WWDC 2022 Wishlist

WWDC 2022

With WWDC 2022 just around the corner I thought I’d give my wish list of things that I would love to see. This year is almost exclusively online again except for a few lucky developers that get to watch the keynote live at apple park and talk to engineers on site.

iOS 16

As Mark Gurman reported , iOS 16 is said to improve the lock screen with “…wallpapers that have widget like functions.” I’d love to see what excactly that entails. What I am really excited about are improvements to the focus mode. It was my favourite feature last year and code in the latest betas suggests that it is getting some upgrades. Perhaps a closer tie in with screen time could be possible but we shall see.

iPadOS 16

For iPadOS I can see some huge improvements coming. Steve Troughton-Smith discovered that iPad app windows are probably going to get freely resizable. This for me foreshadows some mayor overhauls to the software overall. It is no secret that the iPad hardware is much more capable than what the software is pushing currently. I am still on an iPad pro 2018 and the 2021 upgrade was huge hardware wise. Software wise they are almost identical. I am really excited to see how the iPadOS team is envisioning the tablet software of the future.

watchOS 9

For the longest time I always had ideas on how to improve the Apple Watch software. There was always something missing or too hard to reach in the UX. When the first beta of watchOS 8 hit I had a feeling of completeness for the first time. I could not think of anything software wise to improve the platform until months later. I think that most watch faces need a face lift, especially because of the new series 7 watches that are even bigger than the 4-6. Most watch faces were just scaled up when the series 4 launched and I think now would be a great time to revisit those. Also I don’t understand why the dock still exists on watch. Having recently/favourite apps available in a convoluted overview does not seem user friendly to me. It needs a big upgrade just like the honeycomb app view.

macOS 13

During the pandemic the mac was my most used device. For the next major version I’d like to see minor upgrades. I think the mac is in a good spot now. Especially with all the powerful apple silicon macs being out now. One thing I’d love to see tho is feature parity. I hate being left out on an intel mac. Some high end intel macs are still more powerful than some apple silicon offerings and there is still no 27 inch mac.

tvOS, Homepod

With rumors of the Homepod returning I think that the next version of both the tv and the homepod could include major improvements. The Home app has been getting better and better these past few years but I’d like to see support for more smart home devices and a more powerful automation system.

Hardware

Hardware wise I am not expecting much. However the new colorful MacBook Air’s seem really enticing to me. It remains to be seen how powerful the M2 is in comparison to the M1 and it is still unclear how much performance a fanless design of it a user can expect.

Developer Tools

I am still really excited about SwiftUI and the changes Apple might add to it. Maybe there are also a few Xcode updates coming too. With so many major overhauls coming to iPad I am also expecting an updated version of Swift Playgrounds with even more features.