Apple on Tuesday began inviting members of the media to its keynote presentation on June 5 in San Jose, where the company will kick off its annual Worldwide Developers Conference and unveil the next-generation versions of iOS and macOS.
The keynote will take place at the McEnery Convention Center beginning on Monday, June 5 at 10 a.m. Pacific, 1 p.m. Eastern. AppleInsider will be there live.
Unlike in years past, where Apple has hyped WWDC keynotes with splashy graphics and taglines that create intrigue, this year's media invitation is decidedly low-key. There are no hints about what the company could be unveiling at this year's event, which is less than a month away.
The keynote is not a surprise — Apple traditionally kicks off WWDC with a media presentation, and the dates for WWDC were officially announced back in February. Apple has been operating on an earlier-than-usual timeframe this year, allowing developers and members of the media more time to prepare for a change of location, from San Francisco to San Jose.
After the keynote, WWDC will run through the week until June 9. This year's event is widely expected to be headlined by the introduction of iOS 11 and macOS 10.13, as well as tvOS 11 and watchOS 4. The McEnery Convention Center will host 5,000 developers and 1,000 engineers.
Beyond Apple's four major software platforms, this year's event is also expected to feature the introduction of new hardware. Specifically, rumors of a Siri standalone home speaker have been heating up in recent weeks, suggesting the new smart home accessory could be unveiled on June 5.
The iPad Pro lineup is also due for an upgrade to Apple's A10 series of chips first introduced with the iPhone 7. There have been rumors that a complete redesign of the tablet is in the works, without a home button, but it's unclear whether such a device would show up as soon as WWDC.
Also due are new MacBooks, especially Apple's 12-inch model with Retina display, which has not been updated in over a year. The first two generations of the 12-inch MacBook both debuted in the springtime.
57 Comments
How about an announcement that Apple will let users run OS X on HP Workstations since it is obvious nobody at One Infinite Loop cares about anything other than mobile devices and rental services.
Please do NOT spend another 30 minutes going over iMessage toys.
[Bill Lumbergh voice...] An update to the Mac mini would be great...
Tim Cook is desperately trying to invoke Steve Jobs out of his grave to return and save Apple again from corporatisis and eat the brains of their design dead.
The problem with this announcement is: it sounds as if Apple is seeking inspiration from the developer community. Usually, Apple is the source of inspiration. Not the other way round.