Apple, Digital Lifestyle, Events, Music, Web
by Joe Wilcox

WWDC 2015: My Story in Tweets

As the week closes, I reflect on Apple’s World Wide Developer Conference, which commenced on June 8, 2015. I watched the keynote on Apple TV and live-tweeted from my comfy couch. Fittingly from Chromebook Pixel LS.

I find iOS 9 interesting enough to test. Today, I signed up for an Apple Developer account; my old one expired years ago. The process took a phone call, because Apple claimed my bank declined to pay. How strange. So I tried another card. Then a third. Hey, my accounts are good! I called the bitten-fruit for assistance, and someone senior in developer support manually processed the $99 fee, because of the glitch. How fraked is that? 

What happens on June 30th, when a storm of new subscribers scale the company’s servers searching for three months of free Apple Music? About that service: If the rumors buzzing like annoying gnats are true, The Beatles won’t be part of the service. That eliminates a big way the service could really stand out from all the others. Perhaps I will write something longer on the topic.

For now, I present my real-time reaction to the keynote in tweets, from my Twitter, in chronological order:

  • “I seriously considered flying to San Francisco, not for #wwdc but the @jdalrymple AltBeardBash. I will watch the keynote at home”.
  • “Tim Cook calls the 26th #WWDC the ‘epicenter of change’ for #Apple and the industry. Oh yeah?”
  • “#Apple will stream 30 of the sessions, not just the #WWDC keynote. Mmmm, opening up”.
  • “‘Today we’re bringing native apps to the watch’, Tim Cook says”.
  • “Craig Federighi claims OS X Yosemite has the fastest adoption rate of any PC OS”.
  • “Next version of OS X will be called El Capitan”.
  • “OS X El Capitan introduces new gestures for things like Pin Sites in Safari. Also: Mute those damn annoying auto-playing vids”.
  • “OS X El Capitan split screen and window management is interesting, but still overly complicated compared to Chrome OS tabs”.
  • “Metal for Mac looks promising. I presume it supports older Macs, which would be excellent”.
  • “El Capitan Developer Preview is available today. Public beta next month. Upgrade will be free”.
  • “Craig Federighi claims iOS 8 adoption rate is 83 percent”.
  • “Ha! Craig Federighi says Siri’s error rate is 5% down from 40%. Oh yeah?”
  • “Siri features in #iOS9 sound a lot like Google Now. It’s more proactive. No wonder Tim Cook reassured about privacy”.
  • “Whoa. #Apple has a new search API. Can you say competing with Google?”
  • “#ios9 offers Craig Federighi a meditation app, knowing his AM schedule”.
  • “‘Because my phone knows…’ Craig Federighi says. That’s #iOS9 proactive capabilities reminiscent of Google Now”.
  • “‘Siri also is great at search’, Craig Federighi says. Is he right?”
  • “Craig Federighi gives obligated privacy reassurance. Collected information ‘stays on your device…You are in control'”.
  • “Apple Pay will reach 1M locations sometime next month”.
  • “#ApplePay goes to the UK, with 8 banks and 250k locations”.
  • “On #iOS9 store cards will be available with #ApplePay”.
  • “Apple Passbook is now Wallet. Ha! Just as Google rebrands its Wallet to Pay. Right?”
  • “#iOS9 looks to be the most contextual version yet. That’s how Apple takes on Google and undermines its core info biz”.
  • “Now Tim Cook’s last week privacy triad makes sense–taking on Google with #iCloud & #iOS9 features, Free search without ads”.
  • “The #iOS9 News app is like the child of Flipboard and Google Newsstand. Oh my. It’s pretty”.
  • “Back to #Apple competing with #Google: Free freer than free. Apple doesn’t rely on ad revenue, so can undermine its rival”.
  • “‘News is designed from the ground up with privacy in mind’, Craig Federighi says. Rolls out first in Australia, UK, and US”.
  • “Apple News App also slaps Facebook’s recent news publishing program”.
  • “Finally, better multitasking comes to #iOS9 on #iPad”.
  • “Is anyone keeping count how many new #iOS9 features copy #android?”
  • “EU trustbusters don’t need to reign in Google’s monopoly. #Apple competition with correct the market around search and mobile”.
  • “Picture in picture is new to #iOS9. Why does that look familiar? Android users, your answer?”
  • “#iOS9 has low-battery mode that can extend charge by three hours. Again, Android users does this sound familiar to you?”
  • “#iOS9 will be 1.3GB upgrade vs 4.6GB for the predecessor. You can keep that 16GB iPhone, kids!”
  • “#carplay will be wireless for future cars. Now your auto won’t be obsolete if #Apple changes connectors again”.
  • “Whoa. #Apple will #opensource Swift. Well, the devil is the details”.
  • “#iOS9 developer preview is available today. Public beta in July. All devices running iOS 8 will be supported”.
  • “Craig Federighi claims Swift will be the major development platform for the next 20 years”.
  • “Tim Cook announces “major milestone” for App Store: 100B app downloads and $30B paid to developers”.
  • “Apple Watch OS 2 brings many of the search and proactive capabilities coming to iOS 9. Yeah, and the battery tax?”
  • “Watch OS 2 lets you access microphone and playback to Bluetooth speakers. Video now plays on the device screen. HomeKit native”.
  • “Sensors! They made iPhpne transforming, and Apple Watch will use them more in v2 OS. Human-like response is UI nirvana”.
  • “Watch OS 2 coming in the Fall. Available today for developers”.
  • “Here comes ‘One more thing…we love music’, Tim Cook says”.
  • “Here is #AppleMusic, with logo in the name. If you missed my post yesterday; https://joewilcox.com/2015/06/07/apple-harvests-its-logo/” [Ed: Link changed]
  • “#applemusic provides streaming songs and 24-hour radio. Artists can ‘connect’ directly with listeners”.
  • “Jimmy Iovine claims #applemusic is ‘revolutionary’. Humans curate, not algorithms. I love that”.
  • “Eddie Cue takes the stage. #applemusic starts with ‘For You’, with ‘recommendations made by real people'”.
  • “‘Internet radio isn’t really radio’, Eddie Cue says. He’s right. #applemusic radio station is a big deal”.
  • “#AppleMusic connect feature bring together social and artist audience engagement in a big way”.
  • “Mmmm. Will #applemusic streaming subscription include The Beatles?”
  • “By letting artists post tracks directly, #applemusic really becomes a platform for creatives”.
  • “#AppleMusic is the Tim Cook ‘One More Thing’ we waited for”.
  • “#AppleMusic will be free the first 3 months. Arrives June 30. $9.99 individual or $14.99 family per month. Launches in 100 countries”.
  • “#AppleMusic comes to Android in the Fall. Smart”.

Some things I post here are more for me. Collecting the tweets puts my thoughts in one place that I can easily reference or search and cull ideas for future analyses.

Photo Credit: Duncan Hull