3 developer betas in, and Apple has today released the first public betas for iOS, macOS, watchOS, tvOS and visionOS. More information about downloading the updates can be found on Apple’s beta site.

As always, the usual caveats apply with regards to running beta software. If you do decide to install the beta, make sure you back up your device first and where possible don’t install these on your primary devices.

So far the developer previews have been pretty stable on my test devices, but your mileage may vary.

If you are installing the public betas today, and want to try out Siri AI don’t forget that you’ll need to opt-in to the Siri AI waitlist in Settings.app.

Now that WWDC26 has kicked off, here are my early and initial thoughts so far:

• Aside from being one of the shortest keynotes in recent memory, it had strange vibes this year. I like that they focused on themes rather than individual platforms, but they spent a long time talking about parental controls (MDM anyone?) which seemed to be an attempt to placate governments around the world for which social media and tech overuse is currently a hot topic.
• It feels like perhaps Apple were hoping to announce hardware during the keynote, but had to pull the announcements due to the ongoing chip and component shortages?
• No sign of incoming CEO John Ternus in the pre-recorded keynote or state of the union, but he has been spotted floating around other in-person WWDC events. Letting Tim enjoy his final WWDC as CEO?
• It’s disappointing that there don’t appear to be any online 1:1 labs with engineers this year, just group labs and forum discussions
• This year all session videos dropped on day one again, as soon as the state of the union finished. Love this, and it helps prep for group labs!
• Apple sadly still haven’t added back the functionality to diff framework changes between iOS 26 and iOS 27 on the developer docs website. This continues to make it difficult to see what’s changed at a glance (FB18143168)
• Great to see a strong focus on improving performance and stability across all platforms. While not as sexy as new features and functionality, after a rough cycle last year the focus on stability is a welcome change
• Looks like developers - small ones at least - can now access Private Cloud Compute as a managed capability! Note the restrictions though - you can’t have an app that’s received 2 million or more downloads and you must also be enrolled in the App Store Small Business Program. If you exceed 2 million downloads, you’ll have 6 months to find an alternate option according to Apple
• Liquid Glass has seen some refinements this year - most notably on the Mac, which is looking much more refined now in macOS 27. A new slider has been introduced to control the level of glass & refraction - perhaps data from this will be used to refine the default design for next year?
• Speaking of the slider, at the moment you can drag to precise values and there are no steps. Hopefully this gets fixed in the beta period, as it feels like there’s too much control here at present. It also makes it difficult to get back to the “default” value if you accidentally change the value

Apple (via Newsroom):

Apple Sports — the free app for iPhone that gives fans access to real-time scores, stats, and more — is now available to download on the App Store in more than 170 countries and regions around the world, including more than 90 newly added markets.

Fortunately Australia is one of the 90 new markets that the Sports app is now available in. Apple’s been having a bit of fun with the design for this app, so it’s great to be able to download it and try it out for the first time.

As of today, major Australian sporting leagues such as AFL or NRL aren’t supported. Instead the list of sports remains heavily skewed towards US-based and global sports:

• FIFA World Cup 2026 (great timing, and probably a key driver for this expansion)
• Men’s Tennis
• Women’s Tennis
• NBA
• F1
• Champions League
• Women’s Champions League
• Premier League
• All Soccer
• PGA Tour
• LPGA Tour
• NHL
• WNBA
• NFL
• MLB
• University Football
• Men’s University Basketball
• Women’s University Basketball
• NASCAR

Initial thoughts? It’s a strange sensation to open a sports-related app and not be met with a myriad of spammy ads. I’m looking forward to trialling the app further once the French Open kicks off on the 25th May.

From Apple:

Apple today previewed a suite of accessibility updates that use Apple Intelligence to bring new capabilities to features users rely on every day, including VoiceOver, Magnifier, Voice Control, and Accessibility Reader. Apple also announced on-device generated subtitles for uncaptioned video content coming to the Apple ecosystem, as well as a new feature for Apple Vision Pro users to control compatible wheelchairs with their eyes.

There’s a lot to unpack in Apple’s press release today. While some got an early briefing, we can’t yet test these features. Apple says they’re all coming later this year, presumably in iOS 27.

Some of the key highlights:

• Apple Intelligence is coming to VoiceOver and Magnifier, allowing users to get more detailed descriptions of images system-wide
• Users will also be able to use Live Recognition (debuted in iOS 26) to ask a question about what’s in the camera viewfinder and get a more detailed response
• Magnifier will support voice control (eg. to “Zoom in”) and can be opened via the Action button
• Voice Control gains support for natural language control, allowing users to “say what they see” - a great improvement for usability over the experience today that is far more prescriptive
• Accessibility Reader doesn’t miss out on Apple Intelligence support, with on-demand summaries and built-in translations coming
• Videos will soon be able to display automatically generated subtitles where captions or subtitles aren’t available
• Users in supported power wheelchairs will soon be able to control their drive system using the Vision Pro eye-tracking system - what a great use case!
• visionOS gains support for Vehicle Motion Cues that are already available in iOS today
• Touch Accommodations will provide a new way to “personalize setup in iOS and iPadOS”
• Apple has improved pairing, hand-off and setup for Made for iPhone hearing aids
• tvOS will support larger text, allowing the text size to be increased - this might be one to watch as a tvOS developer
• A new API will be added to support adding a human interpreter to an ongoing FaceTime video call

Notably there were no mentions of new watchOS accessibility features this year. Hopefully we still see some announced at WWDC.

It’s almost that time of year again - WWDC 2026 is just around the corner. Apple sent out press invites and developer updates today, with the tagline ‘Coming Bright Up’.

As usual the event will kick-off with the keynote taking place on Monday, 8th June at 10am PDT (or Tuesday, 9th June at 3am AEST for us unlucky Aussies).

Like previous years, the keynote will be available to live stream across apple.com, Apple’s TV app and YouTube. There’s also an in-person event at Apple Park, Cupertino for those lucky enough to have been invited by Apple.

The keynote will then be followed by the Platforms State of the Union address at 1pm PDT (or a more reasonable 6am AEST), which will go into more technical details about the changes announced in the keynote. Expect a focus on AI this year, alongside some refinements to Liquid Glass.

This year there’ll be more than 100 new videos about WWDC announcements, online group labs will run through-out the week with registrations now open. Registrations for one-on-one appointments are also available, with a focus on App Store submissions and marketing this year.

Apple also announced the 36 Design Awards finalists, across six categories - Delight and Fun, Inclusivity, Innovation, Interaction, Social Impact, and Visuals and Graphics. As usual, winners will be announced during WWDC week.

Sadly, this year there were no finalists from Australia. Land of Livia was nominated last year as a finalist in the Games category.