Posts tagged with "services"

Apple Announces New Features Coming to Its Services This Fall→

Alongside updates to Apple’s platforms and Apple Intelligence, the company announced an assortment of new features coming to its line of services this fall. From the press release in Apple Newsroom:

“So many of our users rely on Apple services throughout their day, from navigating their commute with Apple Maps, to making easy and secure payments with Apple Pay, to curating playlists with Apple Music,” said Eddy Cue, Apple’s senior vice president of Services. “We’re excited to give them even more to love about our services, like the ability to explore national parks with hikes in Apple Maps, redeem rewards or access installments with Apple Pay, and enjoy music with loved ones through SharePlay in Apple Music.”

I like that this services roundup is becoming an annual WWDC tradition. Some of these features were mentioned or shown on-screen during the keynote, but it’s easy for them to get overlooked in light of major operating system changes. While they might seem small in comparison, improvements to Apple’s services can have lasting day-to-day impacts on those who use them, myself included.

A few of my favorite services updates this year:

  • A new Places Library in Maps that allows you to save locations and write notes about them.
  • Tap to Provision, an easier way to add credit and debits cards to Wallet by tapping them instead of entering card numbers.
  • Redesigned event tickets in Wallet that can feature new types of data, including parking and weather information.
  • The Library tab in Apple Fitness+ for quicker access to saved workouts, Custom Plans, and Stacks.
  • Redesigned iCloud settings to better surface recommendations and features you’re using.

Check out the press release for all the updates coming to Apple’s services this fall. There’s a lot to look forward to there, and I’m happy to see the company continuing to push its services forward.

You can follow all of our WWDC coverage through our WWDC 2024 hub or subscribe to the dedicated WWDC 2024 RSS feed.

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Apple Services Preview: Better Integration, Increased Customization, and Sharing Options

Source: Apple.

Source: Apple.

Apple’s services have become an increasingly important part of the company’s product lineup, but they didn’t get a lot of time at WWDC this year. However, that doesn’t mean there aren’t some interesting new features coming with OS releases and beyond. There are a wide variety of updates coming that promise to better integrate services, allow for greater user customization and sharing, plus provide other day-to-day enhancements.

Apple Podcasts

Source: Apple.

Source: Apple.

Perhaps the best example of Apple’s approach to services this year is Apple Podcasts, which will add new software features and act as the glue that integrates other services. My favorite upcoming feature is Podcasts’ new queueing system. Episodes of shows can be added to a listening queue from any list of episodes by long-pressing on an episode or using the More menu and choosing ‘Add to Queue,’ which appends the episode to the bottom of your queue.

Tapping the queue button from the Now Playing screen reveals the Playing Next screen, which includes the current episode at the top, along with any upcoming episodes that you’ve queued for playback with drag handles for reordering the list. If you finish everything in your queue, Podcasts reverts to Up Next, the app’s automatically-generated list of suggested next episodes. The Playing Next screen also includes a triangular disclosure button for revealing chapter titles in podcast episodes that include them. Tapping a chapter title skips to that chapter.

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Six Colors’ ‘Apple in 2022’ Report Card

For the past eight years, Six Colors’ Jason Snell has put together an ‘Apple report card’ – a survey that aims to assess the current state of Apple “as seen through the eyes of writers, editors, developers, podcasters, and other people who spend an awful lot of time thinking about Apple”.

The 2022 version of the Six Colors Apple Report Card was published yesterday, and you can find an excellent summary of all the submitted comments along with charts featuring average scores for different categories here.

Once again, I’m happy Jason invited me to share some thoughts and comments on what Apple did in 2022. MacStories readers know that last year didn’t exactly go as planned. While iOS 16 delivered a meaningful update to the Lock Screen for people who care about customization and the iPhone 14 Pro came with substantial improvements to the display and camera tech, the iPad story was disappointing and confusing. This is reflected in my answers to Jason’s survey, and it’ll be a recurring topic on MacStories in 2023. At the same time, I was also impressed by Apple’s performance on services, concerned by the evolution of the Shortcuts app, and cautious about the company’s newfound approach to HomeKit.

I’ve prepared the full text of my answers to the Six Colors report card, which you can find below. I recommend reading the whole thing on Six Colors to get the broader context of all the participants in the survey.

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Apple’s September 2022 Event: All The Small Things

Source: Apple.

Source: Apple.

As usual, Apple covered a lot of ground quickly today, and since the event concluded, more details have emerged about everything announced. We’ve been combing Apple’s product pages, Twitter, and other sources to learn more about its services, iPhones, Apple Watches, and AirPods Pro, which we’ve collected below:

iPhones

Source: Apple.

Source: Apple.

Apple Watch

Source: Apple.

Source: Apple.

  • Not technically from today’s event, but yesterday, 9to5Mac reported that Apple is distributing a GymKit Certification Assistant app in the App Store to help gym equipment manufacturers integrate with Apple’s health and fitness products and services.
  • Hardware frames are also available for the Apple Watch Series 8 and Ultra.
  • MacRumors reports that the Apple Watch Ultra ships with a charger that includes a braided cable, an Apple Watch first.
  • Benjamin Mayo reports for 9to5Mac that the Nike Analogue, Bounce, Compact, Digital and Hybrid watch faces will no longer be tied to Nike versions of the Apple Watch and will be available for everyone when watchOS 9 is released September 12th.
  • I’m not sure there will be too many people pouring one out for the Apple Watch Series 3, which has worn out its welcome in Apple’s lineup, but as Juli Clover reports for MacRumors, it was officially discontinued yesterday.

Third-generation AirPods

Source: Apple.

Source: Apple.

  • Apple quietly released version of the third-generation AirPods that charges using a Lightning cable only, according to MacRumors.

Services

Source: Apple.

Source: Apple.

You can follow all of our September 2022 Apple event coverage through our September 2022 Apple event hub or subscribe to the dedicated September 2022 Apple event RSS feed.

Jason Snell on the Implications of Apple’s Major League Baseball Deal→

If you came away from yesterday’s Apple event with the impression that TV+ will be airing two Major League Baseball games every Friday, you wouldn’t be wrong. However, there’s a lot more to the story than meets the eye, as Jason Snell explains at Six Colors.

In addition to a two-games per week exclusive, TV+ will be adding a show called MLB Big Inning, which Apple says will feature “highlights and look-ins.” As Jason explains:

If you’re familiar with the NFL Red Zone product, in which a studio host zips the viewer around to different live games when interesting things are happening, it’s a little like that—but for baseball.

TV+ will also offer what’s known as linear programming, airing a 24/7 feed of “MLB game replays, news and analysis, highlights, classic games, and more.” The difference with linear programming is that instead of streaming individual shows on-demand, a steady stream of MLB content will be available allowing viewers to drop in and watch whatever happens to be playing.

This is not unprecedented for Apple. In 2020, the company debuted Apple Music TV, a TV+ channel that streams music videos 24/7. Like the music videos before it, 24/7 baseball content will help fill the gaps in TV+’s lineup for those times when subscribers don’t feel like picking something specific to watch.

The big picture implications of Apple’s deal with MLB provide an insight into where televised sports is heading. In the case of baseball, Jason says:

Right now, baseball is propped up by revenue from regional sports networks (RSNs) that have paid enormous amounts of money to sequester their product on cable so that it’s impossible for fans to cut the cord. The problem is, fans are like everyone else, and they are cutting the cord. At some point, the guaranteed revenue from RSNs will collapse, and leagues that rely on that revenue will be in deep trouble.

This isn’t the sort of transition that will happen overnight, but given the rise of streaming services, which has accelerated in recent years, I expect we’ll see even more deals like the one struck by Apple and MLB in the future.

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Apple Recaps Its 2021 Services

In a press release today, Apple shared an update on the success of its services. According to Eddy Cue, Apple’s senior vice president of Services:

Apple’s world-class portfolio of services proved essential in 2021, as people worldwide sought new ways to keep entertained, informed, connected, and inspired. With over 745 million paid subscriptions, Apple continues to connect the world’s developers, artists, and storytellers with users across more than a billion devices, delivering powerful tools, content, and experiences that enrich their lives in profound ways every day.

Apple says that developers have earned more than $260 billion on the apps and games sold through the App Store since its inception in 2008. That’s a $60 billion increase since last year’s services announcement. The company also reports that 2021 was another record year for sales, and the Christmas to New Years Day period saw double-digit sales growth. However, unlike past years, sales numbers weren’t shared for the week between Christmas and New Years Day or for New Years Day.

Apple has created lists of 2021’s most downloaded apps and games, if you are curious about which apps resonated with the most users last year.

Apple’s press release recaps a long list of achievements of its other services, too, recapping the highlights of 2021, including the nominations and awards won by Apple TV+, the expansion of Apple Pay, and the recent additions to Fitness+. Having followed this annual services press release since its earliest days, what’s most impressive is how long the list of services has grown. What was once primarily an App Store and Apple Music recap now covers a much broader range of services.