Apple has sent out invites to the press for its Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) keynote—or as the invite calls it, a "special event." The event will take place on June 3 at 10am PDT. Ars will be in attendance to liveblog the proceedings and all the announcements.
Sometimes the invites Apple sends out contain hints as to what will be announced. It seems members of the press received various graphics depicting neon emoji and animoji images set against midnight blue backgrounds—perhaps to evoke iOS 13's rumored Dark Mode. Ars received the above emoji.We're expecting extensive details about the company's major three OS releases that are expected later in the year: iOS 13 for the iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch; macOS 10.15 for the Mac; and watchOS 6 for the Apple Watch.
As noted, previous leaks have suggested that iOS 13 will feature a Dark Mode similar to the one added in macOS Mojave, along with built-in support for using your iPad as an external display for your Mac—something previously only possible with third-party solutions like Duet. Other iPad-specific improvements expected include the ability to switch between different versions of the same app, an overhauled multitasking experience, and potentially a home screen revamp. Apple is expected to make some big changes to the Reminders app in iOS, which has often been criticized for failing to compete with other to do apps, and to add new gestures for undoing and redoing text input.
We know less about macOS 10.15, but we do know that the spotlight will be focused to some degree on Marzipan, Apple's initiative to make it much easier for app developers to target their apps at both Macs and iOS devices. macOS 10.14 featured some early examples Apple built internally (the News app, for one), but 10.15 is expected to bring the feature to third-party developers. Additionally, we expect a new standalone Music app and additional steps toward Metal and away from OpenGL and moves toward further deprecating 32-bit application support.On the hardware side, there's one towering elephant in the room: the Mac Pro. It has been a couple of years since Apple assured a room full of journalists that it was working on a new Mac desktop that it hopes will satisfy the critics of the 2013 "trash can" design, but we've heard nary a detail since. However, WWDC 2019 is an opportune time to announce this new hardware, as the company has previously said 2019 is the target release year, and the developers in attendance at the show are some of the target audience for the product.
It's not a sure thing—it could come at a smaller scale or closed-doors event later in the year—but it would sure be welcome. We'll publish more detailed predictions and background info next week.
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