Apple has been keeping a lot of secrets this year, and it’s about to share some of them with us. But what will the miracles of today bring?
Talk of the day in the company International Engineering Conference starts at 10 am PT today at Apple Park in Cupertino, California. We will get glimpses of upcoming Apple features and software updates, such as previews of iOS again WatchOSbut you probably won’t see any new hardware, like Apple the foldable iPhone, at the moment.
Currently, WWDC 2026 it’s about Apple’s software features and AI advancements. And everything is still a big mystery. But that makes it fun to speculate about what’s to come.
Leaning on happiness, The CNET Group owns a The Great Guessing Game competition across its websites — CNET, Lifehacker, Mashable, PCMag and ZDNET. Three rounds of predictions let you predict what Apple will unveil this year. Each answer you get gives you one chance in the drawing to win the latest one Apple Watch announced in September.
The Big Guessing Game Round 1 was about new Apple software (such as iOS, iPadOS, VisionOSWatchOS and MacOS). Your predictions ahead of June’s WWDC event are in and they’re pretty good.
Most readers think Apple’s new CEO will speak at WWDC
June’s WWDC keynote is expected to be the last for Apple CEO Tim Cook he resigns in September. Whether Apple’s CEO, John Ternus, will speak at the event is still unknown. A majority of CNET readers (96%) believe Ternus will speak during Monday’s talk of the day, while 4% think he won’t.
Here’s something else to think about. Cook was Apple’s top executive before being named CEO. He was less involved in product development and announcements and instead created and maintained Apple’s strong supply chain ecosystem, which helped Apple become a multi-billion dollar company.
Ternus is currently Apple’s vice president of hardware engineering, and has been part of Apple’s event keynotes before. We’ll have to see when Ternus takes the stage as host, but it’s almost certain that Cook will start the event with his low-key “hello.”
MacOS 27 may not have a nickname this year
CNET readers haven’t come to a consensus on what macOS 27 will be named, but a few guesses stand out. Since 2013, macOS has had a nickname based on a California area, such as Mavericks or Catalina. Before that, Apple’s Mac software had the names of big cats like Cheetah, Jaguar and Puma.
Readers’ guesses about the new OS varied, but just over 9% believed it would simply be named macOS 27 without the California moniker this year, which would be a first. Some readers think it could be Redwood (6%), Shasta (4%) and Mammoth (3%). Other notable names include Big Bear and Emerald Bay.
Here’s a look at previous versions. Remember that Apple changed its numbering conventions in 2025 to reflect the year following its release.
- MacOS 26 (2025): Tahoe
- MacOS 15 (2024): Sequoia
- MacOS 14 (2023): Sonoma
- MacOS 13 (2022): Ventura
- MacOS 12 (2021): Monterey
- MacOS 11 (2020): Big Sur
The frequency of mentions of ‘Apple Intelligence’ is a toss-up
Based on guesses from CNET Group readers, the word “Apple Intelligence” could be mentioned anywhere from zero to a billion times during the WWDC keynote on Monday. Even among reasonable guesses, there was wide variation.
The average guess, or the average number of all guesses, was 26, but the average guess was much higher than 68. (There was a very high guess.)
We first heard this word Apple Intelligence at WWDC in June 2024, and was first released iPhones, iPads again Macs in October 2024. Since then, Apple Intelligence has become a fixture at Apple during recent AI developments.
Apple Intelligence has been introduced with several features, including text rewriting, image cleaning to remove unwanted objects, and notification prioritization. However, AI has advanced significantly since 2024, and Apple is increasingly investing in its evolution.
Recently Apple Intelligence updates accessibility features Hardware enabled: VoiceOver and Magnifier, to explain what’s on your screen. Apple Intelligence now supports natural language, allowing you to speak like a normal person to control your iPad or iPhone.
As Apple evolves to embrace AI, we’re likely to hear more about Apple Intelligence as it seeps into many aspects of the OS, such as an overdue Siri update it is expected to work on Google’s Gemini AI base models. We’ll have to wait and see how much AI dominates Monday’s WWDC keynote.
Watch this: What to Expect From Apple at WWDC 2026 | Tech Today
Readers are sure that WatchOS will get an AI health coach
Speaking of AI, most CNET Group readers (89%) believe the next WatchOS upgrade could include an AI health coach, while 11% disagree. WatchOS 26 came with a few improvements to durability, in particular The Workout Buddywhich is an AI powered personal trainer that works in real time.
Vanessa Hand Orellana, CNET’s leading smartwatch writer, said in a statement that the Workout Buddy could be Apple’s benchmark for fitness and AI. It’s also an opportunity for Apple to see what it can do with AI in a smartwatch. Orellana added that the AI-powered trainer helps you understand yours health data and encourage you to develop better habits. So a health coach that focuses on your overall well-being isn’t far off based on what we’ve seen from Apple.
Is the public beta of iOS 27 dropping in early June?
I love that Apple gives us a chance to test new software before it’s officially released Apple Beta Software The program. But we won’t know for sure when the official beta versions will be publicly available until they are.
A surprising number of CNET readers — 53% — think Apple will release the public beta version of iOS 27 this month, while only 17% predict it will arrive in July. Others think it could arrive in August (9%) or September (21%).
Although it was the third most popular guess, there is a strong argument for July — the public beta of iOS 26 came out on July 23, 2025, and the public beta of iOS 26. iOS 18 it came out on July 15, 2024. We will have to see if Apple follows the same pattern and if we will get the strategies on Monday.
Mark your calendars for July 7th for the second round of CNET’s Big Guessing Game, where we’ll focus on Apple devices, such as Apple’s beloved iPad and iPhone. Remember, every correct answer brings you closer to a chance to win the latest Apple Watch in September.