After months of rumors and speculation, Apple’s annual Worldwide Developers Conference is imminent. In just a few short days, all that rumor and speculation will finally be answered, and we can make way for…new rumor and speculation. (At least then it will be based on things we’ve actually seen.)

But as we enjoy our last hurrah before the hurricane of news and updates hits, it’s time to compile a look at what exactly we might be expecting when Apple executives appear (in a no doubt slickly compiled video) at Apple Park next week, and what isn’t likely to make the cut.

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Zac Hall at 9to5Mac:

Prioritizing Apple Music Classical for Android over Apple’s other platforms does make sense, though. The separate app is based on Apple’s acquisition of Primephonic, which was a standalone classical music subscription service, and the Android app went away with Apple’s purchase. That’s similar to how Apple Music for Android has served as a replacement for Beats Music for Android.

Well, yes and no. I’m sure the Apple Classical app leverages a lot of Primephonic’s work, but just looking at the app also makes it clear that it’s drawing heavily from Apple Music; it seems unlikely that it’s more technically challenging to bring Apple Classical to the Mac and iPad than it is for Android.

That said, Apple could very well have metrics from both Apple Music and Primephonic showing which devices people use to listen to classical music, and it decided to prioritize where there were more users. I also wonder if developers of Android apps at Apple might have somewhat more availability than engineers working on apps for its own platforms—especially right now.

Despite all that, the lack of support for macOS, iPadOS, tvOS, and CarPlay definitely feels a bit awkward. Here’s hoping a subsequent release will not only improve the Classical app for iOS (which hasn’t been substantively updated since launch) but also bring users of the rest of Apple’s platforms into the fold.

Go to the linked site.

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It’s time for our eighth annual competition regarding what will happen at Apple’s WWDC keynote! Jason and Myke will be there in person—but what will be announced? Is the Apple mixed-reality headset really going to happen? Will there be room for new Mac hardware? And what do we anticipate for macOS, iOS, iPadOS, and watchOS?

Go to the podcast page.

Why would a letterpress book called Six Centuries of Type & Printing be the “sponsor” of Six Colors? For two reasons: First, author and tech journalist Glenn Fleishman (that’s me!) is a long-time fan and friend of Jason, Dan, and Six Colors. Second, this letterpress book both involves and is about technology—it’s a neat fit if you’re an avid reader of this site or you are looking for a gift for someone with a hankering for industrial history or a typographically inclined person. (The Six in both titles is purely coincidental.)

Six Centuries of Type & Printing is a 64-page romp through the history of printing and type told through technological innovations. You’ll learn what Gutenberg likely invented and why it took until around 1450 CE for printing using individual pieces of type, each one a character, to really take off worldwide—even though such printing types were used in China and Korea at least centuries before.

The book encompasses all the major inventions in printing, from Gutenberg through the present day. You’ll meet all the significant people—Ottmar Mergenthaler! David Bruce! James Clephane!—and elements of progress that got us to where we are, with a lot of fun words like quoin, chase, swift, pantograph, and flong along the way. Find out why hand typesetting was a spectator sport in the 1880s!

The book was printed in 2020 by letterpress in London from type set in hot metal in North Yorkshire, England, in an edition of just over 400. It was bound in Germany, with a hardcover luxuriously wrapped in a foil-stamped green cloth. The book comes in a slipcase of the same material.

Readers of this blog take $10 off the $160 price when ordering by using the code SIXSIX. That price includes the letterpress book and its ebook counterpart, which contains a full bibliography. (Price includes shipping within the U.S.)

Hey, it’s our antepenultimate week talking about the Apple headset speculatively! New apps are a-shipping and generative AI asks “How many fingers am I holding up?”…

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