Apple announces new event to supposedly reveal biggest updates in years

Every year there's a question mark over exactly when Apple will hold its annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC).

Well, the tech giant has just put any speculation to bed by confirming its dates for 2024 - the event will kick off on June 10 with a keynote presentation, and run through to June 14.

This is an annual opportunity for Apple to dive into what it's working on, largely from a software point of view, with occasional hardware announcements thrown into the mix.

So, it should give us a bunch of information about what we can expect from the next versions of iOS, MacOS, iPadOS and WatchOS (don't forget tvOS!).

This will include glimpses of forthcoming features and apps, all months in advance of the new software versions actually becoming available. It's not as straightforward and digestible as the main iPhone launch event each September, but there's always a lot to learn.

However, this year could be a particularly exciting one, as there are rampant rumors that we'll see Apple detail its commitment to artificial intelligence for the first time, an area it's been pretty tight-lipped on to this point.

That's partly down to people just reading the tea leaves and guessing that Apple will want to be part of the public conversation around AI, but it's also been given a big hint recently. Announcing the dates in a post on X (formerly Twitter), Apple's Senior Vice President for Marketing, Greg Joswiak, captioned his post as follows:

"Mark your calendars for #WWDC24, June 10-14. It’s going to be Absolutely Incredible!"

It doesn't exactly take a microscope to notice the capitalization of the letters A and I at the end of that message, and Apple almost always drops hints like this about something that it'll discuss before its events.

So, this makes it highly likely that AI will be a major talking point, and we could see all sorts of potential applications of it in a forthcoming software update.

If the rumor mill is accurate, though, it won't just be software this year. Apple is supposedly also working hard on new devices to add to its AirPods range, in more than one way.

Firstly, the premium over-ear AirPods Max hasn't been updated since it launched, so it's expected to get a new version with upgrades and the addition of a USB-C charging port.

We could also see new versions of the entry-level AirPods, and possibly even revised AirPods Pro to go with them - it's really anyone's guess. Since these devices are already super reliable, we're hopeful that any updates should see improved battery life, one of the few areas where they're outclassed by some competition.