While the pandemic in some ways may be easing, both companies are sticking with online-only events for developers this year. Credit: Dilok Klaisataporn / Getty Images Microsoft and Apple will host their respective developer conferences — Build and WWDC — over the next two months as all-virtual events, mimicking their confabs of 2020. Apple was first to announce last week that WWDC —its Worldwide Developers Conference — will take place June 7-11, those dates in line with the Cupertino, Calif. company’s usual first-full-week-of-June schedule and so several weeks earlier than last year. Meanwhile, Microsoft has now posted the dates for its Build developers conference — May 25-27 — on its company events portal. In 2020, both companies canceled their in-person conferences because of the just-starting COVID-19 pandemic, then replaced them with all-online events. Microsoft kicked off last year’s two-day Build on May 19; Apple began WWDC’s five-day run on June 22. Both conferences won accolades for, among other things, making the events accessible to much greater numbers than their physical predecessors, and for their greatly reduced or entirely eliminated fees. Of the two, Apple’s WWDC was the more professionally produced. Microsoft’s events portal notice does not yet include details about next month’s Build — and the Build website has not been refreshed to reflect this year’s conference — but it will probably be a repeat of 2020’s, which offered both pre-recorded keynotes and live-streamed sessions on numerous topics. The latter were repeated multiple times during the course of the conference and were available on-demand afterward. Apple’s 2020 WWDC was composed entirely of pre-recorded videos, and the assumption is that this year’s version will use the same format. Apple did say that more information about the conference will be issued in advance of the opening day via the dedicated app, the Apple Developer website, and email. Unless Microsoft and Apple radically change the conferences’ monetary underpinnings, they will be free (in the case of Build) and available to registered developers (Apple). Anyone can register as an Apple developer, however, simply by paying the $99 annual fee. Interested parties should keep tabs on the events by periodically visiting their hosting websites here (Microsoft) and here (Apple). Related content feature Windows 11 Insider Previews: What’s in the latest build? Get the latest info on new preview builds of Windows 11 as they roll out to Windows Insiders. Now updated for Build 22635.3566 for the Beta Channel, released on April 26, 2024. By Preston Gralla Apr 26, 2024 251 mins Small and Medium Business Microsoft Windows 11 news Dropbox adds end-to-end encryption for team folders Dropbox this week unveiled a range of features, including security updates and key management, and the ability to co-edit Microsoft 365 documents from within the file-sharing app. By Matthew Finnegan Apr 26, 2024 3 mins Cloud Storage Collaboration Software Productivity Software feature Android versions: A living history from 1.0 to 15 Explore Android's ongoing evolution with this visual timeline of versions, starting B.C. (Before Cupcake) and going all the way to 2024's Android 15 (beta) release. By JR Raphael Apr 26, 2024 23 mins Small and Medium Business Smartphones Android news analysis The unspoken obnoxiousness of Google's Gemini improvements Google's Gemini chatbot is seeing all sorts of upgrades on Android this week, but those advancements reveal a darker underlying reality. By JR Raphael Apr 26, 2024 12 mins Google Assistant Google Android Podcasts Videos Resources Events SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER From our editors straight to your inbox Get started by entering your email address below. Please enter a valid email address Subscribe