What's new in Apple's next iteration of its mobile operating system?
We'll find out come June during the company's annual Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC) slated to start sometime around June 13 until June 17 this year.
But as usual with any major Apple event, the hype leading up to any major announcements gets real (and real big) as the debut dates draw nearer and nearer.
iOS 10 Is Coming
In regard to iOS 10, the beta for the software should be released during WWDC itself. Historically, that's been the case with Apple. Once Tim Cook's keynote ends on the opening day of the event, developers and public beta testers will be able to get their hands on it.
The rest of us, however, should expect to see a final, polished finish of iOS 10 come September of this year when Apple's biggest seller, the iPhone 7, is expected to go on sale around the world. What we'll see exactly in that update (besides the expected bugs that tend to attach themselves to brand new software) is, of course, already highly rumored on the Internet.
One rumor that might actually have some backing by Apple's CEO himself is the ability to either hide or completely delete Apple's apps that come preinstalled on every iDevice.
Delete Those Unused Apple Apps
At last. After seven generations of iPhones, instead of cramming all of Apple's unusable apps in a single folder, iPhone and iPad users can finally take them out of sight. If they're to be hidden, it's going to be interesting to see how Apple intends to "hide" their apps.
Cook has remarked before that certain apps on iOS remain on iOS because the software could be negatively impacted should they be removed. But he's also said that not all of Apple's apps are completely necessary that way, too.
"So over time, I think with the ones that aren't like that, we'll figure out a way," he shared just months ago.
If you ask us, however, it would just make more sense to delete those apps in the first place anyway – no "fancy" Apple way needed.
Bacon Emoji
Moving on up to a new version of iOS wouldn't be complete without a new set of emoji to send to family and friends.
Bacon. That's certainly one that could be sent to loved ones when chatting about what to have for breakfast. Why type out the word when sending the emoji for it can be so much better?
Thanks to an agreement between Apple and the body that governs the creation and use of emojis (the Unicode Consortium), there could be a total of 74 additional emojis coming to iOS 10. Besides bacon, other emojis include a croissant, an avocado, a Vespa, fist bumps, a fox face, a puking face, a duck, and a smiley faced cowboy.
A More Powerful Photos App
Apple's Photos app is also expected to get a huge overhaul.
In fact, some of the most useful features from the app's predecessor, iPhoto, could be making a comeback in the Photos app. For example, the tool used to edit an image's EXIF data directly within the app could be featured. Also, users may be able to edit specific areas of a photo they take within the app, too.
Ultimately, face detection would be a welcome feature in the iOS version of the Photos app and it shouldn't be too difficult to include either. The Mac-based Photos app already incorporates the ability to detect faces in a user's library. It'd be a neat feature to make use of that as well on photos taken on an iPhone and stored up in Apple's iCloud.
Surely More To Come
As WWDC nears, the Internet will certainly surface even more rumors and features that might just make it into Apple's mobile OS. Besides the above we've reported on so far, there's certainly more that Apple is packing into the next version of iOS.
Other minor whisperings to be included into iOS 10 is a revampled Control Center. More customization options have long been clamored for in Control Center. With the introduction of 3D Touch, so much more could be done within iOS via Control Center without too much fiddling in Settings.
Finally, the iPad Pro lineup might be getting some special attention in iOS 10. Apple touts the iPad Pros as laptop replacements, so adding in more functionality to its lineup of "Pro" tablets to back up those claims would indeed help the devices actually perform more professional tasks.
