The WWDC Keynote for this week's Apple conference has just concluded. And while I haven't finished watching the event I downloaded, I was able to read some articles on Apple's announcement and check Apple's website about them. There are no hardware related announcements in the event and Apple mainly focused on what's coming on software. Here's what I think are the interesting parts of the event.
1. Focus on performance
A few weeks ago, I've read an article that the latest release of iOS will support older generations of Apple devices like the iPhone 4S. I used to own one before upgrading to iPhone 6 and I must say that the latest advancements in iOS slowly degrades the performance of older devices. It's understandable so it's quite a surprise to me that Apple is extending the lives of these devices that have A5 chips in them one more year. iOS 7 moved away from skeumorphism of the previous releases and iOS 8 continued on these enhancements. iOS 9 seems to be more focused on performance than introducing new features. That's not to say that there are less features in this release but Apple gave additional life to older generations of mobile devices.
The same is true for OS X El Capitan. Based from Apple's website, El Capitan is 1.4x faster in terms of app launch and 2x faster in app switching. Having a mid-2010 Macbook Pro, this is a very welcome upgrade. The previous releases of OS X, like Lion, in my opinion are slow. This is very obvious during boot times and launching of applications. This made me upgrade my HDD to SSD. I'm comparing El Capitan to Snow Leopard, Apple's previous release that mainly focused on improving performance to the Mac's operating system.
2. Release of a public beta
Last year, Apple had released a public beta for testing OS X Yosemite. This year, Apple is extending the public beta to iOS. Before 2014, you need to be a developer and paid the $99 annual fee to gain access to these operating software. But now, some versions of the OS are available to the public. There are risks of course, which in my opinion would be high for iOS devices compared to Macs, but this is a welcome move as Apple receives more feedback from the public for bugs. I already signed up to the public beta release of iOS 9 but I need to think twice before installing it.
3. Apple Music on Android
Music streaming is also one of the rumored services that's planned to be announced and Monday's Keynote have confirmed it. What I did not anticipate was the release of an Apple application for Android. I can't help but remember when the iPod started to dominate the mp3 devices back in 2003 when Apple released iTunes for Windows. iTunes was considered before as one of the best Windows applications to be released for Microsoft's OS and Apple Music could do the same for Android. This is another first for Apple in the mobile front. It's very rare that you see Apple release applications outside of the walled garden as compared to Microsoft or Google. I will try out Apple Music when it gets released worldwide on June 30 on my iOS devices. Let's see if I will ditch Spotify for this.
4. Android Migration
Another application created by Apple for Android is specifically for potential switchers to iOS. I see this as a strategic move by Apple as it makes the migration between platforms much easier. Based on Apple's website, "It securely transfers your contacts, message history, camera photos and videos, web bookmarks, mail accounts, calendars, wallpaper and DRM-free songs and books. It will also help you rebuild your app library, too. Any free apps you used -- like Facebook and Twitter -- are suggested for download from the App Store. And your paid apps are added to your iTunes Wish List." How convenient is that?
What's your opinion of Apple's WWDC this week and the announcements made in the Keynote? Feel free to give your comments below.
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