⚡ Update – June 11, 2026: The keynote has come and gone. I’ve added what actually happened under each section below.
I’ve been following this closely enough to say it with confidence: WWDC 2026 is shaping up to be one of Apple’s most critical events in years. This isn’t just another iOS update or a routine chip refresh. Over the past few weeks I’ve written about comparing the RTX 5090 against the M5 Ultra on paper, and in earlier pieces I covered what we should expect from iOS 27. This time I wanted to bring it all together in one place.
1. Siri 2.0: Is This Finally It?
Honestly, the phrase “new Siri” has been repeated so many times it’s started to feel like a running joke. Apple Intelligence was announced in 2024 with big promises. Then it was “coming in 2025.” 2025 came and went. Here we are in 2026.
Let’s see what happens this time.
That said, something does feel different now. Apple has moved carefully on AI, staying back and watching before committing. But the officially confirmed Apple and Google partnership changes the picture. Siri plus Gemini is a real combination, and I genuinely believe this is the version that changes things.
What I’m expecting in practice: a shift away from one-off commands toward a real agent. Something that reads your screen, remembers the previous conversation, and handles tasks across apps without you holding its hand. “Find the PDF from the message I sent rachel last week and forward it to jason by email.” If Siri can actually do that, we can finally put the old version behind us. That would be a genuinely big deal.
I’m keeping my skepticism. But the signals are strong enough to pay attention.
What actually happened: This is the one I got right and genuinely didn’t expect to feel this good about. Siri AI is real. Not a rebrand, not a promise for next year. It has on-screen awareness, meaning it can look at what’s on your display and understand context without you explaining anything. It has personal context, meaning it can reach into your messages, emails, and calendar to connect the dots across apps. The Google Gemini partnership is now the actual foundation of Apple’s models, running both on-device and through Private Cloud Compute where data is never stored.
The example they showed during the keynote was the clearest proof. You look at a photo, ask Siri where it was taken, it recognizes the location. Then you say “draw me a route that stops by Jeff’s place on the way” and Siri finds Jeff’s address from an old message, opens Maps, and builds a multi-stop route. No copy-paste, no app switching, no holding its hand.
One thing worth noting: Siri AI launches in English only. Other languages are coming, but there’s no firm timeline. And if you’re in the EU, you won’t get it on iPhone or iPad at launch due to regulatory reasons. Mac, Apple Watch and Vision Pro are fine though. China gets nothing for now.
I kept my skepticism in the original post. I’m putting it down now.
2. macOS 27 and the End of Intel
This one won’t get as much attention as it deserves. macOS 27 is dropping Intel Mac support entirely. Apple Silicon launched in 2020, and five years later Apple is burning the bridge for good. Anyone who’s been following closely knew this was coming.
As a developer I fully support this. Supporting two completely different architectures at the same time always put a ceiling on optimization. Now all the energy goes in one direction. That’s better for Apple, better for third-party developers, and honestly better for users on supported hardware too. I can say that comfortably both as a writer and as someone who builds apps.
The message to users is simple: if you’re on a pre-M1 Mac, this fall is your upgrade moment. Apple has been sending this message with every release cycle. After everything we’ve lost over the years in terms of upgrade rights and longevity, I don’t think it even needs much discussion at this point.
What actually happened: Confirmed, and then some. The new macOS is called Golden Gate. Intel support is officially gone. But beyond the architecture story, the performance numbers are genuinely impressive. App launch speeds are up 30% across the board, including third-party apps, because the system now preloads critical data before you even tap. AirDrop transfers are 80% faster. New photos load into your library 70% faster. File transfers from iPad to external drives are 5x faster, which brings it to Mac Finder level.
They also rebuilt the search index from scratch. Spotlight, Photos, and Mail all share a new backend that indexes new content instantly. Mail now surfaces the most relevant results at the top rather than just the most recent. Small thing, but anyone who has lost an email in a sea of newsletters knows why this matters.
The Liquid Glass update also came with something I didn’t expect: a slider in Settings that lets you go from fully transparent to fully tinted. Whether that’s Apple giving users control or quietly admitting last year’s default was too much, I’ll let you decide.
3. İs coming M5 Ultra in WWDC 2026?
The M5 Ultra was widely expected to be announced at WWDC. But on April 19th, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman reported that supply chain issues are pushing the Mac Studio launch to around October 2026. A software preview at WWDC is still possible, but the hardware itself may not arrive until fall.
One detail worth noting: some sources say Apple has already pulled the 512GB memory configuration from the lineup due to the RAM shortage. That should become clearer at WWDC. And if the hardware doesn’t show up at this event, we can basically take all the leaked specs as confirmed at this point.
What actually happened: No hardware. Gurman was right back in April. The entire keynote was software and AI, no Mac Studio, no chip announcement. If you were holding off on a purchase waiting for M5 Ultra, the answer is still fall 2026. The 512GB memory configuration question also remains open.
4. iOS 27: The Snow Leopard Year
Some Apple fans will be disappointed by this one. I’m not. iOS 27 is being described as a “Snow Leopard” release, meaning the focus is on stability and performance rather than flashy new features.
iOS 26 with Liquid Glass was a visually bold move. But it came with real stability issues. A lot of people complained about UI bugs and inconsistencies. Apple is now saying it’s time to fix the foundation. I think that’s the right call.
One exception: iPhone Fold optimizations. Smart Split-Screen, Stage Manager integration, and Flex Mode APIs for the 7.8-inch inner display are all coming. Preserving app state when transitioning from the small cover screen to the large inner screen is not a simple engineering problem. I’m genuinely curious to see how they’ve handled it.
What actually happened: Snow Leopard year confirmed. The whole presentation had a “we are fixing the foundation” energy. The CPU scheduler was rebuilt and optimized all the way back to iPhone 11. Network handoffs between cellular and Wi-Fi got smarter. They added a send indicator in Messages for large file transfers over weak connections so you can actually tell what’s happening.
The iPhone Fold-specific features I mentioned, Smart Split-Screen, Stage Manager integration, Flex Mode APIs, were not the centerpiece of the keynote. Apple kept the focus on the core system. But the underlying architecture work they showed makes it obvious the foldable groundwork is being laid whether they talk about it directly or not.
5. iPhone Fold
WWDC is technically a software event. But this is where the iPhone Fold‘s software foundation gets revealed. Custom APIs for foldable displays, new window management models, all of it will be embedded in iOS 27’s code from day one.
My personal take: the iPhone Fold is going to be like a Ferrari. Stunning to look at, technically impressive, but maybe not as practical in daily use as a Skyline. This first generation is for early adopters. Everyone else should wait.
What actually happened: Still no hardware. The Ferrari stays in the garage for now. But the software foundation is clearly being built, and the new window management model and Siri AI’s context awareness make a lot more sense when you imagine them on a 7.8-inch inner display. First gen is still for early adopters. That part I’m standing by.
Conclusion
I said I’d be watching three things at Apple Park on June 8th: how much Siri has actually changed, where things stand with M5 Ultra, and how mature the iPhone Fold software foundation is.
Siri showed up. Properly this time. M5 Ultra didn’t, and that was expected. iPhone Fold is still software-only, but the architecture work happening underneath iOS 27 is clearly pointing in that direction.
Developer beta dropped the same day as the keynote. That’s where things get real, away from the stage lighting and the applause. I’ll be testing it and writing about what actually holds up. Check back.
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