WWDC 2026 Thoughts

I think the answer to my previous post turned out to a resounding yes, it could be done.

Siri AI

I'm still in the waiting list, but those who have it are impressed. If I was ChatGPT or Anthropic and was hoping that my free version was going to be a gateway to people paying me money then I'd be a little concerned right now. Apple potentially just Sherlocked most of the average consumer AI industry. As I've always predicted, the computing power of the phone + access to your own data is most of what most people need and most of the industry is just trying to buy the future before Moore's Law comes along and eats their lunch.

(If you're reading this and using AI tools for coding, combining skills and MCP or doing anything agentic, you're not the average consumer).

There are still lots of question marks about just how much is happening locally versus on private cloud compute, and there's nothing very agentic about most of what they showed, no obvious code execution tools - but app intents, improved local models, tool use and personal context are all there as expected.

Time will pass, chips will get faster, and they'll slowly do more locally with each passing year without users even noticing.

Speed Improvements

If I was going to talk about the improvements to Xcode and it's integration with third-party models for agentic engineering, I'd want to make sure that it had been well tested by my own developers first.

What better way to test the tools than to point them in the direction of all that operating system code we already have and ask it to look for ways to make it faster.

Everyone gets a faster system AND we get to test the tools? Sounds like a winning plan.

As somebody who has successfully used Claude to do exactly this kind of optimisation, I know how powerful it can be.

Humanity

Steve Jobs was revered for his presentation ability which many said was part of his reality distortion field. But after watching another fairly soulless Apple presentation I've come to realise that what Steve really just had was the ability to come across as human.

The special effects, unnecessary location shoots and stunt doubles were definitely toned down in this one, but the strict script, infomercial delivery and sanded down blandness were on full display. Tim Cook is robotic in his delivery, with a practiced cadence that makes me switch off whenever he talks. I don't think I've ever seen him have a genuine moment. Even in his final comments about his time at Apple he couldn't let down his guard.

When Steve did the presentations his own excitement was clear (and the opposite, see the Motorola demo). The demos, the jokes, the off-handed comments when things didn't go as planned - it all added to the feeling that every word hadn't been scripted or carefully considered for months in advance. And I'm not saying it hadn't been, I'm just saying that it didn't feel that way.

Now as one of the biggest companies in the world they would benefit from a bit of humanity. To be a bit less scripted. To be a bit less rehearsed. To be a bit more real. The emotional reaction to Apple from the public would be stronger if everything was less shiny and perfect.

I think the success of Youtube and podcasting over the past ten years is because television and radio had gotten so professional, polished and less human. We like the mistakes. We like the roughness. We like seeing something of the presenters in ourselves.

Ternus could learn something that.