WWDC 2020: Everything to Expect From Apple’s Developer Conference

WWDC 2020: Everything to Expect From Apple’s Developer Conference

Apple’s WWDC 2020 will be a little different this year, coinciding with a global pandemic and demonstrations causing further instability across the United States. Instead, it will be streamed digitally from June 22 and is set to unveil some exciting new features. Here’s what we know so far.

What is WWDC?

Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) is a conference held every year showcasing any new software and technologies it has in the works. It gives developers a chance to see what’s coming up but more importantly for consumers, it tells us what new shiny toys we’ll soon get.

The 2020 WWDC will be the first time the event will be exclusively digital due to restrictions in place and general safety concerns caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, that’s affecting the U.S. particularly badly. The conference has been live-streamed online in previous years for those who couldn’t attend but without a physical audience, it will mark a strange departure from what we’ve come to expect.

What to expect from Apple’s WWDC 2020 event

This year’s WWDC is expected to bring some interesting developments in the way of software updates to iOS, iPadOS, tvOS, watchOS and macOS as well as some exciting new hardware.

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It’s expected the conference’s biggest announcement will be Apple’s long-awaited move to its in-house ARM processors for the Mac series. According to a Bloomberg report, Apple might be ready to announce its plans for an ARM-powered Mac lineup, expected to be released in 2021. Rumours have suggested the ARM chips are not only as powerful as the current Intel chips Apple uses but can provide longer-lasting battery power too.

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In other hardware news, the conference may set the stage for a redesigned iMac. According to MacRumours, it’s expected to come with a thinner bezel, closer to the Pro Display XDR‘s nine millimetre frame. Other details are a little bare for now but it’s suggested it will also come with the T2 security chip, an AMD Navi GPU for graphics and potentially, Intel’s “Comet Lake” chips, which were announced last year.

Software is likely to occupy much of the keynote with many anticipating details on the upcoming iOS 14, according to MacRumours. It’s expected to include some Apple Pencil support in the messaging feature, a fitness app with guided workouts, a tagging feature in iMessage, the option to mark messages as unread among plenty more.

It also seems iOS 14 will usable by all iPhones compatible with iOS 13.

Apple Watch users will be pleased to know a new update is expected to be announced too, according to MacRumours. WatchOS 7 is set to offer parental controls, a control centre, new watch face features and Blood Oxygen Tracking, though it’s not known whether the latter feature will be made available in Australia.

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In the past Apple has used WWDC to announce everything from new software to fresh hardware across its massive suite of products. Here’s a reminder of what was announced during the 2019 keynote.

How to watch the WWDC keynote in Australia

If you’d like to tune into the event on June 22, you’ll probably need to be up at a strange time. The keynote event is expected be streamed out of Apple’s headquarters in Cupertino, which is 17 hours behind most of Australia’s east coast cities. The keynote begins at 10am, which means residents of Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne will need to be up from 3am on June 23. For those in Perth, it’ll be a slightly more respectable 1am start.

It will be streamed from Apple’s dedicated live event page but it will also be available on its YouTube channel too.


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