What to expect at Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference
Apple's 2015 Worldwide Developers Conference kicks off Monday. WWDC will be held in San Francisco from June 8 to 12, hosting developers for a look ahead at what's to come for iPhones, iPads, computers and the Apple Watch.
The company always stays pretty tight lipped before its big events, but here's some of what you can expect to see -- and not see.
Get ready for:
Music streaming
Apple is expected to announce a new music streaming service to take on Spotify. It will capitalize on the company's $3 billion acquisition of Dr. Dre and Jimmy Iovine's Beats Electronics last May and could cause a dramatic shift in the way people use iTunes. Sources have said that Apple will probably encourage users to sign up for a $10-a-month unlimited streaming subscription rather than paying the same amount to download an album.
"You'll be able to go online, pick any album that you want to, listen to the album in its entirety and even download it offline. You won't be buying these albums, you'll just be paying a monthly fee to access them," CNET Editor-at-Large Tim Stevens told "CBS This Morning." Unlike Spotify, Apple is not expected to offer a free ad-supported option, only a subscription model.
Also expected is a revamp of the lackluster iTunes Radio, with stations and shows hosted by big names like Drake, Pharrell Williams and Mr. Beats himself, Dr. Dre.
A new iOS
The dev conference is often a platform for previewing the next version of iOS for iPhones and iPads. The new mobile operating system -- most likely iOS 9 -- isn't expected to include drastic changes, CNET reports, "but instead should refine what Apple has been doing over the past couple of years: making its various devices, including mobile and computers, talk to each other and make everything easier for users."
It could also include updates that support the new Force Touch feature, which lets Apple Watch sense the pressure difference between a tap and a press. The company may also try to match some of the smart predictive capabilities of Android's Now on Tap, revealed at Google's I/O developer conference in May. Siri could see some tweaks.
The next iteration of OS X
Apple did a major overhaul of its computer operating system last year, so experts don't necessarily expect huge things this year. The changes from OS X 10.10 to 10.11 could be incremental rather than evolutionary.
Watch updates
Apple will preview a new developer kit to help app makers create software for the nascent wearable. That will make it easier to make more-powerful "native" apps for the device, which should improve the experience for Apple Watch users, CNET explains. It also should allow developers to take advantage of more of the watch's features.
What not to expect:
Hardware
Fall is when Apple puts out its phones and tablets -- when the leaves drop, so too do iPhones and iPads. And the company went big in March when it launched Apple Watch (coming soon to a store near you) and the new MacBooks. June is all about the backend.
Apple TV
"We were thinking it was going to be coming now, but the talk is that there's still a lot of work to be done with the actual packages of television," said CNET senior editor Scott Stein.
With all the great and affordable Internet TV options out there -- Roku, Sling, Amazon Prime, Netflix and HBO Now to name a few -- offering variously configured bundles of live and recorded content without a cable subscription, Apple will probably have to perfect their package before it's time to soup up a next-gen Apple TV.
"It seems like they may not want to debut the box before those bundles are available," Stein said.
Read more predictions on CNET.com.