WWDC 2024 Is Just Days Away and We Found Easter Eggs in Apple’s Invite

We are just days away from Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference keynote. Last week the company sent out media invitations for its annual conference. It’s a sign that we’re one step closer to WWDC 2024, which officially runs June 10 to 14 at Apple Park. While Apple hasn’t said what to expect, if past WWDC keynotes are any indication, we’ll likely see previews for iOS 18 and MacOS 15, as well as other Apple operating systems – and maybe new hardware.

There is speculation that Apple will share its plans for using generative AI in software and hardware at the conference. Rumors point to possible integrations for coding, as reported by Bloomberg in February, as well as consumer-facing features like improving privacy and security and the ability to create custom emojis based on a text thread, again as reported by Bloomberg.

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One of my favorite parts of any Apple event is decoding the invite for a deeper understanding of what to expect. Typically, this involves taking a long look at Apple’s invite image and tagline to divinate cryptic themes or even products that might be dramatically unveiled. This year, all we have to work with for potential Easter Eggs are four rainbow-colored rings. But I have ideas.

Below those rings, the invite does offer one vital piece of information that we didn’t know for sure: the time. The WWDC 2024 keynote will start at 10 a.m. PT on Monday, June 10, which contrasts the early 7 a.m. PT start time for Apple’s virtual May iPad event and the late 5 p.m. PT time for last fall’s Scary Fast Mac event.

It’s Apple Park — no duh?!

Let me get the obvious out of the way. The invite’s colorful circles look like the outline of a top-down view of Apple Park. And it could be as simple as that, especially since the conference takes place at Apple Park.

A new and improved Siri

But let’s spitball. This is purely for fun.

I have to give credit to CNET’s Abrar Al-Heeti for this one — she thinks the invite might be a subtle nod to improvements coming to Siri. And this makes complete sense. We’ve heard iOS 18 rumors for months about how Siri is getting an AI-powered glow up, and the invite’s colorful circles could be a reference to that.

Currently, summoning Siri makes a colorful orb pop up on Apple devices, and maybe Apple wants to differentiate an AI-powered Siri from the Siri of the past with these new rings. Al-Heeti’s idea makes even more sense when you see the animated version of the invite where the rings morph into different colors in a similar rhythm as Siri’s current on-device orb.

An Apple smart ring

Hey, Samsung teased its Galaxy Ring in a “one more thing” style reveal at the January Galaxy Unpacked event, so who’s to say that Apple wouldn’t be next? Apple typically previews new products at WWDC, like the Vision Pro, to give developers time to build and optimize software.

An Apple smart ring is not that hard to imagine. The company prides itself on health, fitness and wellness tracking features across its devices, especially the Apple Watch. A ring-based wearable seems inevitable, especially if it were priced to match the low-end of the current Apple Watch lineup. 

HomePod redux

While Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman thinks there won’t be new Macs launched until the end of this year and in 2025, for the past few years Apple has typically shown off new hardware at WWDC. And that might turn out to be true, because we saw Apple announce the M4 chip earlier this month for its new iPad Pros.

So if Apple were to announce hardware, could we see a new HomePod or HomePod Mini, which were updated in 2023 and 2020, respectively? The invite’s circles are reminiscent of a top-down view of a HomePod’s Siri screen or even a simple speaker.

I think this is quite unlikely. And on that note, this is an excellent place to end our speculation. What’s lovely is that WWDC is less than two weeks away. So we don’t have to wait long to find out what Apple is actually doing this year.

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