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What to Expect From Apple’s Developer Conference Analysis From Apple’s Developer Conference: Upgrades to Watch and Apple TV
(35 minutes later)
SAN FRANCISCO — When Steven P. Jobs ran Apple, the company’s devices were distinguished by their polished software and famous iTunes store. Today, critics and even loyal fans are taking shots at Apple’s buggy software and Apple Music, its new streaming music service.SAN FRANCISCO — When Steven P. Jobs ran Apple, the company’s devices were distinguished by their polished software and famous iTunes store. Today, critics and even loyal fans are taking shots at Apple’s buggy software and Apple Music, its new streaming music service.
With its hardware sales now slowing, Apple is under pressure to fix its software and online services, which have become increasingly important to consumers. So this week, the iPhone maker is trying to demonstrate that it is still a purveyor of high-quality software and services. With its hardware sales now slowing, Apple is under pressure to fix its software and online services, which have become increasingly important to consumers. So at its annual conference for software developers on Monday, the iPhone maker is trying to demonstrate that it is still a purveyor of high-quality software and services.
At its annual conference for software developers on Monday, Apple is expected to unveil upgrades for the operating systems powering its mobile devices, computers, TV box and smartwatch, according to a person briefed on the products, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the plans were confidential. The live stream of the conference keynote address is available here.
Chief among them: Apple plans to announce big changes to Siri, the company’s voice-activated digital assistant. The company intends to let third-party app developers take advantage of Siri’s voice commands within their apps — meaning consumers might soon be able to summon an Uber car, for example, by speaking a command. Siri, which is on iOS, Apple Watch and Apple TV, will also be extended to the company’s Mac computers. Brian X. Chen, Farhad Manjoo and Vindu Goel are attending Apple’s conference keynote in San Francisco. They are analyzing what matters about the announcements that Apple is making. Here are the main points:
Apple is trying to catch up to Google and Amazon. Amazon has found a hit with its voice-controlled smart speaker, Echo, which is capable of ordering pizza, among other tricks. Google recently announced that it would expand its voice assistant to a broad array of products, including a smart speaker called Home. Brian: Apple announced a new version of its operating system, Watch OS, powering Apple Watch. Notably, Apple started the keynote with Apple Watch, which signifies the increasing importance of the gadget, the first brand-new piece of hardware introduced by Apple under the leadership of its chief executive, Timothy D. Cook.
Apple is also expected to bring out a host of minor updates, including new photo-editing features and a redesign of Apple Music’s interface. The company also plans some announcements on Apple Pay, its mobile wallet service. Among other improvements, Apple is addressing a prominent complaint about Apple Watch: The watch took several seconds to open third-party apps like Twitter and Uber. The new version of the watch’s operating system will start apps instantly.
Apple declined to comment. Vindu: To address other complaints about the watch, Apple added a new feature called Scribble that allows you to write words one letter at a time. Previously Apple Watch only permitted canned responses to incoming messages and emails.
Stay tuned here for updates from the conference from Brian X. Chen, Farhad Manjoo and Vindu Goel. Readers can watch a live stream of the conference keynote address, which began at 1 p.m. Eastern time. Apple also repositioned the watch as more of a health monitor, putting the activity tracker in a more prominent place and encouraging competitive sharing of workouts with friends.
Brian: The new fitness features of the Apple Watch place the product in more direct competition with Fitbit, the largest wearables maker. Fitbit’s fitness-tracking accessories are popular partly because of their social features, which let wearers track each other’s step counts and compete with one another.