WWDC 2020 Craziest Expectations: iPhoneOS, New iPadOS and HomePod Mode

In the very near future (June 22, at 10 a.m. summer time in the Pacific coast of the USA, at 20:00 Moscow time) we will find out how revolutionary the format of mass online conferences is revolutionary and successful. In February and March of this year, they wrote and argued about him, but between us - it turned out they had something incredible or not, it almost does not matter. If this virtual event was the most ingenious and unbearably exciting, without shockingly interesting content, it would be the biggest Apple failure in its history. At Apple Park, they cannot help but understand this. As always, so many incredible things are expected from WWDC’20 with bated breath that it doesn’t matter that Apple will present to the public at its opening - a wave of disappointment will blow the course of apple stocks. But not for long - if something really important and new is presented.

Who said everyone forgot about the iPhoneOS?

Before every significant event in apple life, waiting for the release of the new iPhone SE or the next Apple-announced event, “letters to Santa Claus” appear on the network - wish lists. Some of what I want to write about today in the “letters to Apple Santa Claus” is something I added on my own. Rumors are already circulating about something, no one is talking or writing about it, but it is being felt and will happen sooner or later, maybe not next week. I warn you: these are speculations and assumptions that may come true somehow differently, sometime another time or never at all. Breathe (I'm talking about holding my breath) and think differently (Think Different).

iOS will again become iPhoneOS?

Not everyone knows that iOS used to be called iPhoneOS

A year ago, when Craig Federigi announced and showed the iPadOS to the public, a lot of people came up with this idea. Surely they thought about this at Apple, but with the adoption of fateful decisions, the company was not in a hurry.

Never better than somehow

One of the most successful forecasters of our day, John Prosser, on Thursday June 18 published another Twitter prediction, which I will give in the original and in full: "iPhone OS". In fact, there were enough grounds for this renaming in 2019, for this three-letter word, from June 2010 to June 2020 Apple paid Cisco an unknown, but obviously not a small amount. The IOS trademark is owned by Cisco Systems, but Steve Jobs decided to name the operating system for iPhone, iPod touch and iPad like that - and only that. “I” - because in this letter, like in no other, is concentrated “Apple”. “IOS,” Apple's operating system, is nothing more.

John Prosser Looks like someone's dad at Apple works, not otherwise

Everyone already knew that this did not work. The decision to combine the support of iPhone and iPad in one operating system is another adventure. And an important strategic decision, thanks to which the iPad has conquered the world. But a common operating system has long been not just unnecessary - it, on the contrary, is in the way.

But iOS, it seems to me, will remain inside Apple, as common to all other operating systems based on it. There are dozens of them, only iOS (iPhoneOS), iPadOS, watchOS, tvOS and audioOS are known. The latter is unknown to the general public, but in June 2017 it was mentioned during the presentation of HomePod. All of these systems have so far been based on iOS, a system for smartphones. The operating system of the “security chips” is Apple T1 and T2, bridgeOS is the “granddaughter” of iOS, it is based on watchOS. This year, audioOS from iOS “daughter” turned into her “granddaughter”, now it is based on tvOS, which has become a “mother” for her. The fact that the core of this entire family remains the current operating system for smartphones is not that bad, but somehow wrong, and over time it can lead to problems.

What about iPod touch? From 2008 to 2010, iPhoneOS was installed on iPod touch, and no one had any questions or problems. This time. In addition, the eighth-generation iPod touch may never appear - all other iPods have long since resigned. Even if the eighth touchscreen is ever announced, iPhoneOS won't bother him.

What is audioOS?

HomePod has been running AudioOS for a long time

Speaking of audioOS: at WWDC, it is rumored that they should introduce a new HomePod or even several new HomePods. I'm not sure about the “musts,” but a new / new HomePod may actually appear. As you know, the key to the success of any such platform is third-party applications and the App Store for them (for example, tvOS App Store). Three years ago, the first HomePod was presented at WWDC, but it didn’t go beyond hints of a public set of tools for developing applications for audioOS. As it became known recently, in June or July 2017, the leading developers of audioOS and HomePod left Apple. Now, three years later, audioOS should go underground, and in the segment of “smart speakers” it may become very interesting.

Developer Mode on iPadOS

Since September 9, 2015, when the first iPad Pro was announced, the question “why hasn't Apple yet transferred the Xcode development environment to the iPad?” does not disappear from the blogosphere. And not only without Xcode. Much of what is needed for such a transformation has already been implemented in iPadOS. Not all. Xcode is just the tip of the iceberg. When installing the development environment on macOS, besides Xcode, a lot of things are installed in it - command line tools, utilities, and most of them in modern iPadOS simply could not fulfill their duties. We need a command line, command line interfaces, and a lot of stuff.

Command line on iPad, Linux over Intel processor emulation

This is not a rumor, there were no leaks from Apple on this topic, this is the assumption of Jason Snell, the owner and one of the authors of the SixColors network resource: the time has come, there is already everything necessary for this, and the iPad Pro has enough performance for all this. In order not to frighten ordinary users with the sudden transformation of their cute iPad into a dangerous and aggressive fighting hamster armed to the teeth, “developer mode” should be added to iPadOS. Something like Chromium Developer, but in the apple style. Perhaps in a test pre-release version, like support for mice and trackpads in iPadOS 13.