Apple announced this week that its developer conference, WWDC, will take place June 9 through June 13, 2025. For those of us who are not developers, WWDC is significant because it is when Apple always previews the next versions of its operating systems, which are typically released in the Fall. What will be included in iOS 19? Only Apple knows for sure right now, but Ben Lovejoy of 9to5Mac notes that two people with a reputation for leaking unannounced Apple products—Mark Gurman of Bloomberg and Jon Prosser of FrontPageTech—say that we will see a new user interface for the iPhone and other devices, although the two of them disagree somewhat on what it will look like. I remember the major iPhone user interface change in iOS 7, which Apple first previewed at WWDC 2013, and the change was controversial at the time, although as Apple tweaked the design and users became more comfortable with it over time, I now look back on it as a change that was for the better. Perhaps we will see similar growing pains later this year when iOS 19 is released. Jason Snell of Six Colors also offers some interesting thoughts on what we may see announced at WWDC 2025. And now, the news of note from the past week:
- This is a busy time of year in the world of legal technology. First, Legalweek New York 2025 wrapped up yesterday. My podcast co-host Brett Burney was in New York for the conference, and he noticed that the iconic Apple Store on Fifth Avenue looks different. There is now a structure over the cube. I’m not sure if this is intended to be a permanent change, but it dramatically changes the look of the store. Here is a picture that Brett took on March 26, 2025:
For comparison, here is what the cube looked like when it first opened on May 19, 2006. You can see me standing in line wearing the red shirt:
- Second, another big legal technology conference, ABA TECHSHOW 2025, will take place next week in Chicago. Brett and I will both be there. The spots for the Taste of TECHSHOW dinner that Brett and I will host disappeared only minutes after the ABA started taking reservations. For those of you who did get a spot, I know that it will be a lot of fun. For those of you who are attending TECHSHOW and did not get a spot, you can still sign up for the waiting list, and there will be lots of other opportunities for everyone at TECHSHOW to interact. Brett and I are going to try to record an episode of the In the News podcast on Friday, April 4. I don’t yet know where we will record it or if there will be an opportunity for folks to join us while we do so.
- You can currently get the new Apple Watch Series 10 on Amazon for an all-time low price of $299, which is a huge 25% discount. That’s the smaller model with the 42mm case, but that same link will get you the 46mm case model at 23% off, only $329. I love my Apple Watch Series 10 and I even prefer it to the more expensive Apple Watch Ultra 2, for the reasons I explained in this review.
- Next month, Apple will release iOS 18.4 and similar updates for other products. Juli Clover reports on the top five new features coming to iOS 18.4.
- Kanika Gogia of the Mac Observer reports on some of the less prominent new features coming in iOS 18.4
- Clover reports that one change coming to watchOS 11.4 is the option for an Apple Watch alarm to “Break Through”—i.e., make noise—even when your watch is in Silent Mode. I actually like the way that an Apple Watch can wake me up by tapping my wrist and not making a sound, but for a morning when you fear that you may have trouble waking up and you don’t need to worry about annoying someone else in the same room by making noise, this feature seems very useful.
- Lando Loic extolls the virtues of using Apple’s built-in productivity apps instead of third-party alternatives. His post focuses on the Mac versions of these apps, but I think that the same logic applies to the iPhone and iPad apps.
- In 2018, I reviewed a product from Twelve South called AirFly that added Bluetooth to any headphone jack—such as the one that is part of an in-flight entertainment system on an airplane or the audio in a health club—so that you could listen using your AirPods. I’ll always remember writing that review because it was the day the music died—on my iPod, at least. (Read the end of that post for the bittersweet tale.) Twelve South has come out with newer versions of the AirFly since 2018, and Ed Hardy of Cult of Mac reviews the brand new AirFly Pro 2, which offers better sound, better controls, and can connect to two pairs of headphones at once. It is $59.99 on Amazon.
- Speaking of music, Ryan Christoffel of 9to5Mac reports that Apple added three new features to the Apple Music Classical app.
- Speaking of music, Jason Snell of Six Colors reports on a small update to the AirPods Max.
- Apple TV+ has a reputation for releasing fantastic TV series, but it hasn’t released many movies. There is a big one coming to theaters this summer called F1 starring Brad Pitt and directed by Joseph Kosinski. (Apple released a trailer earlier this month.) Borys Kit of the Hollywood Reporter says that Apple is so happy with how that movie is coming along that it also signed a deal with Kosinski to direct and produce another movie about UFOs, and the famous producer Jerry Bruckheimer is involved as well. That sounds like it could be a great movie.
- A new series debuts on Apple TV+ this week called The Studio. It was created by and stars Seth Rogen, it also stars the treat Catherine O’Hara and Kathryn Hahn, and it has more cameos than you can shake a stick at. And the early reviews for it are fantastic. Dana Stevens of Slate calls it the best new comedy of 2025.
- I haven’t watched the first episode of The Studio yet, but I did enjoy reading the extensive article by Ethan Shanfeld in Variety about the making of the series.
- Last week, I ended my In the News post with the impressive Spike Jonze commercial for AirPods noise cancellation called Someday. Here is a new video on the making of that commercial. As much as I enjoyed the original video, the behind-the-scenes video is perhaps even more interesting. It also shows that a lot of the parts that I thought could be CGI were, in fact, practical effects.
- And finally, John Gruber of Daring Fireball points out that if you go to the Apple website right now and you click on the word Mac at the top of the page, you will see a list of all of the computers that Apple sells … along with a listing for a computer not sold by Apple, but another company that you may have heard of: Lumon. Yes, that Lumon. It is a fun promotion for the incredible Apple TV+ show Severance, which just finished its second season. Apple also released this fun video that shows how Macs were used to edit the show, but DO NOT WATCH THIS VIDEO until after you have watched the final episode of Season 2 because this video goes behind the scenes on the surprising parts of that season finale: