For the past year, Apple’s head of design Jony Ive has reportedly been taking a hatchet to the skeuomorphic design principles of iOS. When iOS 7 is announced later today, it is widely expected that he will show us a much more modern-looking operating system, one emboldened by what is widely called a ‘flat’ design aesthetic.

But let’s keep a little bit of perspective here. Jony Ive isn’t completely overhauling iOS 7 because of some petulant, blind hatred for skeuomorphism. He’s doing so because he’s a pro, and skeuomorphism is solving a problem that iOS no longer has: how to teach people to use devices that, a mere six years ago, seemed impossibly futuristic and sci-fi-like!

Today’s the day, folks! In just a few hours, Apple will kick off WWDC 2013 with a first look at its next-generation iOS 7 operating system. We’re expecting big changes with this update, and according to sources for The Wall Street Journal, those will include a brand new look, new ways to share your photos and videos, and a new music streaming service.

You can also expect to see a glimpse of OS X 10.9 and new notebooks at the event.

Battery life! It’s a thing!

To get the most time out of your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch battery, you have to manage it. There’s no substitute for figuring gout how your iPhone uses power, and then optimizing your usage and the enabled services and features on your iPhone to make sure you get the most life out of your battery.

Here are five ways you can stay firmly in charge of your battery.

As we’re all Mac users here (at least I hope so!), it’s a good idea from time to time to learn new things on our favorite computer, to make our Mac life just that bit more fun and productive.

With that in mind, here are five easy keyboard tricks that you can use that you
may not have already known about. Give them a try and let us know what you think in the comments section at the end.

Enjoy!

You won’t have a lot of spare time at the World Wide Developer’s Conference — what with the sessions and a packed schedule of parties — but here are a few great ways to spend those precious hours, whether you know San Francisco like you know your code or are here for the first time.

Look, all these great tips for saving your iPhone battery are not very useful if they don’t apply to you. Your iPhone use is uniquely your own, and you really ought to get a handle on how your battery is affected as you apply the various strategies to help conserve power when you need it.

Otherwise, why bother, right? Here’s how to check your battery usage stats right on your iPhone, as recommended by Apple.

Apple’s Worldwide Developers conference is right around the corner, dear brethren, and on this episode of The CultCast, we’ll ponder the new hardware rumors surrounding the big event, like whispers of new MacBooks with dramatically extended battery life and even more power; Airs with retina displays, and why that’s now very possible; updates to the long-neglected Mac Pro; Intel’s powerful yet power-sipping Haswell chips; and soooo much more!

Join us and Gizmodo Chief New York Wired Editor Joe Brown for an extra long CultCast all about our WWDC expectations, hopes and dreams. Stream or download new and past episodes on your Mac or iDevice by subscribing now on iTunes, or hit play below and let the good times roll.

Show notes up next. Namaste.

Bluelounge’s new MiniDock really is mini. It’s a tiny little dock which perfectly matches the cuboid charger that came with your iPhone or iPad mini, and turns it into a wall-mounted dock. The device is as portable and effective as it is handy, especially if you never use a case. I have one here in Cult of Mac’s Spanish HQ, and I have been putting it through its paces in our Extreme Test Lab.

How much interest is there in Apple’s World Wide Developer Conference?

Enough to stage an alternative free five-day conference with over 40 speakers and hands-on labs that WWDC attendees may want to check out for all the topics Apple isn’t likely to cover. For the second year running, AltWWDC will be hosting the have-nots (as in have no WWDC tickets) for a gathering cloned from the official conference.

Just a few blocks from Moscone Center at the San Francisco State downtown campus, devs from around the world will be hanging out and helping each other out. There will be a volunteer lab to tackle things like crash debugging as well as talks on game development and “marketing you won’t hate.”

Around 1,500 people have signed up, meaning, yeah, even free/freewheeling AltWWDC is technically “sold out.” No worries: if you don’t have a ticket, as long as there’s room to plant your laptop, you’re in.

Cult of Mac talked to Rob Elkin, a London-based software engineer and one of the four founders of AltWWDC about what constitutes an “alt” keynote breakfast, talks Apple doesn’t want you to hear  and sponsors.

We’ve been hearing reports for weeks now that Apple has been slowly signing deals with the three major music publishers to launch their new streaming music service, iRadio. There was just one conspicuous holdout. Sony. But now, the deal has been inked.