Apple Announces New Features

At Apple’s annual software conference Monday, the company announced a major new foray into streaming music and showed off a host of new software features for its iPhones, iPads and Mac computers.

The music service, called Apple Music, will be launched later this month in more than 100 countries.

The music service was the biggest news of the company’s five-day conference, but Apple also announced a host of new upgrades and services coming later this year to the operating software for its popular iPhones, iPads and Mac computers.

The new features include enhancements to Siri, the company’s voice-activated digital assistant, as well as Apple Pay, Apple Maps and the Apple Watch.

Analysts say the new services and upgrades, which will be available when Apple releases free updates to its iOS and Mac OS software this fall, are part of a broader strategy to make Apple’s devices indispensable.

While many companies make smartphones and computers, “Apple’s crown jewels are its software and online services,” said analyst Daniel Ives, who follows tech companies for FBR Capital Markets.

Some of the new features could provide new profits for the tech powerhouse. But perhaps more importantly, they may help keep customers from defecting to rivals like Google, which showed off new features for its competing Android mobile software at its event last month.

Here’s a look at some of the new features Apple announced:

SIRI

Apple’s voice-activated digital assistant will be integrated into the new music service, so subscribers can ask it to find songs from a certain year or create playlists from songs in different genres.

Siri is also gaining more intelligence, according to Apple executives, who demonstrated by having Siri do things like search an iPhone-users’ photos with a voice command, such as, “Show me pictures from San Francisco last July.”

With the coming software update, Siri also will be able to anticipate certain requests and remember websites, said Craig Federighi, Apple senior vice president. So, a user can tell Siri to “remember this” and it will later show a link to a website viewed earlier.

Siri will also gain the ability to search within apps loaded on the iPhone, to provide links to information from a restaurant or food app, for example.

APPLE PAY

Along with making payments tied to a credit or debit card, Apple Pay will soon incorporate store-issued payment cards and rewards from loyalty programs offered by merchants like Walgreens and Dunkin Donuts. That could be a key to making the service more useful for shoppers, according to analysts at Forrester Research.

Apple says Apple Pay has been quickly embraced by shoppers and merchants since it was launched last fall, but it hasn’t released many financial details. Forrester analysts said in an email that the idea of paying with a smartphone in stores is still new and it’s unclear if consumers view it as a novelty or an essential shopping tool.

APPLE WATCH

Apple announced an update to the watch operating system and said it will release the programming tools that independent developers need to build apps that can interact directly with the watch’s hardware and sensors.

The watch still requires a link to the iPhone to perform many functions, but Apple’s Kevin Lynch said the new software upgrade will let the watch connect directly to wi-fi networks, so it will be able to provide some services even if the owner’s iPhone isn’t nearby.

While tech experts see big opportunities in wearable devices, some consumers are “still on the fence,” said app builder Jordan Edelson of Appetizer Mobile. He said the new app-building tools will help developers show how useful the watch can be.

Apple did not release any sales figures for the watch, which it began selling in April.

This article appeared in print in the June 10th, 2015 edition of Hamodia.