The Apple Developer portal has gone down ahead of Apple’s WWDC event later today, where Apple will announce its next-generation software platforms for Apple Watch, iOS and OS X. Posters from within the venue show that Watch OS will feature prominently as a newly rebranded as ‘watchOS’.
The jackets Apple is handing out to WWDC attendees appear to leave little doubt about our exclusive report that the company plans to adopt San Francisco as the new system font in iOS and OS X. As one of our readers tweeted, Apple has used San Francisco for the jacket lettering.
Apple is aiming to sign up a massive 100M subscribers for its streaming music service, according to a source cited by the Associated Press (reproduced in the NY Times). This would be more than double the subscriptions for all other streaming music services combined.
The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry says that existing worldwide streaming subscriptions total around 41M across all services. The market leader, Spotify, has around 4.7M subscribers in the USA … Expand Expanding Close
Mashable has conducted an interesting interview with Tim Cook on the eve of WWDC, one of Apple’s largest events of the year. Although WWDC is known for its product announcements, Apple will announce the next versions of iOS and OS X as well as a streaming music service, the interview revolved around Apple’s efforts on company employee diversity.
Asked about the lack of women at keynotes, Cook says “you’ll see a change tomorrow”. This suggests that women will indeed feature more prominently at Apple’s presentation. In the last ten years, the number of women at Apple’s events comes in at the low single digits, most recently Christy Turlington Burns. Apple’s developer sessions have better gender diversity in their speakers but these are viewable only by registered developers, not the general public.
MacStories’ Federico Viticci has posted an interesting image of WWDC banners from the second-floor of Moscone West, the WWDC event venue.
These images show Apple highlighting its three platforms: iOS, OS X and watchOS. These banners do not follow the same pattern as previous years with dramatic photography in rectangular banners. These are more like full-height wall posters with simpler geometric logos. Each image has the name of Apple’s OS written in a light font-face (the image is not clear enough to see whether this is Sans Francisco) on a simple background of multicoloured translucent shapes.
What’s particularly striking about this photo is that it confirms a rebranding of Apple’s smartwatch operating system. On Apple’s current public marketing, the Apple Watch is described as running ‘Watch OS’. By these banners, it can be seen that the new name for this platform is actually ‘watchOS’. Expand Expanding Close
In a letter received by the leaders of AltConf, it was revealed that Apple is cracking down on the live streaming of its WWDC video content at events other than its own. AltConf, which is a community-based developer conference being held in San Francisco the same week as WWDC, had planned to stream content from WWDC in its Viewing Room, but received a letter from an Apple legal representative which demanded that AltConf cease all plans to stream Apple content.
This firm represents Apple Inc. (“Apple”) in certain matters. Apple has recently learned that AltConf 2015 (“AltConf”) is promoting its intent to stream live content from Apple’s WWDC events, including the Keynote address, and is charging $300 for guaranteed spots in the viewing area for the live streams.
Publicly streaming Apple’s WWDC content in the manner in which AltConf proposes would violate Apple’s copyright rights in the content. This is particularly the case where AltConf proposes to offer the content for profit. Therefore, Apple requests that you refrain from publicly streaming the WWDC addresses.
In the letter, AltConf was told that it will not be allowed to show any content from WWDC at its event. AltConf has shown the WWDC keynote for the last several years with no backlash from Apple. Expand Expanding Close
We’ve already run down much of what can be expected from iOS 9, OS X 10.11 and Apple Music at the 2015 Worldwide Developers Conference, and now it’s time to run down what 9to5Mac’s editors want to see at the conference. You can find our hopes below, and stay tuned for our comprehensive roundup of what to expect at WWDC.
Google I/O is behind us and brought along interesting integration for iOS users, but now WWDC 2015 is right around the corner. This week we’ll discuss some upcoming announcements and expectations including a native Apple Watch SDK and how Apple plans to take on Google Now in iOS 9. There’s also a new bug feature that made some important changes to the heart rate sensor on Apple Watch. The Happy Hour podcast is available for download on iTunes and through our dedicated RSS feed…
With WWDC coming up next week, Apple has started preparing for the big day. Following the launch of the Apple TV channel for the keynote stream yesterday, the company has started decorating Moscone West with Apple logos and banners.
With Apple steadily rolling out its mobile payment service across the United States, support for Apple Pay has now gone live from these new banks and credit unions: Expand Expanding Close
Insteon, Lutron, iHome, Elgato and Ecobee have all just announced that their HomeKit products are now officially available and/or shipping to customers.
A week ahead of the Monday, June 8th Worldwide Developers Conference kickoff keynote, Apple has announced that it will be live streaming the event, which starts at 10 AM Pacific/ 1 PM Eastern Time. The company has updated its Apple Events application on the Apple TV to feature next week’s streaming video. Apple is yet to update its website, but the company will likely stream the keynote on its website for both Macs and iOS Devices running the Safari Web browser. While Apple will be live streaming the event, we’ll have live news and analysis over the course of the week-long conference, and especially before, during, and after the keynote presentation. At the conference, we expect Apple to introduce iOS 9, OS X 10.11, Apple Music, and new Apple TV hardware.
The first home automation products using Apple’s new Siri-controlled HomeKit platform will arrive next week, according to sources briefed on Apple’s plans. Expand Expanding Close
According to a new report from The New York Times, Apple will, as expected, announce new details and enhancements for Apple Pay at WWDC next month. The report, citing two people briefed on the product, claims that Apple plans to add a rewards program to Apple Pay.
Big improvements will be coming to Apple Watch apps later this year, Apple SVP of Operations Jeff Williams revealed during an interview at the Code Conference. In the current version of the Watch OS software, apps need to run on the iPhone rather than the watch itself, which puts a serious damper on performance.
However, that will change this fall, Williams said, when native watch apps are finally made possible…
Apple has today confirmed that the WWDC keynote will be held at 10 AM PST on June 8th as usual, from the WWDC schedule in the newly-updated app. Apple will announce the next-generation versions of its operating systems, iOS 9 and OS X 10.11 with the potential for some new hardware and some surprises. Apple is expected to unveil its new streaming music service, based off Beats. It has also sent out WWDC keynote invites to select members of the press.
Like last year, Apple is teasing developers with a whole host of TBA sessions during the week of the conference with ‘inviting’ names. There’s over 180 ‘secret sessions’ in total. The details of these sessions are currently secret as they rely on information about iOS 9 and OS X 10.11 that is yet to be announced, so for now they use amusing placeholder titles until the keynote is over.
Apple has just released version 3.0 of its WWDC app for iPhone and iPad ahead of the big developer conference kicking off on June 8th. Notably, the updated version includes support for the Apple Watch for viewing conference info from the new device, including a WWDC glance: Expand Expanding Close
The timing for the launch of Apple’s planned web-based TV service may depend on if and when the company can secure the rights to include content from local TV stations, Re/codereports. While Apple has been believed to be working on service that bundles access to a handful of channels delivered over the Internet, the new report claims that Apple wants to include live local programming from TV stations to both broaden the appeal of the service — especially with cord cutters — and satisfy industry executives… Expand Expanding Close
Nearly a month after the release of the first-generation Apple Watch with Watch OS 1.0, a proven source has disclosed a collection of upcoming Apple Watch software and hardware updates. Currently in development, the features seek to enhance Apple Watch security, connectivity with other Apple devices, health and fitness features, Wi-Fi capabilities, and integration with third-party applications. Additionally, Apple is also priming major updates for the Apple TV in both the hardware and software departments, including Apple Watch integration. Below, we detail what users can expect from Apple Watches and Apple TVs in the future…
While Apple has never announced an official launch date for HomeKit, its Siri-controlled home automation platform first introduced alongside iOS 8, a new report claims that products will be delayed as Apple runs into some roadblocks.
Rumors are already floating around about Apple’s iPhone 6s and we’ve got the rundown on everything. Along with that, we discuss WWDC 2015 and our expectations for software and hardware announcements. The Happy Hour podcast is available for download on iTunes and through our dedicated RSS feed…
With its major developer conference scheduled to kick off in just over four weeks, Apple has started sending out WWDC scholarship notifications to winning applicants. Scholarship recipients avoid the limited lottery system for purchasing a ticket while the $1599 price of the ticket is waived. This year the scholarship program includes 350 slots for student developers and STEM (science, technology, engineering, math) organization members. In previous years, the scholarship program has been limited to 200 tickets. Apple will reveal the latest versions of iOS and OS X during the WWDC keynote. The conference begins June 8th. You can read the full email below:
As was previously known, Re/code notes that the recent hire of BBC Radio 1 DJ Zane Lowe and other BBC DJs is a plan to help bolster iTunes Radio’s curated playlist feature by manually compiling track lists instead of allowing an algorithm to make the decisions. The site also notes that iTunes Radio will be available in additional countries, which we first reported earlier this week. A few other new details were also mentioned.
