At Apple Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) 2015 in San Francisco, Apple introduced some expected additions with the only surprise being a Drake cameo and a performance by The Weeknd at the end of the presentations.
El Capitan - The new OS X by Apple is more about tweaking the OS X experience and improving performance, rather than having a complete overhaul. For example, Safari now allows users to "pin" sites, which means the sites will load instantly from the landing page. Spotlight has been given an upgrade, allowing more extensive and integrated search capabilities. There's also Metal, the Apple optimisation tool that will give El Capitan a performance boost and save power.
iOS 9 - Again, no surprise here as the mobile devices (iPad, iPhone etc) will be getting an upgrade themselves. The Notes app will be picking up on new functionalities, like drawing, Passbook is now Wallet, and Newsstand has become News. HealthKit will track more data like UV exposure and menstrual cycles. iOS 9 will also be taking less space, and believe it or not, it will churn out nearly three extra hours of battery life.
Apple Music - A department Apple needed to really catch up on. More so, the creator of Spotify took to Twitter and said, "Oh ok," and soon after deleted the tweet. Apple Music is a streaming service, like Spotify, which won't be available on our shores anytime soon. However, Apple may have the right resources to share this worldwide. Through this streaming service, you'll be able to stream your favourite artists, watch music videos and exclusive HD clips. Another feature to note is Connect, which allows unsigned artist to upload their music. While this isn't much different from Spotify or Jay Z's Tidal, this service will be featured in both iOS and Android devices.
Siri - Google Now is possibly the best non-existent personal assistant a smartphone user can have. Apple's Siri will be given more initiative uses in data on your phone to offer you contextual advice and options. In all honesty, this resembles much of the features given by Google and its tools. So Siri will now be able to scan through email and put invitations directly into your desired calendar or automatically offer you the perfect playlist for your morning run. As far as privacy goes, all that information will remain on your phone, rather than in the cloud.
There's plenty in store for Apple users around the world, however, it still seems too much of a catch up for the group from California. There used to be a time when Apple set the standard, and the rest played catch up. Now, it seems all even. Only time will tell what conspires in the tech industry of the commercial giants.