Back in May, the CNET Group websites (Lifehacker, Mashable, CNET, ZDNET, and PCMag) all launched the first round of the “Big Guessing Game,” a friendly competition testing our audiences’ abilitity to guess what new products and services Apple would announce this year. Round 1 was all about WWDC 2026, which kicked off on Monday. Now that we have the facts about Apple’s biggest software reveals, we can take a look at the results from the first round of questions to see how Lifehacker readers fared.
Question 1: What will Apple call its Siri chatbot?
The biggest rumors for WWDC this year were all about Siri, so it likely came as no surprise to anyone following the latest leaks when Apple reintroduced its AI-powered assistant this year, or revealed it would launch a standalone chatbot app, à la ChatGPT. But one thing was certainly up in the air: What would Apple actually call its new Siri?
Nearly half of our readers (44.19%) thought that Apple would simply stick with Siri. Another significant fraction (41.86%) answered with various names of their own. 9.3% thought that Apple would go with “Siri Chat,” but a much smaller percentage (4.65%) got the name right: “Siri AI.”
Question 2: Which iPhones will lose support for iOS 27?
Our readers had a range of answers for this one, which is understandable, considering it was pretty open-ended. Some said Apple would drop the iPhone 11 series (plus the second-gen SE), while others thought the iPhone 12 and earlier would get the axe. But the correct answer for this question was surprisingly straightforward: none. Apple didn’t drop support for any iPhones this year: If it can run iOS 26, it can run iOS 27.
That said, not all iPhones will get Apple’s latest features. If you want to try any Apple Intelligence features, including Siri AI, you’ll need an iPhone 15 Pro or newer—though that’s been the case since Apple rolled out its AI features with iOS 18. For Apple’s best-performing models, you’ll need the best iPhones—the iPhone 17 Pro, 17 Pro Max, and iPhone Air. (The iPhone fared better than the Mac and Apple Watch this year, both of which lost a bunch of devices in these updates.)
Question 3: Which codename will Apple use for macOS 27?
Apple mostly unified its naming schemes for its OSes last year, choosing to forgo the different number systems it had been running with for years. Instead of iOS 19 and macOS 15, it was iOS 26 and macOS 26. This year is no different: All of the updates are “27,” though macOS is a bit special, as Apple has for decades added a “codename” to the end of its unified name. In recent years, Apple has stuck with California-themed names, and that held true in 2026 as well.
Our readers had a huge number of guesses on this one, so the percentages are more skewed than the other questions. The top answers were “Fizz” (9.3%), “Redwood” (6.98%), “Honeycrisp” (6.98%), and Skyline (4.65%), but many other names were considered. Surprisingly, only one reader guessed this year’s name correctly: Golden Gate.
What do you think so far?
Question 4: Will macOS 27 have touch-based controls?
One of the big rumors for the Mac this year is that Apple is finally working on a touchscreen laptop. As such, the company would need to ensure that macOS 27 Golden Gate is optimized for touch, hence Question 4: We wondered if this new version of macOS would get touch-based controls, and the readers overwhelmingly thought “Yes” (73.81%).
Unfortunately, this one’s a bit tricky. Apple didn’t announce any touch-based controls at WWDC, so you might think the “No’s” have this one. But it’s possible the company is simply keeping a lid on the news until it announces its touchscreen MacBook (perhaps in the fall, closer to or even after the full launch of macOS 27). If so, the “Yeses” could still have this one. We’re going to keep Question 4 as “TBD” until future rounds, so we can see how things shake out.
Question 5: Will Apple drop support for Intel Macs with macOS 27?
As I alluded to earlier, Macs did not get the iOS 27 treatment as, far from keeping support for all the devices that ran macOS 26, Apple has now officially dropped support for all of its Intel Macs. Only Apple silicon machines will receive the new feature updates. This one might have been a bit obvious to our readers, as a whopping 93.02% answered correctly. (If you have an Intel Mac and are interested in trying Siri AI on your laptop or desktop, consider one of these Macs for your upgrade.)
Round 2 is coming soon
That’s a wrap on Round 1! Thank you to all readers who participated. Remember: Each correct answer counts as one entry in our grand-prize drawing for a new Apple Watch. Round 2 starts July 7, and is focused on Apple’s devices, so check back in next month to test your luck again!
