This was written on June 8th, and later published on August 31st, 2026.

Apple’s worldwide developer conference happened today, and there is already a host of polarizing opinions on the internet.

One of the most notable shocking aspects of today’s conference was that Tim Cook’s retirement was never mentioned until the end. John Ternus, the incoming CEO was also not mentioned at all. The keynote had the same vibe as always, with presenters doing awkward hand movements while they hold a forced smile at the camera. Rather than splitting the keynote into platforms, Apple decided to only focus on three main aspects; Platform improvements, Apple Intelligence and Siri, and Trust and Safety.

Platform improvements

Since iOS 26, my iPad (9th gen) has been unusable. It was the last iPad created with a home button, and also the last iPad with only 3GB of RAM. Not to mention, I made the decision to purchase it at base storage, 64GB, which has already been a struggle for the constant iPadOS 26 updates. My iPad has been slowed down by Liquid Glass’ visual effects to the point where I had to purchase a Macbook and start bringing it to school in order to continue being productive. Although I appreciated all the multitasking improvements added in iOS 26, it was impossible to use. Resizing windows and switching between apps was a nightmare, and the constant app crashes made it impossible to use. I’ve had to factory reset my iPad multiple times, and even then, it was still unusable.

Today, after reading many of the statistics listed on Apple’s website, I decided to update my iPad to iPadOS 27. I mostly planned to use it for Sidecar in college, but after DB1, I can tell I’ll be able to use it for more than that. The multiple seconds-long delay when opening apps and switching between them is gone, and the random app crashes are gone.

Apple Intelligence and Siri

I purchased my iPhone 16 with the expectation that Apple Intelligence would be a major part of the experience. I could have easily chosen the iPhone 15 sold at the time. I was hugely disappointed when I realized that Apple Intelligence was less intelligent than the original Siri. I was hoping that throughout iOS 18 and 26, Apple would improve the experience, but there were no major improvements.

After installing iOS 27, I can say that Apple Intelligence is finally usable. It’s still not as good as Apple advertises, but I’ve used it for a variety of tasks, including helping me with my homework, searching through messages, etc.
Its connection to the operating systems is still limited, and is mostly good as a general low-effort assistant. For example, asking to find the first message ever sent in an iMessage thread brings up a message from earlier that day. It also takes very long to process requests, and sometimes it doesn’t respond. But I’m still very satisfied with the improvements, and I hope that Apple continues to improve it in the future.

Trust and Safety

I’m conflicted about Apple’s decision to focus on parental controls. I think it shouldn’t be the role of the phone manufacturer to be the parent and boundary-setter for children. Regardless of parental controls, I’m glad that Apple is taking steps to improve trust and safety on their platforms. Putting software limits on a phone never works when kids just find workarounds five minutes later anyway. If parents actually care about boundaries, they should be taking the device away instead of expecting Apple to play digital babysitter.

Overall, WWDC26 feels like a step in the right direction. iOS 27 and iPadOS 27 are finally bringing new life into hardware that felt abandoned. Hopefully Apple keeps prioritizing performance and optimization over half-baked features moving forward, and I can’t wait to see what the next year brings.