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Apple is about to try to make us love our iPhones a little less.
Helping consumers and parents combat addiction and encourage healthier relationships with technology is expected to be on Apple’s agenda at its annual Worldwide Developers Conference on Monday.
We’ll be reporting on the event, known as WWDC, from the San Jose McEnery Convention Center, starting with a keynote presentation featuring chief executive Tim Cook at 1 p.m. ET.
Unlike Apple’s other confabs, where executives take the stage to make sales pitches for new hardware, WWDC is targeted at the programmers who make apps for the iPhone, Mac, Apple Watch and other products. At WWDC, Apple typically previews new versions of its iOS and MacOS operating systems months ahead of releasing the finished software to the public. It’s also a chance for the world’s most valuable tech company to lay out its vision for the future of the iPhone and consumer tech broadly.
This year, analysts think Apple will focus on incremental improvements to make its software more reliable — and be less disruptive in our lives. Apple got pulled into a debate about digital health earlier this year when shareholder groups asked the company to introduce a mode on the iPhone that helps curb compulsive smartphone use, particularly among children.
To date, Apple hasn’t take much action on the issue. Last month, Google unveiled a “digital well-being” initiative at its I/O developers' conference, including new features for Android smartphones that make it easier to activate no-distraction modes and get feedback about excessive app use.
A few other questions linger over WWDC this year: Can Apple make augmented reality useful for more than cool demos? Will virtual assistant Siri be able to catch up with archrivals Assistant from Google and Alexa from Amazon? (Amazon.com CEO Jeffrey P. Bezos owns The Washington Post.) Is the MacOS going to start merging with iOS? And will Apple dive further into its own original video programming?
What are you hoping to see Apple address? We’d love to hear from you on Twitter @geoffreyfowler and @htsuka.
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