My WWDC 2023 Wishlist

Apple has been on a yearly release cycle for their operating systems since 2011 when they released Mac OS X 10.7 Lion and iOS 5. It was not confirmed until the following year. Each year there is a bunch of new features in each of the platforms. A few years ago I would do a prediction post, in hopes of being able to figure out what Apple might end up announcing. However, over the last couple of years I have changed this to be a wish list. I mad this change because Apple is a secretive company and it is easier to come up with a list of what I would like to see instead of trying to guess what Apple might do. With that, let us look at what I would like to see from Apple, starting with the Home App.

Home App

HomeKit was introduced within iOS 8 in 2014, and HomeKit is the framework that powers all of the actions that occur within Apple’s Home app, as well as with third-party apps. When HomeKit was introduced it was originally only available through third-party apps. And it was not until 2016 with the release of iOS 10 when the Home app was made available. Over the years HomeKit, and the Home app, have both seen significant improvements, including a completely redesign for the Home app with iOS 16/iPadOS, and macOS Ventura.

There is one change that I would like to see, and that is the ability to remove devices that have a status of "Not Responding" for a length of time. As an example, I have a message within the Home app that says:

"LIVING ROOM (2) Cannot connect to Living Room (2). Make sure it is powered on and connected to the Internet."

I do not have any devices named that, there is no item in my iCloud account named that and there is no way to remove the device at all. I think the Home app should have the ability to remove devices from within the app, without needing to go to iCloud. Removing a device from the Home app could possibly also remove it from an iCloud account at the same time. One possible down side is that this could end up being used maliciously. Malicious intent could be somewhat thwarted by requiring the owner of the iCloud account to to confirm that they want to remove it before it is actually removed through the Home app.

The second thing I would like to see is the ability to not allow speciic devices to be considered "Home Hubs" within the Home app. There are some devices, like an original Apple TV HD, that I would NEVER want to be a Home Hub, but due to not being able to limit home hubs, it is possible that it could become one, which could slow down responses with Siri. I know I mentioned this on my wish list last year, and it remains there because it is still not possible.

Both of these would be nice additions to HomeKit and the Home app.

HomePod

The HomePod is a great device for being able to interact with Siri, listen to music, and even use a single HomePod, or a pair of HomePods, as the default output on a TV that has an Apple TV connected. There is one HomePod specific feature that I would like to see. All HomePods use "private" addresses, meaning that when they are connected to a network they randomize the Machine Access Code (MAC) address that is used to uniquely identify the HomePod. This address can change at any time. When it does change, it requests a new IP address from your router and for most people this is not a problem. However, it can become problematic in some situations.

I would like to see an option, even if it is under an "Advanced Settings" section where this could be disabled on a HomePod, or even a setting within the Home app that disables it entirely for all devices. I do not expect Apple to provide this, but it would be a nice feature to have and I would not have to see the IP address pool on my router be depleted because the HomePod decides to change its MAC address.

One of the tasks that you can do with a HomePod is make requests of Apple’s voice assistant Siri, and I have some wish list items for that.

Siri

In the last six months there has been much talk about Large Language Models (LLMs) like ChatGPT. While Apple is undoubtedly looking at seeing how they could improve Siri with a large language model, that is not what I am concerned about. Instead, my wish list item for Siri is when it is triggered.

Right now, there is an algorithm that makes a determination as to which devices should respond to a "Hey Siri" request. In theory this should be a HomePod most of the time, and other devices after that. However, I think this needs to be tweaked. If I have a pair of headphones on, and playing audio, and I say "Hey Siri", no other devices should respond, except for the one that my headphones are connected to.

The only exception to this would be if the headphones are in an orientation where they are laying on a surface and not actually on, or in, one’s ears. At that point, any device can respond. My experience is that the HomePod will ALWAYS respond, even if I want to skip to the next track on my headphones. This is rather annoying for those times when I cannot manually move to the next track because my hands are full.

It is situations like this that make me decide to not use Siri for requests because I cannot rely on it choosing I am currently using, like skipping a song, having just any device respond makes Siri effectively useless for voice requests.

iPadOS

Over the last few years Apple has position iPadOS as their own operating system by providing it with features that are exclusive to the iPad. This approach makes sense because some features are only possible on a larger screen. The most recent of these is Stage Manager, which is only available on larger iPads and the Mac. The iPad is not nearly as popular as the iPhone and when it comes to which platform receives feature first, iOS and the iPhone will always get new features first.

Last year with the release of iOS 16 Apple introduced widgets on the Lock Screen on the iPhone. I hope that these come to the iPad and include even larger widget options that would feel at home on the iPad, similar to the larger widgets that are available on the Home Screen. Alternatively, even just allowing more of them would be great. Along with Lock Screen widgets, I would also hope that there can be multiple lock screens that can be tied to a particular focus, just like on the iPhone. I suspect that we will get this year, but you never know because if it is not ready, then Apple will not release it.

Apple Watch

The Apple Watch is a unique device as it initially wanted to be a replacement for your iPhone, but that is not what users have determined they want from the device. Now, the Apple Watch is primarily positioned as a health tracking and notification device. One of the health features that the Apple Watch can provide is a notification for when you have not performed your one minute of standing for the current hour. There are two things related to this that I would like to see.

The first is RELIABLE notifications when you have not stood. This seems to be hit or miss for me. Sometimes it will notify me, other times it will not. It is not reliable and therefore I end up not getting credit for my standing hour because it did not notify me. Obviously, if an Apple Watch is locked or not on your wrist, you will not notice the notification, but this happens to me when the Apple Watch is unlocked, charged, and on my wrist. So this needs to corrected. One other option is to have a simultaneous notification go to the paired iPhone, so someone would possibly be able to see this notification if they do not get the Apple Watch notification. However, I still think the reliability of notifications needs to happen.

The second thing that would be nice would be the ability to change when the notification occurs. Instead of being at 10 minutes to the hour, having the ability to set it to 15 minutes to the hour would be a nice feature to have. I doubt we will see anything like this.

iPhone

If you were to see me anywhere, it is not likely that you will see me more than 10 feet away from my iPhone at any point throughout the day. I use my iPhone for just about everything from playing games (although some are better on the iPad), sending messages via Messages, and listening to audio of some sort. Sometimes I have to take phone calls and when I do if there is audio that was playing before, particularly music, one of two things will happen.

Either the music will not continue after the phone call has ended, which is a small annoyance. The second thing that might happen is that the volume on the audio will shoot up to 100% where it ends up hurting my ears. Furthermore, the volume cannot be adjusted until after I disconnect my headphones and reconnect them.

There is no rhyme or reason why this happens, sometimes it is fine, other times it is not. Sometimes this happens when connected to my AirPods, other times it is with my Beats Solo Pros. Regardless of which device, it is very painful when the volume goes to 100% and not being able to change it is clearly a bug. This is the type of bug that Apple should always make sure never occurs.

Music

Music is a very personal thing to just about everybody who listens to music. This is because tastes in music can vary wildly between two people. Originally introduced on June 30th, 2015 the Apple Music subscription service has added new features like personalized playlists, radio stations, Lossless music, and even Spatial Audio. It is this last one where I would like to see a particular change.

Right now you have an option for being able to download tracks using Spatial Audio, if they are available. Right now this is an all or nothing setting. What I would like to see is the ability to keep the option of defaulting to downloading in Dolby Atmos, but also have the ability to download an individual song, or even an album, in the standard stereo mix.

The reason I would like this is because some songs are just not good versions with Dolby Atmos. Dolby Atmos can make the vocals on some songs seem muddled and make the entire song unlistenable. In these instances, I would still like to listen to the song, but I cannot enjoy it because of the terrible quality. This could be an option on an already downloaded song that would be something like "Re-download Stereo Version" or something similar. What would be even better would be to make sure that this information is stored somewhere in iCloud so if a song is downloaded on another device, for the same user, that information is remembered.

Possible macOS Names

The last item to cover is possible names for macOS. Each of Apple’s macOS releases has a code name. From 2001 to 2013 the code names were "Big Cats". With the introduction of Mac OS X 10.9, the code names were changed to California place names. Last year’s release of macOS Ventura was the demarcation point where there have been more California place names than Big Cats. So, here are my thoughts on what the next version of macOS could be called:

• Joshua Tree
• Golden Gate
• Rancho Cucamonga
• Napa
• Laguna
• Sequoia
• Calistoga
• Mammoth - Only if it is a monumental release
• Redwood

I actually think this year’s release might be called "Redwood", but that is strictly a gut feeling. I have only been correct once before, so I am not holding out hope for getting the name correct.

Closing Thoughts

While I have covered the items that I hope to see, I do not expect Apple to announce any of the things on my wish list, except for the Widgets on the Lock Screen of the iPad. If they do not announce the Lock Screen widgets for iPadOS 17 this year, it will likely be coming in iPadOS 18, unless they are opting to not do them for iPadOS at all.

Rumors are that this year’s World Wide Developer Conference is shaping up to be a monumental one with the possible announcement of a new product category. The WWDC keynote begins at 10 a.m. Pacific time, 12 p.m. Central time on Monday, June 5th, 2023. I will have a recap of the announcement sometime after the keynote has finished.