2021 WWDC Leak: What’s Coming Next Week from Apple Says Gurman

Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC), slated to take place virtually between June 7-11 this year, has historically been a more software-focused event.

Despite the speculated announcement of redesigned 14″ and 16″ MacBook Pros during the keynote this year, the event is expected to largely focus on software announcements.

Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman has rounded up all of the most likely updates we’ll get a preview of at the event in one place, and the roster is stacked, according to info from unnamed sources.

Amidst Apple’s ongoing beef with Epic Games and other developers over its 30% cut on all App Store transactions, the iPhone maker plans to announce some major software updates across various product lines, as well as enhancements to privacy protections.

Apple is not expected to announce any changes to its policies on App Store commissions, so the tech giant will have to work hard to justify its 30% cut to developers and convince them the App Store is still the best place for them to market their digital products.

After introducing AppTrackingTransparency to let users control how developers track their activity across apps, Apple is now expected to announce features designed to limit data collection and a new panel that would provide users with in-depth details on all third-party apps and the data they collect.

Apple also intends to bring ‘status’ presets to the iPhone and iPad, designed to determine how your device handles incoming notifications during different activities such as driving, working, sleeping, or when you simply don’t want to be disturbed.

As for the iPad, Apple intends to announce new home screen features, support for widgets, and improvements to the multitasking system along with other enhancements to somewhat ease the software bottleneck the M1-equipped iPad Pro faces when trying to harness the full power of Apple’s revolutionary System on a Chip (SoC).

Apple also intends to introduce changes to iMessage designed to bring the platform more in-line with the competition. Here’s to hoping the changes salve at least some of the user base’s gripes with Apple’s proprietary messaging platform.

A minor update for macOS should also be in the cards, considering major changes took place last year.

Apple Watch is said to gain some health-tracking and interface improvements, says Gurman, while Apple TV’s tvOS will also get some enhancements, as expected.

Sign-ups for the WWDC 2021 Digital Lounge went live earlier this week, and the event’s keynote is all set to kick off Monday, June 7, at 10am PDT/1pm EDT. We’ll have full coverage as always, so stay tuned.

P.S. - Like our news? Support the site with a coffee/beer. Or shop with our Amazon link. We use affiliate links when possible--thank you for supporting independent media.