Apple WWDC Keynote
by Volker Weber
Reality distortion field collapses. Time for some remarks.
- OS X El Capitan gets a bunch of new features. People will upgrade because it's free, but most likely never use the new features. There is so much stuff I have not learned in years, and I am an interested party.
- iOS 9 renames a few things. Passbook becomes Wallet. News replaces Newsstand and is Apple Flipboard, launches only in the US, UK, and down under. Siri learns new tricks from Cortana. Side by side apps? I have seen that somewhere else, but I can't quite put my finger on it. Make the next version work better on old hardware. That would be something.
- watchOS matures. Finally you will have native apps, and that's where stuff gets exciting. Instead of ugly custom watchfaces, Appe lets developers make "Complications". Which is the bits and pieces that appear on the existing watch faces. Plus one important watchface: you can put photos of your kids right there, on your watch. Each time you raise your wrist, you get a new one. People will love that.
- Apple Music. Three months free, that's going to make a big dent. And a whole family of six for 15 instead of 10 quid. That is the revolutionary part. A global radio station? Hmmh. Last I looked not all people found the same music great. Artist connecting with me? Go away. Unlisted artists? That's a good move from the Youtube playbook. Now Apple needs to add one thing: make it play with Sonos & Co. Then we are talking.
Tim, I have one question: how many Apple Watches did you sell?
Now let me play some Alabama Shakes ... on Sonos, but not over Apple Music, yet.
Comments
Ich habe den Eindruck, die Keynote war etwas dünn - täuscht das oder könnte das sein? Split Screen auf Tablets, ja wo war das nur seit Jahren so 😇 Aber jetzt ist es ja cool 😁
The connecting to unlisted artists bit sounds like they are trying to relaunch Apple Ping again.
"Make the next version work better on old hardware" will generate approaching zero revenue.
Opening Swift2 is a bummer.
Why is it a bummer?
@Volker: Still in troll mode after watching the keynote on Twitter. :-) Opening Swift and bumping its feature set to 2.0 is the biggest thing ever. Frameworks should follow. Reasonable after .NET's appearance on GitHub.
Well, that looks like a language problem then.
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=bummer
As I said: troll mode. :-) Was using the term like disappointment, letdown.
A lot of old farts (who used to live from coding in Objective-C in the NextStep middle age) complained about opening Swift. Probably as it may attract more talented guys who currently don't like the square brackets...
Your take on the WWDC 2015 keynote spot-on as usual.
As for Apple Music, what makes you think it won't be available to Sonos which, btw, looks to me as a niche market.. or is it not?
Last but not least, thank you for pointing us to Alabama Shakes (the spelling is different but I guess it's what you meant) great sound but I can find it easily on iTMS and even on Apple Radio I was able to setup a channel so what's your point here?
Pieterjan, Apple has traditionally been very difficult to work with. Sonos is putting in quite some effort, and lately they have been releasing support for new services, out the door. When Tidal launched, Sonos was available right away.
Beats Music is available on Sonos, so there is hope.
What I meant is that I listen to Alabama Shakes on Sonos, but the music isn't coming from Apple. If Apple Music does support Sonos one day, I am likely to become a subscriber.
OK, I think I got the idea now.
Didn't know Apple Radio was not available via Sonos.
What a bummer, the real way this time. ;-)
@Craig, but it keeps the customers happy, creates a better brand name and therefore in the end better revenue.
Indeed. You want to keep as many customers with you as possible. They will buy new prodcuts in the future. No need for planned obsolence. The issue is mostly memory. Both RAM and Flash. I don't mean gaming. Just snappy performance for everyday use. And no upgrade issues on low storage. I see that Apple is working on that with app thinning.
I agree - my iPod is now 8 years old and still works fine.
I pick it up like my cellphone whenever i leave my home because it feels good to know that hearing my Songs or watching a Video doesnt burn my Smartphone battery.
That was my first Apple product ever. And even today the design looks great and the buttons and usability works great - in my eyes.
I can hardly remember a product with such a quality and feelings ... except Palm V or a Sony Clie PEG ... All other it gadgets came and were gone without a trace ... And I will not forget the beginning oft these devices:
Atari Portfolio ...
