WWDC23: What to Expect from Apple’s Keynote – iOS 17, Mixed Reality Glasses, and More

Apple’s developer event, WWDC23, will start next week on Monday, whose opening Keynote is filled with software and hardware news from Apple every year. And there will be plenty of them this year as well, from a new version of the iOS system, through glasses for mixed reality to new MacBooks. But what news can we look forward to specifically?

From a mobile perspective, we will be particularly interested in the new version of the operating system iOS 17. Although it will only arrive in iPhones with the new fall iPhone 15 series, Apple will formally introduce this system next week and “brag” about its biggest innovations. And this is so that developers can already work with the new version of iOS and prepare applications that will be intended for the future version of the iOS system.

The invitation to WWDC23, which is posted on the Czech Apple website

This time there should also be a big reveal of something that Apple has been fighting against for a long time. Because of the DMA (Digital Markets Act) rules in the EU, Apple has to implement certain changes by March next year, and the first of them should be announced at this year’s WWDC. By this we mean in particular the opening of the iOS platform to alternative stores that will be available for both iPhones and iPads.

Apple has two options for presenting these changes. Either he portrays them from his point of view as big changes which “long planned”, and there is no mention of DMA. And Apple will not want to “cover up” the whole matter. Even so, we will learn all the details, because developers of apps and games for the App Store must be prepared for this change. And most of the lectures at the WWDC event are devoted to them. So we will be interested to see which of the paths Apple chooses in the end…

Gradual opening of the iOS platform

In addition, there is the never-ending topic of sideloading, when according to EU regulations, Apple should allow the installation of applications, not only from other stores, but also manually downloaded installers from the Internet. Apple has long defended against these practices, which are quite common with Android. It flaunts the security of its mobile platform, but it seems that with iOS 17, Apple will have to, willy-nilly, succumb to the rules and add all the necessary changes to the system.

And want more evidence of the gradual “opening up” of iOS? Apple is set to announce at WWDC that third-party web browsers will finally be able to use their own engines. Currently, all of them must use the native Apple WebKit, which practically hides all differences between browsers. The EU also does not like the fact that Apple limits the use of NFC in its devices only to the Apple Wallet and Apple Pay applications, and thus deliberately eliminated any competition from the game.

With iOS 17, the iPhone learns your speech in 15 minutes, which it then uses for realistic voice synthesis of written text

However, what Europe demands from Apple will definitely not automatically reach other regions. Apple uses a system marked „countryd“which is designed to enable or disable iOS device features based on the user’s geographic location.

And then we have other news that Apple announced ahead of time, such as the fact that the iPhone will learn your speech within fifteen minutes, and then convey it to others in the form of a believable voice synthesis. In certain cases, the lock screen should replace the smart display mode and display the nearest events from the calendar, weather and or notifications. After all, similar to the “At a Glance” mode in Pixels.

Tim Cook’s first big product

Mixed reality glasses are supposed to be Tim Cook’s first big or completely new product. It is supposed to be a new product family that will be started by the device Reality Pro. The glasses are said to have been in development for seven years, and according to earlier speculations they should have been announced as early as last year. But, after a lot of delays and last-minute changes, we won’t see the glasses that support virtual and augmented reality until next week.

Reality Pro glasses are meant to resemble ski goggles. They will be connected to the battery by a longer cable to reduce the weight of the glasses as much as possible

Reality Pro is supposed to resemble ski goggles that will be powered by an external battery via a cable. Users put the battery in their backpack or even in their pocket. Each eye should have a 1.41″ Micro OLED display with a fineness of 4,000 ppi and a maximum brightness of 5,000 nits. It will be possible to switch between augmented and virtual reality with one button. The glasses will run a new system, which should be called xrOS, realityOS or xrProOs.

This is probably one of the most complex products of the Apple brand, for which the manufacturer gets paid adequately. According to the latest information, the glasses should cost around 3,000 dollars, which is roughly 80,000 crowns including tax. Developers should have access to the glasses as early as June, but commercial sales should not start until the fall or even winter. And such a gap from the premiere of the product to the start of sales is certainly not customary at Apple.

Other news announced at WWDC23 should include a new line of MacBooks (13″ Pro and 15″ Air), including the Mac Studio M2. Apple certainly does not avoid the trend of the topic of artificial intelligence and its use in operating systems and applications from Apple.

What won’t we see?

It’s definitely early days for the new iPhone 15, Apple doesn’t introduce its smartphones until September, and it should be the same this year as well. Likewise, according to all sources, new tablets or a new generation of smart watches are also out of the game. At the WWDC23 developer conference, Apple will prioritize other products. The opening Keynote starts on June 5 at 19:00 our time.

Watch the live broadcast of the opening Keynote at WWDC 2023 here:

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