Apple held its WWDC event on Monday, revealing updates for every one of its platforms.
As well as new versions of the operating systems for its iPhone, iPad, Macs, Apple Watch and TVs, the company also revealed major new changes including the introduction of entirely new chips for its Macs.
It is the 31st time that Apple has held the event. But it is the first ever time that it has been entirely virtual, conducted only through the internet.
You can watch a replay of the live stream above and read The Independent's full coverage below.
Welcome to The Independent's live coverage of WWDC 2020. Everything kicks off at 10am local pacific time, or 6pm in the UK. (Ie, in about eight-and-a-half hours.)
Here's some instructions for watching along at home (including a link to YouTube where you can set yourself up with a reminder).
Apple is about to hold one of its biggest events of the year
Apple is about to host its Worldwide Developers Conference, its biggest software event of the year. It will bring updates to every one of its platforms, as well as potentially seeing the announcement of major changes to Apple's Macs and other products. Will I be able to watch live? Yes – using just about whatever platform you like. Apple will be streaming it on on its websiteThere are a whole lot of last-minute rumours coming out today – none of them especially definitive or significant.
They include a poster on Weibo claiming that the new version of MacOS will be called Big Sur, undergo a big UI redesign, and a new version of Safari. The same post claims that there'll be smaller changes in iOS 14, which will include widgets on the home screen and – finally – a phone call notification that doesn't take over the whole screen.
A number of late rumours have also suggested there'll be no hardware revealed. But it's not clear whether that means there will be none released, or none mentioned – it could still be that Apple announces that it has ARM Macs on their way, but that they're not actually released or launch during this event. (Rumours from reliable leaker Ming-Chi Kuo suggested new computers would come later this year.)
But generally there have been few last-minute leaks coming out of Apple today. Is that because the crackdown on leaks has worked? Is it because Apple isn't holding a physical event, so there's less chance of anyone getting a glimpse of any products? Or is it simply because there's not all that much to reveal? We'll find out later, maybe.
Apple has applied for the "Rosetta" trademark in Japan, Macrumors notes. That's interesting because Rosetta was the software that Apple used to allow users and developers move from PowerPC to Intel processors – which was the last time Apple did anything like the rumoured ARM transition that could be announced today.
Apple commentator John Gruber has had a guess at what the keynote could actually look like today, without the normal keynote and stage setup.
The virtual format means Apple can get away with pre-recording the event if it so wishes. This may take away some of the excitement that comes with a live event, but it would minimise the risk of demonstrations going awry – something Apple is no stranger to, as this 11-minute blooper compilation demonstrates.
Still over three hours to go but Tim Cook is ready.
Cook's Memoji has come a long way in the two years since Apple first launched the feature. Weirdly his eyes have changed colour since the 2018 version.
I'm now hoping the whole event is presented through Memojis.
Whatever format the virtual event comes in, one thing for sure is that it will be entirely online. When Apple announced this in March, it also pledged to donate money to local businesses that would lose out as a result.
The tech giant said it will "commit $1 million to local San Jose organisations to offset associated revenue loss as a result of WWDC 2020’s new online format."
With just over two hours to go, Twitter user Qamar Javed (@QamarJvd7) has put together this handy list showing start times for WWDC around the world.
·Various clips of old WWDC events are doing the rounds online. This one of Steve Jobs from 1997 had me wondering: when did Apple stop taking questions from the audience at these events? It'd be great if they brought that back.
Apple has released the schedule for WWDC, which runs from today until 26 June. The full list of events and sessions can be found here.
Not much detail is given about today's keynote. The description simply states: "Discover exciting new innovations and updates coming to all Apple platforms later this year."
Apple’s senior vice president of Software Engineering Craig Federighi didn't have much more to say in March when Apple announced this year's WWDC.
He said: “With all of the new products and technologies we’ve been working on, WWDC 2020 is going to be big. I look forward to our developers getting their hands on the new code and interacting in entirely new ways with the Apple engineers building the technologies and frameworks that will shape the future across all Apple platforms.”
Keynote bingo anyone? (courtesy of student developer Dylan Mcdonald @DylanMcD8)
And here's another version of WWDC bingo put together by @patrickhmason and @davidmoss.
It includes "Smiling children in an emerging market play with an iPad" and "Male presenters undo yet another shirt button" (Craig Federighi?).
My bet for WWDC bingo is that Tim Cook will mention this fact within the first five minutes:
Apple’s App Store ecosystem facilitated over half a trillion dollars in commerce in 2019.
Less than 30 minutes to go now. You'll be able to watch the live stream on this page, just above the live blog feed. If it's not showing for you, hit refresh and it should appear.
There's no way to know how long today's keynote will go on for, but if it's anything like last year's, you might want to get comfy. WWDC 2019 lasted more than two and a quarter hours.
Apple designer Pavan Rajam has shared what he'll be drinking. If you hurry, you still have time to make one before we get underway.
Please allow a moment for the live blog to load.
