I don’t do these posts very often. In fact, it’s been many years since I wrote something like this, but with WWDC starting tonight and Apple announcing lots of new software features I’m actually excited to see what they bring. I thought it might be fun to have a look at my wishlist and then come back and see what Apple did against it.
One Siri to rule them all…
It’s long driven me mad that Siri is different on all my Apple devices. I have iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple TV, and HomePod minis with Siri on each device having different capabilities is maddening. It stops me from using it as much as I otherwise would because it’s such a frustrating user experience. Hopefully with the new Siri that looks set to be announced that will change.
“AI” that’s intelligently integrated
I’ve played around with both ChatGPT and Google’s Gemini over the last year or so, and while I’ve found some utility with it, what I really want is for my devices to make my work easier not do it for me.
I’ve no interest in my computer doing my work so I can do the washing up, I want it to do the bits of my work that are dull and repetitive so that I am free to do the creative stuff I enjoy. Plan my day for me by looking at my tasks in Things and my calendar in Outlook without me having to do it.
A smarter Health app
As part of the AI that’s intelligently integrated, I’d love to see Apple bring together all the elements of the health app in a way that will help me get and stay healthy. I have a recipe app (Mela) with nearly 200 recipes in it, I try to track my food intake with FoodNoms, my phone tracks my movement, and my smart scales track my weight. Take all of this information, work out that I’m trying to lose weight, and build me a food and exercise plan.
A coherent sports experience
When Apple released their Sports app I was really intrigued, it’s full of promise, but in the UK it’s not so great. I get my news from The Athletic and Sky Sports News, I use an app for live activities when Forest are playing, and I have another app for F1 live activities. The Euros are coming but there’s no sign of it in Apple Sports. I would love for them to bring all this together. Have the Sports app do live activities for football, bring the news for the teams I follow from Apple News into the Sports app, and make it my hub for Sports.
Reimagine tvOS
This is a long stretch, but reimagine tvOS to make it more useful. I have an Apple TV in my bedroom and rely on my TV’s apps for the living room, but if they could add more utility to tvOS I would look to add one for my main tv. Widgets would be a good start, but really I’d like to see it be more intelligent too. I’m watching NCIS at the moment, surface the next episode without me having to go into apps to find it. Display the weather on my home screen and give me more home controls. Make it the hub of the home. Make Siri absolutely sing on it. Steal Amazon’s x-Ray and add it to all apps that use the built in player. Let me tell the Apple TV I have a PS4 and have it surface the option to fire it up.
These are all unlikely, but if I can have one tvOS wish for this year, it would be the ability to attach an apps profile to my Apple TV profile so I don’t have to select who is watching in every single app every time I open them.
A passwords app
Last week I finally got tired of 1Password’s Safari extension never working and decided to move all my passwords to iCloud Keychain. I’ve yet to work move the one time password codes over, and I’m not sure how I’m going to work with Chrome for the times I need it, but it’s already been a nicer experience. It would be great to have a dedicated app that’s not tucked away in settings for the times I’ need to hunt down a password. This one seems like it might actually happen this year, but then we thought that last year as well.
Those are a few of the things I’d like to see Apple announce tonight. I’m not expecting many of them to make an appearance, but it’s a fun exercise and it will be interesting to revisit it and see.
