Apple’s annual developer conference – running from June 11th to 15th this year – is often used a platform for new products – especially in the software realm. So what goodies can we expect Tim Cook and co. to reveal?
iOS 6
We’re hoping – nay expecting – to get a major glimpse at the future of Apple’s mobile operating system at WWDC 2012. Perhaps there’ll even be a full-on launch if we’re lucky. There’s been loads of speculation about what iOS 6 will bring to the table, from a social overhaul of the iTunes and App Stores, FaceTime over 3G (at last) and the dropping of Google Maps in favour of Apple’s own app.
OS X Mountain Lion
We should learn a lot more about the next version (10.8 to be precise) of Apple’s computer OS, which will go on sale very soon. So far we’ve heard rumblings that it will include Siri dictation, an offline Reading List for Safari, banner notifications, more extensive iCloud integration, a new Messages IM service and much more. Read our Need to Know overview here.
New MacBook Pros and Airs
We’ve heard lots of rumours concerning Apple’s next generation of laptops. Will there be an affordable, ultrabook-bothering MacBook Air announced? Or will MacBook Pros simply become a lot thinner and more “MacBook Air-like”, ditching the optical drive and replacing the old-fashioned hard drive with an SSD? Our instincts point to the latter being closer to the truth.
Apple HDTV
Will Apple’s long-rumoured “iTV” HDTV put in an appearance? While we’d love to say yes, we just can’t see it – such a device, which brings Apple into an entirely new market segment, would likely be deserving of its own event. But you never know.
iPhone 5
Again, while we’d like to see the iPhone 5 (or whatever the next iPhone will be called) finally revealed at WWDC 2012, we think it may be a little soon – after all, it’s only been nine months since the iPhone 4S was announced, and we’d expect Tim Cook to wait at least a year to tear the wrappers off its successor. We’d put our money on a September or October launch event – but we can’t call it for sure: after all, a Foxconn recruiter claimed the iPhone 5 would be coming in June…
