Apple Pay’s new Square Reader will make you a compulsive shopper
Apple really wants its users to be shopaholics. The tech giant first introduced Apple Pay and made life easier for iPhone 6 and Apple Watch users in the US last fall. Despite the initial skepticism from retailers, the contactless payment service has been gaining momentum. Jennifer Bailey, VP of Apple Pay, announced at WWDC today that the service will soon be available at one million locations across the country. In its quest to become ubiquitous in the retail world, the company also introduced a Square Reader that will be Apple Pay compatible. When the reader goes live later this year, the service will become accessible virtually everywhere.
The company’s emphasis on making mobile payments easier, both online and in the physical world, is evident. In addition to your debit and credit cards, you will now be able to use reward cards via Apple Pay to tap-and-buy stuff you may or may not need. With those loyalty points coming into play, the Passbook is going to become useful and has been renamed Wallet.
To make your shopping habits worse, the company is also working with Pinterest to include Buyable Pins, so you’ll soon be able to splurge directly from your Pinterest Board. This is an iOS only service starting later this month. And, as predicted in the weeks leading up to WWDC, Apple’s introducing its payment service in the UK next month. In addition to retailers like Boots, Costa Coffee and Marks & Spencer’s, the service will also be available on the London public transportation system for daily commutes.
Filed under: Apple
Apple brings side-by-side multitasking to the iPad in iOS 9
Frustrated that your iPad has all that screen real estate, but you still have to use one app at a time? That won’t be a problem when iOS 9 arrives — Apple has revealed that its new mobile software will bring side-by-side app multitasking to its tablets. The feature will let you display two live apps at once, Windows 8-style, if you’re using an iPad Air 2 (which has extra memory and performance); otherwise, you can pin apps to the side of the screen to get back to them quickly. There’s a picture-in-picture mode that will let you watch a video without disrupting what you’re doing, too. This upgraded multitasking will only be available for the iPad Air, iPad mini 2 and other relatively recent Apple slates, so you’ll definitely want to ditch that old iPad 2 if you’re eager to juggle multiple programs.
Apple CarPlay will also control your vehicle’s apps
Apple’s in-car operating system, CarPlay, is about to get a major boost. The company has announced at WWDC 2015 that it will soon let you control additional parts of your vehicle, directly from the iPhone-powered software. This means CarPlay can work together with apps created by manufacturers, making it easier for them to integrate their auto features with the service. As a result, you should expect to see other useful tools in CarPlay mode — like monitoring fuel efficiency and more, similar to what’s on the Watch. On stage, Apple CEO Tim Cook also highlighted CarPlay’s ability to pair with infotainments wirelessly, which was introduced in iOS 8.3.
Filed under: Transportation, Apple
iOS 9 public beta available in July
On stage at WWDC Apple announced that a public beta of iOS 9 would be available in July. The beta will include an enhanced Siri, a more proactive experience based on your location, time and recent apps, updated Apple Pay with support for loyalty cards and transit directions in Maps. The beta version of Apple’s mobile operating system will be available on the iPad 2 from 2011 and later and iPhone 4S and later. Apple launched the public version of its beta program at last year with access to early builds of iOS and OS X. You can sign up for the beta today.
Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds, Software, Apple
Source: Apple
Apple HomeKit now supports more sensors and security systems
It’s been just over a year since Apple announced HomeKit, its plan to allow you to control your smart home with an iOS device. Compatible products have only just started trickling onto shelves, and there’s been some confusion about how exactly the company is going to turn this idea into a coherent experience. That’s still not entirely clear, but Apple has at least given us a little more information with the addition of support for new category types including security systems, smart locks and carbon monoxide detectors. It also announced that you’ll be able to control devices remotely using iCloud.
So what can you actually do with HomeKit right now? Not a whole lot. Elgato, Ecobee, Lutron, iHome and Insteon have all announced their products are coming in the next few months, and HomeKit will also play nice with other standards like ZigBee and Z-Wave, the two biggest biggest names in home autonomy right now. That’s why we saw Philips, makers of the Hue lightbulb range, announce compatibility with HomeKit will arrive this fall — Hue utilizes the ZigBee standard. As for how Apple’s going to tie all this together? The rumor is there’ll be an app called “Home” for iOS 9 — likely to be announced this fall — that’ll control everything. I guess we’ll wait a little longer, then.
Apple’s Swift programming language is going open source
Last year, Apple introduced Swift, its very own programming language which was focused on making it easier to build apps. Now, in a bid to make it more palatable to developers, Apple is making another big move: It’s making Swift open source. That’ll give developers full access to all of Swift’s inner workings, and it might even tempt over people who were worried about adopting a proprietary Apple language. “We think Swift is the next big programming language, the one that we’ll all be doing application and system programming on for 20 years to come,” Apple’s SVP of software engineering, Craig Federighi, said during WWDC today. “We think Swift should be everywhere and used by everyone.” The language is also getting some upgrades this year with Swift 2, which includes support for new optimization technology, protocol extensions and much shorter compile times.
Apple Music unites streaming, radio and social for $10 a month
It’s finally here. Well, it will be soon, but at least the announcement is official. At WWDC today, Jimmy Iovine revealed Apple Music: the long-rumored music service that follows the purchase of Beats last year and it provides all of your music content in a single app. That’s a streaming service, radio, album purchases and more all in the same place. Yes, you read that correctly: radio. Apple will offer live radio 24-hours a day with stations that are curated by real humans — like Beats Music’s playlists. What’s more, “tens of millions” of iTunes songs will be available for streaming or saving for listening offline. There are recommendations based on your listening habits too, but instead of using some algorithm to find something you may like, experts “who know and love music” will serve up the suggestions. For artists, Apple Music has Connect where they can post exclusive tracks, tour photos, new material and more, giving fans a glance at what’s going on behind the scenes. So, what about unsigned artists? They can share music through Apple’s new effort, too.
When you open up the new app, you’ll be greeted with a collection of your recently added tunes for quick and easy access. The software’s UI got a refresh over the player that’s in iOS 8 now, with cleaner a look and simplified controls. Once you start playing a song, a single tap lets you browse the rest of iTunes for other albums/songs from the artists. Just like Beats Music — we’re talking exactly like it — Apple Music takes some of your preferences in the For You section and selects tracks based on your input. If the app finds something you like, you can add those tracks to a playlist for later. And yes, music videos are available here, too. If you’re a big fan of using Siri to pick songs, you’ll be able to do that with Apple Music. The virtual assistant can pick tracks based on the year of release, artist or chart position for a given month and year (April 2012, for example). During the demo, though, when asked to play songs from the movie Selma, Siri pulled the band Imagine Dragons instead.
If you’re itchin’ to give it a go, you’ll have to wait until the end of June. On the 30th, you can try Apple Music for free for three months, but after the trial period expect to pay $10 a month. Like Spotify, Rdio and others, there’s a family plan that allows up to six people access for $15 a month through iCloud Family Sharing. There’s no word on an on-going free tier like Spotify, Pandora and the like offer. As you might expect, the service will be available on iOS first, but it’s heading to Android and Apple TV this fall. It’ll be available in over 100 countries at launch, equipping iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, Mac and Windows devices with the music-streaming repository and content at the end of the month.
Filed under: Portable Audio/Video, Internet, Software, Apple
Source: Apple
Apple’s Beats 1 believes the future of music is radio
Big changes are on the horizon for Apple’s music streaming services. After acquiring Beats audio last summer and luring famed British DJ Zane Lowe away from BBC Radio 1, Apple announced that it is launching an internet radio station, dubbed Beats 1, as part of its new Apple Music service.
As Apple’s Eddy Cue explained on stage at the WWDC conference in San Francisco today, “Internet Radio isn’t really radio; it’s just a playlist of song. We wanted to create a worldwide live radio station broadcasting 24/7.” And that’s just what they did. The global station will broadcast from three cities — New York, Los Angeles and London — while exclusively playing music that’s been curated by real people rather than machine algorithms. Lowe will reportedly head up the LA station.
Apple Music launches June 30th, comes to Android this fall
You won’t have to wait very long to give Apple Music a spin… even if you don’t use any Apple gear. The Cupertino crew has announced that the $10 per month streaming service will be available on iOS, Macs and Windows PCs on June 30th in 100 countries, and it’ll arrive on both Android and Apple TV this fall. Yes, you read that last part correctly — for the first time, an Apple-branded app (not just Beats) will launch on Google’s mobile platform. The move was undoubtedly necessary if Apple wanted to take on Spotify and other rivals, so we wouldn’t call this a kind gesture. Still, it’s good news if you’ve ever wished that Apple would branch out and give you a chance to try some of its bigger services without buying its devices.
Filed under: Internet, Mobile, Apple
Source: Apple (BusinessWire)
Apple Introduces Brand New ‘News’ App to Bring Personalized Stories to iOS 9 [iOS Blog]
Apple today announced a brand new application called “News,” that aims to provide curated lists of personalized news for each iOS user. Taking news from some of the most popular websites and newspapers, the app provides content in a unique, custom layout with rich typography. The app, launching first in the United States, United Kingdom, and Australia, allows users to pick favorite publications, genres, and topics in order for the app to begin picking individual topics for them.
Developing…
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