WWDC 2021: here is everything we expect to see

A sketchy rumor says that Apple intends to add new food tracking feature to the Health app, but we have more questions than answers about this. The basic idea is that you will be able to track your calories and macronutrients, an area previously reserved for specialized apps. There are two ways Apple could approach this: allowing users to photograph their food and try to use AI to input calories (too difficult and probably not feasible), or manually input meals (more likely). This could be an exciting update but we are not certain if it’s indeed coming or not.

Settings App Updates

While we don’t expect any sort of a general overhaul for the Settings app, some new features and changes are coming there. Rumors point to a more detailed Accessibility features, as well as other smaller tweaks.

iPadOS 15

Redesigned Home Screen for iPad

The current home screen on iPads is a weird concoction between iOS and some other ideas, and it might finally change to a more useful state.

With iPadOS 15, Apple will allow users to place widgets in any part of the screen, and not just on the Today View column on the left side, which will make for a much richer home screen experience. You will also be able to replace the entire app grid with just ‌widgets‌, if you prefer.

Does this mean you can also freely move icons on the home screen? Well, that’s probably a negative.

Other tweaks

A few of the changes we mentioned in the iOS section above, like the better privacy controls will also make their way to iPadOS. We also expect a few other minor tweaks to the iPadOS experience, but currently we have no specifics on that.

WatchOS 8

Blood sugar monitoring

Non-invasive blood sugar monitoring has been the holy grail of health features for diabetics and those who track their health in detail, and we might see the new feature in watchOS 8. We are a bit skeptical that we will hear about this at WWDC, since this is a feature Apple will likely want to keep for the Apple Watch announcement expected this fall, but we cannot rule out an early announcement.

Tweaks and improvements

Apple will surely announce a few dozen tweaks and improvements to the overall watchOS 8 platform, but we haven’t heard specifics just yet, so we’ll update you on this as soon as we get new information.

HomeOS

So far, no specifics here either, but expect this to handle all your smart home devices, from thermostats to smart speakers, locks, lights and everything in-between. Interesting!

New Macbook Pro 14″ and 16″ models

Finally, the surprise of WWDC 2021 might be the announcement of the long-awaited new Macbook Pro models.

Apple announced a 13″ M1 Macbook Pro in late 2020, but this new generation will be a complete redesign that will finally get rid of the annoying TouchBar, bring back features like the SD card slot that power users have complained about for years, and most importantly, feature the next generation of the powerful M1 chip.