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Apple could be done with iTunes
If you have some time this weekend, maybe open up iTunes and double check your MP3 tags again, just for old-times sake. On Monday Apple's WWDC 2019 event starts with a keynote, and as we've heard before, it could mark a final shift away from the company's overburdened media app. Apple has already launched a TV app that will help its Apple TV+ video service reach more platforms this fall. According to Bloomberg, what we'll see on Monday will mark the end of iTunes once Apple shows off macOS desktop apps that mimic their counterparts on iOS, with separate ones for Music, TV and Podcasts. If you need to manage your iThings (local backups, OS updates, etc.), the Music app will take over there just as iTunes always has. The timing makes sense, and not just because Apple is now making billions of dollars from services that didn't exist when it launched the iTunes Music Store in 2003. We're also expecting to see the "Marzipan" apps that devs can port from iOS to the Mac, and iTunes is too old-school to fit that mold.
Apple could make the iPhone's NFC more useful at WWDC
Apple has a lot in the cards for WWDC, and that might include improvements for... well, cards. The 9to5Mac team and Steve Troughton-Smith claim to have details of developer-friendly updates that will be unveiled in early June, and NFC support would be in line for a serious upgrade. App developers will finally have the option to read NFC tags based on ISO 7816 (usually ID and access cards), FeliCa (Japan's tap-based system) and MiFare (a popular mass transit format). In other words, you might use your iPhone to enter your office or hop aboard a bus in many cities.
Apple may bring Siri Shortcuts and Screen Time to macOS
Details on what Apple may have in store for the next major versions of its operating systems are trickling out ahead of June's Worldwide Developers Conference. The latest leaks are linked to macOS 10.15, to which Apple could add some iOS features, such as Siri Shortcuts and Screen Time, according to 9to5 Mac.
The next macOS may include separate Music and Podcasts apps
Never mind attempts to slim down iTunes -- on the Mac, Apple might shove it to the side. In the wake of some sleuthing by coder Steve Troughton-Smith, 9to5Mac claims that the next version of macOS will include separate Music and Podcasts apps on top of the redesigned TV app. They would run using Marzipan (the technology that enables porting iOS apps to the Mac), and are likely to be functionally similar to whatever you see in this year's version of iOS.
HD Streaming for EVE Fanfest now on sale
Are you a big fan of EVE Online? Do you want to go to EVE Fanfest but can't fit a trip to Iceland into your budget? Do you have a spare PLEX sitting around? Are you thinking about marzipan? Because right now you can buy a high-definition stream of the entire Fanfest from CCP Games for $19.95 or one PLEX, whichever works better for you. (The marzipan thing you'll have to sort out on your own.) Buying the stream gets you access to three days of high-definition coverage, the pre-convention livestream from developers, your choice of one of four industrial ship skins, subscriber-only giveaways, and a digital version of the Fanfest shirt for 2014. Sound good to you? Then head on over and drop your money! Or you can just watch the festivities streamed for free on Twitch, but you'll have to put up with normal definition footage, like an animal.
