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Apple will reportedly debut its music streaming service at WWDC
by03.05.2015
If you're hoping that Apple will launch its retooled music streaming service alongside a smartwatch next week, you'll have to wait a bit longer. 9to5Mac reports that Monday's "Spring Forward" event won't include details on the next phase of iTunes/Beats Music. Instead, the audio subscription option will launch at WWDC in June as part of an iOS update that annually rolls out soon after. Reportedly priced around $8 per month, the music service is said include features like curated playlists and content tailored to users' personal tastes -- both of which are key pieces of Beats Music. As you might expect, an app for the new service will make its way to Apple TV, and the same report claims a redesigned (read: slimmer) case and more capable remote control are on the way for Cupertino's set-top box. However, with the rumored 13-inch iPad and Retina MacBook Air that we may see this year, it'll be interesting to see how Apple plans to reveal a highly-anticipated update to its living room tech.
Caturday: Pepper approves of iOS 8 and OS X Yosemite
by06.28.2014Earlier this month, Apple fans from around the world eagerly watched WWDC 2014 to see what Apple had in store for iOS and OS X. As shown in this wonderful Caturday photo from a TUAW reader, people weren't the only captivated members of the audience -- some felines were curious about Apple's big announcements, too. This lovely black and white cat, named Pepper, was spotted catching up on the latest WWDC news using an iPad owned by a family friend. Judging by the look on Pepper's face, Apple's keynote was just purrrfect. We'll be starting up our Dog Days of Summer feature on July 5, so we'd like to ask our canine-owning readers to start sending in those pics of their favorite pups hard at work on "their" Apple devices. If you have a Dog Days nominee to share, let us know via our feedback page (and please remember that the photo has to have some sort of connection to Apple and its products -- don't just send us a photo of your canine buddy). For security reasons we can't accept inbound attachments, so you should host the photo (Dropbox, Flickr, iPhoto Journals, etc.) and send us the link. Many thanks to Lauren Neilly for the picture of Pepper perusing Apple's presentation.
Dev Interview: Oleksandr Kosovan, MacPaw
by06.11.2014TUAW and MacTech are once again teaming up to interview developers surrounding Apple's announcements at WWDC. Hear what they have to say. Introduction We'd like to welcome our guest, Oleksandr Kosovan, CEO at MacPaw. MacPaw develops products for Mac, iOS, and Oleksandr took some time to tell us about WWDC and how it impacts the company. What were you most excited about hearing in Apple's recent announcements? The biggest things we're excited about are Home Kit and iBeacon. Even though they're not directly related to our business, they open a whole new layer of possibilities for smart home devices. But there are couple of more things which we found pretty exciting: iCloud drive -- we hope iCloud finally will work as it was supposed to and that our users will benefit from it. Touch ID APIs -- finally we have it! What does your company do? We're a fresh, independent software development company located in Kyiv, Ukraine. We specialize in software development using the latest Mac OS X technologies. Our objective is, and always will be, to release innovative software and information technology solutions. Our main concern is our customers' needs and we always do our best to listen to them. We have several standout software solutions: CleanMyMac 2 (our main software) is an all-in-one Mac cleaner that removes apps, data, and gigabytes of unnecessary junk. It's a powerful cleaning app that's beautifully designed to make cleaning and organizing your Mac incredibly simple. Hider 2 (our newest release) is an app that lets you hide, encrypt, and password protect private data on your Mac. It has custom grouping, global shortcut keys, and an array of other organizational features that make keeping track of your hidden data a piece of cake. Gemini: The Duplicate Finder is an easy-to-use, duplicate-finding utility for Mac. It finds duplicate files, folders, photos, archives, and more. And it has an Auto-Select feature which means less time spent on removing duplicates, and more time spent without them. Listen (for iPhone) is a music player designed to help you focus on things besides the music player. It runs via gestures, not buttons, which helps you stay focused on the task at hand without having to look for the controls. It's the ultimate minimalist music player. DevMate is a development and distribution assistance platform for Mac Developers. It gives developers a jump start on tracking, analytics, and marketing their applications. What is the coolest thing you can tell us about what you do? CleanMyMac 2 is the safest and most powerful system cleaning and maintenance utility. It has a special feature called the Safety Database, which is a list of items, rules, and exceptions that CleanMyMac refers to in order to correctly select and clean out the junk on your Mac. It currently has over 1,500 operational rules and exceptions to prevent even the smallest of mishaps when cleaning your Mac. Did Apple make any announcements that will impact your direction? Actually, they did. The new iTunes Connect provides similar possibilities to what our DevMate platform does. However, it gives only basic statistics and analytics data, so we believe iTunes Connect will help developers choose more complex solutions as they grow. The new Yosemite OS X interface will definitely impact on the way our apps look, so we've already started adjusting the interface for our next app release. What's coming from you and your team? We plan to release a couple of major updates for our existing Mac apps, as well as an open beta version of DevMate for a wider audience. Anything more you can tell us? Well, unfortunately we didn't see any new devices at the WWDC. However, the good thing about this is that Apple is turning the WWDC into a developers conference; it's providing developers with a bunch of new tools and possibilities for growth. Find out more For more information on MacPaw, see www.macpaw.com This developer interview was put together by the staff of TUAW and MacTech Magazine about how Apple's new technologies will impact them and you, their customers. What to know more about MacTech? See the web site, or check out one of the many live events MacTech puts on each. If you're a developer, consultant, or IT Pro, come join TUAW and media throughout the industry at MacTech Conference 2014.
WWDC 2014 session videos available online
by06.09.2014Apple's WWDC event has exploded in popularity in recent years, making it extremely difficult for most interested developers to secure tickets. Not to worry, though, because session videos from WWDC 2014 are available for your viewing enjoyment via Apple's developer website. Per usual, the videos are free to download, a welcome change from years past when purchasing access to iPhone and Mac sessions would set you back as much as $499. You can check out a listing of all the available session videos over here. There are about 107 in total and they cover any and everything iOS and OS X related. Naturally, there are a few session videos devoted exclusively to Swift, Apple's new programming language. The videos can be downloaded or streamed via Safari running on OS X Lion or later. Interested users can also watch WWDC session videos via Apple's WWDC app.
Talkcast tonight, 7pm PT/10pm ET: WWDC Wrapup Edition
by06.08.2014New dial-in experience! Set up Fuze Meeting before the show if you want to join in live. Having absorbed the information (among other things) that WWDC has to offer, we're ready to give you the highlights on this week's TUAW Talkcast! We'll be chatting about the announcements from WWDC and look ahead to how this changes things for users and developers alike. Reminder on new-style talkcasting: With some help from the fine folks at Fuze, we're using a new system to record the show. This should let everyone listen in live -- and, if you want, raise your hand as you would in the Talkshoe room to get unmuted and chime in. You can join the call in progress (meeting # is 20099010) at 10 pm ET from any computer via this link; if you download the Mac or Windows Fuze clients ahead of time, you'll get better audio and a slicker experience, but browser-only will work fine. Just click the phone icon to join the audio once you're in. Using an iPhone or iPad? Grab the native clients from the App Store and get busy. (Even Android users can join the party.) Still feel like using the conventional phone dial-in? Just call 201-479-4595 and enter the meeting number 20099010, then press #. While the Fuze web and native clients have a chat channel, we'd like to reserve that for host participants, requests to talk and other real-time alerts... so the full-on chat for the show will appear in this very post at 10 pm tonight. You'll need Twitter, Facebook or Chatroll credentials to participate in the chat. We'll remind everyone to check back in at that time.
Dev Interview: Wil Shipley, Delicious Monster
by06.08.2014TUAW and MacTech are once again teaming up to interview developers surrounding Apple's announcements at WWDC. Hear what they have to say. Introduction We'd like to welcome our guest, Wil Shipley, Chief Monster at Delicious Monster. Delicious Monster develops products for Mac, iOS, and Wil took some time to tell us about WWDC and how it impacts the company. What were you most excited about hearing in Apple's recent announcements? iCloud Drive is something I want to use all the time. I like the improvements in Mail and Safari a lot, and I appreciate that they're concentrating on making those apps solid instead of doing crazy new stuff and letting their old apps rot. Continuity is a technology I've wished for every time I go to a website on my Mac. I end up texting a lot of stuff to myself, this is SO much nicer. And we used to have caller ID and dialing our phones from our Macs back in 2004 with iSync and our Moto RAZRs, it's nice to see it's finally back with the iPhone. Swift seems like it could be really fun, but I'm a bit more guarded about that. New languages are hard to get right, and I've been using Objective-C for 25 years now. What does your company do? Delicious Monster sell Delicious Library, which lets users catalog all their books, DVDs, music, hardware, software, and other collectibles on their Macs. What is the coolest thing you can tell us about what you do? We pioneered the "shelf" interface that iBooks uses and invented the videocamera-based barcode scanner which is now industry standard. Did Apple make any announcements that will impact your direction? Their HomeKit ties in directly with work I'm doing on my next, unannounced product. I hope like heck it's supported on the Mac and iOS! I'm also incredibly glad to see SceneKit on iOS. I lobbied hard for this, since both Delicious Library and my new app use it extensively. I may be able to use the new iCloud features to publish users' libraries from Delicious Library even more easily, but I can't make any promises until I've seen what it does. What's coming from you and your team? I'm working on my first all-new product in 10 years. I haven't announced what it does yet, but it'll be amazing if I pull it off. Anything more you can tell us? I'm excited by the changes in OS X and iOS. I think Apple has taken a close look at the apps we use every day, and trying to make them incrementally better for us. I spend 90% of my time in Mail, Preview, Safari, Calendar, and Xcode, and so it's great to see those get lots of love, instead of them announcing some new way for me to play drums. Find out more For more information on Delicious Monster, see http://delicious-monster.com This developer interview was put together by the staff of TUAW and MacTech Magazine about how Apple's new technologies will impact them and you, their customers. What to know more about MacTech? See the web site, or check out one of the many live events MacTech puts on each. If you're a developer, consultant, or IT Pro, come join TUAW and media throughout the industry at MacTech Conference 2014.
Humor: WWDC supercut shows you everything is awesome
by06.06.2014This year's WWDC keynote was an incredibly positive experience, complete with laughs, exciting new technology, and a cameo from Dr. Dre. But just how positive was it? The Twit Netcast Network has compiled a supercut of every single positive adjective from this year's keynote, and it's a surprisingly funny experience. You can check out the awesome, great, powerful, best, incredible, inspirational video below.
"Apple is looking old and stale"
by06.06.2014In my post-Apple-WWDC-keynote haze, I did what I usually do after a big Apple event: I read anything and everything I could regarding the event. Analysis, rundowns, roundups, and galleries are all fair game, and to my surprise the general consensus -- even from the notoriously pessimistic Wall Street crowd -- was extremely positive. This was surprising to me not because I think the announcements were disappointing, but simply because without a handful of new physical products to show off, Apple's events are usually met with plenty of ignorant eye-rolling. I went from glowing analysis to glowing analysis thinking somehow things had changed... and then I stumbled upon this piece by Computerworld's Preston Gralla, and I knew everything was once again in balance. The following are quotes from Gralla's "WWDC shows it's Microsoft, not Apple, who's got the mojo": And [sic] has been usual in recent years, Apple's announcements were not particularly ground-breaking. It's just one more example of why Microsoft -- yes Microsoft -- has got the mojo these days, and Apple is looking old and stale. There's certainly nothing earth-shattering. Without Steve Jobs, Apple is turning into just another technology company. If you want to look for startling moves these days, you have to look to Microsoft. Well, beyond today's garden-variety announcements, it's buying Beats Music for $3 billion. Analysts are mixed whether the move is a good one, but that's almost beside the point. It should have owned streaming music, and not be playing catch-up. Instead, it's spending $3 billion to buy its way in. Will the trend of a resurgent Microsoft and a static Apple continue? There's no way to know. But right now, Microsoft's got the mojo, and Apple doesn't.
How we react during every major Apple announcement
by06.04.2014This video hit close to home. It's almost as if they were monitoring the TUAW newsroom during this year's WWDC keynote. Thankfully we're not being bugged, this is just a dead-on recreation of how Apple fans react during every major Apple event. The folks at Slacktory have nailed the highs, lows, and stunned disbelief that there wasn't one more item covered. You're probably not alone in your reactions. Enjoy.
Guest blogger Aaron Watkins: iOS 8 Provides New Features to Help App Marketers
by06.03.2014The WWDC keynote can be a stressful time for app developers. You never know quite what is going to be presented when that famous "one more thing" is revealed. Whether it's a whole new programming language to learn, or Apple suddenly takes the key selling feature of your number one app and makes those features part of the native operating system, the surprises aren't always welcome for developers. While consumers were dazzled by some of the fun new features their Apple products would be giving them this fall, app developers listened anxiously yesterday to learn what features of the new iOS 8 might help or hinder their product marketing efforts. 1. Videos in the app store They say a picture is worth a thousand words... which makes a video worth a thousand pictures. App developers will now be allowed a short video to be added in the first position of your app store screenshots, which will take up the full screen when played. Android has had this feature for a while, and Google has claimed that it is one of the most important aspects of getting your app downloaded once a user is on your app store page. It is unclear yet what restrictions are being put on the videos – Apple has a long history of regulating what can and cannot be in the app screenshots, though the enforcement of those rules is sometimes spotty. For example, we do not know if the video must only be screen capture of the app in use, or if developers will be allowed to make more trailer-like videos. It is important to note that the ideal orientation of these videos is portrait to fit an upright iPhone screen, not landscape like most videos for YouTube and other channels. 2. App Bundles For developers that have an extensive portfolio of apps, the ability to sell multiple apps together at one (presumably discounted) price is a huge advantage when trying to grab valuable screen real estate on a user's iOS device. Travel app companies could sell sets of guides for multiple cities in the same area, while gaming companies could easily bundle in sequels with their original counterparts. It will be interesting to see how free apps play into the bundle scheme – a developer could make it so that if you wanted to get their two premium apps at a bundle price, you had to also download one of their free apps as well. 3. Widgets Widgets are micro features of an app that can be integrated into the notification center of your iOS device. The example given on stage was eBay, showing off a widget that would allow the user to change their bid on an auction without ever having to open the actual eBay app. It will be interesting to see what other micro-features can be added into this notification section, and app marketers should seriously consider how widgets can help provide solutions to the problem of user engagement. With one more way to talk to your user, your app is more likely to have engaged users, which is more important than ever with the ever growing options available in the app store. 4. Extensibility Extensibility is the ability for apps to more fully integrate with the deeper iOS operating system, allowing app functions to be made available while in other applications. Through this, photo apps like Instagram could provide their filters in the native photo app, or a translation app could show you a German language web page in English on Safari. While not obviously a marketing tool – the savvy app marketer knows that expanding your apps features into more areas in the phone will create more reliance on your app by the user. More reliance generally means more usage, which can lead to additional ad revenue, social sharing, in app purchases for additional features, or simply consumer goodwill which can translate into that hard to control "word of mouth" that we all desire for our apps. Aaron Watkins is the President and Founder of Appency, the world leading app marketing agency dedicated to helping app developers and brands succeed in the mobile app economy. Appency, which launched in 2009, has helped hundreds of app developers achieve success in the app store and have had clients in the top 10 of nearly every app store category.
Meet your new OS X Yosemite dock icons
by06.03.2014This year's WWDC event brought with it the announcement of Yosemite, Apple's latest edition of OS X. Beyond Yosemite's new features and abilities, the operating system also showcases a general makeover of the look of the user interface, including brand new dock icons. Below you can take a glance at what you'll be looking on your home screen when Yosemite is released this fall. Here are Finder, Launchpad, Safari, and Mail: Here are Calendar, Notes, Reminders, and Contacts: Here are Maps, Messages, Facetime (with new Phone icons for iOS calls), and Preview: Here are iTunes, the App Store, iBooks, and Services: Finally, we have Applications and the new recycled plastic Trash bin: I, for one, will miss the old wire Trash bin:
Apple attempts to conquer the connected home
by06.03.2014It was only one announcement among many at WWDC 2014's opening keynote, and Craig Federighi, Apple's SVP of software engineering, made mention of Apple's new foray into home automation practically in passing. HomeKit is a common network protocol that seeks to make Siri your preferred method of controlling all of the smart things in your home. We're talking garage door openers, lighting, thermostats, door locks, the works. Federighi spent just one and a half minutes of a two-hour keynote talking about HomeKit -- scant attention paid to such a massive undertaking.
Here are a few lesser-known new features in iOS 8
by06.02.2014Widgets! QuickType keyboard! Hey, Siri! Interactive notifications! Like most new versions of Apple's mobile OS, iOS 8 comes with its fair share of features that, in theory, will help improve the experience from the previous version. Our list of new features covers nearly every highlight from Apple SVP Craig Federighi's presentation, but every year there's always one slide filled with additional enhancements the company doesn't have enough time to call out individually on stage, and every year that slide disappears within a few seconds. So, what else will iOS 8 offer that wasn't specifically called out by Hair Force One?
SwiftKey confirms iOS 8 version
by06.02.2014SwiftKey has confirmed they are going to release an official iOS version on iOS 8, as reported by ZDnet. In a blog post today, Ben Medlock and Jon Reynolds (SwiftKey's co-founders) stated that since iOS 8 will officially support third-party keyboards, SwiftKey will be one of those choices. From the post: We first brought a taste of our technology to iOS in January this year with the launch of the free note-taking app SwiftKey Note. Are we going to build SwiftKey Keyboard for iOS 8? Of course we are. We've already started. Check out the rest of our WWDC 2014 coverage throughout the week!
Watch Apple's WWDC 2014 keynote in full
by06.02.2014For those of you who have been living under a rock for the past few hours, Apple had a number of things to announce on the first day of WWDC 2014. And in case you weren't paying attention to our liveblog from Moscone West, or able to keep up with the livestream, there's now archived footage of the event for you to watch (update: also posted to YouTube, and embedded after the break). The presentation was kicked off by CEO Tim Cook, though it was Craig Federighi, Apple's Senior Vice President of Software Engineering, who led the charge most of the way -- so much so that his boss referred to him as "Superman" during the keynote. Once you press play on the 118-minute video, expect to see anything from the unveiling of OS X Yosemite to the revelation of iOS 8 -- plus a lot, a lot more.
WWDC '14 keynote in 90 seconds
by06.02.2014Don't have the time to watch the entire two hour keynote video? Alrighty, then:
Apple's awesome iOS Camera feature they didn't mention on stage
by06.02.2014Apple spent a whole lot of time talking about photos today during its WWDC 2014 keynote address. From iCloud Photo Library to smart image adjustments, there is clearly a lot to be excited about for iOS shutterbugs. But there is one feature that wasn't mentioned on-stage, yet it has appeared on Apple's iOS 8 teaser page: time-lapse videos. According to Apple's website: Capture the experience of the sun setting, a city street bustling, or a flower blooming with the new Time-lapse mode in Camera. iOS 8 does all the work, snapping photos at dynamically selected intervals. The result is a video showing an accelerated sequence of the photos over time. Just set up your device to shoot what you want. Swipe to select Time-lapse mode, tap the Record button, and let Camera record as long as you choose." That sounds pretty nifty, and while that functionality has already been done in third-party apps, getting it for free right in iOS is always a welcome addition.
WWDC 2014: Siri's upcoming update means she's always listening
by06.02.2014Siri wasn't a huge part of today's WWDC 2014 keynote, but Craig Federighi did take some time to mention what's in store for Apple's beloved virtual assistant. With the upcoming iOS 8 update, Siri will gain the ability to identify songs via Shazam functionality, purchase content from iTunes via voice commands, and can now dictate in 22 new languages. But the most interesting feature is the ability to wake Siri without actually touching your device at all. Siri will now be listening at all times and can be activated by simply saying "Hey, Siri." The feature wasn't demoed live, but it seems like a fairly straightforward idea, so we'll have to wait and see how well it works in practice.
Siri in iOS 8 will let you identify songs and buy from iTunes
by06.02.2014Siri is going to learn a few new tricks in iOS 8. As rumored, the voice assistant will now identify songs using Shazam; if you want to find out the name of a catchy track, you don't have to fire up a separate app. You'll also have the option of buying iTunes content. The speech-recognition system is smarter, to boot -- it now shows what you're saying in real time, and you can start commands by speaking, "Hey, Siri" (much like Android KitKat's "OK Google") instead of holding down the home button. There's no mention of integration with third-party apps so far, but this is still a big step forward for iOS users who prefer voice dictation for all their tasks.
Apple will finally support third-party keyboards in iOS 8
by06.02.2014After years of waiting, Apple has finally brought support for third-party keyboards to iOS. Inside iOS 8, keyboards like Swiftkey and Swype, which have enjoyed huge usage on Android, will have system-wide access to all apps and services on your iPhone and iPad. Swiftkey has confirmed it's on board, but if you don't fancy that, you'll still able to enjoy Apple's new QuickType keyboard. The company says the improved keyboard learns from the way you type and text, offering a pick of suggestions for your next word based on the content of your message or the person you're conversing with. Planning a meal with your friend or loved one? The keyboard will auto-populate words like "dinner" or "eat" as you type. At launch, QuickType will support 14 regions including the US, UK, Canada, Australian English, Brazilian Portuguese, Chinese (that includes Hong Kong and Taiwan), French, German, Italian, Japanese, Spanish and Thai.