This year, WWDC will have something in common with American Idol

Late last night, we told you that Apple is embracing the iPhone's new role in the television industry. Even though some states are easing up on restrictions and lockdowns related to the pandemic, you certainly wouldn't want to be sitting in a television studio shoulder to shoulder with members of a live audience. That is why reality shows like American Idol are having contestants sing from their homes while the judges rate the performances from the safety of their living rooms.

To make things easier for the contestants and the judges, the show's production company sent every contestant and judge three Apple iPhone 11 Pro handsets, a ring light, and a tripod. Last month, American Idol showrunner Trish Kinane said, "In the end, we decided rather than send them some complicated camera that you really need a camera operator to use, we would go with the technology that they’re familiar with. These top-of-the-range iPhones are amazing. It wouldn’t surprise me if we were using iPhones in the studio in the future."

Apple faces a similar scenario to the one that American Idol's producers faced. Because of COVID-19, back in March, Apple decided to move the annual WWDC Developer Conference online. And exactly one week ago, Apple announced that the streaming version of WWDC will take place on June 22nd. AppleInsider reports that Apple already has broadcast-quality television cameras that it uses to disseminate live new product events; that equipment could be used to livestream the WWDC keynote during which we should hear about new features coming to iOS 14, iPadOS 14, watchOS 7 and more.

The remainder of the WWDC schedule, which has yet to be announced, consists of sessions attended by developers who interact with Apple engineers. Developers, who normally pay $1,500 for the privilege of attending the event, will be able to stream it this year for free. According to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, these sessions will be streamed using the iPhone. Gurman tweeted that if you've seen shows like American Idol, you'll know what WWDC will look like when streamed this year. The company already suggested that developers interested in virtually attending the virtual conference download the Apple Developers app from the App Store. That is where Apple will post the schedule for WWDC. The livestream most likely will be viewed through the Apple Developer website.