7 things I remembered after Apple WWDC Keynote

WWDC 2016 has started and will last during this week and it was as always started by 2-hour long Keynote. This year there was lot of topics to cover and therefore my impression that it could easily lasts another hour and probably nobody would ever notice it. Before my brain will explode from data overloading here are some important things for notice, written from perspective of non-US Apple user.

#1 Apple News overhauled but still only for english speaking countries

There was lot of doubt last year, when Apple introduced News essentialy making their Newsstand obsolete. However, for most of us blogers and tech journalists from countries like Poland this was not painless transition. Newsstand dissapeared but we didn’t get anything in return. We’ve tried to add our blogs to Apple News but there was not accepted because…our language was not supported. Today Apple introduced overhauled interface to Apple News together with new subscription system from which lot of publishers will benefit soon, but again — what is the reason to reinvent RSS with limiting the service to just one language?

#2 Hey Siri,welcome to Mac but when do you start speaking my language?

As it was predicted Apple’s personal assistant will get its macOS counterpart. New iteration of Siri is supposed to be smarter and able to do more stuff. But from first look, Siri’s ability on Mac is pretty basic but we should expect improvements till official release in Autumn. The biggest question here is perhaps if we see new languages added to the mix. Of course there is still no support for Polish language and probably never will be which leaves me in very dissapointed state. It’s not only matter of communication with the phone — Siri’s engine powers up lot of other proactive functions e.g. in Spotlight. Therefore, without my language supported It doesn’t look smart to be early adopter on macOS Sierra :(

#3 Apple Music redesign

Apples own music streaming service will get overhaul. It’s not particulary surprising move because Music interface has been constantly repaired since its debiut in July 2015. It’s still has some caveats, for example:

• do I really need to turn iCloud Music Library to create playlist?
• allegedly, there is no proper fingerprinting for recognizing tracks, a flaw that may give you surprising effect when you delete music you own and count on iCloud backup.
• “For you” section still (at least in my case) not give relevant results for my tase offering instead lot of “introduction to…” playlist for artis I really know well.

There was no mention of Beats 2 stations, which is dissapointing a bit because Beats 1 in my impression offers music more suitable to younger generation than such old fellow as me ;) However, intresting ommission is Connect. Does it mean Connect will follow its Ping precedessor and cease to exist?

#4 Apple Pay in web way

Apple Pay will get it’s web counterpart..sort of. New framework will allow sellers to put relevant buttons on their stores to initiate transaction, however that transaction still needs to be finished on your iPhone. Sounds great but again..there are only few countries with Apple Pay with only three more soon to follow. And again..no Poland, which it’s kinda surprising because we have lot better credit card infrastructure than in US. With such speed I expect Apple Pay to enter Poland in 2020–2025. How the e-market world will look then, only God knows.

#5 Universal sign-in in tvOS

This detail really focused my attention, because it’s example of great feature of which we have no clue how this even going to work. Apple TV was always American (and a bit British) device meaning that only US-based broadcasters understand power of such device or the other part of the world do not have enough skilled engineers to design such service. So there is no mistake in fact that this ancient app-activation technique using letter-digit code that needs to be enter on mobile device or on desktop was mainly used by US channels like ABC, FOX, CW or NBC. This utilized “TV everywhere” solution that allows cable operators to provide access to apps’ content by user cable tv credentials. It isn’t and never was an ideal solutions especially for cord-cutters but still better service than in most non-US countries. Now Apple wants to relieve us from pain of regular activation offering instead universal “one sign-in” solution. However, there are still some question that needs to be answered. Will this be separate service or only overlay for current validation methods? How this will work outside USA? What if I have cable subscription without sport package and my friend visit me at home and want temporarily login to his cable operator to watch Opening Game of NFL season? Is this technology helps fight with unauthorized access from stolen accounts? Or maybe Apple will build solution for themselves, which is not impossible regarding current rumours about aquiring Time Warner soon? Again, time will tell.

#6 Universal clipboard and AFS!

Many people that follow Keynote will often forget to watch “Platform State of the Union” lecture the same day. Huge mistake! Communication between iOS and OSX devices was always a bit problematic. Many users relied on Dropbox, then iCloud drive saw the sunlight but still there was no perfect solution and 3rd party developers like Desk Connect trying to fill the gaps. And now Apple not only found remedy for these problems but also introduced new Apple File System. This is huge thing because last time such thing happened back in 1998, in those ancient times when floppy disk was still in use as well as mechanical hard drives. Today times are different and AFS aims to replace HFS+ in devices where main storage is flash/SSD based. AFS will also offer native encryption, thing that certainly not make FBI and CIA happy. There are of course still question that needs to be answered: Are this gonna work only between iOS10 and macOS Sierra devices? Does Sierra needs to be installed on clean fresh drive formatted with AFS to take benefit of these new features? For now, macOS Sierra Developer Preview can be installed on HFS+ formatted drive but this may change before Autumn.

#7 War against Google began…

There was one thought that appeared immediately few times during 2 hours presentation — “What will Google do?”. I have no sympathy for Android devices and this is not going to change, but remember Google earns lot of his money from Ads. Apple shut down theirs iAd program so developers needs to rely on Google AdSense. But during Keynote Apple has shown us at least two situation that allows end user to ommit Google Ads. First, Siri being able to search internet for images and provides relevant results in its own window and second — Picture in Picture that finally arrives on Mac. Since its introduction on iOS9 more and more applications that serve video content added ability to watch it in PiP mode, but Google was never among them, so again 3rd party solution like YouPlayer emerged. With their Maps constantly improving and with such additions to macOS Apple may really try to cut Google incomes a bit and allow users to get information they want without seeing Google.com.

WWDC is always most intresting Apple event in year, if you want to know more don’t forget to follow conference schedule in Safari or in apps both for iOS and tvOS.