Originally published at: http://appletalk.com.au/2016/06/monday-morning-news130616/
A rumour roundup tells us about all the stuff that we expect to see at WWDC. With the keynote kicking off at 3 AM tomorrow morning for Australians, new versions of iOS, Mac OS X, tvOS and watchOS are all on the cards, bringing with them a plethora of new features and refinements. MacRumors also talks about potential improvements to some Apple services, including iCloud and Apple Music, but the question of new hardware hangs over the entire event. I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.
One rumour claims iMessage will be ported to Android, though no specific timeline has been given. While Apple has released an Android app before, Apple’s encrypted messaging service making the jump to a different platform would increase compatibility between the two, although then I wouldn’t be able to feel that slight sense of superiority when talking to someone with green bubbles.
With Siri on the Mac rumours running rampant, Brian Roemmele has discovered that Siri knows what the Finder is and can respond to basic OS X navigation questions. Brian’s blog post on the topic also says this is a fairly new development, as Siri previously had no knowledge of what Finder was or what it could do.
Stephen Hackett’s list of hopes and dreams for WWDC is a slightly manic list of stuff he’d like to see from the Apple keynote. Dark mode on both iOS and Mac OS X seems plausible enough, but I get the feeling that getting Apple to deliver “a pony” in the next release of tvOS may be asking for a little much.
Dan Nolan’s list of non-nerd and very nerdy stuff he’d like to see is pretty good, even if it lacks any kind of ambition for OS X besides the addition of Siri. The list of developer-centric improvements is definitely what Apple should be focusing on given that this is a developer conference, but I get the feeling that any improvements will be quickly swept aside for headlining frameworks and APIs.
The folks from Six Colors don’t want to cover Apple TV wish lists that have already been covered, but their own Apple TV wishes agree with the general sentiment that a Siri API would allow developers to wire Siri into their own apps. They also say signing into apps individually is a laborious task when technology like iCloud Keychain exists.
A new report from Bloomberg says Apple may be using a combination of Qualcomm and Intel LTE modems in the next iPhone. It’s not an entirely unexpected move as Apple has previously used different manufacturers for their mobile processors, but using different parts ensures one less bottleneck when delivering millions of devices in short periods of time.
With every celebrity having their own emoji keyboard these days, a post on Medium looks at how third-party keyboards could be improved.
David Sparks tells us about subscription fatigue, where you’re paying a monthly subscription not only for the services you use (Spotify, iCloud, and whatever else), but also for the apps you use on a daily basis.
The story about a group of individuals stealing iPhones by dressing like employees and confidently strolling over to where the spare iPhones are kept seems plausible enough, if completely bizarre.