Apple Music still needs tuning

Apple Music: As simple as the name is, what it offers is surprisingly complex. It bundles in a streaming service, a 24/7 radio network and a whole new social outreach tool for artists. Oh, and you’ll use the same Apple Music app to access all your regular iTunes purchased music too. As soon as June 30th rolls around, the new Apple Music app will be the default one-stop shop for music on devices with iOS 8.4 and up (assuming you’ll cough up $9.99 a month for an individual subscription or $14.99 for a family sub for up to six people).

If there’s one thing that struck me immediately about Apple Music, is that its design language is quintessentially Apple. While Rdio and Spotify — arguably Apple Music’s primary competitors — have their own distinct menu trees and user interfaces, Apple Music looks very much like a default iOS app, with five menu bar options at the bottom and the header up top. If you’re familiar with the default Music app on iOS, you’ll already know how to use Apple Music. There are a few differences though. For one thing, you can minimize the music player to a mini version at the bottom of the screen, which you can then expand to the full interface. Just like Rdio and Spotify, if you like a particular song or album, you can add it to your My Music collection for later playback. There’s also the option to save the track for offline playback, though Apple wouldn’t blab about quality and bitrate.

The first tab you’ll see when you open the app is a “For You” section that lists recommended playlists and albums. The selection is based on a brief setup where you select your favorite genres and artists by tapping bubbles — if you have any experience with Beats Music, this part will seem especially familiar. In our demo, it listed the same playlists and albums as seen in the keynote, with a couple of Springsteen and rock-related playlists up top and a slew of suggested albums underneath. We’re told that the playlists are assembled by actual humans and not algorithms — apparently Apple hired a number of folks to curate these lists.

The tab next to it is simply labeled “New” which, you guessed it, lists new artists and tracks that the service thinks you might like. You’ll also see an assortment of recent playlists that are curated either by Apple’s own editors or by music magazines like Djmag, Pitchfork and Rolling Stone. There are playlist organized by activities like running, driving and relaxing, too, which we especially liked. Expect the roster of curators to expand as Apple Music swells in influence; we didn’t get much time to futz around with it. Of course, there are the usual top song charts here as well, though they’re table stakes at this point.

The other big music announcement at WWDC: Radio, a whole new radio service called Beats 1. It’s a 24/7 global radio network broadcasting from Los Angeles, New York and London and while it wasn’t really up and running during our preview, we’re told Beats 1 will feature interviews with artists and segments like a proper radio station. We asked if there’ll be a daily roster or schedule so that we’d know who was going to be featured when, and were given a tentative “yes” in response. And hey, if you’d rather listen to all those genre stations from iTunes Radio instead, you can do the same here as well — the Apple Music version replaces the original.

Apple’s Connect lives in a tab of of its own, and it’s an awfully Tumblr-y way for artists to reach out to their fans. It can be more personal than you’d imagine, too. Once you — an artiste — have been verified, you can fill your Connect feed with songs, photos and video straight from within the Music app, no intermediaries involved. Meanwhile, users can heart posts, leave a comments and also share them to other social networks like Twitter and Facebook. Thing is, it’s a confusing, top-down social approach that just tries to replicate what artists are already doing elsewhere.

Consider one of the service’s biggest competitors: A key driver for Spotify’s success is that you, the user, have your own presence. You can see what people you care about are listening to. You can cobble together playlists and cast them to the winds, and maybe, just maybe, people will find your peculiar sense of taste valuable. It’s a social stream that runs in multiple directions while Apple’s construct is mostly just for broadcasting. That’s not to say it’s valueless, but if you’re following Queen Bey on Twitter or Instagram, Connect probably won’t do much for you.

And then there’s My Music, which is, well, your entire music library. It’ll contain both your iTunes purchases as well as the songs that you added from the subscription service. This is arguably the least interesting part of the Music experience, since it basically acts the way the old-school Music app worked once you added all your subscription music selections. If you’re a purist, it’ll probably wind up being where you spend most of your time.

Apple’s late to the game when it comes to streaming music, and it’s going to throw every feature it can at us until we start buying in. At this (admittedly early) stage, Apple Music feels like a mish-mosh of a disparate elements the company thinks we might want, but whatever it lacks in elegance, it makes up for in presence.

There were ways to download music before iTunes, but iTunes grew in dominance simply because it was so easy to use. The same could happen to Music. After all, everyone who upgrades to iOS 8.4 will wind up getting Apple Music’s full slate of features free for three months. How many of those people have never used a streaming service before? How many people will sign up because it’s there and it’s just convenient? Competitors like Spotify and Rdio aren’t going to close up shop after this, but their jobs just got a whole lot trickier. That’s as good an outcome as a newcomer like Apple could hope for.

Filed under: Apple

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2015 Apple Design Award Winners Announced: Fantastical 2, Workflow, Crossy Road, and More

Following today’s Worldwide Developers keynote, Apple held an event to announce the winners of its prestigious Apple Design Awards. Apple’s Design Awards are handed out each year and highlight a selection of the year’s best apps available on iOS and Mac, honoring all kinds of apps from utilities to games.

Apple created its design awards to recognize high-quality apps that combine design and technology in creative, compelling, and powerful ways. Along with significant recognition and a trophy, Apple gives its Design Award winners a selection of Apple products each year.

This year’s winners include popular calendar app Fantastical 2, personal automation tool Workflow, and stock trading app Robinhood. Games recognized included Shadowmatic and Crossy Road.

iOS and Mac
– Shadowmatic [iOS]
– Robinhood [iOS]
– Crossy Road [iOS]
– Workflow [iOS]
– Does Not Commute [iOS]
– Vainglory [iOS]
– Pacemaker [iOS]
– Metamorphabet [iOS]
– Fantastical 2 [Mac]
– Affinity Designer [Mac]

Student Winners
– Jump-O [iOS]
– Elementary Minute [iOS]

2014 winners of the Apple Design Awards included Threes!, Leo’s Fortune, Blek, and Monument Valley. 2013 winners included Letterpress, Yahoo! Weather, and Evernote.

Apple Shares Full Video of Today’s WWDC Keynote Presentation

With Apple’s big Worldwide Developers Conference keynote wrapped up, the company has posted a full video of the event on its website, letting viewers who missed the keynote watch all the announcements on their own time. Apple will also eventually upload the live stream to iTunes and YouTube.

During the keynote, Apple also shared several videos on Apple Music and a video on the App Store, which we’ve listed below.

– Apple Music – Music needed a home…so we built it one.
– Apple Music – Worldwide
– Apple Music – History of Sound
– The App Effect

Along with the videos, you can also check out our full list of media event highlights below, featuring all of MacRumors event coverage. The list includes posts with details on what Apple announced and in-depth posts on specific features that we added throughout the day.

– Live Coverage of Apple’s WWDC 2015 Keynote: iOS 9, OS X 10.11, Apple Music, and More
– Apple Announces OS X El Capitan With Split View, Contextual Spotlight, Updated Apps and More, Launches in Fall
– Apple Announces Metal for OS X El Capitan
– Apple Pay Coming to the United Kingdom Next Month, Discover Card Support Arriving This Fall
– Apple Introduces ‘News’ App to Bring Personalized Stories to iOS 9
– Apple Announces Multitasking Experiences for iPad with iOS 9
– Apple Announces Swift 2, Open Source for iOS, OS X and Linux
– App Store Surpasses 100 Billion Lifetime Downloads
– Apple Announces ‘Apple Music’ With ‘Beats 1′ Live Radio Station, Launches June 30 for $9.99/Month
– Apple Announces watchOS 2 With Native Apps, Third-Party Complications, and More
– Apple Announces iOS 9 With Proactive Siri, Maps Transit, iPad Multitasking and More
– Apple Merges iOS, WatchOS and Mac Developer Programs
– ‘Move to iOS’ App Allows for No Hassle Android-to-iOS Data Transfer
– Dedicated iCloud Drive App Included Within Settings of iOS 9
– Apple Confirms Activation Lock Safety Feature for watchOS 2
– iOS 9 Tidbits: Battery Saving Features, Search for Settings, Keyboard Changes, Email Attachments, and More
– OS X 10.11 El Capitan Runs on All Macs Capable of Running Yosemite
– Apple Music to Support Saving Playlists and Songs for Offline Listening

Spotify’s pricing not sitting still after Apple Music announcement

The biggest announcement to come out of Apple’s WWDC 2015 keynote was the debut of Apple Music, a new music streaming service with various elements that will be available on Android. The pricing, considering what Apple Music offers, is very good. A single person can use Apple Music for $9.99 per month while $14.99 per month supports up to six people. Spotify and some of the other services facing Apple, though, do not even compare when it comes to the family plan price.

Both Spotify and Rdio cost $14.99 for two people and reach $20 or more beyond that. Clearly, it makes no sense to go for anything but Apple Music when needing access for multiple people. Spotify does intend to alter its family plan and Jonathan Price, Spotify’s global head of communications and public policy, offered the following statement to The Verge:

“We already have similar family pricing in some markets and we expect to offer competitive pricing everywhere in the near future.”

Price’s statement does not explicitly state that Spotify will lower its family plan pricing, but it seems inevitable.

Source: The Verge

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iOS 9 Tidbits: Battery Saving Features, Search for Settings, Keyboard Changes, Email Attachments, and More

Apple covered the major new features of iOS 9 during today’s keynote event, introducing a more intelligent and proactive Siri, split-screen multitasking for the iPad, major performance enhancements, Transit directions in Maps, a new News app, and more, but there are hundreds of other minor improvements that went unmentioned.

We’ve gathered up a list of some of the more notable changes and hidden new features in iOS 9 that have not yet been mentioned, to give you a better idea of what we can expect to see when the new operating system is released in the fall.

iCloud Drive – It wasn’t mentioned during the keynote, but there’s a new optional iCloud Drive app on iOS that can be turned on in the Settings menu. The app lets you access files stored in iCloud Drive.

Keyboard changes – The shift function has been altered once again, making it easier to determine when it’s activated and when caps lock is turned on. With shift pressed, all letters on the keyboard are now shown in upper case. With shift off, letters on the keyboard are lower case. On iPad, there are new edit controls, and the keyboard now uses the new San Francisco font.

Shift on at top, shift off at bottom
Find My Friends/iPhone – Find My Friends and Find My iPhone are both default apps with iOS 9 and come installed automatically. Before these needed to be downloaded from the App Store. Find My Friends can be added to the Notification Center, where it tracks the location of your friends.

Battery saving – Using ambient light and proximity sensors, your iPhone now knows when it’s facedown on a table and will not turn the screen on, even when a Notification is received. Other enhancements add an additional 1 hour of battery life to the iPhone with iOS 9, and there’s a new Low Power Mode that increases battery life another three hours.

Battery settings – To go along with all the new battery features, there’s a new dedicated “Battery” section in the settings app, where Low Power Mode can be turned on. It also displays battery usage information. With Low Power Mode, background activity, motion effects, and animated wallpapers are disabled. Battery information is also displayed in the Notification Center, for both Apple Watch and iOS device.

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OS X 10.11 El Capitan Runs on All Macs Capable of Running Yosemite [Mac Blog]

OS X 10.11 El Capitan, the successor to OS X Yosemite, is capable of running on all Macs that are able to run Yosemite, according to the OS X 10.11 release notes (via Ars Technica). The first developer beta is listed as supporting the following Macs, which are the same that are able to run Yosemite:

– iMac (Mid 2007 or newer)
– MacBook Air (Late 2008 or newer)
– MacBook (Late 2008 Aluminum, or Early 2009 or newer)
– Mac mini (Early 2009 or newer)
– MacBook Pro (Mid/Late 2007 or newer)
– Mac Pro (Early 2008 or newer)
– Xserve (Early 2009)

OS X El Capital is focused heavily on performance improvements to make the Mac “snappier and more efficient.” According to Apple, apps launch up to 1.4x faster and app switching is up to 2x faster. Displaying the first Mail messages when opening mail is up to 2x faster, and it’s up to 4x faster when opening a PDF in preview.

El Capitan also brings Metal to OS X for the first time, improving graphics for more fluid performance in games, high performance apps, and key system-level graphics operations.

iOS 9, the upcoming update for iOS devices, has also been designed to work with all devices that run iOS 8. Even older A5 devices like the iPad 2 and the iPhone 4s will be able to run the new operating system, and in many cases, performance will improve over iOS 8 thanks to the optimizations being introduced.

Both OS X El Capitan and iOS 9 will be available to the public in the fall, with a public beta becoming available in July.

Apple Music to Support Saving Playlists and Songs for Offline Listening [iOS Blog]

Apple today announced Apple Music, a new all-in-one app and service for discovering and listening to music. Apple Music includes a streaming music service that delivers on-demand music for $9.99 per month, much like Apple’s existing Beats Music service.

Many users have wondered whether Apple Music will allow for song downloads for offline listening, and the answer to that question is yes. Apple did not give details on offline listening during its keynote event or press release, but according to an Apple representative that spoke to Re/code, content from Apple Music can be added to a playlist for offline listening.

“As an Apple Music member you can add anything from the Apple Music library — a song, an album or a video — to your collection,” Apple said in a statement to Re/code. “And that’s just the warm-up act. From there you can create the perfect playlist from anything you’ve added. You can save it for offline listening and take it on the road.”

Offline listening is also listed as a feature available on Apple’s new Apple Music page, which details what you get with an Apple Music membership. Apple Music subscribers will also get unlimited skips when listening to Apple Music radio stations, the ability to play and save Connect content, and the ability to add Apple Music content to one’s music library.

Apple Music will launch to the public on June 30, as part of iOS 8.4. It is priced at $9.99 per month for individuals and $14.99 per month for a family of up to 6.