later this year."Gurman outlined most of these expectations in his previous reporting over the past year.

WWDC's opening keynote begins on Monday at 10:00 a.m. Pacific Time at the McEnery Convention Center in San Jose, California. MacRumors will be in attendance at the keynote, with live coverage both here on MacRumors.com and through our @MacRumorsLive account on Twitter.

MacRumors will also have pre-event coverage, beginning around 8:00 a.m. Pacific Time, and post-event hands-on coverage if applicable.

Related Roundup: WWDC 2019
Tags: bloomberg.com, Mark Gurman
[ 289 comments ]


Top Rated Comments

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Gorms
10 months ago
"Gurman: WWDC 2018 to Have Software Focus"

Get outta town, really? Where do these journalists source this stuff? Wizardry.
Rating: 48 Votes
Avatar
NT1440
10 months ago

Greed, arrogance and delays.

The new norms of Tim Cook’s Apple.

I’ll never understand how people here can take an analyst’s description of delay as the word of god. Did Apple announce new hardware will be revealed at WWDC? No? Then guess what, there is no delay by definition.
Rating: 33 Votes
Avatar
MacFather
10 months ago
Greed, Arrogance and Delays.

The new norms of Tim Cook’s Apple.
Rating: 32 Votes
Avatar
Andres Cantu
10 months ago
Nothing worse than Intel having new-generation chips and Apple not updating their Macs to take advantage of them.

By the time they have Macs with 8th-gen Intel chips, the 9th gen will start to come out.
Rating: 27 Votes
Avatar
iName
10 months ago
Everything with Apple now is “later, later, later”. Then what’s the point of this conference?
Rating: 25 Votes
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Freida
10 months ago
That would be a flop if thats all that its going to be out
Rating: 22 Votes
Avatar
NT1440
10 months ago

So basically, the worst keynote of all time? Why does Apple even do keynotes anymore???

Because WWDC is a *developer* conference....

I’m patiently awaiting nerd Christmas. The keynote is cool and all, but the real fun is in the session breakouts...
Rating: 21 Votes
Avatar
KazKam
10 months ago
TLDR... Set you're expectations extremely low.
Rating: 20 Votes
Avatar
strawbale
10 months ago
business as usual - no new Mac Mini :(
Rating: 20 Votes
Avatar
Logic368
10 months ago
So basically, the worst keynote of all time? Why does Apple even do keynotes anymore???
Rating: 14 Votes

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