WWDC25 Bingo
It’s prediction time: bold bets, bad guesses, and maybe even some reality. For the fifth year in a row, the WWDC25 Bingo Board is back!
WWDC25 is finally upon us, and it's time to see what Tim's been cooking inside Apple Park. What will the next version of macOS be called? Will iOS get a redesign? Will Apple finally give iOS a clipboard manager? And How will Apple pull its Siri/Apple Intelligence efforts out of their nosedive? We all have our wishlist of what we hope to see at WWDC, and today, I am presenting my 5th Annual WWDC Bingo Board of my hopes, prognostications, and stagecraft predictions at this year's event!
Note: The board was assembled in pics made from late May and locked in on June 5, just saying that in case, I dunno, somebody were to come along and drop a whole bunch of spoilers two days out from the event, making this board look instantly outdated.
Bingo 101
Winning in Bingo means completing a specific pattern on your card, in this case, a row, column, diagonal, or the entire card. The "Good Morning Free Space" in the centre is already marked and can be part of any winning pattern.
Board
Picks Explained
No Apple HomeHub/homeOS Preview
Rumours have swirled for years about Apple entering a new device category with a HomePod/iPad hybrid device resembling an Echo Show or Google Home Hub. I would jump at something like that since I currently use an aging iPad for that very purpose and find it incredibly useful. However, Apple appears to have delayed the launch of such a product, and it's now looking like it will be delayed further. According to Gurman, the device will feature a 7-inch display with a built-in battery, camera, new homeOS with widgets, apps like FaceTime, Apple Intelligence (groan), and an easy way to control your smart devices. However, I don't expect Apple to announce or preview anything like that at WWDC.
macOS Tahoe
Apple teased OS X Weed during their keynote introducing OS X Mavericks. Image Source: Apple
Many of us like to speculate about what Apple's Crack Marketing Team will name the next version of macOS, which, for the past 12 years, has been named after locations across California. Apple still has 14 trademarked names (from California to Farallon, Mammoth to Tiburon; unfortunately, macOS Rancho Cucamonga is not amongst them) as candidates for this year's release. Macrumors have pointed out that Apple teased Tiburon in some of their screenshots, but I was between MacOS Redwood and MacOS Mammoth. Redwood made sense because it's thematically adjacent to Sequoia, and I liked Mammoth because this year feels like a pretty… well… mammoth OS update.
However, in a last minute pivot, I am putting my faith in Gurman who seems to quite confidently report that the next macOS version will be named Tahoe. So we're going with that.
A Memeable Federighi Moment
Apple's parkour-loving, 3-headed guitar-playing, skydiving madman is sure to surprise in another memeable... I mean...memorable WWDC performance.
Event Runtime: Under 105 minutes
WWDC25 will be the sixth year of Apple's polished pre-recorded keynotes, replacing the old live format. These video events have clocked in anywhere from 107 minutes to just over two hours. My guess? We'll continue to remain under the 105-minute mark.
WWDC24: 104 minutes
WWDC23: 126 minutes
WWDC22: 109 minutes
WWDC21: 107 minutes
WWDC20: 109 minutes
Alan Dye Makes an Appearance
With rumours that Apple is expected to make some of its most significant UI changes across its operating systems, part of the event will likely feature an appearance from Apple's VP of Human Interface Design, who will share his perspective on the design changes expected across the platforms. We last saw Alan Dye breaking down the Vision Pro interface and, before that, introducing the Dynamic Island and the macOS Big Sur refresh.
Apple Announces More AI Integrations
While Apple sorts out whatever curfuffle is happening with Apple Intelligence, I expect them to announce partnerships to integrate more AI models into their platforms. Last year, Apple announced integration with OpenAI's ChatGPT, and this year, we could see more players join the mix, potentially including Anthropic's Claude, Perplexity AI, Google Gemini, DeepSeek, and others.
Photos.app Gets Some Pixelmator Enhancements
I hope Apple showcases some enhancements to the Photos.app that hint at features it got in acquiring Pixelmator and Photomator. Aperture 4.0 will never happen, but a few more pro-level editing tools baked into Photos would be a welcome step forward. And pop the champagne if Apple announces keeping Pixelmator Pro alive as a new cross-platform Apple app!
Image Playground Gets Updated
This prediction is about Apple unveiling an update to its Image Playground application that enhances image quality and styles so that we can finally begin to heal after seeing the haunting sketches it produced in version 1.0.
iOS & macOS Get "Glassy" UI Redesign
Throughout the past two decades of iOS, we've gone from pinstripes to Corinthian leather to Helvetica Neue Ultralight. This year, rumours are anticipating a stark new design language that leans heavily into what we see in visionOS, a frosted/glassy UI across the Mac, iPad, and iPhone. Mark Gurman believes it'll be "the biggest redesign to iOS since iOS 7." Lets just hope Apple doesn't go too overboard with the Windows Vista Vibes.
More Native Apps Come to visionOS 3
I was disappointed last year when visionOS 2.0 didn't bring more native Apple apps. Reminders, Calendar, Maps, Books, and others are direct iPad Ports, and truthfully, iPad Ports on visionOS pale in usability compared to native apps. Fingers crossed we see more Apple Apps get the native treatment in visionOS 3.0
Apple Overhauls OS Naming to '26'
We're currently living in the era of watchOS 11, visionOS 2, iOS 18, iPadOS 18, macOS 15, & tvOS 18. Four different version numbers across six different platforms. But what if Apple streamlined it all? A new rumour, just ahead of WWDC, suggests Apple will announce an across-the-board standardization of its OS naming by switching to a year-based system. Although it'll be the butt of many jokes (Apple skipping 24 versions of visionOS and jumping straight to visionOS 26), I think it'll quickly be adopted and seen as a much cleaner, less confusing branding across the entire suite of Apple's operating systems.
iPadOS Becomes More "Mac-Like"
Back in April, Mark Gurman put out a quote that iPadOS 19 will focus on the iPad "operating more like a Mac" with an upgraded focus on "productivity, multitasking and app window management." What that means exactly remains to be seen, but productivity on the iPad has always been a slower, more cumbersome experience than on the Mac. Let's see if this is the WWDC that finally wins over the folks who have longed for a more desktop-like productivity experience on the iPad.
AirPods Get Live Translation
One feature I'd love to see announced at WWDC is an upgrade to the translate app that allows AirPods to produce live translations of multilingual conversations. This functionality would enable AirPods users to hear translations directly through their earbuds during in-person conversations, while their iPhone will vocalize their responses in the other person's language.
iOS/iPadOS Gets a Native Clip Manager
For an iPad that costs over $2,000, it's frustrating that I still can't manage my clipboard history. If Apple is serious about bridging the gap between iPad and Mac, offering a native clipboard manager, or at least allowing third-party ones, should be a no-brainer.
Health-Focused Apple Intelligence Features Announced
One area I am hoping Apple will begin to expand into is health recommendations powered by Apple Intelligence. Apple products & the Health app collect a fair bit of information, and I wonder if Apple now begins to introduce recommendations based on that data. Internally referred to as "Mulberry," Apple is reportedly working with medical professionals to develop an AI health coach capable of offering personalized recommendations. While the full rollout is planned for 2026, I suspect we'll get an early preview of some AI-powered health features in iOS 19.
For instance, you might say, “Help me get back into a better sleep routine,” and the Health app could respond by suggesting a consistent bedtime, adjusting phone settings, or setting reminders to support that goal. Or, if it notices a drop in your activity, like fewer steps in a week, it could recommend times outside of work to go for a walk or even suggest picking up the pace.
Apple Actually Previews Some Agentic Apple Intelligence
After Apple delayed the rollout of its agentic AI features from iOS 18 and pushed them to "sometime in the coming year," I expect we'll see Apple come to WWDC with a demo and select preview of some of these features. Agentic AI, for those not in the know (i.e., me until I wrote this) is basically the OS being able to do things on your behalf. You could say something like "scan my inbox, flag the most important emails, and clear the rest," with the confidence that the system will follow through reliably. Given the media blowback from the original delay, I suspect Apple will focus on showcasing features that are highly specific, polished, and ready to ship with minimal hiccups.
visionOS Gains Support for VR Controllers
One of the things holding the Vision Pro back (there are many, but stick with me) is an absence of VR titles. And hurting that cause is that visionOS currently doesn't have or support third-party VR controllers. Based on some previous rumours, visionOS may finally gain support for third-party controllers, including reports that Apple approached Sony earlier in the year on a potential collaboration. Support like this may not lead to visionOS flying off the shelves, but it could bring some better titles to the platform and inch it towards becoming a more compelling device.
Vision Pro gets Eye-Tracked Scrolling
Gurman also reports that visionOS 3.0 will feature the ability to scroll using your gaze. For example, it could work that gazing at the bottom of a page begins to cause the page to start to scroll up. I'm not totally sure how natural that'll feel in practice, but I'm hopeful Apple will make it feel right.
Apple Reveals an Overhaul to Gaming
According to MacRumors, Apple is expected to announce a significant overhaul of its gaming ecosystem at WWDC25, focused around a new cross-platform gaming app. This app is designed to replace Game Center and will serve as a unified hub for launching games, tracking achievements, viewing leaderboards, etc. Bonus points if we see another AAA game developer cut away to talk about how great gaming on Apple’s platforms will be.
Next macOS Continues to Support Intel Macs
Although I suspect some features will be dropped, I predict that Apple will continue to support some of the Intel Macs released before the silicon transition. That would make this the 6th release since the transition that has maintained support for the old x86 processor set.
No Mac Hardware Announced
WWDC is often unpredictable when it comes to Mac hardware announcements. While 2024 saw no new Macs, both 2022 and 2023 delivered major releases: the M2 MacBook Air and 13-inch Pro in 2022, and the 15-inch MacBook Air, updated Mac Studio, and Apple Silicon Mac Pro in 2023. I’d love to be surprised with something like an M4 Extreme Mac Pro, but realistically, I’m not expecting any new Macs to be announced or previewed at this event.
tvOS Receives a Significant Redesign
Overall, I'm hoping that, along with any visual enhancements that come to tvOS, we also get improvements in navigation, content discovery, and app usage.
A Secret Location is Accessed via Whimsical Transition
In addition to the expected drone footage around Apple Park, at some point, we'll transition from one place to the next via some fancy corridor, escape hatch, portal, or secret underground tunnel accessed via the fountain inside the courtyard of Apple Park.
Apple Park Immersive Environment for Vision Pro
OK, here's my dark horse pick: the next version of VisionOS will include Apple Park as an immersive environment. Users will be placed directly in the central courtyard, near the Apple stage, and will be able to enjoy a 360-degree panorama of the Apple Park campus surrounding them.
BONUS: APPLE INCREASES BASE ICLOUD STORAGE FROM 5GB.
If Apple announces an increase to its base 5GB iCloud storage (even if that change comes in the form of 5GB per device), then an instant BINGO is declared.
