Apple will hold its annual Worldwide Developer's Conference next week, and anticipation is building up on what one of the world's most profitable companies will announce for the rest of the year.
According to David Pierce of Wired, Apple's developer conference is scheduled to begin on Monday in San Francisco. While no new iPhones, iPads, Watches or MacBooks are expected to be introduced, Pierce contended that this event "is when Apple shows us everything new you can do with those devices."
"The announcements at WWDC matter if you own an Apple product, because you'll see some or all of the new things soon," Pierce wrote. "And they matter if you don't, because no company changes the shape and course of the industry quite like The Big Fruit."
Pierce predicted that a new version of iOS would be announced at WWDC. He looked at the possible features Apple could incorporate into iOS 9, which is expected to be released this fall.
"It will borrow from the Watch in a few places, too: The font Apple built for the Watch, called San Francisco, is apparently being incorporated across iOS now," Pierce wrote. "Force Touch, that press-harder gesture that shows hidden info on the Watch and the newest MacBooks, could be supported ahead of new iPhones and iPads in the fall."
Pierce added that the focus would largely turn to "supporting older devices" and "making the whole thing better." He noted that iOS 9 would have brand new features beyond "a bunch of siloed apps."
"The key new feature of iOS 9 is apparently called Proactive, and could be Apple's answer to Google Now," Pierce wrote. "It will reportedly integrate your calendar, email, apps and more to offer contextual information. It'll apparently replace the Spotlight menu, and could become a sort of second homescreen on iOS."
According to Pierce, little things will be added to iOS 9 to make it "feel smarter, simpler, and more powerful."
"There's a rewards system coming for Apple Pay; Maps should finally, finally include transit directions; the iPad will get a split-screen view, where you can run two things at once; there will be lots of bug fixes," Pierce wrote. "Thankfully, updates won't be so big you have to delete all your photos just to install them."
Pierce then elaborated on Apple's new Mac operating system, which could be called OS X 10.11 during WWDC. Major changes have been made within Apple's new OS.
"The new OS is likely to include the same Maps improvements as iOS, and may also use the San Francisco font," Pierce wrote. "According to one rumor that you should really hope is true, it'll also come with an iOS-like Control Center, with easy controls for Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, volume, and the like."
However, Pierce did not expect Apple to combine iOS and OS X into "The One True Operating System." He then turned his focus on what the company plans to do within the music industry.
"It's going to be a combination of on-demand streaming music, and streaming radio, for $10 a month," Pierce wrote. "The on-demand part should mix streaming music with your local library, finally consolidating all your music in one place."
Pierce cautioned that Apple's new service would become available once the company completes "negotiations with record labels."
According to Pierce, any announcement about the release of Apple TV will probably not make an appearance at WWDC this year due to the difficulty of making streaming deals. However, the company is still working on it.
"Apple is building a new version of its set-top box that has more apps, Siri integration, and a subscription service for streaming live TV," Pierce wrote. "There's even a new remote in the works."
Pierce added that the Apple Watch could get its first real software update soon.
"We're hearing there's a Find My Watch feature coming, along with some updates to the security of the device itself," Pierce wrote. "Apple may be working to add back some of the fitness features it had to drop at the last minute, and is almost certainly going to give developers tools to build apps that run natively on your watch and don't need your phone to work."
Apple's WWDC will stream from its website at 10 a.m. PT on June 8. According to David Price of Macworld, the event will only be visible on Apple devices running Safari. However, PC and Android users can stream the event by downloading and installing VLC player software.
"Go to Media > Open Network Stream and paste in the URL," Price wrote in explaining how to stream WWDC through VLC player. "Finally, press Play."