Here’s what Apple introduced at its annual Worldwide Developers Conference over the past few years:
2023: Apple Vision Pro headset
2024: Apple Intelligence
2025: Liquid Glass
Notice a pattern? Yeah, it’s one dud after another.
OK, maybe that’s a bit harsh, but Apple failed to find much success with its last two major software announcements. And the Vision Pro isn’t exactly burning up the sales charts.
In retrospect, WWDC24 seems particularly embarrassing. Two years on, we’re still waiting for some of the advanced AI features that Apple demoed during the keynote. They’re still AWOL.
That’s why WWDC26 is going to be a major make-or-break moment, especially for Apple Intelligence.
Can Apple break the WWDC curse?
At this year’s conference, Apple is under pressure to show off significant advances in AI, especially the smarter Siri it’s been promising for so long.
Siri 2.0 is expected to be a conversational AI, with deep hooks into users’ data, that can intelligently answer questions and get things done. Will Apple finally deliver those missing features?
There’ll undoubtedly be a big emphasis on deep third-party integration, too. Apple will give developers access to its underlying AI models, hopefully enabling a new wave of third-party, AI-integrated applications.
Also in today’s newsletter:
This recently surfaced video of Steve Jobs from 1999 talking about the first iBook is especially interesting after the launch of the similarly low-cost MacBook Neo.
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🔥 DEAL OF THE DAY: Shark’s cordless vacuums are supposed to be better than Dyson’s in almost every way — and they’re a lot cheaper, especially when on sale for a whopping 50% off.
Reports of the death of the iPhone Air are greatly exaggerated. Turns out, it’s not the flop everyone thinks it is. I knew it’d be a slow burn!
And here’s a look at another precursor to today’s modern Macs — the Macintosh LC II, a forerunner to the Mac mini.
— Leander Kahney, EIC.
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One more thing ...
It's hard to build a consumer portable because you can't put in all the latest-grade stuff and still make it affordable. So you've got to use, you know, panels that are a little thicker than you'd like, drives a little thicker than you like, and you can cheese out and put in tiny little displays and things like that. But if you want to make a really good product, it's really hard.
Today’s poll
Will Apple deliver at WWDC26?
Results from Friday’s poll: Are you actually glad to see more people switch to Mac?
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