Daring Fireball's John Gruber Talks Last-Minute WWDC 2011 Expectations
June 6, 2011
One the eve of Apple's big WWDC kickoff, many tech writers are posting their final predictions and estimations, hoping to get a couple things right for some nice "I told you so" articles come the aftermath. (Heck, if I had a clue as to what might really go down, I'd be sharing my ideas with you right now, too!)
Instead, though, I find myself more or less in agreement with the esteemed John Gruber. In his latest Daring Fireball entry, the industry guru(ber?) says,
If I were to publish everything I know regarding tomorrow’s announcements, it would be a short and decidedly unsensational article. What I know are a handful of minor features at the edges. ...iCloud’s expected music storage has of course leaked, but that’s almost certainly the inevitable result of Apple’s dealings with the music labels. Music storage is a feature of iCloud; iCloud is not a music service.Aside from that, Gruber's got no idea, and for good reason: He claims the details "have been as well-kept secrets as any major projects from Apple in recent years." He does, however, make specific mention of iCloud's potential to replace or make obsolete Apple's MobileMe service and the enhancements it could bring to Apple TV as a video-streamer for paid movies and the like. As for his wish list on the iOS front (beyond the expected notification tweaks), Gruber is looking forward to fast app-switching (a la this pre-release iOS 4 build), portrait mode "split views" (replacing Mail's pop-over menu, for instance), and a reworked solution for app organization that improves upon iOS' folder experience. Those changes, along with what I've posted already, will go a long way towards totally redefining the already great iOS platform. Tomorrow can't come fast enough!
