WWDC 2011: How magical will it be?

Well, the World Wide Developer Conference 2011 is today at 1pm EST and fanboys / haters are all frothing at the mouth to see what magical / terrible details Apple’s Steve Jobs will discuss.  Strap on your suspenders, polish your pocket protectors and get ready!  Click here for Engadget’s live blog, which is highly recommended.

What we do know about today is that we know absolutely nothing and that’s the way Apple likes it.  However, we can reasonably assume that iCloud, Apple’s cloud based media system, is going to be front and centre and this may be the key to many of the new features we may see in iOS 5 and likely Mac OS X Lion.  Another leak that’s been making the rounds is the extent to which Twitter may be integrated into the iOS mobile operating system.  Having become more involved in Twitter recently, I see great potential to this but the main criticism is how it will work and if non-users will be able to completely opt out of its inclusion in menus, etc.  Based on the way MobileMe and other optional features are integrated, I assume that Twitter won’t be smacking you in the face with every push of the screen, but will be neatly available for a variety of functions if the user enables it.

As far as my wishlist goes, I’d like to see a better notification system integrated into iOS, which is of course a big wish for most making their demands known across the internet.  Recently, some real steam has been put behind this idea as Peter Hajas, the creator of MobileNotifier – the highly popular Cydia tweak – suddenly resigned from his activities as main developer for the system and has now reportedly taken an internship with Apple.  So while we may not see a MobileNotifier type addition to iOS 5, we now have a jailbreak dev infiltrating Apple to hopefully bring a positive spin on the notification system.

Another thing I’m looking forward to is the possibility of more animated icons, or as Jan-Michael Cart describes them, “dynamic icons.”  In the following concept video posted on Cart’s blog, he explores the possibility of app updates being displayed directly on the icons, which can be zoomed out into quarter-page sized widgets with more detailed information.  I think this is a fabulous idea and maintain’s iOS’s aesthetically pleasing design with added functionality.

Finally, with just moments to go until WWDC kicks off, Joshua Topolsky of This Is My Next is reporting of an Apple messaging system service that may just put a stake in RIM’s heart.  Could it be true?  Tune in to your favourite tech news site now!

CREDITS: iPhoneinCanada.ca, JanMichaelCart.com, ThisIsMyNext