Skip to main content

WWDC News Hub/Live Blog: Apple announces iOS 9, OS X 10.11, Apple Watch SDK & Apple Music

It’s Monday, June 8th and nearly time for Apple’s annual Worldwide Developers Conference. We’ve already run down what we’re expecting from the conference, ranging from a significant iOS 9 update for iPads, iPhones, and iPod touches with a focus on quality, an upgraded version of OS X with the same core focus, the new Apple Music streaming service along with the new iTunes Radio, and the native software development kit (SDK) for the Apple Watch. We’ll be following the news closely from before the keynote, during the event, and after the event, and we’ll be live updating this post with the latest information out of the WWDC Keynote.

You can find our live updates and analysis below, as we get closer to show time.

Keynote News and Analysis (higher up bullet points are newer)

– Apple Music available June 30th, 10 bucks a month. 3 month free trial.

– Cue giving a demo of the new app.

– Drake, yes, on stage talking about Apple Music.

– Apple Music: Revolutionary Music Service, 24/7 Global Radio station, a station that only has one master, music itself. New Connect feature so artists can interact with their fans.

– Apple’s Jimmy Iovine is up.

– One more thing… Tim Cook about to announce new Music service.

– WatchOS 2 to developers today, everyone this fall. Free update.

– Siri gets HomeKit and Transit support. You can also now pull up individual Glances, for example Instagram.

– Maps gets the mass transit capabilities as well.

– Apple Pay gets all of those iOS 9 Apple Pay features discussed earlier. Passbook renamed to Wallet as well.

– New Health/Fitness features that run natively on the watch. Third party apps contributing to Activity. Siri support for starting workouts. New Achievements in 3D with cool engravings. Sharable badges as well via iMessage, Facebook, and Twitter.

– Now you can Reply to email in new WatchOS. You can also do FaceTime Audio for the first time.

– Third Party complications support + Night Stand Mode for viewing key information with the time, alarms, and date. Multiple sets of friends in the Communications tab. Multiple colors in each Digital Touch.

-WatchOS 2.0: New clock functions, new Health and Fitness, new Siri, new Maps and Apple Pay features.

– WatchOS time + Native SDK.

– Cook announces 100 billion apps downloaded.

– iOS 9 for developers today, Public Beta in July.

New Story: 30+ iOS 9 features that Apple didn’t show off on stage

– Swift 2.0: Faster, more stable, open source.

New Story: Wireless CarPlay coming in iOS 9, auto makers will be able to create apps to control car features

– CarPlay: Apps from the automaker so you don’t need to leave CarPlay, Wireless CarPlay for future cars, first tested with iOS 8.3.

New Story: Apple unveils iCloud monitoring for iOS HomeKit accessories, support for new sensors, security systems

New Story: Apple will support reproductive health tracking with HealthKit in iOS 9

– HomeKit improvements: Security system, Window shades, sync out of the home via iCloud.

– New HealthKit datapoint: Water, Hydration, Reproductive Health.

– Lots of new developer APIs in iOS 9, UI Testing, Swift 2, App thinning, Gaming APIs, Wireless CarPlay, Multitasking APIs. GameplayKit, Model I/O, ReplayKit.

New Story: Apple announces new features for Notes app coming with iOS 9 including photos and checklists

– iOS 9 installation is only 1.3GB, down from nearly 5GB needed for iOS 8.

– Performance enhancements in iOS 9 as well. Addition of 1 hour battery life on iPhones with iOS 9. New low power mode, a single switch to extend battery life for additional 3 hours.

New Story: Apple announces split-screen multitasking for iPad in iOS 9

– Finally. Split-screen iPad apps and Multitasking. New task switcher as well. Looks fantastic.

– New iPad keyboard that acts like a trackpad, new suggestions, better copy/cut/paste controls.

– iPad time.

New Story: Apple introduces News app in iOS 9, replaces Newsstand

– News app. Content, sources, personalized. VP of Application Product Management Susan Prescott giving a demonstration. Looks like a better Flipboard.

New Story: Apple officially delivers transit directions to Maps with iOS 9

– New Browse Around Me feature + showing which stores support Apple Pay. These upgrades on iPhone, iPad, and Mac.

– New Maps features. Transit. Multi-modal routing. Train, subway, bus, ferry, walking directions. Special care to get the details right, like intricate subway stations. Transit integrated into Siri as well. Baltimore, Berlin, Chicago, London, more and China.

– New notes app with some enhancements: new font, inline images, formatting options, checklists for to-dos, sketching/drawing features + Linking from Safari to Notes. New outline for organizing Notes by attachments, photos, Maps links, website links.

– Passbook is now renamed to Wallet.

– Store credit and debit cards coming to Apple Pay: BJs, Kohls, and JC Penney. Loyalty and rewards cards from Walgreens and Dunkin Donuts in the fall.

New Story: Apple announces international Apple Pay expansion starting w/ the UK next month

– Jennifer Bailey announcing new Apple Pay features: Discover card this fall, merchants expanding their support as well. Announces partnership with Square who is launching new reader. Launching in the fall. New Apple Pay support in apps added daily. Pinterest will launch support for Apple Pay purchases inside of their app later this year. UK Apple Pay next month, 70% of cards in the UK.

– New San Francisco font, News app on Home screen, new Wallet app, new lowercase keyboard.

New Story: Apple announces new version of Siri in iOS 9 with “Proactive” assistant features

– Apple announces Proactive, a Google Now competitor.

iOS 9: Performance updates, iPad, more intelligent, new apps.

– iOS Time.

– El Capitan: Fall release, public beta in July. Developer Beta today. Free.

New Story: Apple introduces split view for full screen apps in Mac in OS X El Capitan

– Deep architectural improvements: Metal from iOS.

– Much faster OS, 1.4x faster app launch times.

– New Notes app, Split screen apps windows.

– New San Francisco font.

New Story: Apple announces revamped Spotlight search in OS X El Capitan

– Updated Mission Control: smoother, faster, updated UI.

– New ways to search across system: Like searching Mail ignored from certain person, same in Finder and Spotlight.

– New iOS Mail gestures in OS X Mail. New ways to pin websites in Safari, within the tabs bar. Muting/finding audio playing in the background in Safari. Game scores in Spotlight + Weather.

– New Spotlight, enhancements to built-in apps, Window Management.

New Story: Apple reveals OS X 10.11 El Capitan with refinements at WWDC

– OS X El Capitan.

New Story: Apple announces new version of watchOS with support for native third-party apps

– Cook says new updates to OS X, iOS, and watchOS (including native apps SDK).

– Tim Cook talking about baseball.

– Tim Cook talking about this being a global conference, 26th WWDC. 80% first time attendees. 350 scholarship winners.

– Should be starting up here in under 10 minutes.

Gruber says over 2 hours for the Keynote.

Pre-Event commentary:

– View from inside Moscone this morning

– Mark is going live on CNBC to talk WWDC at 8:15 AM, so stay tuned for that (update: video above).

– Coming up on an hour until the keynote… Time to Stand.

– New Apple Comms VP getting the recognition he deserves:

– Some news just an hour before the keynote: Apple could announce a Newsstand replacement geared toward hosting publisher content. Story here.

– Gruber drinking orange juice this morning:

– Hmm:

– Shocker:

– Phil in on the action:

– Craig rocking the ’13 gear:

– The Cavs will get to celebrate their Championship with native Apple Watch apps:

– Eddy Cue recovering from last night’s performance by LeBron James:

– Inside Moscone:

– Mayor of SF is here with his Apple Watch (that he has never used?)

– Be careful:

– People inside:

– Jony and Pharrel:

– Cue and Wil.I.Am:

– Crowd inside:

– More Jony:

– OS X El Cap it is?

– Some last minute news from the WSJ on Apple Pay plans:

Apple Inc. is expected to announce Monday that it will start accepting retail store cards onto its Apple Pay mobile-phone payments system, according to people familiar with the situation.

The move is part of a series of changes to Apple Pay that the company is expected to announce at its Worldwide Developers Conference, these people said.

Retail store cards, also known as private label cards, so far haven’t been part of the Apple Pay system that was launched late last year. The cards, which are popular with consumers because they typically include special offers and discounts, can only be used at specific merchants.

– Stream is up if you’re watching at the direct VLC link.

– Apple’s stream is live on their website as well.

FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.

You’re reading 9to5Mac — experts who break news about Apple and its surrounding ecosystem, day after day. Be sure to check out our homepage for all the latest news, and follow 9to5Mac on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn to stay in the loop. Don’t know where to start? Check out our exclusive stories, reviews, how-tos, and subscribe to our YouTube channel

Comments

  1. Power Presenter - 9 years ago

    hello, i am from russia, my english is a little crazy so please rejoin on all of my argument when i make my mistake!

    my feeling are, as usual, i think that apple is the most polite society; the most pleasant company!

  2. Amir Din (@amirdin) - 9 years ago

    Shame no Apple tv updates today….

    • PMZanetti - 9 years ago

      Its mindblowing. Just fucking update the old hardware already, and give us an improved UI. Who cares about a subscription…I don’t.

      • blockbusterbuzz - 9 years ago

        I agree. Better processor and wireless capabilities and an app store. Done!

      • Wolfgang Frick - 9 years ago

        That is the truth. Newer software that demands more resources just slows down the older hardware.

    • Robert Stukenbroeker - 9 years ago

      They may talk about new apple TV software, but hardware doesn’t typically get announced at a developers conference.

      • butskristof - 9 years ago

        The MacBook Pro Retina was announced at WWDC ’12 and the revised MacBook Air in ’13. So yes, Apple does release hardware releases at WWDC.
        Not that I’m expecting a new Apple TV today though.

      • Robert Nixon - 9 years ago

        It’s been about 50/50 for the last decade or so.

      • Curious if any hardware announcements have been made during the week of WWDC apart from the keynote. Anyone remember?

    • friarnurgle - 9 years ago

      An Apple TV update would be a heck of a “one more thing”

    • dcj001 - 9 years ago

      Did anyone notice the Apple TV sitting within the WWDC 15 logo?

      http://cdn.macrumors.com/article-new/2015/04/Apple-WWDC-2015-Logo.png?retina

  3. roughgarden - 9 years ago

    How can they update IOS 9 for iPod Touch, when even the most current Touch can’t handle iOS 8? And when the hell are they going to come out with the new iPod Touch 6G?

    • tomtubbs - 9 years ago

      From what Gruber mentioned on the Talk Show with 9to5mac – they’re looking to optimise from iPhone 4s upwards, so that’d include Touch, (and if A5 optimising and up, then that’d include optimising for the ATV 3rd gen which also uses an A5). From their chat they said that Apple is aiming to get iOS9 run faster and better than iOS8.

  4. prius3 - 9 years ago

    Interesting that his article is titles Apple “announces”, when the WWDC has not even started and nobody has not announced anything at all…

  5. Kevin Stuckey - 9 years ago

    If the Apple TV isn’t announced today, should we expect it in September? So here’s the Fall lineup with announcements:
    September- Apple TV, Internet TV service, iPhone 6s, iPhone 6s Plus, iOS 9 release date
    October- iPad Air 3, iPad mini 4, iPad Pro (maybe)

    September’s event will be quite full of new products, that should be fun.

    On a side note, Apple should update the iPods in October too.

    • Yes, an update for the ipod would be nice, but I feel like the ipod is going the way of the dodo bird

      • Dave Howarth - 9 years ago

        I agree that it seems like the iPod is going away but it’s a shame. At some point when my kids are maybe 10 or 11 I wouldn’t mind them having an iPod for music and a few games. Apple’s answer to that would be to give them an iPhone, but I don’t intend to give my kids a phone until they’re at least 16 maybe 18. I think there is still a decent market out there and plenty of money to be made by Apple.

      • Alan Camp - 9 years ago

        The smaller iPod Shuffle works for me so I don’t have to carry around a big phone when exercising. But the bigger iPods have become redundant with the 64 and 128GB phones.

      • Right Dave, When I have children, I wouldn’t be opposed to giving my future, hypothetical children an ipod, but they will not be getting iphones until they are at least 16!

      • Kevin Stuckey - 9 years ago

        I unfortunately agree. The iPhone has replaced the iPod.

  6. Sanjay Kumbhani - 9 years ago

    iOS 9 new round icon same with apple watch

  7. stickyicky97 - 9 years ago

    I agree with others………..how in the world are they not able to at least roll out the new “beta” AppleTV software and talk about the features of the new hardware? I always said a dedicated AppleTV app store with solid 3rd party controllers could make waves in the gaming world. They could at least released the new AppleTV hardware with new UI and debut the TV service this fall. Oh well, I guess we’ll see what they talk about today.

  8. taoprophet420 - 9 years ago

    9to5 would done good during the land runs in the U.S. Jumping the gun since apple has not announced anything today so far.

    • Louis Adam Markham - 9 years ago

      This is like CNN, FoxNews, MSNBC……… they can then claim they were the first to report it later. 9to5 is losing my interest with this type of reporting.

  9. No Apple TV, so disappointment

  10. rettun1 - 9 years ago

    Watching it now, and never before has the supposed convergence of ios and osx seemed so likely. And thats exciting.

  11. Some great stuff here, but it is staggering how many things have been blatantly lifted straight from Windows, Android & even Pebble.

  12. Larry Chiang - 9 years ago

    Reblogged this on What They Dont Teach You At Stanford Business School and commented:
    I took notes on how Mark Gurman started himself up #ENGR145