In a few hours, Apple CEO Tim Cook will deliver his keynote address at the Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) 2012, The keynote address during the WWDC has always been anticipated part of the event and I suppose will also be this year. It's when the late great Steve Jobs usually revealed what the company will release in the succeeding months.
Since a few months ago the Apple blog universe has been full of rumors of what Cook will reveal this year. Apple itself has revealed at least two products that will be announced during the keynote and these include:
Mac OSX Mountain Lion. The latest iteration of the Mac's operating system. It will reportedly include the following features: Notification Center, iMessages, iCloud, Airplay and more. Apple touts the new Mac OS X as inspired by the iPad and re-imagined for the Mac. I won't be downloading this one immediately though and perhaps just wait for it to be available in the next generation Macs which I intend to buy anyway.
iOS6. This one is expected. Photos of banners for iOS 6 being put up circulated in the Internet days ago. What it includes are still up in the air but rumors are rife with Facebook integration like Twitter in iOS 5, a Siri for iPad. The biggest addition to the iOS would be Apple's own mapping solution which could replace google maps in all our iOS devices.
Because of iOS 6, many speculate that Cook will also announce the next generation iPhone. Also, there have been sightings of alleged parts of the next iPhone which led people to believe the announcement more likely to happen. I highly doubt it though. The announcement for Apple's smartphone has its own event usually in September or October. So I think Apple will stick to that schedule.
There are also stories about updates of several Macs including the MacBook Pro, MacBook Air , the iMac and the Mac Pro. Aside from thinner MacBooks, there are rumors about Retina Display on the iMac and all Mac portables. I am not an expert on this one and I will wait for Cook's announcement. But Retina Display and touch capability on the iMac are features that will definitely make me get one.
These are the things that I will be waiting for later. I might stay up late tonight and hang around the sites that will have a live coverage of the event.