Apple confirms iOS 5 and iCloud unveiling for WWDC 2011

Company takes unusual step of pre-announcing its keynote announcements.

Apple will unveil iOS 5 and its new iCloud service at its WWDC show in San Francisco next week. How do we know? Apple said so.

Yes, this is no blogosphere rumour. Apple has sent out a press release pre-announcing the key topics for CEO Steve Jobs' keynote speech at the show on Monday 6 June.

"Apple CEO Steve Jobs and a team of Apple executives will kick off the company’s annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) with a keynote address on Monday, June 6 at 10:00 a.m," explains the release.

"At the keynote, Apple will unveil its next generation software - Lion, the eighth major release of Mac OS X; iOS 5, the next version of Apple’s advanced mobile operating system which powers the iPad, iPhone and iPod touch; and iCloud, Apple’s upcoming cloud services offering."

iCloud has been the subject of constant rumours in recent months. The service is expected to build on Apple's existing MobileMe offering, but may also include streaming access to people's music and video collections. The latter will depend on the necessary licensing agreements being in place for launch.