What’s next for OS X?

We don’t know the name yet – Sequoia? Big Sur? Mojave? – but we know the number: OS X 10.12 is the next Mac OS, to be unveiled at WWDC and released in the autumn. Siri is likely to be the most visible, or rather audible, change, with Siri and Spotlight becoming one. The long-term rumour of a new file system to replace the ageing HFS Plus might just happen too, although multiple reports suggest that licensing issues have made Apple abandon its plans to embrace ZFS and use BTRFS (http://bit.ly/mfbtrfs) instead. On a related note, expanding Time Machine to embrace iCloud – and reducing the cost of iCloud itself – would be widely welcomed, as would rebuilding iTunes from scratch.

OS X 10.12 is likely to be focus on integration with other Apple devices: remotely unlocking your Mac when your Watch or iPhone is detected, for example, and the same kind of notifications we’ve seen with the Watch, where notifications only appear on the device you’re using.