8 ‘new’ iOS and OS X Apple features that aren’t really new at all.
The kickoff for WWDC, Apple Inc.’s annual conference for third-party software developers, served as a reminder that the Cupertino, Calif., company is a world leader in smartphone design, but on software it’s often a fast follower.That might not be as true as it’s often made out to be though – here are 8 “new” features on iOS and OSX that have been around on Windows, Android and other devices for a while… Apple’s new split-screen function will allow users to organise different programs so they can all be seen at once, as well as combining them into a split screen.At its annual Worldwide Developers Conference yesterday, Apple announced updated versions of its mobile and desktop operating systems, including a focus on search, powered by its Siri “assistant” technology.
Over 2 1/2 hours, the thousands of coders and entrepreneurs gathered at San Francisco’s Moscone Center were treated to several glitzy videos with actors, comedians, music legends, scientists and a few regular folks as well. While the highlight of Monday’s event was Apple Music, a brand-new unlimited streaming service, the company also gave updates on iOS, OS X, Apple Pay and Apple Watch, and introduced some new features.
Apple is moving search closer to how we actually think—the stream of consciousness of errant thoughts and things that we want to know right this second, regardless of what device we’re on, or where we are—rather than having to fire up a web browser and manually conduct a Google keyword search. Google’s search dominance is arguably nearing its peak, and instead of fighting head on, Apple seems to be more interested in giving people access to information as soon as they want it. But make no mistake: the event was all about giving consumers hard-to-resist reasons for buying Apple’s hardware products, which are projected to fuel almost $232-billion in revenue for the business year through September. “Apple’s next-generation product ideas appear poised to further expand its consumer tentacles over the coming years, with the right products at the right time to execute as a leader in the devices and services space,” Daniel Ives, an analyst at FBR Research, wrote in a note.
This year’s event was also notable for the inclusion of more women, compared with previous years – especially after Google’s developer conference last month featured more female-led presentations. Apple has refined its Spotlight search engine for years, and now OS X will pull in information from a range of new sources beyond what’s on the computer. By pressing command-spacebar, Mac users will be able to get sports scores, directions, weather, and transit information, along with other snippets of information. Rapper Drake showed up to pitch Apple’s wares, “Canadian Poutine” appeared in a slide about multitasking and indie group The Weekend closed the show with a live performance.
Jonathan Price, Spotify’s global head of communications and public policy said that, “We already have similar family pricing in some markets and we expect to offer competitive pricing everywhere in the near future.” He also pointed out that in Sweden, Spotify already charges roughly $20 a month for a family of five. Apple owes much of its current success to smart moves it made in the music industry, from introducing the groundbreaking iPod in 2001, iTunes in 2003 and close relationships it has nurtured with musicians, most notably U2. But the overwhelming feeling was one of familiarity: features added to the Safari browser that competitors such as Firefox and Google already have; multitasking for tablets that we’ve seen on Windows; even updates to Watch that Android Wear already does.
Now, with new streaming services such as Spotify and Pandora Media making gains with new (and younger) listeners, Apple is fighting back with a streaming service of its own. If you want to see what you were working on last week, just type “Documents I worked on last week” into a Mac search bar, and the OS will pull them up. Apple Music seemed to be the announcement from WWDC that got people the most excited, but can it really be that different to the plethora of music streaming services we already have at our fingertips?
As Apple says on its preview page: “When you’re looking for something, just type it the way you’d say it.” This function—which sounds a lot like the “natural language” search found in Facebook’s Graph Search—will be available in seven languages at launch. Jimmy Iovine, a long-time music industry executive who was brought on board Apple through the $3-billion (U.S.) purchase of Beats in 2014, laid out his vision for a unified music experience. The report added that the CEO also retweeted a tweet that criticized Apple’s new News app as it read: “Apple grasping for straws presenting their native news app ‘look at the typography’ ‘we have a fun animation’.
Being able to type what you’re thinking, how you’re thinking it, right into Spotlight without the need for a search page is almost certainly a shot across Google’s bow. The new app is combination of a music-streaming service filled with 30 million songs and customized playlists based, among other things, on your iTunes library; a 24/7 Internet radio station called Beats 1; and a new musician video-sharing service called Connect.
Apple were quick to mention that their “For You” section has playlists curated by real people, not computer algorithms – but again this is nothing new, with services like Deezer offering the same. There was no obvious effort to hook users into buying the songs they listened to, and in many ways, this may be a loss-leader to keep people on Apple’s devices.
The company, which also announced more retail and financial partners, also said Apple Pay would debut in the UK at 250 000 locations next month, as Apple prepares to expand the global footprint of its mobile-payments service. At stake is a market that’s likely to process $67-billion worth of sales this year, and may increase to $142-billion by 2019, according to Forrester Research.
So Siri isn’t new, but Apple have done their best to make their personal assistant more “proactive”, like Google and Microsoft’s personal assistants are. Apple especially needs its new smartwatch to succeed – it’s the company’s first new product category in five years and the first developed entirely under the leadership of Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook. This screen is also going to be pre-filled with contextual suggested information—contacts you might want to call, traffic conditions, apps you might be thinking of opening, and even news articles that you might be interested in—based on how, when, and where you use your phone.
Basically, this is Apple’s plan to use the data your phone collects about your behaviour to help organize your day, in much the same way that Google Now does for Android. That would go a long way toward addressing a major complaint, which is that the Apple Watch is slow to respond to gestures and call up information, defeating the whole point of having a gadget to deliver information at a glance. For example: If you get a text about a restaurant, you can hit the home button, and Google Now will serve you up an information card about the restaurant.
There were a number of moments like this where a new Apple feature is basically just catching up with Google, like with transit directions on the Apple Maps app. Newsstand is being replaced by News, which is pretty much Apple’s version of Flipboard – content from publishers across the globe, which you can personalise. While the announcement of Apple Music and other services may have grabbed headlines at WWDC, the operating system for iPhones and iPads is the glue holding everything together. The key difference: Apple’s core business—selling iPhones and Macs—is less tied to serving advertisements on search pages than Google’s, which generated 68% of its revenue last year from ads on its own websites. Mac OS X El Capitan continues to drift toward a merger with iOS, incorporating gesture support into things such as the Mail app, turning some function key commands into swipeable commands on the trackpad.
It’s hugely important, if for no other reason than it’s what most users will see when they use apps, listen to music, look up information, and read messages and articles on their mobile devices. It will incorporate a new feature that Apple calls Intelligence, which suggests music when the user is going for a run, or apps that might be useful at specific times of day. The new version of iOS will also include multitasking for iPads, which will let users run two apps side-by-side, or view videos while doing something else. Back in 2012 Apple decided to replace Google Maps with their own Maps software, meaning that users could no longer receive directions for public transport using their default GPS app.
The nicest example is the ability to put a video in a small tile that you can move around, so you could use Twitter while watching Game of Thrones on the same device. That, combined with new typing features designed for larger screens, all point toward the introduction of a new, bigger iPad model, which is widely expected to debut later this year.
It still won’t have as many routes as Google Maps, which would be pretty difficult to emulate in fairness, but is a step in the right direction for Apple. The product name, El Capitan, comes from an imposing 3 000-foot tall granite rock formation in Yosemite (the code name for the current version of OS X). Almost all recent Android releases from HTC, Motorola, Samsung, LG and all the rest have come with a power-saving mode – perhaps the thing users want more than anything else. El Capitan is mainly a bunch of small visual enhancements on top of some basic rewiring of the software that will make it easier to create rich, detailed graphics.
He says he isn’t worried about the competition. “We’ve had Google ship a supposed Flipboard killer; we’ve had Facebook do that with Facebook Paper; we’ve seen Yahoo do that, and now Apple,” McCue said in an interview during Apple’s WWDC event. The company usually begins talking about new iPhones in September and other products – if it’s planning any – shortly thereafter, in preparation for the year-end shopping season. Verified email addresses: All users on Independent Media news sites are now required to have a verified email address before being allowed to comment on articles.