Episode 88 - (Almost) Everything from Apple's WWDC 2024 announcements

If it hasn’t come up before (and I’m pretty sure it has), we really love to cover tech events around here… they’re gadget-fueled bonding experiences that have a history littered with moments ranging from the first iPhone to the Surface RT, game changing shows of force like the original Nintendo Switch announcement to the “less than well received” debut of the Xbox One… there’s just something electrifying about the origin of a new product, service, or category that (for better or worse) are going to impact millions of lives, guide the course of countless businesses, and one way or the other take their rightful place in the history of our industry…

Apples World Wide Developer Conference is a literal breeding ground for exactly these types of moments… From the addition of copy/paste on the iPhone (no, I’m not kidding) to a literal on-stage funeral for Mac OS 9, the intersection of showmanship and spectacle are not uncommon here. This year is both a continuation of that tradition, and a stark reminder of how much things have changed all at once. 

You can’t kick off an “event” with several Apple Executives alleging to jump out of a plane to a rock music score and not feel at least a little like a kid in a silicon candy store… but on the flip side, these are now fully pre-produced, scripted, and rendered infomercials that, while still almost two hours long, lack the personality and dire stakes of an on stage demo of a feature that may or may not quite work if the Wifi crashes in the event hall again…

But, in the end, another WWDC is upon us, and with it the cardinal direction for one of tech (and the world's) largest companies along with glimpses at what will fuel our gadget-centric experiences in the coming year.

Flip those updates to “Beta”, let’s check it out…