Today Apple will kick off WWDC 2012, and some rumors will be confirmed, others destroyed, and a new avalanche of rumors and speculation will begin. It’s the same thing every summer, but it will also be different, Steve Jobs will not make an appearance, and he’s no where near to give some people the assurance that at least he was supervising. That’s where some bozos will go and say it’s not the same without him and so on, I don’t give a flying …
Now that I got that out of the way, this is what I think will happen and what will not:
- Mountain Lion and iOS 6. I really had to use my psychic powers to come up with that one.
- Facebook integration. It’s really possible it seems, Tim Cook said they would work with Facebook, and while I don’t expect it to be like Twitter, at least having my login stored and used automatically on all apps that require it, would be a lot easier.
- New Maps. Apple bought various mapping technology companies some time ago, and I know they would love to give Google the boot on anything they can, so this will happen sooner rather than later.
- New Macs. Yes please. It could definitely happen, specially if they are a new slimmer design as many people expect.
- Anything else, I haven’t got a clue. I really hope the rumors about a new color scheme for iOS are true, it sometimes looks a little like fisher price with the blue and the pinstripes.
- A personal wish, some improvements to Notification Center (like the choice to clear all at once), and please Apple, an easier way to turn Wifi and Bluetooth on and off.
What will not happen:
- iPhone. It will happen in the fall, just like last year. Sales of current models are going strong and Apple is not going to announce a new phone to sell later in the year and stop iPhone sales for months. This is Apple, not Samsung or Googorola.
I think I have everything on my list, this will be routine Apple event. Tim Cook will take the stage and talk numbers on Mac and iOS. Phil Schiller will talk about some stuff and be pretty much the MC, and then Scott Forstall will demo iOS new toys. I forget the name of the guy in charge of OS X, but he’ll be there too. I hope for some iLife and iWork update, but time will be limited and I don’t think it will happen.
Anyway, we’ll know soon enough.
