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.

It is now early June and Apple's World Wide Developer Conference is on Monday. Typically, I would do a predictions, but given that WWDC is primarily about software, and it is anybody's guess as to what Apple will announce. So, because of that instead of predictions, I will provide my wish list for what I would like to see from iOS 16, iPadOS 16, macOS 13, tvOS 16, and watchOS 9.

Widgets

Widgets were introduced in iOS 14 for the iPhone, and widgets were added to iPadOS with iOS 15, including an extra large Widget type. It would be nice to see Widgets come to the desktop of macOS.

Along with being available on macOS, I also think it would be great if there could be a tad bit of interactivity, not the pseudo-interactivity that Widgets have now. It may only be through standard controls, like Button, and Picker, but even that would be a significant improvement

macOS

macOS is a mature operating system and it is not easy to think what additional features macOS could have added to it. But there is one, Widgets on the desktop of macOS, which is covered above.

As for the name for macOS 13 that is a bit more difficult. There are five possible names,

• Laguna
• Sequoia
• Calistoga
• Mammoth - Only if it is a monumental release
• Redwood

A second feature, which would be nice would be a completely redesigned System preferences screen. Possibly with new an entirely new preference pane style, or at bare minimum, a resizable window.

iPadOS

The iPad in its current state is living a double-life, one of hardware and another of software. First, the hardware is fantastic. The entire iPad line of products, from the smallest, the 8.3-inch iPad mini, to the largest, the 12.9-inch iPad Pro, are able to easily handle anything that is thrown at them. The iPad Pro has an M1 with 8GB of memory, and even the base model iPad even has 3GB of memory.

Yet, the software is woefully inadequate. I am not going to say that the iPad has been ignored, although for many years it was clear that Apple was not sure of its direction, but it does seem like iPadOS has not been getting enough attention. Apple has not been pushing the limits of what the iPad can do.

When the person who uses the iPad to its maximum and pushes the boundaries, decides to leave the iPad Pro behind and instead embrace macOS, it should be a clear sign that the current state of iPadOS is not where it should be.

I would like to see significant changes to iPadOS myself. I had thought about trying to use the iPad for some of the tasks that I use my MacBook Pro for, but the limitations of iPadOS precluded me from doing so. Part of the problem, I suspect, is that the apps that I am used to using on my MacBook Pro are not available, in any form, on the iPad.

HomeKit

HomeKit is Apple's framework that allows you to control and manage your smart devices in your home. The Home app has the ability for you to identify favorites. One thing that would be nice to have would be the ability to put your favorites in whatever order you want. With iOS 15 this is not possible. The order is entirely arbitrary and does not make any sense.

Removing a favorite and re-adding it does not change the order and there is no way to manually adjust the order. It would be a great addition to be able to set the order for favorites would go a long way to adding some flexibility.

Apple Watch

There are a couple of things I would like to see on the Apple Watch. These are the same things that I wanted last year, but we did not get them. Therefore, I am copying and pasting my exact wish list items from last year.

When you charge an Apple Watch once the Watch is fully charged a notification will be sent to the paired iPhone. What I would like to see is this enhanced a bit so that the notification will be sent to other nearby devices, like a Mac or an iPad, provided that the devices are logged into the same iCloud account. Like the listing of shared iCloud folders, this is a small feature that would add a nice touch.

The second change is third-party custom watch faces. I think allowing developers to create custom watch faces, and having users install them, is sorely needed. The Apple Watch has a wide variety of watch faces, however, even with all of the customizations that are available, not all watch faces suit the needs of all users. I am not sure if Apple will ever do this, but I am sure that there is a market for this.

SwiftUI

I think we will see some improvements to SwiftUI. What specific improvements might be tricky to determine, given that SwiftUI is not open source. However, SwiftUI is still a somewhat nascent framework and there is still some features that could be added.

One area that could be significantly improved is layout. In particular, providing equal width buttons. If I have three buttons that I want to have equal widths, there is no simple way of doing this.

Documentation

One of the biggest stumbling blocks for any programmer is determining whether something can be done with a particular framework. Apple's documentation, while it has improved, is still woefully inadequate, particularly in relation to SwiftUI. Instead of consulting Apple's own documentation, I tend to just do a search for how to do something in SwiftUI, because Apple's documentation won't answer it.

It is not necessary just a particular approach, but whether a particular View (Stack, List, HStack, etc...) can accept a particular modifier or not. There are times I just try to add a modifier to a view and see if it can do anything. Sometimes, it works, other times it does not.

Closing Thoughts

There is my wish list for iOS 16, iPadOS 16, tvOS 16, watchOS 9, and macOS 13. Apple's WWDC keynote is on Monday at 10am Pacific Time. Apple's State of the Union will follow at 1:00pm Pacific Time. As is the case with other Apple keynotes, I will post a recap sometime on Monday, after the keynote.