Tim Cook at D11

Apple's Tim Cook opened the D11 conference last night with a sitdown that touched on a number of hot-button issues, but the CEO was careful not to reveal any details about Cupertino's future plans except to say that Apple has "several more game changers in us."

Apple, of course, rarely makes news outside of its own, carefully choreographed events. One of those events will be next month's Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC), which kicks off on June 10 and will feature "the future of iOS and OS 10," Cook said last night.

The Apple CEO acknowledged that Jony Ive, Apple's senior vice president of industrial design, has been hard at work on iOS since Apple last fall dropped its iOS chief, Scott Forstall, and added "Human Interface issues" to Ive's plate.

"Jony is really key," Cook said. "We recognized that Jony had contributed significantly to the look and feel of Apple over many, many years and could do that for our software as well."

Recent rumors suggest that Ive is dropping the current lifelike design found in iOS in favor of a simpler interface, but all Cook would say is that the new iOS is "absolutely incredible."

Panel moderators Kara Swisher and Walt Mossberg also quizzed Cook about rumors of an iWatch and the market for wearable tech.

"Wearables is incredibly interesting, and I think it could be a profound area," Cook said, pointing to his Nike+ FuelBand. At this point, wearable tech that does one thing well - like fitness gadgets - are useful, Cook said. But "the ones that do more than one, there's nothing great out there that I've seen" that might convince a kid to slip on a band or a pair of glasses, he argued.

As a result, the wearables segment is "ripe for exploration," though he declined to say if Apple would be one of the firms jumping into that exploration. When pressed specifically about a wrist-based gadget, Cook said "the wrist is interesting" and "somewhat natural."

"But for something to work here, you first have to convince people that it's so incredible that you want to wear it," he said.

How about Google Glass? "I think there's some positive points in the product," Cook said. "I think it's probably more likely to appeal to certain vertical markets," but he did not envision it obtaining "broad-range appeal."

Other topics discussed during the one-hour chat included:

Is Apple in trouble? "Absolutely not," Cook said, pointing to other points in history where Apple's stock was much lower than it is now, as well as healthy sales of its flagship products, like the iPhone.

Is Apple making a TV set? "I don't want to answer," Cook said flatly, though he talked up the success of Apple TV, which has picked up steam despite the lack of a formal advertising campaign one might see for the iPhone and iPad.

Is Apple cheating the government on taxes? Cook reiterated what he told Congress recently: No. The company's tax return is "two-feet high," he said. Congress needs to "gut" the current tax code and set a reasonable tax to bring offshore profit back to the U.S., even if it means Apple might pay more taxes.

New environmental lead: Lisa Jackson, previous head of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), has joined Apple to head up the company's green efforts, and will report to Cook.

E-book price fixing: Cook said the government's case against Apple over e-book price fixing is "bizarre." He reiterated that Apple "did nothing wrong," and said Cupertino is fighting the charges because it won't admit to something it didn't do.

Apple Maps: "It's greatly improved," but still has a ways to go, Cook said.