Apple Music Is Unveiled, Along With Upgrades for iPhone and Mac OS
By BRIAN X. CHENJUNE 8, 2015


SAN FRANCISCO — For years, Apple’s winning strategy for selling iPhones and Macintosh computers has been offering exclusive, high-quality software as a lure to reel people into buying its hardware.

But the quality of its software started to slip last year, when the latest versions of the iPhone and Mac operating systems both shipped with major bugs. To avoid a repeat debacle, Apple at its annual software conference on Monday introduced upgrades for the mobile and computer systems with a strong focus on fixing things under the hood, like stability, performance and battery life.

Apple also introduced a much-anticipated streaming music service it developed with Beats Electronics, the company it acquired for $3 billion last year. The service, called Apple Music, allows users to search for songs and stream them over the Internet, similar to Spotify. It also makes recommendations for other playlists and albums for people to listen to. The service costs $10 a month or $15 a month for up to six family members.

“It isn’t just algorithms. It’s recommendations made by real people who love music,” said Eddy Cue, Apple’s head of software and Internet services.

The new Apple Music service will be offered alongside an overhauled version of iTunes Radio, the Pandora-like radio service it introduced in 2013. The service will now include live stations that are curated by major names in the music industry, like Zane Lowe, the former BBC producer. Apple also introduced integration of social media elements, allowing users to like and comment on songs and artists.

Apple introduced software improvements for its brand-new Apple Watch, after some customers had complained that apps on the Apple Watch were sluggish and limited in features. Apple said app developers would soon be able to obtain new tools that allow them to write apps that gain deeper access to the Apple Watch’s features, which could result in faster, more capable smartwatch apps in the future.

Apple also added the ability for users to customize watch faces with their own photos.

For the first time, Apple showed the results of several other acquisitions it made in 2013 that were related to mapping. Apple announced it had added features that had long been missing from its maps app: public transportation directions. The changes will allow Apple to take a few steps toward catching up with its chief rival, Google, which has offered similar features in its mapping service for many years.

Apple also expanded Apple Pay, its mobile wallet program. The mobile wallet will include a loyalty and rewards programs for merchants. Users paying with Apple Pay at Walgreens and Dunkin’ Donuts can redeem points they have accrued through the retailer’s rewards program.

Apple also announced that its mobile wallet service would be available in Britain next month.

“We couldn’t be happier with our progress,” said Jennifer Bailey, vice president of Apple’s Apple Pay business.

Apple also demonstrated a news-reading mobile app called News, which allows users to load articles from media outlets including The New York Times, ESPN and Wired. The app reformats web articles into magazinelike formats, similar to Flipboard, the popular reading app offered on Apple and Android devices.

The new version of iOS, Apple’s mobile operating system, focuses on improving existing features, like Siri, Apple’s voice-controlled assistant. The updated assistant can respond to commands like “Show me photos for last August” to load the specific photo roll taken that month.

When a user is receiving a phone call from an unfamiliar number, a user can ask “Who is calling?” and Siri will search emails for that phone number to identify the caller.

Apple made changes to iOS that will significantly change the way iPads perform. The company introduced a split-screen mode that allows multiple apps to run side-by-side, a big change from the current interface, which loads one app that takes up the entire screen.

Apple made the change in anticipation of releasing a jumbo-size iPad that it plans to market as a device for professionals, according to a person briefed on the product.

The new Mac system, called El Capitan, focuses on refining existing features like Apple’s Safari web browser and its search tool, Spotlight. The web browser now includes a button that mutes sound that unexpectedly starts playing from a webpage.

The Spotlight search feature has been expanded to allow smarter searches in a simple tool bar. Typing “SF giants,” for example, will bring up the game scores and coming games schedule for the San Francisco Giants baseball team.

El Capitan also has an emphasis on improving performance. Apple said apps would start about one and a half times as fast as in the previous version of OS X, and switching between apps would also be much snappier.

The free upgrade of the operating system is expected to be available in the fall.


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