HungryGeeks

Apple's WWDC 2015 Roundup – Hungry Geeks

Franklin Garcia

Here’s everything that Apple announced in their annual WWDC 2015 keynote including Apple Music, iOS 9, OS X El Capitan and WatchOS 2.

Apple Music

Apple finally announced their much-rumored music streaming service called “Apple Music”. It will soon be available for iTunes on OS X and Windows, iOS and even Android. The service enables you to stream everything available on iTunes, and will also offer various personal-created playlist just like Spotify. There is also a connect section where any artist can post anything in the app.

The Music app has had a slight redesign too, adding a new MiniPlayer that appears above the tabs at the bottom part of the app. Similar to the iTunes Genius, you can tell Apple Music what kind of music and artists that you like and it will automatically suggest songs and playlist.

It is expected to launch on the 30th of June together iOS 8.4 priced at around Php 450.00 per month. For those who want to experience the app, Apple is offering a free three month trial.

OS X El Capitan

Apple has also announced their next version of the OS X, it is named “El Capitan”, this update focuses on performance with only a number of new features. With regards to the new features, there are new gestures that include swipe to delete email, improved Spotlight feature with movable and resizable windows and you can also pin popular sites in Safari.

It also has new feature called “SplitView” which is similar to AeroSnap in Windows 8 and other window-arranging features to help you organize your desktop and a Spaces Bar to make it easier to create and manage multiple desktops.

Together with this, the Metal graphics technology announced together with iOS 9 in making its way to OS X. It’ll bring improved detail and game performance as well as improved performance in processor hungry apps. Adobe said that it is committed to implementing Metal for its Creative Cloud apps.

OS X El Capitan is now available for developers and a public beta will be available for consumers coming this July.

iOS 9

As usual, iOS 9 enhances existing features rather than introducing new ones. Siri, for example has become 40 percent faster over the past year and handles over a billion request per week. In iOS 9, Siri is more aware and learns your habits to try and make your phone usage a bit easier. Siri can detect whenever you plug your headphones at a certain time of day and will open the Music app for you.

The most highlighted feature is the improved battery life of our iPhones, with the iPhone 6 running for an extra hour on iOS 9. If that is not enough to make you happy, Apple is adding a battery saving mode feature that can close all non-essential features and make your iPhone last for almost three extra hours.

iOS 9 will also feature a true multitasking for the iPad. It enables you to split screen apps on the iPad, similar to features available on Windows and some Android tablets. It also introduce a trackpad built into the on-screen keyboard, accessible just by putting two fingers on the keyboard and enabling the fine control over the cursor. It also has an app switching feature just like in the OS X when using the physical keyboards.

News is a new iOS app to replace the not-so-popular Newsstand app, it called “Flipboard killer” by netizens all over the social media. Similar to Flipboard, articles are given in a clean and minimalist manner and offers smooth animations in the photo gallery and videos. You can pick your favorite publications and you’ll get a custom feed suited for you.

WatchOS 2

The newly-announced WatchOS 2 is the upgraded version of the Apple Watch software, which is faster, less laggy and will be available soon. Apps will now have access in the phones microphone and accelerometer, play audio through built-in speakers and even utilize the Digital Crown.

TimeTravel is a new feature that allows you to see upcoming events/weather on your watch face widgets with the help of the Digital Crown. The new OS also lets developers add custom widgets to the available watch faces and run apps natively on the Watch – good news for developers and users.

You can now also customize watch faces with a photo. If a single photo is not enough for you, you can add a photo album and have different photos displayed every time you check your Apple Watch. Apple is also adding a time-lapse watch faces of famous location worldwide and will display time lapse of the current time of day.

Expecting other features that Apple did not mention? Let us know in the comments section below.

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