WWDC 2023: Pre-Event Musings and Predictions
The last time I did a pre-WWDC post was in 2021. I’m going to be recycling a good bit of what I had on my wishlist then, because some of it still, unbelievably, hasn’t happened.
Here are the lists of things I’m hoping to see, and then some things I’m expecting to see.
Wish List:
[Recycled from 2019’s list.] Fix the atrocious Apple Music app. Get rid of the useless Browse, For You, and Radio tabs at the bottom, and replace them with Playlists, Artists, and Albums. Work in better sorting. Streamline the search feature.
[Recycled from 2021’s list.] I’m still sick of Apple Music. All of those problems are still there, and they’ve brought some of the issues from the Music app to the Podcasts app. I’ve recently switched to using Overcast as my podcast app, but as an One subscriber, I'm stuck with the shitty Music app.
I didn’t stick with Overcast long for podcasts. I had just switched, and found its playlist system to be terrible. Not long after that, I switched to Castro, and have never looked back. As far as the Music app goes, idek bro. It’s shit and almost everything they do to it makes it worse, so maybe the best we can hope for is that they’ll just leave it alone forever.
[Recycled from 2019’s list.] It is HIGH TIME for some Siri improvements. We have been waiting and watching for years, every year expecting this to be the keynote where Apple rolls out a badass new Siri. They’ve teased us a few times with things like Siri suggestions and other minor voice improvements, but at the end of the day, I don’t give a shit about having Siri tell me hockey scores. I’m talking Iron Man-style, JARVIS-level intelligence. I know that Apple is behind the curve on this as a result of their focus on privacy, but they’ve gotta figure out a way to at least get Siri up to speed with the Google Assistant.
[Recycled from last 2020’s list.] Please. Please, please. Puhleeeaaaazeee. PLEASE. PLEASE make this the year that Siri gets a major boost. I would honestly be completely content, nay, happy, if this were the only change they announce this year. It’s so overdue. Siri was the first voice assistant on the scene, and now she’s in last place for speed, accuracy, and general capabilities. There’s so much potential here to make a truly intelligent voice assistant that would really set the iPhone apart from its competitors.
[Recycled from 2021’s list.] What do you have to do to get a decent virtual assistant around here? My god. As John Gruber has pointed out, if you hired a personal assistant and she was as stupid and contextually unaware as Siri is, you’d fire her within a week.
This is truly an evergreen wishlist item because they apparently just refuse to acknowledge that the Siri sucks ass. It’s going to look a little odd if they don’t announce anything on this front, given the insane advancements in AI over the past 12 months, but fortunately for them, they’ve got something in store big enough to keep that from being a focus anyway.
More privacy stuff, always. More, more, more; gimme, gimme, gimme. Given the state of the digital surveillance industry, I will never not have this on my wishlist.
[Recycled from 2020’s list.] In my opinion, macOS just deserves some bug fixes and attention to detail.
Definitely still the case. It feels like it’s getting messier, and the settings app really is bad.
[Recycled from last 2020’s list.] As I mentioned in my Apple Card review, I would really like for them to expand the capability of the Cash card to function more like a typical checking account.
[Recycled from 2021’s list.] I would really like this. A lot. Give me a nice, black titanium debit card, and then Apple can truly take all my money.
Still want this, a lot.
[Recycled from 2019’s list.] I would really like for them to revamp the Apple Watch UI in a meaningful way, and finally give the side button a distinct, useful role in controlling the device.
[Recycled from 2021’s list.] I think it’s also time for third party watch faces. Apple’s offerings just don’t scratch the itch, anymore.
I’ve about given up hope here and permanently settled for the built in ones. But they’re allegedly really revamping watchOS this year, so we’ll see what happens.
[Recycled from 2021’s list.] I can’t put my finger on what exactly has been wrong with tvOS the past few years, but I think it needs some attention.
Yeah still accurate.
[Recycled from 2021’s list.] I think we’re also getting to the point where it’s safe to say the rollout of Look Around on Apple Maps is way too slow. Only a handful of cities in the US support it. It’s a really useful feature that I think is way better than Google’s street view, but not nearly enough people can benefit from it.
Wow I forgot this feature existed. It’s definitely WAY too slow.
[Recycled from 2021’s list.] AirPlay has been a bit less stable lately. I hope they iron out those kinks.
This is definitely in need of attention. I’m hoping they’ll announce some new, rock solid AirPlay 3 standard and a new interface for controlling HomePods via an iPhone.
Predictions
Apple unveils some sort of virtual/augmented reality headset device (a completely unique and original thought that there have been no rumors about).
[Recycled from 2019’s list. Again.] I predict that Apple will, once again, disappoint me by leaving the Music app practically untouched.
[Recycled from 2021’s list.] I think a lot of the updates we’ll get for macOS are going to be performance improvements and bug fixes. It’s hard to imagine them revamping the UI or introducing a bunch of new features this year. For the name, I’m going to throw my hat in the “macOS Monterey” ring.
When they announced OS X Mavericks, they said they were switching to names of iconic locations in California because they ran out of big cats and needed something else that could get them a decade worth of names. We have now had ten releases under the new naming scheme, so I wonder if they’ll switch to a new approach this year, or maybe just use numbers going forward. The various releases of their different OSes are all on different numbers, so between “iOS 17” and “iPadOS 17” just sounding clunky, the watch going to its tenth OS version, and the Mac having exhausted ten “iconic” California place names”, and the fact that they are most likely introducing a new operating system, maybe they’ll rename ALL their OSes to get them on the same number/system and save people some confusion.
They’re not going to meaningfully fix iPadOS.
I think we could see some more health features for the Apple Watch. The blood oxygen sensor on the Series 6 seems like it could have a few more tricks up its sleeve, and I wouldn’t be shocked if they added something like blood alcohol level measurements through a WatchOS update.
I’m sure we’ll get something in the way of privacy, but I don’t think it will go as far as ATT from last year.
Regarding the headset, it’s really hard for me to believe they’re going with a name as bad as “Apple Reality Pro” or “Apple Reality.” What does that even mean? I hope they’ll call it “Apple View” or something else that doesn’t include the word “reality.” It doesn’t seem likely to me that they launch a new product and haven’t come up with a slick name for it.