Today is the day that many in the tech industry have been waiting for. Apple is expected to break the silence and hopefully announce several key updates. Developers paid $1599 USD to attend this event and are expecting to hear some major breakthroughs.

What can we expect? 

• iOS 7 – For the last few years, iOS has been ahead of all other mobile operating systems including Android, Windows Phone, and BlackBerry. In the last year, a lot has happened in this category that put the operating system far behind others.  In our opinion the only thing that is keeping iPhone (let’s just look at the smartphones here) users happy, is the availability and quality of the apps. If Apple does not deliver a MUCH improved iOS operating system, we feel many will finally make the switch to Android or BlackBerry 10. BlackBerry 10 offers the greatest in enterprise security and convenience of having work and personal perimeter with its Balance and they really seem to get it now. Their phones are sick, and gesture control and virtual keyboard are top of the line..but where BlackBerry falls short is the app availability as developers seem hesitant on the success of the new platform. Android has a much improved operating system, with some kick ass features, they also have the availability and qualify of many apps almost mirroring the Apple AppStore, but still fall short on operating system security. There are also several wearable technology devices such as the Nike Fuelband, Pebble, FitBit, and recently CooKoo. We also saw Tim Cook sporting a Nike Fuelband recently for an AllThingsD interview and commented about how Nike did such a great job. He also commented on the fact that wearable technology is a sector Apple is looking into so expect to see some changes in iOS to help with the future launch of an iWatch. This is make or break for Apple and the clock is ticking…

 

• OS X 10.9 – Apple will be showing off the latest in combining the OS X operating system with the iOS platform. Only minor updates are expected here but we are very interested to see what happens in this space.  Also at the time of writing this article, the Apple online store is down for maintenance so expect to see some hardware updates after the announcements.

 

The event today begins at 1:00 PM EDT and can be streamed live via Safari browser or also on Apple TV.  Click here for the live stream.  Please note the following requirements:

The video stream requires Safari 4 or later on a minimum of Mac OS X Snow Leopard, or iOS 4.2 or later for those accessing the stream from a mobile device. Streaming via Apple TV requires second- or third-generation Apple TV with a minimum of software version 5.0.2

[spoiler]