WWDC 12 - Announcements, Rumours and Everything Else

DubDJ

Ahead of WWDC 2012 which kicks off this Monday (June 11th) at 10am PST (6pm GMT) with a Keynote I thought i'd combine all the latest rumour, speculation and supposed leaks into one post.

iOS

iOS 6 is supposed to be the main focus, which will more than likely be getting released to developers on Monday, released to the general public alongside the next gen iPhone around September/October.
Some of the feature's expected are as follows; New Apple owned Maps App, Facebook integration, Siri for iPad, Redesigned iTunes, Appstore & iBook Stores and some OS X features being brought over to iOS.

OS X Mountain Lion (10.8)

Apple announced Mountain Lion back in February, scheduled for a late Summer release. Most of the features can be found on Apples site and there'll probably be more announced next week. But with all the rumours of an entire Mac range refresh Mountain Lion could be released alongside the new range of Mac's around July/August.


New Mac Line-Up & Accessories

There's been a lot of rumours about an entire refresh of the Mac line-up. Supposedly a Retina Macbook Pro which will be completely redesigned has been hinted, updated Airs & iMac, and after two years a new Mac Pro. This was leaked as a supposedly confirmed list of everything being released at WWDC 12. Including updates to a number of accessories.

iTunes Store Refresh

Apple could also be heading for an iTunes store refresh with a new look and feel, as well as new features that will tie in with the new iStore's for iOS 6. One of the suggested features is that the iTunes store will become a lot more social, allowing people to 'Like' and 'Tweet' apps with a strong Twitter and Facebook integration, just like in iOS 6. Ping could also be discontinued as hinted by Tim Cook at the recent D10 conference.

Some other less than likely things that will be released (In my opinion) are the next generation iPhone and a new Apple TV set as an all in one. I said i'd add these at the end as I don't expect to see them announced at WWDC 2012.

Next Generation iPhone

This will supposedly feature a 4" screen, however the screen will remain the same width and just get longer (Video). The new Maps app being the main feature, just like with Siri. Also leaked are details of a new Broadcom chip

New Apple TV All-in-one

Also a new so called 'iTV' could be released with a whole new UI but I really don't see that happening. However there are hints at a new store and API's for developers to create apps for the ATV as it is now. Hopefully we see something like that.

Regardless of all the rumors, speculation and everything else i'm looking forward to Monday!

Sad Professor

I expect them to open the AppleTV up to developers, paving the way for the eventual all-in-one Apple television.

I can't wait to see what they've in store for iOS 6. It's the software rather than the hardware that really makes the iPhone. We know there's a new Maps app coming, but otherwise Apple have managed to keep everything related to the next version of iOS tightly under wraps.

I reckon the Mac announcements may be the most important, though. Looks like the whole Mac line is getting updated.

McGrath5

Really looking forward to this.

It's well known Apple want to ditch their reliance on Google, so the new mapping features will be one to watch out for.

DubDJ

Sad Professor wrote: »

I expect them to open the AppleTV up to developers, paving the way for the eventual all-in-one Apple television.

Ever since the latest software update to the ATV I've been expecting third party apps to soon be available. The way they've designed it as it is with the built in apps as rectangle icons, to me it looks too like iOS to be a coincidence. I'd say it's their first step to allowing developers to build their own apps. They won't have to change the UI as it will already be set to hold pages of apps.

Duggys Housemate

There are 42 TBA streams at the conference. Which means that these are totally new frameworks or a new OS. for an existing framework they can just give the name - we know they will be talking new iOS 6 features for UIKIT, so they can call it the UIKIT overview session. No need to even mention ios 6. To be announced - close to 40% of all sessions, and most of the sessions in the main room, that's something big coming up.Something they can't name.

120_Minutes

Duggys Housemate wrote: »

There are 42 TBA streams at the conference. Which means that these are totally new frameworks or a new OS. for an existing framework they can just give the name - we know they will be talking new iOS 6 features for UIKIT, so they can call it the UIKIT overview session. No need to even mention ios 6. To be announced - close to 40% of all sessions, and most of the sessions in the main room, that's something big coming up.Something they can't name.

Interesting post, even though I don't understand some of the jargon. Care to go into more detail?

Duggys Housemate

TBA means to be announced. We know they are going to announce iOS 6. If there is an existing framework ( a framework is a bunch of APIs, which are grouped together like Location, or Maps, or the one I mentioned UIKit, which is a "kit"/framework for doing standard UI, like buttons and menus and so on ) then that is in the schedule. Its not giving anything away. You can schedule existing streams on existing frameworks without giving anything away. The only reason to have a To Be Announced is

1) There is a new framework in iOS 6 which cant be named yet- this is common enough. There were TBAs last year, on iCloud, Newsstand etc.
2) A whole new OS? There are 43 TBA sessions, after all.
3) Some say that it is Siri - there is no existing Siri API, or framework for third party devs - which will be the main thing. I imagine some of the sessions are siri, for sure, but all of them?

43 TBA is a lot. I think there were a dozen last year.

More here, which is where I got the idea.

Sad Professor

They are possibly for the new AppleTV App Store.

But having said that, I wouldn't read too much into the TBA sessions. There's several of them every year. Sometimes they are for something new, while other times they turn out to be nothing. They aren't necessarily some new secret product. Apple may simply not have locked down the schedule yet.

Duggys Housemate

Yea, but as I said I think there were 12 last year or so. There is something else, as Gruber states, the TBA sessions are all in the main room - Presido. Monday is always for the the big conferences there - the kickoff and the OS overview. Tuesday is the nitty gritty. Gruber says:

On Tuesday morning, Presidio is booked for the Developer Tools Kickoff, Game Technologies Kickoff, and What’s New in Cocoa sessions. After that, Presidio is pretty much entirely “TBA” from Tuesday afternoon through the end of the day Thursday. And that’s just the big room — there are dozens of other TBA sessions on the schedule.

So the big room is TBA from early afternoon Tuesday to Thursday evening, once they get the overview of their main technologies for devs ( whats new in the tools they use, games - the most important apps are games - and Cocoa, the over all term for the APIs used for standard iOS dev) it then moves onto TBA and the others don't get back to the main room until Friday.

That room takes a few thousand I think.

G-Money

I'd like it if they revamped the UI of iOS a little bit. Like the SMS message interface and also the background when you're in things like the settings or in iTunes/App Store. It's just a boring grey background with lines.

Duggys Housemate

I wonder if it is the integration of iOS and OS X? They are not going to spend too much time on mountain lion surely, that will be released and thats it. Nothing spectacular there and not a huge part of their business anymore.

alice302

It is closing and closing for the WWDC 12 coming, it is really an exciting monent. I hope apple will release iphone 5 on the WWDC 12, for people have waited it for so long time, and it will also a good news if apple release iOS 6.

murpho999

I really don't expect Apple to release new iPhone so short after release of 4s,

Cue the 'Apple is losing it' posts and articles when it's not unveiled.

Discostuy

Apps on the ATV would be enough to keep me happy...Plex would be sweet.

Dying to see what iOS6 offers too.

A revamped iTunes would also be welcomed. Its far to bloated and stale.

Looking forward to Mountain Lion as I think it will be less buggy, more refined version of Lion.

And I'm glad the Mac Pros look like they are getting a revamp. I have no intention of buying one, but its good they are still thinking about the pro computer side of things and not just all iOS stuff.

DubDJ

I'd be nearly sure that they won't announce the new iPhone this coming Monday. The iPhone 4S is still selling and people are happy to buy it. So why change now. Plus Apple have seemed to changed their release schedual a bit. It's now March - iPad, June - iOS & OS X with new Mac Product releases. And then September - iPhone. It makes sense as it gives them a steady income stream throughout the year.

What makes me wonder if they will announce it at WWDC is the new 4" screen. If the rumours are true then Apple will have to give Devs time to update their apps to support the new screen. It's not as simple as just upscaling the apps as they did in the past for the Retina Display or the iPad. So if they announce it September and give a release for October like previous it's not allowing much time for the Developers. Then again they might just let them run with empty space on the top and bottom until they can be optimised for the new display. Even though I still wont be expecting a new iPhone on Monday.

leemaree

Is there any website that is giving live coverage or a video feed of the WWDC?

DubDJ

leemaree wrote: »

Is there any website that is giving live coverage or a video feed of the WWDC?

Apple don't offer live streams to the events anymore but a lot of websites do live blogs that update with photos and details as the event takes place. The full video is usually posted a few hours after the event on the Apple website.

I think most big tech websites/blogs will be there so you have a choice really. I usually wait until the day and check a few out and see who has the best system in place. Think I used TUAW last year. A few blogs went down due to the large number of people visiting their sites.

Deep Thought

Cant wait to see new Macs...am holding off updating my MB

Would love to see on iPhone - Notifications, weather etc on lockscreen like a screensaver type thing

and for the love of God...give us an FM radio

leemaree

I would like to see bluetooth like other phone do as well. Like iphone to any other phone and not just iphone to iphone.

murpho999

Deep Thought wrote: »

Cant wait to see new Macs...am holding off updating my MB

Would love to see on iPhone - Notifications, weather etc on lockscreen like a screensaver type thing

and for the love of God...give us an FM radio

Notifications are already in lock screen.

Don't understand obsession with widgets.

Last year all the rage was notifications and the pull down window and lock screen. Now that I have it I have to be honest I hardly use it.

G-Money

murpho999 wrote: »

Notifications are already in lock screen.

Don't understand obsession with widgets.

Last year all the rage was notifications and the pull down window and lock screen. Now that I have it I have to be honest I hardly use it.

I never used that pull-down window either, except by accident!

squonk

yeah the pull down window is useful 5% of the time. Sometimes it even gets in the way. I'm looking forward to WWDC as well. IOS6 will be the big one for me. I want to see the Apple implementation of those maps and it'll also be interesting to see what else is in store. Hopefully there'll be a few surprises still.

New Macs are important too. it'll be nice to see some new MBPs and I want to see if they are actually ditching the 17" MBP.

ATV apps apis would be sweet and it would be a huge draw for the fully blown, much touted Apple TV iTV after another 12-18 months when there is a large app eco system there to latch onto. Having a non-jailbreak Plex install would be fantastic!

DubDJ

If indeed the rumours are true and they are bringing their own in house mapping app to iOS 6 then it doesn't necessarily mean we'll see it on Monday. They could keep it to be released as the stand out feature on the new iPhone, just like they did with Siri and the 4S.

DubDJ

A Retina app as been approved for the Mac App store by Apple. Doesn't mean much but still interesting to see. I can't imagine the Developer has any inside info but still Apple didn't reject the update.

Duggys Housemate

I am not a fan of springboard in general.

The recent app list is broken, its just a scrolling list.
The folder creation is a bit of a pain, i think they could automate that for people i.e. sort into folders by keyword.
For that reason tend to have to use the search to find stuff, I have no visual memory.
No reason to not have a widget or two in the main screen or the search screen

seamus

DubDJ wrote: »

I'd be nearly sure that they won't announce the new iPhone this coming Monday. The iPhone 4S is still selling and people are happy to buy it. So why change now. Plus Apple have seemed to changed their release schedual a bit. It's now March - iPad, June - iOS & OS X with new Mac Product releases. And then September - iPhone.

It's hard to say they've definitely changed the release schedule since the 4S was the first iPhone that wasn't released in the Summer and from iP4 to iP4S was the longest gap between releases that they've had.

There was much speculation back then that they delayed the iP4S release to give more time for the technology to become available so they could release the phone they wanted to release (i.e. the iP5).

So I don't think there's really anything which can give an indication either way whether a new iPhone will be released next week.
Two things to consider though are that the 4S is largely being considered "old" behind the latest Samsung and HTC offerings, and a lot of people will be coming out of two-year iPhone contracts this summer and the 4S is not a significant upgrade.

There would be a lot of disappointment with no iPhone next week.

They might throw a bit of a bone and announce the end of the 3GS, 8GB iP4 and a new 128GB 4S, to tide people over till September.

DubDJ

seamus wrote: »

It's hard to say they've definitely changed the release schedule since the 4S was the first iPhone that wasn't released in the Summer and from iP4 to iP4S was the longest gap between releases that they've had.

There was much speculation back then that they delayed the iP4S release to give more time for the technology to become available so they could release the phone they wanted to release (i.e. the iP5).

So I don't think there's really anything which can give an indication either way whether a new iPhone will be released next week.
Two things to consider though are that the 4S is largely being considered "old" behind the latest Samsung and HTC offerings, and a lot of people will be coming out of two-year iPhone contracts this summer and the 4S is not a significant upgrade.

There would be a lot of disappointment with no iPhone next week.

They might throw a bit of a bone and announce the end of the 3GS, 8GB iP4 and a new 128GB 4S, to tide people over till September.

Apple were never one to follow what other tech companies were doing. They release new features and spec upgrades at their own pace. Even if Samsung released a new Quad Core 2GB Ram phone with quad core graphics and some amazingly pixel dense screen Apple wouldn't just race to meet them specs. Look at the recent iPad. Still only dual core processor even though most of the newer tablets are quad core. Even if people consider the 4S old they still won't bring out a new phone early when they could keep reaping the rewards of a phone thats been the biggest success to date.

Don't get me wrong everything is rumour at the moment and they could do exactly what you said and bring a new phone out. But i'd be willing to bet money that they won't. There's logic behind every move Apple make. For example they recently dropped the price of the OS X upgrade to €24. Then the following year announce they'll be bringing out a new OS every year. It's all well planned out.

I hope they don't bring out a new iPhone until October. I wanna enjoy a few more months with my beloved iPhone 4.

opinion guy

murpho999 wrote: »

I really don't expect Apple to release new iPhone so short after release of 4s,

Cue the 'Apple is losing it' posts and articles when it's not unveiled.

I don't think anyone really expects the 4s announcement at the WWDC.

But to be honest with you - if the stretch mockups of a 4" iphone 5 are accurate - I do think they might be losing it. The aspect ratio will be all wrong. People won't like it in comparison to android models. Of course it will sell, iphone always will - but it will sell less.

whiterebel

leemaree wrote: »

I would like to see bluetooth like other phone do as well. Like iphone to any other phone and not just iphone to iphone.

Not going to happen. Too easy to share music/movies, thats why they have crippled it the way they have. I just wish it worked properly even iPad<>iPhone......Its an absolute abomination when they won't link up.

squonk

I'm not convinced by the mockups. Even the one that's gained greatest traction to the point where I saw it on Jounal.ie the other day with the silver metal and black back looks a bit gammy. I'm sure they'll do better than this in production. Furthermore, i actually think they could increase the screen size while keeping the nice form factory they have now. It's five years since the original design so they could make the black areas smaller and up the screen size at this point I think.

Duggys Housemate

seamus wrote: »

It's hard to say they've definitely changed the release schedule since the 4S was the first iPhone that wasn't released in the Summer and from iP4 to iP4S was the longest gap between releases that they've had.

Yeah, to get the new release into the holiday season.

So I don't think there's really anything which can give an indication either way whether a new iPhone will be released next week.
Two things to consider though are that the 4S is largely being considered "old" behind the latest Samsung and HTC offerings, and a lot of people will be coming out of two-year iPhone contracts this summer and the 4S is not a significant upgrade.

As the post above you suggested "old" is largely irrelevant, and subjective. Most Android sales are cheap phones, anyway. Android is winning on the long tail, not the short tail.

There would be a lot of disappointment with no iPhone next week.

You are, seriously, the only person on the internet who thinks there will be a new phone next week

They might throw a bit of a bone and announce the end of the 3GS, 8GB iP4 and a new 128GB 4S, to tide people over till September.

Why end a selling product? I think the 3GS will stay around for ever, possibly becoming a "model" - like the iPhone Classic - and getting an occasional RAM and processor update, but not enough to cannibalise the top of the market.

The mid model will be the iPhone 4/4S.

Top level iPhone 5.

All with different names. It makes little or no sense to compete against Android just this years model and last years model a bit cheaper.