The Best of WWDC

Apple made some exciting announcements overnight, and although they chose 3:00am (AEST time) to do it, we were up and watching so that we could bring you the best of what's to come this morning.

Here's everything you need to know:

OS X El Capitan

  • Mail - New gestures that mimic the functionality on iOS.
  • Pinned Sites in Safari - small icons for rapid access to your frequently visited websites.
  • Spotlight - Now searches beyond your hard drive to bring rich results like weather, sports scores.
  • Split View - run two apps side by side, with each occupying a complete half of the screen.
  • Overall - Speed and performance improvements across OS X.

iOS 9

  • Siri - 40% faster, 40% more accurate. And smarter, including video and photo search, reminders to finish reading articles, etc.
  • Plug in your headphones or connect to your car, and you'll be shown suggested music playlists.
  • If you add a location to a calendar event, iPhone will tell you when to leave to arrive on time.
  • Search - More powerful and far reaching, similar to spotlight in OS X (above).
  • Improved Notes app functionality, including checklists, sketches, embedded photos and content from Safari and Maps.
  • Maps now brings transit information and contextual 'near me' suggestions.
  • Shortcuts added for physical keyboard use for things like switching between apps.
  • Multitasking has been improved and split view added to iPad.
  • Picture in Picture - Minimise and continue watching a video whilst checking email, etc.

WatchOS 2

  • Native Apps coming to Apple Watch.
  • Use a photo as your Watch Face background.
  • View 3rd part app info on Watch Faces.
  • Reply to emails with 'smart replies'.
  • Smarter, more useful Siri - Start/End workouts, load 'Glances'.
  • 'Home Kit' added to enable control of home automation devices from Apple Watch.

Apple Music

  • New streaming music service (Spotify competitor) - $9.99 for the first 3 months, then $14.99

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