Apple’s WorldWide Developer Conference 2013 starts on Monday, June 10. It kicks off with the Keynote at 10:00 am PST at the Moscone West Center in San Francisco.
As usual, we’ve heard several rumorsand speculations leading up to the event, which indicate that it will be a cracking WWDC this year (assuming they turn out to accurate). Here’s a round up of all the WWDC 2013 rumors we’ve heard so far.
iOS 7
Apple’s CEO Tim Cook has confirmedthat the company will be give us a sneak peak at iOS 7, the next generation mobile operating system for the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch.
Here’s what we know about the iOS 7 so far (please click on the links for more details):
- Fresh new look: It is internally codenamed Innsbruck, and will feature a fresh new look with a very, very flat interface. The overhaul is being led by Jony Ive, Apple’s SVP of Industrial Design, who took over the design of iOS 7 from Scott Forstall.
- Maps/Siri: It may bring optimized in-car Maps and Siri integration. Rumors claim Apple is working with car manufacturers on next generation car consoles that would allow iOS devices like the iPhone to be plugged into a car. The iOS device would then display an optimized version of Apple Maps on the car’s built-in display instead of their proprietary GPS system.
- Camera Filters: iOS 7 may come with an updated Camera app, which includes Instagram-like filters.
- Motion Sensing technology: Apple istesting motion sensing technology that could move on-screen objects based on the orientation of the device.
- AirDrop for iOS: It may includeAirDrop wireless file sharing feature that will allow users to wirelessly send files to anyone around them with an iOS device or a Mac.
- Vimeo/Flickr Integration: Flickr and Vimeo are all set to become first-class citizens on iOS, as Apple is apparently working to deeply integrate these popular media sharing services into iOS 7.
- APIs: At the D11 Conference, Tim Cookhinted that the company plans to open up APIs to allow third party customization.
Release:
While there have been speculations of a possible delay due to the revamp, we expect Apple to release the first beta version of iOS 7 immediately after the Keynote address. However, iOS 7 is likely to be released in September, couple of days before the launch of the next generation iPhone.
OS X 10.9:
Apple also plans to unveil the next major update for OS X. OS X 10.9 is unlikely to feature a fresh new look with the flat user interface like iOS, but Apple is said to focus on bringing core iOS features to the Mac, and add certain “power-user” features like a tabbed interface forFinder and improved multi-screen support.
Here’s what we know about the OS X 10.9:
- Finder will now have a tabbed browsing mode and tag-based navigation, a feature that is currently found in a number of third-party Finder alternatives.
- New Safari browser with improved page loading, speed, efficiency and hopefully its memory footprint will be improved upon.
- OS X will finally be able to run more than one full-screen app simultaneously on multiple monitors. Currently when an app is switched to full-screen mode, all screens except for one are practically useless.
- Apple is also reportedly working on bringing iOS-like multi-tasking to OS X, with the same restrictive background capabilities and quick-app switcher. This system could help Apple’s MacBook Air line of products, which are generally resource constrained.
- OS X 10.9 would also be accompanied with an update to Apple’s IDE for iOS and Mac app development, Xcode. Xcode 5.0 is said to feature a new interface, and improve testing tools.
- OS X 10.9 may finally bring Siri to Macs.
Release:
There have been rumors that Apple has been borrowing engineers from the OS X 10.9 as part of an effort to double down on iOS 7 and to ensure that is released on schedule. So as of now it is not known when exactly Apple plans to release OS X 10.9. Apple had apparently originally planned to release the Developer Preview of OS X 10.9 at the end of January, followed by Golden Master version in June and the public release in July.
New Macs
- New MacBook Airs: Based on the leaked SKU and pricing information, it seems very likely that Apple will unveil new version of MacBook Air. They’ll of course use Intel’s latest Haswell chip, and they’ll have a dual microphone system that makes for better voice and video calls. They will also support the new 802.11ac standard.
- Updated MacBook Pros: According to KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo,Apple will announce a slimmer 13 inch MacBook Pro retina. The new 13 inch retina will also supposedly get an upgraded camera, enabling 1080p video calls. However, since Apple released theredesigned 13-inch Retina MacBook Pro only in October, in our opinion it seems highly unlikely that Apple will update it so soon.
iRadio
Apple is also widely expected to launch a music streaming service, dubbed iRadioat WWDC. According to rumors, iRadio could be a hybrid web and radio service, one that is similar to Pandora but could also include some on-demand features. Apple will most likely offer the service for free, but it could include interstitial audio ads. It remains to be seen if Apple will also offer a paid ad-free option.
It could come as a standalone app that is pre-installed with iOS 7, or as a standalone app like iBooks, Find my iPhone etc, which needs to be downloaded from the App Store or the feature could come integrated with the Music app.
Apple has been in talks with record labels to offer the service on the Mac and Apple TV.
iPhone and iPad
Well, don’t expect Apple to launch the next generation iPhone and iPad at the event. Apple is likely to unveil them at separate events later this year.
Well, that’s what we’ve heard so far and we expect few more last minute rumors before the Keynote kicks off just over 72 hours from now. Let’s also hope that Apple has some surprises in store for us.
We’ll be live blogging the event so don’t forget to join us at 10am PT or 1pm ET or 6pm GMT on Monday, June 10th. Until then, you can check out our iOS 7 wish list.
Categories: Apple Rumors, iOS 7, iPad Rumors,iPhone Rumors, iRadio
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