Mark your calendars for June 10th, because that is the day Apple may finally talk about its work in generative AI and a whole lot more. Apple set the date for WWDC; it’s the annual Worldwide Developers Conference, and June 10th through the 14th is when programmers will gather at the Apple Park headquarters to hear about what’s next in the operating systems for the iPhone, Mac computer, and all the other Apple gadgets.
But this could be one of the most interesting WWDC presentations, for reasons even beyond the topic of AI. We’re going to see the first updates to the Vision Pro software, but I am talking about one more topic that is going to linger over the whole event. Apple just got sued by the US government. It is accused of creating an illegal iPhone monopoly because of how its software is designed. I think Apple will address some of the complaints, but the effects of that lawsuit can stretch to even future WWDC events. For this week’s episode, let us go over why this WWDC might be one of the most important presentations from Apple for a while. I’m Bridget Carey, and this is one more thing. The WWDC keynote will be streamed for everyone to see, and it is a way for Apple to highlight all the new software changes to its devices and how these devices work better together. This show will mark one year since the Apple Vision Pro was first announced, and Apple said we are getting news on the Vision OS. We’re going to be watching to see if there are any new developments in 3D content offerings that were teased out a year ago. Is Mickey Mouse actually going to be jumping around our living rooms? Will there be more talk of sports content in 3D? Or are there cool things being done by game developers?
I think a year out from the reveal has people wondering what content is being made to make customers and developers excited. Or would a price cut for the $3,500 headset be the only thing that motivates developers to create content for spatial computing? I am also curious if we’re going to hear about new ways to connect to Vision Pro. You can bring your Mac into the Vision Pro workspace, but will there be a way to do the same thing for iPhones or iPads? Apple has been pushing out Macs with new M3 processors that the company boasts are the best at handling AI tasks. When the new MacBook Air was announced, Apple called it the world’s best consumer laptop for AI. So this is Apple’s time to show us what is possible with macOS and AI. In particular, there are tricks that can make our lives easier by having a system that can create personalized experiences, stitching together many points of information into a new thing. And because this is a conference designed to hype up developers, Apple may also introduce an AI tool that makes it easier to build apps. Bloomberg has reported that this tool can be the next version of Xcode; it’s Apple’s programming software. AI might be woven into the presentation without Apple needing to say the phrase artificial intelligence that often. It’s something that would just be seen as more helpful—maybe a system that predicts what you need before you know you even need it. And that is true whether it’s for a MacBook or an iPhone, so we could see a smarter Siri across devices. It would be an assistant that could handle more than one command and understand the nuance and context of what you might mean when you talk based on what you are doing at the moment.
\On this show, I have gone over how iOS 18 could be even more exciting than the iPhone itself, primarily because of all the rumors that the iPhone hardware may not be getting a big change other than maybe a dedicated button for recording video, and that’s what Bloomberg is reporting. People are looking to see if the iPhone software is going to get generative AI tricks. Could you summarize voice recordings or translate messages in different languages? Or manipulate photos—all things we have seen on Samsung and Google devices? Bloomberg reports that iOS 18 might feature auto-generated playlists in Apple Music or a better spotlight search tool. But the Department of Justice has put its own spotlight on the iPhone regarding a number of complaints about how Apple uses its dominance to make it hard for Android systems to compete against the iPhone. Now one of those issues in the lawsuit is about iMessage and the drama around green and blue text message bubbles, and how iPhone and Android users have a degraded experience if they try to text each other in iMessage. But this issue might be moot because Apple already said it is fixing some problems by bringing RCS to the iPhone this year. RCS is a text messaging protocol that is used by Android phones, and once it’s woven into iMessage, it means texts with Android users will have higher-quality media files and message encryption. The blue and green bubble issues may all pop up, depending on what Apple announces. There are so many little features on iOS that people are still discovering new tricks. Now, one trick that’s getting a lot of buzz right now on my social feed is how to layer multiple emoji together in a text message. But I want to see Apple take this a step further for iOS 18. Here’s one more tip for those of you who don’t know how to do this already. In iMessage, you can mess with your friends by layering emoji together, turning them into stickers. An easy way to do this is by going into iMessage and clicking the plus symbol. It opens up stickers. You’re going to click the smiley to pick which emoji you want big, like turning it into a giant photo. You’re going to send that, then go back into a regular chat emoji keyboard. You could press hold and drag any emoji to stick it on top of that image to make a scene. If you make a mistake, Just press and hold the main image. Select sticker details to delete the ones you don’t want. Google has an even better way to create crazy emojis, and anyone can do it, even on the iPhone.
It’s called Emoji Kitchen. Just do a Google search for Emoji Kitchen. It’s going to mash up whatever two emojis you want together. Or, it’ll give you something random, and you can copy and paste it into your message. Forget AI; this is what I want baked into the next iPhone update. There is one more way the lawsuit can turn this into the most interesting WWDC in a while. But it is about what Apple will not say. The antitrust case could be so distracting for Apple executives that it could derail work and progress, decision-making could be slowed down, the company may need to back away from releasing new ways of creating software, or it may need to rework existing software and how systems interact with each other. That could result in future WWDC events not making as many leaps forward as the competition. It happened with Microsoft when it dealt with its antitrust case from 1998 until 2001. As the Wall Street Journal recently highlighted, Bill Gates did say that the Microsoft legal battle and that whole distraction contributed to Microsoft falling behind in the smartphone race. Gates said, quote, We would have been more focused on creating the phone operating system. So instead of using Android today, you would be using Windows Mobile. What are you most curious to see presented at WWDC? Do you care a lot about AI and the iPhone? What is the most interesting thing about the Vision Pro updates? Let me know in the comments, and I’ll be back next week with one more thing to talk about in the world of Apple.
