The Apple Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) takes place from June 8 – June 12, 2015 at Moscone West in San Francisco, California. Apple CEO Tim Cook has unveiled new upgrades and initiatives at the 26th annual Worldwide Developers Conference.
Apple Music
Apple has unveiled its new music streaming service at the Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) on Monday. Apple Music will offer access to millions of songs curated by a range of celebrity musicians, editors and DJs.
With Beats1, Apple has created a single 24-hour radio station broadcasting globally from San Francisco, London and New York with Zane Lowe.
Connect is the social element to the service which lets artists interact with their audiences with everything from demos, lyrics sheets or videos directly on the platform.
Apple music launches on June 30th for $9.99 per month or a $14.99 per month family plan.
iOS 9
Apple has unveiled its new mobile OS, iOS 9, that will run from the iPhone 4s and later, iPod touch 5th generation, iPad 2 and later, iPad mini and later. The new operating system will have “proactive assistance,” where Siri can be a more “thoughtful” personal assistant.
Just like with the OS X El Capitan, the iOS 9 will also support multi-tasking mode on the iPad. Unlike previous iOS update capacities, the iOS 9 will only come as a 1.8GB installation size.
The iOS 9 beta software and SDK are available immediately for iOS Developer Program members at developer.apple.com, and a public beta program will be available in July at beta.apple.com. iOS 9 will be available this fall as a free software update.
News App
Apple unveiled an all-new News app delivering the best news reading experience on any mobile device.
Apple News Format allows publishers to create stories that look beautiful and take advantage of the full power of iOS. Content can include photos and galleries, audio, video, maps and rich interactions such as parallax and animation.
When publishers create their stories for News, content comes alive with custom fonts and intuitive Multi-Touch gestures. Apple News Format automatically customizes the layout for each screen size, so News content looks great on both iPhone and iPad. It will first be available in the US, UK and Australia.
OS X El Capitan
Apple announced OS X El Capitan, a new version of OS X that refines the Mac experience and improves system performance. The OS X Yosemite has got an update in the form of OS X El Capitan.
El Capitan introduces enhancements to window management, built-in apps and Spotlight search, and makes everyday activities — from launching apps to accessing email — faster and more responsive.
Metal, Apple’s breakthrough graphics technology, is integrated into El Capitan, delivering system-wide performance gains and enabling games and pro apps to tap into the full power of Mac graphics processors. Mac OS X has finally got the Split view mode which lets you work on two apps simultaneously.
The developer preview of OS X El Capitan is available to Mac Developer Program members. Mac users can participate in the El Capitan Beta Program in July and download the final version for free from the Mac App Store this fall.
watchOS 2
Apple previewed watchOS 2, the first major software update for Apple Watch, giving developers the tools to build faster and more powerful apps running natively on Apple Watch.
Developers can take advantage of innovative hardware features of Apple Watch including the Digital Crown, Taptic Engine and heart rate sensor, along with software APIs to build new app experiences.
It is available to Apple Watch users this fall, watchOS 2 also includes new watch faces, third-party app information as watch face complications and new communication capabilities in Mail, Friends and Digital Touch.
Fitness apps can run natively on the Watch, so you can track bike rides without taking your phone with you — but still have it track your activity with the central Health activity loops.
Apple watchOS 2 will be available this fall as a free update to Apple Watch. Apple Watch requires iPhone 5, iPhone 5c, iPhone 5s, iPhone 6 or iPhone 6 Plus running iOS 8.2 or later.
Apple Pay
Apple announced Apple Pay is making everyday payments even better by adding support for rewards programs and store-issued credit and debit cards with iOS 9.
Apple Pay will also give shoppers more ways to pay in the US, expanding merchant acceptance to over one million locations next month and bringing support for Discover this fall. With this addition, Apple Pay will accept credit and debit cards across all major card networks, issued by the most popular banks, representing 98 percent of all credit card purchase volume in the US.
Apple Pay will be available to customers in the UK, bringing them the easy, secure and private way to pay. The banks at launch include: M&S Bank, Bank of Scotland, Halifax, Ulster Bank, Natwest, American Express, Santander, RBS, Nationwide, HSBC, First Direct, TSB, MBNA and Lloyds Bank.
“Apple Pay has quickly become a big part of millions of users’ everyday shopping routines, providing a simpler, faster and more secure way to pay,” said Eddy Cue, Apple’s senior vice president of Internet Software and Services.
Passbook will be renamed ‘Wallet’ with iOS 9. Apple Pay currently works with iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus, and Apple Watch.
Swift
Apple announced that its Swift programming language (so far used to build 15,000 apps) will get a range of performance upgrades “to help you be more productive” — but it also tore the roof off the Moscone Center by telling the assembled developers that the language would now be Open Source.
