What the stage didn't say explicitly
The WWDC 2026 keynote, a compact seventy-six minutes without the traditional per-platform structure, prioritized big messages — Siri AI, Liquid Glass, Apple Intelligence — while omitting technical details that only emerged afterward through press releases and early betas. Thurrott compiled a list of ten such overlooked announcements.
Among the most relevant: the more powerful AFM-2 on-device model requires 12GB of RAM plus an A19 Pro chip on iPhone (only iPhone 17 Pro and Air qualify), M4 on iPad, or M3 on Mac, effectively excluding the base iPhone 17 with its 8GB. tvOS 27 will not be available on the Apple TV HD (2015) or first-generation Apple TV 4K (2017). watchOS 27 drops support for six Apple Watches — including the original Apple Watch Ultra and SE 2022 — with a sharp cut that received no stage time.
The normalcy of hidden announcements
This is established practice: Apple focuses the stage on positive messaging and delegates compatibility notes and less flattering details to press releases. This time, however, the gap between what was presented and what emerged afterward is particularly pronounced — a sign that the compressed keynote format sacrificed transparency in exchange for narrative pace.