Steve Jobs will stride onstage at WWDC tonight to show off iPhone 4.0. The stream of leaks, hints and dozens of massive iPhone OS 4.0 banners slung around San Francisco’s Moscone Center mean that’s a pretty safe bet. But what other surprises could the Apple supremo have in store for us tonight? We’ve put together a guide to the 10 WWDC announcements we could see tonight from the odds on to the odd ones…
iPhone 4.0
As the most leaked Apple product ever, we’ll eat a Magic Mouse whole if we don’t see the new iPhone unveiled tonight. But while it seems like we know lots about iPhone 4.0, most of what we know is actually quite superficial. Sure the first iPhone 4.0 leak seemed to reveal the new looks and there’s been plenty of clues about iChat video calls, a 5MP camera and a super-charged screen but besides features like multitasking which have been trailed in the iPhone OS 4.0 beta, nothing is really certain. We’re still expecting a few iPhone 4.0 surprises tonight.
Likelihood: 100%
Safari 5
Safari 4 was released nearly a year ago (June 8, 2009) and now support documents have slipped out onto the web that suggest the follow up could be arriving today. With WWDC stuffed to the gills with developers, revealing the latest version of its browser with an improved pack of tools for them makes a lot of sense. The update will also apparently bring expanded HTML5 support, a new RSS reader feature to battle Google Reader and the addition of Bing in the search bar. The last feature is the most intriguing. More on that later…
Likelihood: 85%
iPad with iPhone OS 4.0
We’ve been promised iPhone OS 4.0 on the iPad will arrive in the autumn and with iPhone 4.0 getting its dust covers removed tonight, we can also expect to see the new OS put through its paces on an iPad. The tablet is destined to get some love during the keynote if only to allow Steve to go over the iPad sales figures again.
Likelihood: 95%
Free MobileMe
This one seems like a no-brainer if Apple is angling to really take Android down a peg or two. Currently, Android’s free Google apps integration is kicking Cupertino’s arse when it comes to cloud computing. Bringing a free MobileMe to iPhone 4.0 owners would give them much less of an incentive to go with Gmail and seriously increase the number of eyeballs pointed at MobileMe Mail and the ads that Apple could run there.
Likelihood: 60%
iTunes in the cloud
Apple shuttered LaLa last week and rumours of an iTunes Replay cloud service have been rattling around ever since it scooped it up. With Google planning its own cloud music service and services like Spotify growing ever more popular, Apple seriously needs to create a cloudier version of iTunes but it would mean tying up some titanic business deals with the record labels. If anyone can do that, it’s Steve Jobs but we’re just not sure he’ll have managed it yet.
Likelihood: 50%
Solar-powered iPhone
We’ve seen solar-charging handsets already (the Puma Phone comes packing a big old cell on its back) but talk of a solar-powered iPhone has started ramping up again. And unlike the iPad hoax from Jason Calacanis – who claimed the tablet would come packing a solar charger – these whispers are backed up by Apple’s own patents. It recently nabbed one which would stick solar panels underneath the iPhone 4.0 screen and behind the back panel, which might explain those reports of a slightly transparent back for the new iPhone. While we’re not going to bet the farm on seeing an eco-friendly iPhone debut today, we can’t deny we’d love to see it.
Likelihood: 5%
Apple TV reborn
Steve Jobs reiterated his claim that Apple TV is “a hobby” for the firm at the All Things Digital conference last week but with his history of doublespeak and Google TV on the horizon, we’re still hoping that an Apple TV refresh might be revealed today. The rumours claim the new Apple TV would use that iTunes Cloud service we’ve already talked about and pack the iPhone OS.
Likelihood: 25%
Mac Mini update
Talk of supply shortages got us talking up a Mac Mini upgrade last week. It’s popular with the very iPhone app developers who’ll be swarming around WWDC, so we really wouldn’t be surprised to see it slip out during the conference.
Likelihood: 60%
Bing added to iPhone search
Steve Jobs has been gunning for Google but at the All Things Digital Conference he said outright that Google wasn’t about to be booted off the iPhone. However, that doesn’t mean the much heralded arrival of Bing won’t happen. With that talk of adding Bing support to Safari 5, we really wouldn’t be surprised to see Microsoft buy its way into iPhone OS 4.0 too. Steve Jobs’s enemy’s enemy is his friend and Microsoft is no longer the biggest boogeyman for the folks in Cupertino. There’s already evidence that iPhone OS 4.0 Google branding has been wiped away.
Likelihood: 60%
iPhone 4.0 Facebook and Twitter integration
Facebook has had its share woes recently with the Facebook privacy problems getting acres of column inches but Apple needs to improve the iPhone’s social media smarts. Android phones already happily hug Twitter and Facebook close and iPhone OS 4.0 social media references hold evidence that Apple is definitely planning to catch up. Could we see Twitter and Facebook getting the kind of starring role during tonight’s keynote that Google used to?
Likelihood: 75%
Let us know what you think of our predictions. What do you think Steve Jobs has in store for us? Will there be a killer “just one more thing” that nobody has predicted yet?
Due today | £TBC | Apple
