I've been covering Apple events for 8 years: Here's what I'm excited for from WWDC 2026

Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference, or WWDC, returns on June 8, 2026. While Tom’s Guide will be covering the event live, there’s nothing quite like a good wishlist.

I’ve been a fan of Apple for decades, and since I moved into writing as a career, I’ve gone from a hand-me-down iMac to writing on the iPad Pro M5 and covering Apple events for plenty of outlets in the meantime.

With that in mind, here are the three things I’m most excited about at WWDC 26.

iPadOS

iPad Pro M5 on a blue background — (Image credit: Apple)

For years, I’ve owned an iPad Pro and not really known why, because I basically use it for movies while travelling and reading books and digital magazines.

That all changed with the recent improvements to iPadOS, and while there’s still a way to go, last year’s iPadOS 26 felt like it ticked plenty of boxes for me.

Multitasking got a huge boost (and without Stage Manager, too!), apps got Menu Bar-like interfaces, the Journal app finally arrived, and we got Preview on an iPad at long last. Then there were background tasks and more, all of which coalesced into making the iPad feel fresh again. I loved it so much I picked up the M5 model.

As a result, I’m curious to know what Apple brings this year. Will we finally get multi-user support? Clamshell mode with an external monitor? The addition of small, utility apps? Time will tell.

A new Mac Mini?

The Mac mini M4 on top of a desk riser shelf — (Image credit: Tom's Guide)

Sure, it’s not likely. Apple traditionally goes all-in on software for WWDC, but 2023 was a big year for hardware between M2 chips and Apple Vision Pro.

We’re expecting Apple Watch and iPhone around the usual September slot, but I can’t think of a better place to debut a new Mac Mini model than at WWDC with the devs who will have fallen in love with the prior versions.

Apple’s diminutive desktop is tough to get hold of, partially due to people getting particularly inventive with its AI potential, but it’s also a very capable family or work computer in its own right. With MacBook Neo turning Windows users into Mac newcomers, this could be a great time to showcase the desktop side of the product lineup.

Siri and Gemini

Siri logo on phone

(Image credit: Shutterstock)

This is the big one, isn’t it? Apple Intelligence and Siri should go hand-in-hand, but it’s been anything but smooth sailing so far. In fact, I’d wager no one would have predicted Apple would be this far behind its peers.

I use Siri less than ever, leaning on just about anything else to get an answer for something, be that a Google Search or Claude, but if Apple can successfully work out a way to power its assistant with Google’s Gemini (which it sounds like it will) it could be like the ChatGPT connection taken to a whole new level.

What kind of additions can we expect? Well, we may be some way off of the screen-reading, context-aware Siri that was infamously confirmed to be vaporware a couple of years back, but we’re getting some big improvements worth the money Apple will have to siphon off to Google.

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