Tuesday morning, Siri let it slip[1] that Apple would hold a special event on April 20 from its campus in Cupertino, CA. Just a few hours later, Apple officially announced the event by sending out invites. The tagline for the event is "Spring Loaded," and it will indeed take place next week from Apple Park. Apple is once again holding an online-only event, as it did throughout 2020 due to the pandemic, and is the case for WWDC21 which kicks off June 7[2].
Apple will stream the event on Apple.com with a start time of 10:00 a.m. PT/1:00 p.m. ET.
Apple fans usually try to decipher what the artwork in the invite means, and while the artwork here definitely has an Apple Pencil vibe to it, I'll leave it to others to decide what's going on.
iOS 14.5, iPadOS 14.5, TVOS 14.5
Apple has had software updates for the iPhone, iPad, Apple TV, Apple Watch and Mac in beta since early February, which is a long time for a mid-cycle update. Usually larger updates, like going from iOS 13 to iOS 14, have a long beta period.
That said, there's a lot in the suite of software updates Apple is expected to release any day now. For example, Apple's App Track Transparency (ATT) feature will go live with the upcoming update. With the launch of ATT, Apple will require that users specifically opt-in to allow an app to track them across third-party apps and websites. This, of course, is a controversial feature for any company that relies on tracking to sell and serve ads to users.
The update also includes other new features, such as the ability to unlock a Face ID-equipped iPhone while