The keynote for Apple's WWDC 2015 opened with some star power as Bill Hader took us through an imaginary dress rehearsal for Monday's event, complete with a drone serving coffee, "Tim Cook-alikes" and guest spots from comedic actors Matt Walsh and Danny Pudi. WWDC may have opened up with a bang, but did Apple's new announcements live up to to this hype?
Apple saved its most-anticipated announcement for the end, the launch of its new music streaming service Apple Music, which not only comes with unlimited access to millions of songs on iTunes but also a 24/7 radio station and social network for artists.
The long-rumored reveal wasn't mind blowing by any means, but considering how much of the digital music market Apple has already owned during the past decade since the launch of the iPod, it seems like Apple Music could be a formidable opponent to current major music streaming services like Spotify, especially since iPhone users may be tempted to use an app native to their main music-listening devices already.
But that was just the grand finale. There were plenty more updates to OS X, iOS, the Apple Watch and other Apple products announced during the two-and-a-half-hour event Monday. Here are the highlights.
OS X
At the top of the keynote, Apple's Senior Vice President of Software Engineering Craig Federighi introduced the new OS X El Capitan, which includes easier functionality on your desktop and Safari.
El Capitan will bring a bigger, more intelligent Spotlight search that allows you to get results for more specific queries, such as pulling up "documents I worked on last June." There's also a new two-window feature, new swipe controls on your trackpad to mark emails as read or delete them, new swipe functionality and interface for Mission Control and the ability to move windows into their own smaller desktop by dragging and dropping windows at the top of your screen.
The final announcement during WWDC was for the aforementioned Apple Music, Apple's new music streaming service that will try to rival Spotify when it officially launches June 30. A $9.99 per month subscription gets you access to stream the millions of songs on iTunes, the 24/7 worldwide radio station Beats 1 and the social network for artists to connect with fans, Connect. This will live as one single app whose interface is sleeker and has a greater resemblance to the desktop version of iTunes. Unsigned artists can share their music in Apple Music as well.
Apple Music purports to be a more personalized music experience, with music experts curating suggestions for you based on your preferences and what you've listened to in the past. Siri can also be used to play specific tracks or playlists from Apple Music.
Apple Music's competitive price and wide selection of music along with its emphasis on personalization and curation seems like it's almost a combination of two of the biggest names in music streaming services right now, Spotify and Tidal. Will this best-of-both-worlds approach allow Apple Music to emerge victorious in the battle for digital music supremacy? Stay tuned.
