Yesterday we got word that Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference is set for June 6-10. The event will be (nearly) entirely virtual. The only exception, as Apple explains, will be for a select group of developers to join a live keynote on the Apple campus. If they announce new hardware, I’d expect there will also be some press invited.

The question is whether this is just another step toward the everybody-in-one-town WWDC we had in 2019 or a refinement of the new (mostly) virtual format. I don’t have any inside information but if I had to guess, I’d say WWDC will be more virtual than anything else for the foreseeable future.

There are several good reasons for Apple to lean in that direction:

Apple Resources

I’ve known Apple employees that speak and attend WWDC. It requires them to spend a lot of time on tasks that usually aren’t in their wheelhouse. Don’t forget that they are in the middle of building new operating system updates for all Apple products at the same time. WWDC is a huge distraction for those folks.

No Surprises

With the virtual format, Apple gets better control of the message. The keynote, the sessions, and just about everything else is pre-recorded. Consequently, there are no slip-ups or mistakes.

Better Virtual Materials

Apple has been releasing videos of the WWDC sessions for years, but the materials and production values of the virtual events of the last few years have been much better than in years past.

Way More People Can Attend

Historically, to attend WWDC, you had to hit the ticket lottery AND have the available time to travel to San Jose AND have the disposable income to pay for the flight, overpriced room, and everything else. There are a lot of folks who can’t tick all those boxes. In building the event as a primarily virtual one, Apple can give a good experience to many more people.

Missing the Gathering

All that said, historically, WWDC wasn’t the only thing that happened at and around WWDC. There were multiple related conferences, live podcasts, and numerous other social events that you don’t get with a virtual event. I’ve met many of my best friends at the “gathering of the tribe” around WWDC.

While I don’t expect Apple to ever announce their long-term intentions for WWDC, I wish they would. If the community knew WWDC will remain virtual for the foreseeable future, we could start thinking about creating our own events instead.

Today Apple announced WWDC will once again be an all-online event, this year starting on June 7. Although I will once again miss seeing a lot of my friends in the community in-person, Apple proved last year they are quite capable of delivering an online event with panache. I’m sure this year will be only more impressive.

Given how much better these online events are at serving all of those developers without the time, money, and access to San Jose every year, I am curious as to what happens in 2022. I would not be surprised if substantial portions of the online components remain.

With the announcement artwork, the Apple pundit-sphere has shifted into full freak out mode. The glasses has everyone thinking we’ll get some sort of news on Apple AR glasses. That would be fun, but, in the short term at least, I’m just hoping we get more Apple Silicon Macs.

It’s Keynote day, and Apple had more announcements than I expected during a global pandemic. So here are a few thoughts following the 2020 WWDC Keynote:

• It was dense. There was a lot of information pushed out in those two hours. There were no fluffy demos (and no AR demos). Lots of signal. Little noise.

• I was surprised at the format. I didn’t expect it to start with Tim in an empty theater, but as the presentation moved along, I liked it.

• Lots of new faces among the presenters as Craig Federighi served as the second-tier master of ceremonies. I didn’t realize that I stress for those people on stage. I know how nerve-wracking that can be. Having everything canned made it easier for them … and me.

• The big type on screen slide is a new look for an Apple Keynote.

• The video zooms in between segments started cheesy, but then grew on me. It also makes me want to visit the new campus someday.

• Still iOS, not iPhoneOS.

• App Library makes a ton of sense, but this is one where the devil is in the details. Apple has told us before it will let the device sort things for us with mixed results.

• I can’t wait to get my hands on the new iOS / iPadOS widgets. But am I the only one who looks at them thinks about the classic Mac widgets?

• I can’t make up my mind about the Siri announcements. My problem with Siri isn’t that it can’t answer obscure questions. My problem is that it often doesn’t recognize when I dictate my wife’s name. I’ll need to see the beta.

• Nice improvements to Messages, but I think there is room for more here. Also, it wasn’t clear later if the Mac version finally has feature parity with iOS and iPadOS yet. It’s closer.

• So, does the “iPhone as key” feature now mean a BMW 5 Series is an iPhone accessory?

• Maybe the new Keynote drinking game word should be “privacy”.

• App Clip is a big help to developers. You can get their apps and spend money without installing their apps.

• It looks like iPad widgets, though more customizable, are still relegated to the left side of the screen.

• The new Apple Pencil features look killer. I’ve wanted to use the Pencil in this fashion since before there was an Apple Pencil. I can’t wait to try this feature. The test will be if I can sit in a comfy chair with an iPad, Apple Pencil, and Siri dictation and be productive.

• The AirPods team continues to crush it.

• I did not see the Mac UI redesign coming at all. My initial reaction is positive, but I’ll need to use it. It is interesting how Apple hardware and software continue to march toward a standard look. Hopefully, they can do that while still leaving the Mac to be a Mac.

• The Apple silicon transition was masterfully handled. They got us excited about the potential of these new chips while also allaying our fears. Also, did you notice they never said the word “ARM”?

There is still a lot more to unpack in the days to come. Overall, I saw a lot more from Apple today than I expected. As I push the “publish” button on this, I’m about to watch the State of the Union presentation and press the “install beta” button on my iPad.

Apple announced today the online WWDC will start on June 22.

One of my big questions revolves around the scope of changes to the Apple operating systems this year. I suspect this will be a year focused more on bug fixes than ambitious new features. I admittedly usually lean too heavily on the side of new features but given the global pandemic and the fact that most likely all of the engineers are working from home while also taking care of their kids and pets and dealing with all of this, I expect this be a Snow Leopard-type year.

Today Apple announced the Worldwide Developer Conference for the first week of June, again returning to San Jose. WWDC is where Apple unveils the latest iterations of its operating systems (and I often fall headfirst down the . That’s going to be interesting this year because so many of us are getting surly about the lack of substantial iPad updates. It is also widely expected that we’ll learn something about the new Mac Pro at the event.

I’m often asked by friends whether or not they should head to San Jose for WWDC. If you are a developer, there is a lot for you from both Apple and AltConf. For everyone else, however, it depends. For the week of WWDC, the business of Apple takes over a portion of downtown San Jose. There are a lot of people there, most of whom I only see at WWDC and yet I work with regularly. I also am legal counsel for several developers, and WWDC is the one time a year I get to spend significant time with those people in person.

Still, WWDC is not Macworld. Macworld was a special place. It was about users, not the business of Apple. I wouldn’t recommend going to WWDC if you are looking for the Macworld experience. The nearest thing we have to Macworld now is MacStock.

I’m in San Jose this week attending some of the WWDC festivities and catching up with many friends in the Apple Community. Tonight I spent some time talking to friends about expectations and hopes for tomorrow’s keynote. 

There is a distinctly different feeling this year. Last year, a lot of people were getting impatient. Particularly those of us that use the iPad to get our work done were feeling like Apple had waited too long to improve the iPad’s functionality. That’s what led to me writing my post about the minimum table stakes the night before the 2017 Keynote presentation. Here I am again, the night before a WWDC Keynote and I am not feeling nearly so surly. Talking to my friends here in San Jose, I get the same impression from most people.

This year Apple has done a better job of keeping things under wraps (except for that slip up about dark mode for the macOS) and most people here in San Jose are eager to just see what goes down tomorrow.

If I had one wish for tomorrow’s keynote it would be that we get to see the results of Apple’s acquisition of the Workflow app. Over a year ago, Apple bought Workflow and while they’ve continued to maintain the app since the acquisition, it seems, from the outside, that the Workflow team is working on some new automation-related tool for the operating system. It sure would be nice if Apple baked automation in so we didn’t have to rely on things like URL schemes and chewing gum to make working between different apps on our iPads and iPhones possible. Anyway, that would be a big thing for me tomorrow but, like most people I’ve met in San Jose, I’m just looking forward to seeing what Apple’s up to.