Once again, Apple has shown its desire to be your go-to for everything you do in your life.
During its Worldwide Developers Conference keynote this morning, the iPhone maker talked up software updates, services and new functionalities aimed at making several of its competitors’ offerings redundant.
Here are the things Apple’s trying to take out with new stuff at WWDC 2015.
Apple Watch stands and alarm clocks
Photo: Apple
During its presentation of the new features headed for watchOS 2, Apple revealed “Nightstand Mode,” a standby setting for the Apple Watch that turns it into a tiny clock while it’s sitting on its side and charging overnight. It displays the time in a landscape mode and lets you set alarms, with the Digital Crown and side button serving as snooze and off buttons.
This doesn’t mean that all the Apple Watch stands out there are now useless, but it will mean that designers might want to focus more on horizontal orientations than vertical ones. And if you currently use a dedicated alarm clock instead of your phone, this may very well put it out of business.
If Apple’s Newsstand-replacing News app looked familiar, what with its content curation, social features and slick-as-hell presentation, here’s why: It’s basically Flipboard.
I’ve never used Flipboard, myself, but I’ll be interested in checking out the News app, especially if it’s better than the admittedly crappy Newsstand we’re currently stuck with. Given the similarities, Apple’s either hoping to block new adopters of Flipboard, or just keep its current Newsstand users from defecting to the currently better option.
CurrentC
Photo: Square
It’s no surprise that Apple would love to see retailer-run mobile payment system CurrentC go away, and the rival service is actually doing most of that work all by itself with a failure to establish a foothold or even produce the app that will drive it.
Apple Pay’s expansion to include 1 million retailers (by its own WWDC estimates), the more populist solution of partnering with Square to allow anyone using that system to accept payment via iPhone and Apple Watch, cement Cupertino’s position so securely that should CurrentC ever properly come out, it’ll find itself as the only person at its own party.
Google Now
Virtual assistants like Microsoft’s Cortana and Google Now are iterations of Apple’s Siri, but Apple is iterating right back with features it calls “Proactive Assistant” and “deep linking.” These features will work together in iOS 9 to provide information, manage your appointments, and even check the traffic for you to make sure you reach appointments on time.
It’ll even bring up music for you as soon as you plug in your headphones. Just try not to fall in love with it, Her-style. That would just be too weird.
Google Maps
Photo: Apple
While we’re talking about Google, Apple announced updates coming to its native Maps app that are straight out of Google’s navigation book.
Specifically, the upcoming inclusion of public transit for carless iPhone owners is something Google already does. Apple’s Maps will go one further, however: Not only will it tell you which bus or train to take and integrate your walking time into your ETA, but it will also let you know which merchants along your route will accept Apple Pay.
Wallets
I recently bought a nice, super-slim wallet, and I like it a lot. And it’s nice to know that Apple is now doing everything in its power to make it redundant. Apple announced Wallet, an app that will replace Passbook and will contain basically everything that I try to have with me at all times.
In addition to the usual Apple Pay and tickets, Wallet will expand to include loyalty cards to save you having to punch in your phone number every time you go to Walgreens because your new, super-slim wallet doesn’t have any room for all those things. In fact, the one thing Wallet can’t hold is your driver’s license or state-issued I.D., but I wouldn’t rule Apple out on that just yet.
Soundcloud, Spotify and Pandora
Even though we’re not entirely clear on specifically how Apple Music will work, we do know a few things: It’s a three-pronged service composed of a music store, a social platform and a radio station. And if it catches on with those three services, it’s bad news for the competitors.
I wasn’t too impressed with Apple Music’s presentation at the keynote, but maybe I just got bored with Eddie Cue’s insistence that we sit and listen to all his favorite songs. Hopefully, the finished product will be more engaging and personable than its debut.
And really, that wouldn’t be very difficult.
iTunes Match
Photo: Apple
When you join Apple Music, your personal music library gets scanned and any tracks not in Apple’s massive collection will get sucked automatically into iCLoud. It’s basically baking iTunes Match into Apple Music.
While iTunes Match is cheaper at only $25 per year, it’s a service aimed at heavy music consumers — exactly the ones who will be ponying up $10 a month for Apple Music. (H/T to Cult of Mac reader Stephen Struss for the screenshot.)
Evan Killham is a freelance writer who lives in Nebraska and isn’t interested in football, so he has plenty of time to play and think about video games. He has written for Bitmob and GamesBeat and sometimes, he even goes outside. But not too often because he’s heard there are bees out there. Occasionally, companies send free units for review. Evan subscribes to Cult of Mac’s Reviews Policy and also does not keep the items he receives for possible coverage.
56 responses to “Hit list: All the apps and services Apple tried to kill at WWDC 2015”
How people are not completely stoked by Apple Music, is fucking beyond me. Seriously. It’s like people do not understand, that not every album is on RDIO/Spotify/and so on. Seriously. This is an amazing fucking thing, because it gives people the Beatles. It gives them AC/DC. It gives them Pink Floyd. It gives them a ton of Indies. Seriously, again, that fucking service is going to be fucking amazing, and people stating it’s no different than other services, are people who do not use these services on a daily basis.
I agree that it’s going to be fun and when people get their hands on it, even the smack talkers will quietly gravitate to it like they always have…
I don’t care for the Beats1 24 hour world-wide radio station.
I like to listen to music, not DJs talking about the music.
You really need to make sure that you let people know how you feel.
Then you did not see last night’s keynote sir.
Let’s just say it was a huge disappointment. It began with the stupid landmark name and it ended with Eddy Cue making fool of himself. Now they even took time to show an alarm clock. How cheap can they become?
I agree. A radiostation is not a subject for WWDC. What does it have to do with developers? iTunes killed the radio and now they want it back?
It’s also a platform to give up and coming artists more exposure as well as being a new music discovery platform that an algorithm can’t do alone. The “emotional touch” my friend.
the problem is that Apple is built on being intuitive and easy for anyone of any age to pick up and use. The new music app is a ton of stuff all crammed into one very complicated looking mess.
That being said, the selection that Apple will bring to the table and the ability to find new music/broaden people’s taste will blow the competitors out of the water… assuming they can figure out how to use it. That’s the part that is probably “fucking beyond you”
Complicated looking mess? It’s a few tabs across the bottom of the app dude! Tap on one and it performs a different function. Not too much of a brain buster there.
I wrote a long opinion here with tons of bashing, but simply put I just hate cloud business. It’s my opinion.
I am not a fan of cloud music at $10 per month either. I really want to use it while traveling by air. It just doesn’t work up top. I do not like to burn up my data plan. I like Pandora much better because it is not a mess like the Apple app.
I know I personally don’t care for it because I dislike subscription-based music services in general. It’s a lot more expensive (and limiting) than just buying the music I like (although I know my collection is much smaller than most at only ~400 tracks, so this is likely not true for many). It’s also fairly redundant. Everyone and their mother has a ‘personal radio’ app now, it seems. It’s hard to see why a newcomer to the field would be better than the longer-standing competition.
Don’t get me wrong, I understand the appeal, and having a music streaming service with the iTunes library is a fantastic thing, it just doesn’t feel like a big deal. My initial reaction was (and still is, frankly) “oh, look, Apple has one too, now”.
Because the iTunes library has SEXPONENTIALLY MORE tracks than all the other services it BLOWS THEM OUT OF THE WATER. Then again, if your music collection is only at 400 songs, it’s clear you don’t love (or even like) music enough to appreciate what Music is offering.
Didn’t I just say that? (Albeit in a less extravagant manner…)
You said you did not understand why the newcomer would appeal to people.
I was speaking from the perspective of the general public. Perhaps that was a bit too subtle.
I myself do understand the appeal (as I stated) and definitely think Apple has a good thing going for them; but they aren’t advertising it enough to make their service stand out amongst the vast swathes of music apps out there. Those unfamiliar with Apple will likely be inclined towards something with a name they recognize, like Spotify, as they won’t know the same differences that we do. Apple needs to flaunt what they’ve got more if they want Apple Music to be a hit.
That was my meaning.
Ah, got it…
Instead of building apps for back alley jazz lovers, they should put more effort to get iPhone back in the masses as Android has already taken over. Reminds me of the old Apple that just went for the money before Steve came back and started actually doing something useful. Alarm clock and music haha
“Beauty (and usefulness) is in the eyes of the beholder.” ~Random Dude
We fucking get that you can spell “fucking,” but if it’s the only fucking adjective in your fucking vocabulary it makes you look fucking ignorant instead of fucking clever. Just fucking sayin’.
> This is an amazing fucking thing, because it gives people the Beatles.
Do you mean I have to buy (rent) the White Album *again*.
Yeah, and frekin 3 months free. That’s going to get allot of people hooked.
I would be surprised if the Apple Music catalog is a 1:1 match with their iTunes Music catalog.
I expect plenty of tracks will not be available for streaming but will be for purchase. The reverse might be true also on some tracks (streaming only). And this will vary depending on time and countries.
Distributions rights are so complex, I don’t see how Apple could avoid these common pitfalls all other services have to deal with.
Somehow, using the ‘f’ bomb four times does NOT impart seriousness. Instead, it reveals a complete immature approach to communication, resorting to the use of swear words in an attempt to hide their lack of the necessary vocabulary to express their thoughts properly.
I want a phone that can replace my wallet so bad. The thing is merchants need to get up with the times. The tech is there it is just companies are so slow in adopting them. I hate carrying a wallet with a million cards and cash.
You forgot Evernote with the update in Notes.
Don’t agree. You will be able to cram all sortsa things into the new Notes, but once it’s all there how are you going to impose some kind of order on the chaos you just created? What’s the point of storing your stuff if you can’t find it afterwards? Maybe we could debate the plusses and minuses of Evernote’s filing system, but at least its developers realized that this was problem they had to address.
Tags, since you can search. But Evernote will still appeal to the power user (since its organization is more robust, and business cards).
Hmm… They actually specifically showed how easy it was to find your content in the app, and how it categorizes its self.
I may transfer my written notes from Evernote to Notes, however the bulk of what I use Evernote for is to capture web articles and reference images. Notes is not a mass storage app.
So this writer never used one of the apps that according to him Apple is replacing but he knows that it is just like it…
Why do these bozos get work? Our society today is not doing natural selection very well. It shows everyday by the write ups on the tech press.
New Apple Maps are here, they exist because of job’s hatred towards Google.
They exist because Google is a bitch and did not provide turn by turn navigation to Apple
They got jealous of Android, Apple hates competition, which is why they are trying to kill so many other apps and services in WWDC15.
These features are good for Apple users. They deserve better and quick features update.
Wait, tell us again why should Google provide turn-by-turn navigation to a competitor?
Google provided the APIs for Maps when iPhone was launched. Then Google started bitching by not maintaining feature parity with the Android version of Google Maps.
There was no Apple Maps then, so Apple wasnt a ‘competitor’ in Maps. Apple wasnt a competition in any field before Google ripped off iOS features to make Android.
Google now provides all their features in their own Google Maps for iOS for free. So it wasnt a case of ‘competition’. Google is after user location stats which Apple wont have passed on to Google when Google provided Maps data directly in Apple’s Maps.
You really are dumb.
Great way to answer when you know nothing better.
No, I just don’t feel like taking the time out of my day to explain myself to someone like you.
I’m still waiting for 2 of it’s missing features. Apple Maps Flyover is not nationwide. 3D buildings are not nationwide.
I don’t agree with your iTunes Match comment. I have around 200 albums, so I guess I’m the user they’re going for by your measure. Only, I already have my music in iTunes Match and on my phone, so there’s no need to pay $10 a month. I think a new generation of users, who don’t own music, would go for this.
So what happens to our iTunes Match songs now? I have 10,000 songs in there, (only about 1000 weren’t ‘matched’).
So many idiots here.
Good to see you joined them ;-)
Google, singing through tears, “Killing me softly………”
I’ve read elsewhere that iTunes Match will keep going on its own as a standalone product. Good. Whether iTunes Radio goes with it is still up in the air. I conversed with a Beats support rep on Twitter yesterday about that, and they seemed to imply that the decision on that isn’t made (or at least isn’t announced).
Apple Music smartly took the best features from Spotify, Soundcloud, Vevo, and Instagram/Twitter/Facebook.
I have great playlists that I like, built in iTunes and have iTunes Match, but there their is no way to sync these with my device if I’m using iCloud. Managing playlists from a device frankly sucks. Put the app in the iCloud website and I’ll be fine. Plus I know Apple Music will let you download music for off line and think that is great. Data limits are killer!
most of these aren’t new features, just changes made to make them more user friendly. And many of them existed before Google’s or Microsoft’s
What super slim wallet did you purchase Evan? I have been buying and sue aching for a good one recently & can’t find one I really like!
You forgot Cinch
glad to not be buying albums anymore
How about Notes new functionality looking a lot like Evernote?
What about Evernote with Notes?
can someone explain to me the reasoning behind, the Apple Music sucks because spotify already exists mentality? Just because spotify, and pandora exist why shouldn’t Apple have a right to offer their services? By this thinking why not shut down the app store since google has a play store? heck lets stop selling iPhones because Samsung sells them too, Apple should have never even made desktop computers because IBM made them before.