WWDC Apple event - as it happened : iOS 15, AirPods, Maps and privacy features announced

Apple unveils ‘Legacy Contact’ that allows users to access data of deceased

Apple has held one of its biggest events of the year: the Worldwide Developers Conference.

The WWDC21 conference – and the keynote that kicked it off – serves as its annual reveal of all of the software updates it has been working on.

As such, there was a new iOS 15 for the iPhone introduced, updates for the Mac, and new features on the Watch. WWDC is unusual among Apple events in that every one of its software platforms gets an update of some kind, and that they are available to download for free – though most users will have to wait until later this year to get access to them.

Rumours that new versions of the MacBook Pro could be on their way, including a more powerful version of the company’s already powerful M1 chip, did not prove to be true.

As with every Apple event held over the last year, it was held entirely virtually.

You can view the live stream of the WWDC keynote right here, and view all the major updates as they happened below.

• Apple just revealed iOS 15, the future of iPhone
• Apple just added a load of new features to the AirPods
• Apple redesigns how the iPad works with new software update
• Apple launches new operating system for Mac

[7 June 2021 09:56 · Andrew Griffin]

Hello and welcome

... to The Independent’s live coverage of WWDC 2021. We’ll have all the latest news, rumours, speculation – and everything else besides.

[7 June 2021 11:15 · Andrew Griffin]

What could be coming today?

We’ll get a load of software updates, of course, but what might they be? And what else?

Here’s our big rundown of everything expected at today’s keynote.

[7 June 2021 11:16 · Andrew Griffin]

[7 June 2021 11:22 · Andrew Griffin]

WWDC comes at a divisive time for developers

This year’s Worldwide Developers Conference comes at a time when relations between Apple and its developers – big and small – are more frayed than they might ever have been.

The current troubles really began when Epic started a very public and bitter fight with Apple over its terms on the Apple Store. The Fortnite developer argues that Apple is using its dominance and size unfairly – pointing, among other things, to the fact that all purchases of digital goods and services through apps have to go through Apple, and it takes a 30 per cent cut of all of them.

That has now been going on for months, and has led to spectacles including Tim Cook giving evidence in a US court. Relations between the two companies – and others who are involved – do not appear to be getting any better.

But some of the statements that have come out from Apple during the fight have also further alienated developers. Overcast developer Marco Arment, for instance, has argued that Apple is wrong to suggest that the App Store is doing a favour to developers – and that, in fact, it’s the developers who really provide the value.

For its part, Apple says that App Store revenue has risen, and has pointed to the work it has done to help and highlight developers. In response to those concerns that Apple is really taking the work of developers for granted, the European head of the App Store described the relationship as a “partnership”, in an interview with The Independent.

[7 June 2021 11:56 · Andrew Griffin]

Apple hosting keynote live on YouTube

Apple has become fairly flexible about where you watch its events in recent years – and probably best among them is YouTube. As well as offering a fairly seamless experience when actually watching, it lets you set a reminder so that you’ll be alerted when it’s due to start.

You can find the company’s official YouTube stream here:

[7 June 2021 13:29 · Andrew Griffin]

No hardware products to come?

The enigmatic leaker known as l0vetodream has posted what seems to be a suggestion that we’re not getting hardware products today after all.

(That translates to “I feel no”, according to Google translate.)

And they posted another tweet that specificallly suggests all that talk about new MacBook Pros might be too soon:

(That’s “I feel that 14-inch and 16-inch should not be so fast”, according to Google Translate.)

[7 June 2021 14:18 · Andrew Griffin]

Apple Store still isn’t down (yet)

MacRumors’ Joe Rossignol points out that the Apple Store is yet to go down, potentially further suggesting that there won’t be any hardware revealed today, and therefore there’s nothing to actually go down for.

It doesn’t necessarily mean anything, but it might.

[7 June 2021 16:03 · Andrew Griffin]

Apple event: When is the WWDC keynote and how can I watch video live?

Here’s all the details on when the keynote will start, and how to watch it.

[7 June 2021 16:25 · Andrew Griffin]

Apple turns its executives into Memoji

Hours before the start of WWDC, Apple has turned all of the pictures on its “Executive Profiles” page into Memoji. You can finally see what it might be like being in an iMessage conversation with the most powerful people at the company.

As well as the novelty, though, it does suggest something about what might be coming today – not least because Memoji have also featured very heavily in all the marketing around today’s event. Presumably that means they’re likely to get an update, or at least be involved in some new features, perhaps as part of a broader iMessage rejig.

Here are all of those faces:

(Apple)

(Apple)

[7 June 2021 17:04 · Andrew Griffin]

Zuckerberg takes shot at Apple soon before event starts

Mark Zuckerberg has made the interestingly timed announcement that Facebook won’t be taking any revenue from creators on its platforms until 2023. And even when that does happen, that will be less than 30 per cent, he said, calling out Apple for the cut it takes when people make payments through its systems.

The announcement, in a Facebook post on his personal page, comes very soon before the event begins in an hour or so. And this WWDC takes place amid strained relationships between Apple and developers, who argue that it is not fair for Apple to take such a hefty cut and not allow them to take payments through other systems.

“To help more creators make a living on our platforms, we’re going to keep paid online events, fan subscriptions, badges, and our upcoming independent news products free for creators until 2023,” Mr Zuckerberg wrote in the post. “And when we do introduce a revenue share, it will be less than the 30% that Apple and others take.”

(Google also takes 30 per cent – as Apple has repeatedly pointed out during the ongoing antitrust investigations – so Mr Zuckerberg’s mention of Apple does seem pointed.)