It’s Friday, but we’re looking through the weekend to this coming Monday, when, at the appointed hour — that’d be 10 a.m. Pacific — Tim Cook and company will take the stage at Apple’s annual World Wide Developer Conference keynote, and hopefully shed some light on what’s coming next from the world’s biggest tech company.
On the agenda? Almost certainly a peek at iOS 12, the next iteration of Apple’s mobile operating system that runs iPhones and iPads, and maybe even some new news about some updates to MacOS. But perhaps some smaller surprises are in store: There’ve been rumblings that Apple may be looking to expand the capabilities of the NFC chip in the iPhone beyond its current tap-to-pay duties, and maybe some more jobs for Siri to do as Apple tries to catch up with Amazon’s Alexa and Google’s Assistant AI bots.
And there could be more news on the TV-OS front as the streaming battles heat up and Apple’s billion-dollar content push starts to get rolling. But new hardware? It’s unlikely in our opinion. There may be some processor updates and so forth, but we’re not expecting any new actual devices like iPhones, Watches or iMacs. Although, a new Mac Pro would be a nice surprise. Maybe someday. Apple will be streaming WWDC live on Monday, but only to Apple devices, and only with the Safari browser, so try to remember where you last put that little compass.
Snap Tube
Facebook is 14 years old and if the latest report on the social media site in a Pew research study are accurate, it’s popularity among actual 14 year-olds (and other teenagers) is dropping fast. So where are today’s teens going online? YouTube, and Snapchat, apparently. Both online destinations ranked ahead of Facebook according to the study, and Instagram – which is owned by Facebook – was also a top performer.
But YouTube, which is owned by Google/Alphabet, continues to be the top draw for teens, who are now spending more time on a screen per day than ever before. Never underestimate the power of the funny cat video.
Switch to paraglider
The annual video game fiesta E3 is fast approaching, and a prominent video game site says it looks like the hyper-popular game Fortnite is headed to the super-popular Nintendo Switch gaming system. Gaming site Kotaku says an image that was spotted on 4chan was picked up by a Twitter user and shows Fortnite listed along with eight other games that are headed to the Switch gaming system.
FIFA 19 and Dragon Ball fighter Z were also on the list. And while more than a few hoax images and stories have bubbled up from the depths of 4Chan in the past, the Kotaku site says they have corroborating information that it’s legit, so here’s hoping they got it right. We’ll know for sure at E3, which starts 11 days from now.
We’ve got more news on our Facebook page and YouTube channel, and be sure to tune in to this week’s DT podcasts: Trends with Benefits (general tech shenanigans) on Thursdays, and Between the Streams (movie and TV topics) every Friday.
