Apple’s refreshed code for the WebKit layout engine used by Safari and other web browsers includes references to the major iOS 15 and macOS 12 software updates launching this fall.
STORY HIGHLIGHTS:
- iOS 15 and macOS 12 previews due this summer.
- The updates should release publicly in the fall.
- Apple has yet to announce WWDC 2021 dates.
iOS 15, macOS 12 and WWDC 2021
9to5Mac has the story:
WebKit code usually refers to future versions as TBA to hide their actual version numbers. 9to5Mac was able to confirm that the mentions of iOS 15 and macOS 12 were added to the open-source WebKit repository last month. It was added with the commit message ‘Update WKWebView getUserMedia delegate to latest proposal,’ by an Apple employee who works on the WebKit technology.
Notably, these are the first references of macOS 12.0 and iOS 15.0 to come from Apple.
As it’s done in years past, Apple will reveal the marketing name for macOS 12.0 at WWDC. In 2020, as an example, Apple announced that the marketing name of macOS 11.0 would be Big Sur. It also changed the macOS naming conventions for the first time since the introduction of Mac OS X in 2000 as it jumped from macOS 10.15 Catalina to macOS 11.0 Big Sur.
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Apple will almost definitely preview the next major updates to these mobile and desktop operating systems at its annual pilgrimage for developers. In 2020, however, there was no in-person WWDC due to the COVID pandemic so Apple streamed a pre-recorded keynote instead.
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It’s unclear whether the upcoming WWDC 2021 will also be an online-only presentation because it’s not currently clear that President Biden’s administration can make good on its promise to make all American adults eligible for a coronavirus vaccine by May 1 and whether that could bring a greater sense of normalcy by the summer.
If so, there’s a slim chance that this year’s WWDC could be an in-person event or at least an online event with some sort of in-person components. So far, the COVID pandemic has killed more than half a million people in the United States, the most of any country.