Getting Behind the Mac as a Productivity-First Platform
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Anchor Brings User-Friendly Podcasting to the iPad, Complete with Editing Tools
If you’ve ever used Anchor to make a podcast, you know just how easy it is. That ease of use, however, has historically meant sacrificing any access to editing tools that most podcasters need. Today that changes, however, as Anchor is introducing basic editing tools as part of the debut of its iPad app.
iWork 4.1 Adds Audio Recording Capabilities, Various Minor Improvements
Apple updated its iWork suite for iOS today to version 4.1, bringing a variety of small improvements along with one centerpiece feature: support for audio recordings.
WWDC 2018: The Announcements I Never Would Have Expected
When you’ve followed Apple for several years, there are certain kinds of announcements you come to expect from the company: iterative refinements that make existing products better, and even those exciting surprise features you never would have thought of yourself, or new hardware that seems like something straight out of the future. There are other kinds of announcements, however, that you’re confident will never come to fruition. Perhaps because they simply seem like something Apple wouldn’t do, or that the company doesn’t seem to really care about.
Every now and then, to our surprise and delight, those unexpected things come about after all. Looking back on last week’s news from WWDC, there are several big and small announcements Apple made that hit me as totally unexpected.
Apple Highlights World Cup Coverage Across a Variety of Apps and Services
Football fans know that the World Cup kicks off later this week, and ahead of that event Apple today shared a press release highlighting how it plans to cover the event using a host of its services and apps. World Cup support will include the following:
- Siri knowledge of football-related queries is expanding to nine new countries: Brazil, Russia, Denmark, Finland, Malaysia, Turkey, Thailand, Saudi Arabia and Israel.
- The App Store’s Today tab will see special stories over the next month related to the World Cup, featuring apps from football stars and more.
- The TV app can be used to not only watch the games, but also track them easily from the Sports tab.
- Apple News will feature special coverage to keep users up-to-date on the latest World Cup stories.
- Each of the 32 nations represented in the World Cup will have its own special playlist in Apple Music, highlighting artists from each respective country.
- Apple Podcasts and iBooks will each showcase a new ‘The Beautiful Game’ collection, with shows and books all about football.
- Finally, Apple’s video app Clips will get in on the action too, thanks to a recent update that added football-themed content.
While I’m not a football fan (unless we’re talking American football), Apple’s World Cup coverage is exciting to me simply because it shows the potential for future integrated efforts around topics I do care about.
As Apple moves deeper into focusing not just on tech, but on media as well, it will have an increasing number of opportunities to use its apps and services to supplement a user’s experience of big events, such as other major sporting events, election seasons, and more. Applying the Apple ecosystem’s unified media and editorial services to the area of pop culture may seem like a small move, but it could become a product differentiator that users grow to love.
Best Implementations of Last Year’s WWDC Features
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Streets
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AirPlay 2 Is Coming to Sonos Speakers Next Month→
Dieter Bohn of The Verge reports:
Sonos just announced that AirPlay 2 is coming to “newer” Sonos speakers in July. Unlike using Apple Music on the HomePod, it will stream music from your phone instead of directly over the internet. However, unlike the HomePod you will be able to control some of the AirPlay 2 music with Alexa. You can launch music on your iOS device in all the normal ways, including with Siri.
Essentially, Sonos’ software system is able to be aware of what is playing on your speakers, no matter the source, It’s a clever way to make AirPlay 2 a little more useful. Once the music is playing via AirPlay 2, you can use Alexa to pause, go to the next track, and even ask what’s playing.
For the platform-agnostic user – the exact user Sonos has focused on pitching its products to lately – this kind of blending together of different assistants and ecosystems may carry a lot of appeal. Since Alexa is the sole voice service currently available on Sonos speakers, the ability to control AirPlay 2 playback Amazon’s assistant is key. I do wonder, though, if mixing and matching different services might be overly confusing for the average user. With AirPlay 2 support, you’ll be able to use Siri on your iPhone to start streaming audio to a Sonos speaker, but you can’t start that playback with Alexa. Once audio’s already playing, though, that’s when Alexa steps in. I appreciate the variety of options, but it sounds like those options bring with them a lot of restrictions to remember.
As for hardware compatibility of AirPlay 2, it will be available on a limited number of Sonos devices:
AirPlay 2 will work with the Sonos One, (second generation) Play 5, and Playbase (and, ahem, “future products”). But if you have older speakers, owning any of those newer ones will make AirPlay 2 work with all of them.
That last line is intriguing, though unclear. Older devices can’t actually become AirPlay 2 speakers, otherwise they would appear in the Home app as HomeKit devices – however, it makes sense that an existing HomeKit device that talks to older Sonos devices could serve as a translator of sorts, relaying AirPlay 2 commands over Sonos-native protocols.
We’ll see how it all works when AirPlay 2 support arrives next month.
Apple Clarifies App Review Guidelines to Promote Free Trial Options→
It’s tough selling a paid up front app on the App Store. Users have no way of knowing ahead of time whether an app will fit their needs or not, and no one wants to spend money on an app only to find that it wasn’t what they expected. Fortunately, App Store review guidelines have been updated this week to address that problem. Matthew Humphries reports for PCMag:
The updated guidelines state that, “Non-subscription apps may offer a free time-based trial period before presenting a full unlock option by setting up a Non-Consumable IAP item at Price Tier 0 that follows the naming convention: “14-day Trial.” Prior to the start of the trial, your app must clearly identify its duration, the content or services that will no longer be accessible when the trial ends, and any downstream charges the user would need to pay for full functionality.”
So users will know before they start using an app that it will cost money, but only after X days of free use. The upfront transparency should prevent any user frustration, but it could also greatly improve the quality of content in apps because the developer really needs the user to reach the end of the free trial wanting to pay to continue using/playing.
This isn’t necessarily a change of policy, but more an explicit clarification of something that’s already been allowed. The Omni Group, for example, began switching its entire suite of apps in September 2016 to the same sales model: free downloads, with In-App Purchases for unlocking full functionality after 14-day trial periods. Since that time, however, very few apps have followed the same path – likely in part due to continued uncertainty regarding what’s officially allowed. The updated review guidelines should lead to a welcome increase of paid up front apps transitioning to free downloads with In-App Purchases, thus enabling more ubiquitous free trials across the App Store.
You can also follow all of our WWDC coverage through our WWDC 2018 hub, or subscribe to the dedicated WWDC 2018 RSS feed.