By Six Colors Staff

June 10, 2016 10:52 AM PT

WWDC 2016 Wish List: Apple TV

Note: This story has not been updated for several years.

The fourth-generation Apple TV is a frustrating device. That’s because it’s a good device—good enough to wrest my TV watching habits away from the Fire TV for the most part—but it’s not a great device. Despite its much-welcomed addition of an App Store and third-party apps, the set-top box has largely proved to be a case of “meet the new Apple TV…same as the old Apple TV.”

While I doubt that Apple has any major overhaul plans for the box at WWDC, given that it hasn’t even been on the market for a full year yet, I’m hopeful that it will show the same dedication to detail and attention that it has to its other platforms, like the Mac and iOS.

Our good friend Joe Steel has produced an excellent wish list of items for tvOS, and I don’t want to spend too much time repeating what he said—I agree with pretty much all of it.

But there are a few other things I’d like to see Apple take into account in a tvOS update. In particular, along Joe’s line of an interactive programming guide, I’d like to see a Watchlist application that I can use to track which shows I’m following, and get alerted to new episodes when they’re available, as well as tracking where I am in a show. Right now I use Television Time to track my (many and varied) TV series, but having a feature like that integrated into the Apple TV experience would be a big improvement.¹

I’d also like to see better use of the top marquee section of the Apple TV’s interface, though this is more up to developers. Plex does a great job actually showing you content you might want to see when it’s in the top row of apps; Netflix and Hulu could both learn a lot from that, rather than simply trying to push me on what’s popular.

Speaking of apps, there’s also no earthly reason I should have to log in to each individually, using the cumbersome process of tapping out my username and password on the remote. (I don’t even bother with the Remote app anymore, because finding it, launching the app, connecting to my Apple TV, and so on…well, it’s actually faster to use the remote, a lot of times.) Dictation is an improvement, but this all just seems so antiquated when we’ve got iCloud Keychain—why are we still entering passwords?²

My fingers are crossed that the rumored focus on Siri will bleed over to the Apple TV. As it is, I rarely use the voice-activated search right now (in large part because I use a universal remote that has no microphone on it). Offering an API that allows third-party developers to hook into it and potentially provide deeper functionality would be welcome. For example, I could say “play the next episode of Deadwood” and have Siri know that I was watching the show on HBO and can automatically cue up where I was.

Overall, though, if I have one wish for the Apple TV it’s this: that Apple start treating tvOS like its own thing, instead of just a different flavor of iOS. The way we interact with a set-top box is different from what we do on our smartphone or tablet, and shoehorning it into the same interaction model feels incongruent at best. The Apple TV doesn’t have to do everything that an iPhone or an iPad does. There was a time when Apple was comfortable making a device that did one thing, but did it exceedingly well. Perhaps the Apple TV should take a cue from the iPod of yesteryear and focus on making its set-top box the best entertainment device it can be.—Dan Moren

Jason’s take

After Dan and Joe have had their say, there’s not a lot left for me to do but agree with them. I will, however, reinforce the point that’s been made a few times already: The Apple TV should know things about your current television status. If you’re a cable TV subscriber, you should be able to log in with your cable information and then never, ever get stopped by a cable login screen again. If you’re a cable cutter, you should be able to specify that and then not be bothered by stuff that requires a cable subscription.

And I’ll also second Dan’s championing of a watchlist. If my Apple TV could keep track of what I wanted to watch across various services, that would make me more likely to stick with the Apple TV for viewing shows. I realize individual services offer their own watch-list features, but they’re scattered—and it should be the job of tvOS to aggregate all of that information in one convenient place.—Jason Snell

By Six Colors Staff

June 8, 2016 2:10 PM PT

WWDC Wish List: Apple Watch

Note: This story has not been updated for several years.

The Apple Watch has been out for more than a year, and it’s been 21 months since it was announced. In that time, the hardware has remained the same and the software driving it has seen one major update, watchOS 2, announced at WWDC last year.

Up to now, what we’ve really seen is a first take on the Apple Watch; in terms of both hardware and software, today’s Apple Watch isn’t very much different from the one described on stage nearly two years ago. And in the intervening time, the limitations of that original approach have become clear.

As someone who has worn an Apple Watch every day since the day it shipped, I feel confident in saying this:

The Apple Watch’s app model doesn’t work. The large screen of circular app icons is hard to navigate, and most apps aren’t worth the trouble, often because they’re slow and unreliable. Glances are interesting, but often too limited. The sole button is dedicated to a feature—bringing up a wheel of friends so you can send them texts and Digital Touch sketches—that’s not remotely core to the experience of using the device. There aren’t enough watch face options, and the ones that do exist aren’t particularly customizable. Fitness features are erratic and require too much user interaction.

But hey, like I said, this is all a first take. The big question is, what comes next? Have the people who shaped the initial conception of the Apple Watch gotten a good idea of what’s working and what’s not working with the device? And are they willing to chuck out ideas that seemed good at the time, but just haven’t proven to be very good over the long haul? Will they be willing to backtrack on some of the choices they made?

All will be revealed, presumably, when watchOS 3 is announced at WWDC. And my wish for the Apple Watch, above any other, is that watchOS 3 be unflinching at throwing out stuff that just didn’t work in the previous version of watchOS. This is far too early in the life cycle of this product for Apple to be afraid of shaking things up or making big changes; the Apple Watch needs to be better, and watchOS 3 can make that happen by better focusing the product.

The watch isn’t an iPhone, so it doesn’t need apps like the iPhone has apps. It does need support for third-party apps of a sort, but the current app launch screen is unnecessary. A simple list would suffice, combined with launching apps from complications and glances. Perhaps Glances could be upgraded to be more fully functional, reducing the need for “full apps” even more. Bottom line: If there’s anything Apple can do to make Watch apps launch reliably and quickly on the existing Apple Watch hardware, it should make that happen, even at the expense of app functionality. It doesn’t matter how powerful watch apps can theoretically be if nobody ever opens them because they’re unreliable.

I’d like to see at least an option to map the watch’s button to an action other than bringing up a list of favorite friends. More watch faces are also on my wish list, and while I’d like to see third-party watch faces, I’d trade that for Apple-designed faces that are more flexible about how (and when) they display information, including support for complications that appear only in certain contexts.

Fitness tracking should happen automatically, without user interaction; earlier today I took a three-mile walk with my dog, but I forgot to launch the Activity app and tell the watch that I was going on a walk, so it failed to measure that event properly.

I realize that the current Apple Watch hardware is most definitely a first-generation model that’s going to be far slower and less capable than the next one. As such, watchOS 3 is going to be limited in what it’s going to be able to do. But I think it could be dramatically improved with some serious changes to the watchOS software—and I hope Apple feels that way, too.—Jason Snell

Dan’s Take

The biggest problem with the Apple Watch is that it’s sloooooow. The second biggest problem is that it’s sloooooooooooooooow. There’s only so much software can do to fix those problems without a commensurate hardware update, but there are improvements that can be made so that we spend less time waiting for our Apple Watch.

A lot of that has to do with prioritizing the kinds of things we do with our watches, and making those things take fewer steps. Glances were an interesting idea for getting to the heart of information we wanted available, yes, at a glance, but the problem is that they too often display stale data, and the idea simply doesn’t scale. When you have 17 Glances, trying to find just the one you want is an exercise in frustration—and not the kind of exercise that the Apple Watch tracks. There’s no Rage circle to close every day.

Complications are a step in the right direction, especially now that third-party developers can make their own, but we’re still beholden to the Apple-design watch faces. Apple clearly has a vested interest in keeping the watch face attractive, but more often than not, it’s at the cost of utility. There’s nothing wrong with having a watch be attractive and eye-catching, but this is a smartwatch: if we were focused solely on looks, we’d just buy a normal watch. There’s a reason Apple didn’t spend a lot of time emulating dumb cell phones when it developed the iPhone. My hope is that Apple will give developers and users a little more leeway in customizing and creating their own personalized watch faces.

We also need to talk about buttons. The secondary button is most useful when double-clicking it to bring up Apple Pay, but that single-click mode that provides a wheel of contacts? No. Look, I hardly ever initiate contact from my Apple Watch. Either I’m replying to someone who’s sent me a message or, on the rare circumstance where I am going to decide to text someone from my Watch (not call—never call), I’m going to use Siri. Ditch the contacts ring. Cute as drawing little messages or sending your heartbeat was when the Watch first came out, it was a novelty, a gimmick. There’s no staying power there. Repurposing that interface for Glances would hardly be the worst idea, but I’m sure Apple can come up with something even better.

Finally, Siri. The virtual assistant (and its attendant dictation features) makes a lot of sense on the Apple Watch, because you want to minimize the amount of time you’re dealing with the interface. But it’s slow, often stalls out, and seems to have trouble understanding me. I’m hopeful that the theoretical Siri improvements coming to the rest of Apple’s platform will bleed over to the Apple Watch and provide not only better comprehension, but more capabilities for both built-in and third-party apps.

Again, Apple can’t patch all the issues with the Apple Watch with a software update, but what it can do is show that it’s willing to evolve its thinking, and pay attention to what works and what doesn’t. That way, when new hardware does eventually come around, users will be primed to jump at a faster, better version of an experience they’ve already come to love.—Dan Moren

By Six Colors Staff

June 7, 2016 12:48 PM PT

WWDC Wish List: iOS

Note: This story has not been updated for several years.

It’s a big birthday for Apple’s mobile operating system this year: version 10. That’s a pretty significant milestone—I mean, the Mac’s been around for more than 30 years, and it’s still on version 10. iOS has expanded a lot since the days that it was just the iPhone OS, and in that time, most of the low-hanging fruit has been picked off. But that doesn’t mean that there aren’t still plenty of improvements to be made. In fact, now that we’ve been using our iOS devices for nigh-on a decade, I think we have a better handle on the kind of capabilities that we value.

There likely won’t be any major iOS hardware announcements at WWDC: a new iPhone isn’t likely to arrive until the fall, the current iPad line-up is still pretty new, and the iPod touch…well, let’s just say it hasn’t been getting a lot of love, but a developer conference isn’t the place for it. But that’s fine, because there’s a lot more that can be brought to our existing devices with a new operating system update. Here are a few things we’d like to see in iOS 10.

Siri API

Like Hansel, voice-based intelligent agents are so hot right now. Apple’s in a weird position with Siri, in that it was the first major tech company to bake the intelligent agent right in to its mobile operating system, but since Siri’s release, it’s only made modest improvements to the feature. Meanwhile, Amazon and Google, as well as third-party companies like Viv, appear to be pushing hard into the same space.

Hence rumors that Apple is working on a Siri API to roll out next week, which would provide third-party developers a framework for letting their apps work with the intelligent agent. That’d not only give users more options for features, but it would also take some of the onus off of Apple to provide that functionality. And it would go a long way towards bringing Siri up to date and providing stiffer competition with offerings from the likes of Amazon. Not to mention that the Siri API on iOS would also be a boon for Siri appearing on the Mac.

Home/lock screen makeovers

I swear, they’ve been on the list for as long as I can remember. But to this day, iOS’s lock and home screens remain largely unchanged from their earliest days. If I want to see any information at a glance that isn’t in a notification, I have to either pull down the Today view of Notification Center (and then wait for it to refresh), or actually go into my phone, and then open the relevant app.

I get it: these kinds of widgets and easy, glanceable information are exactly what Apple’s trying to offer with the Apple Watch. But not everybody’s going to buy the Watch (and that device has its own set of challenges), so why not bring those complications from watchOS back over to iOS, and let developers create widgets of discrete functionality for the lock and home screens? I’d love to have easier access to the current weather or a quick glance at my current step count.

We spend a lot of time navigating through the lock and home screens on our iOS devices, and rather than them just being way stations for us to pass through en route to our apps, it’d be great if they offered a little more utility along the way.

Text editing

Cut, copy, paste and text selection was missing for a long time on the iPhone. Those text-handling features didn’t arrive until iOS 3, but they’ve remained largely unchanged since then. The problem is that they’ve become increasingly finicky. Trying to select just the portion of a web page I want to copy has turned into a battle for me, trying to seize one of those blue text-selector handles and not having it snap away because the software thinks it knows what I want.

Thanks to the improvements Apple made last year to iOS on the iPad, text selection is far easier with a hardware keyboard. In a lot of places, text selection via a hardware keyboard works just as it does on the Mac: you can use the Shift key to extend a selection, the Option and Command keys to jump to select by word and line, respectively. Thumbs up to all of that.

But on the iPhone in particular—and I’m talking the 6s, which isn’t exactly small—you can sometimes end up with some wacky selection artifacts. I’m not sure if there’s a better solution out there: though I like the 3D Touch additions Apple has made for moving the cursor, it’s certainly not the most obvious of mechanisms.

Autocorrect

I don’t know what’s going on with autocorrect. In the early days of the iPhone it seemed to adroitly compensate for this novel experience of thumb-typing on a touchscreen keyboard, but lately—whether because we have gotten better at said typing or because its algorithm has gotten worse—it’s gone from providing useful and handy nudges here and there to flagrantly changing what we want to say into either awkward miscommunications or outright garbage.

Sure, we could all turn autocorrect off and see how much worse our typing is then, but I’d hope there’s somewhat of a middle ground there. Perhaps autocorrect could expand its dictionary to include more words (there are certainly more words in heaven and earth than are dreamt of in Apple’s philosophy), or perhaps it could simply be a little less aggressive about swapping in its own substitutions—especially, and I can’t believe how often I see this, inserting substitutions that aren’t words for ones that are.

This, that, and the other

There are plenty more improvements that could be made here and there in iOS 10. Just off the top of my head, an improved dictionary interface, better GIF support, a version of Preview for iOS, and Handoff for Music and iTunes. I’m interested to see if Apple continues expanding the use of 3D Touch, perhaps adding some implementation in Control Center, and I’d welcome an overhaul and rethink of Notification Center. Not all of this is going to get done this year, or perhaps ever, but Apple certainly has its choice of what to focus on for iOS 10. Let’s just all agree that the company needs to make finding emoji on iOS way easier. —Dan Moren

Jason’s take

As an iPad Pro user, I’m on the record as requesting lots of iPad Pro-related improvements in this, the first major iOS release to happen after the release of the iPad Pro. Support for external keyboards needs to improve, including the ability to set different settings (such as autocorrect and auto-capitalize) for hardware keyboards and the software keyboard. On-screen multitasking in iOS 9 is a first draft—the next version needs a better app picker, and the ability to pair apps so that they launch together in split-screen mode. The ability to run the same app twice in Split View (hello, Safari!) would be great, too. And of course, some sort of drag-and-drop gesture would be amazing.

It would be pretty great if Apple found a way to bring Split View and Slide Over to the iPhone, though (based on Google’s demo of the feature in Android) I’m skeptical if there’s room even on an iPhone 6S Plus for a split view. Slide Over actually feels like a better fit for the iPhone, since it doesn’t take up extra space on the screen but lets you temporarily peek at another app. Still, I’m going to be of an open mind here: If Apple can find a way to make Split View work on the iPhone, it should do it.

iOS needs to handle files better, specifically on external drives. I should be able to attach an SD card (or even a USB hard drive) full of files to my iPad Pro and import the files I need; right now, if it’s not a video or audio file, I’m out of luck. As a podcaster, I want more sophisticated audio support, including the ability for more than one app to easily use the microphone and speaker at once, and the ability for an app to record system or microphone audio directly, no matter what other apps are running.

Finally, I also commend to you Federico Viticci’s wish list and concept video and Serenity Caldwell’s iPad Pro wish list. —Jason Snell

By Six Colors Staff

June 6, 2016 1:50 PM PT

WWDC Wish List: The Mac

Note: This story has not been updated for several years.

Mac news comes in fits and starts these days. With so much talk about iOS and newer platforms like the Apple TV and Apple Watch, sometimes there’s not a lot of oxygen left in the room for the Mac. But WWDC 2016 is shaping up to be a huge event for the Mac.

Mac OS/OS X

Will there be a new version of OS X introduced next week, to ship this coming fall? Well, duh, that always happens. What’s a little more interesting is what it will be called. With iOS, tvOS, and watchOS already here, can macOS be far behind?

Reverting back to calling the Mac operating system “Mac OS” is high on my wish list. I’d prefer that particular style to some newfangled “macOS”, but I’ll take that if it’s the only way to get the Mac back in the name of the operating system that powers it. I’d like the “X” consigned to the ash heap of history. I’m okay with the idea of place names continuing as the monikers for Mac OS releases, but I’d prefer Apple just go to sequential numbering as it has with its other platforms—starting with Mac OS 11 this fall.

In terms of new OS X features, lately there hasn’t been much that hasn’t been about keeping the Mac more or less in lockstep with Apple’s other platforms and its cloud services. That’s fine, but when Apple does build features that are bridges to the other platforms, I’d like it to implement them on the Mac in ways that takes advantage of the Mac’s unique strengths.

Siri on the Mac is an obvious addition, and it’s been rumored for a while now. I’d love to see Siri tie in with the Mac’s existing automation infrastructure—including Automator—so that I can use voice control to perform complex tasks on my Mac. If Siri on the Mac is a black box that can’t be extended by the richness and power of the Mac platform, what’s the point?

I’m hoping Mac OS will pick up some of the other ease-of-use features of iOS, such as the ability to more easily set up a new Mac with all of your apps (at least from the Mac App Store) and cloud data intact. And since the Mac App Store is pretty slow, how about loosening the restrictions on app developers so more cool and useful Mac apps can sell their wares via Apple and take advantage of features like automatic updating and cloud restoration?

Here’s an unrealistic dream, but since this is my wish list, I’m going to make it: I’d like to see the Mac become capable of running iOS apps, perhaps in a Notification Center-style sidebar or Dashboard-style overlay. There are so many great iOS apps out there that just aren’t replicated on the Mac, except maybe with a lackluster web equivalent. Between the keyboard and mouse, the Mac should prove capable of driving many iOS apps, especially simple ones.

Probably as unrealistic, I’d like to see an entirely new and simplified version of iTunes for Mac, perhaps multiple apps. iTunes can become the hub for Apple’s media sales, as it is on iOS. A new Music app will need to support Apple Music as well as local music files. And as for syncing, updating and configuring iOS devices, let’s move all of that to a new iOS Sync app that’s completely separate. Break up the iTunes monopoly—it’s way past time.

Finally, I’d like to see some fresh updates to the software that comes bundled with Mac OS. Photos is a little more than a year old, and it would be nice to see some major feature improvements. Apple Mail needs to take cues from other mail apps and become better at processing messages and assigning them as tasks, with due dates. And it would really help if Safari supported WebRTC, a new standard that lets browsers become more capable of multimedia actions, including recording podcasts.

Speaking of podcasting, I’d also like to see an update to GarageBand that does a better job of supporting podcasting. All the tools are there—GarageBand is based on Logic Pro, after all—and with just a few feature additions it could be a fantastic tool for making podcasts. —Jason Snell

New Mac hardware?

You’ve probably heard the warning: Don’t expect new hardware at WWDC. And while it’s true that Apple’s annual developer conference is uniquely focused on software—most specifically, the next generation of Apple’s growing number of operating systems—it’s also true that Apple has announced plenty of hardware during WWDC.

Apple events these days unfold in front of an audience of press, VIPs, and Apple employees. The WWDC keynote is pretty much the only event to which a member of the public can buy a ticket: In this case, an expensive developer-conference pass available only via lottery. But still, the WWDC audience is an audience of developers—and today, every single Apple developer has to use a Mac.

So would an announcement of new Macs, especially ones with the word “Pro” in the name, be met with appreciation by a crowd of professional Apple developers? You bet it would.

More importantly, it’s way past time for both the Mac Pro and the MacBook Pro to receive updates. The Mac Pro hasn’t been updated in ages, to the point where it’s actually embarrassing that Apple’s still charging full price for such old technology. (Presumably not very many people are buying it these days.) There’s a lot of hope out there, especially among developers, for a new update to the Mac Pro that adds support for Thunderbolt 3, as well as the latest high-speed graphics processors and Intel CPUs.

The Mac Pro should be the top-of-the-line Mac, the smart (albeit expensive) choice of those who need to get the most out of their Macs. And yet I know several Mac power users who have traded in their Mac Pros for 5K iMacs, and have even heard tales of game developers opting for the old “cheese grater” style of Mac Pro, because it’s powerful and upgradeable. The Mac Pro needs to get its mojo back.

On the laptop side, the MacBook Pro is similarly in need of an update. The laptop line got a speed boost and a new Force Touch Trackpad last spring, but are otherwise largely the same design as the third-generation Retina model introduced at WWDC in 2012. Four years later, it’s time for the MacBook Pro to get thinner and lighter while also taking advantage of state-of-the-art processors. Again, adding support for Thunderbolt 3 (which is also port-compatible with USB-C) is high on my wish list.

Rumors suggest that the MacBook Pro will feature a touchscreen above the keyboard offering contextual information and commands. I’m not sure I’d put a feature like this on my wish list, but I like the idea that Apple’s trying to find a way to introduce the advantages of a touchscreen to the Mac without abandoning its belief that reaching up to touch a pane of glass perpendicular to your keyboard is not good ergonomically.

As someone who navigates my keyboard by feel, though, I’m skeptical about a touchscreen that requires me to look down to navigate it. And will it be truly useful, or more of a gimmick? Yeah. You can have this one on your wish you list if you like—I’m leaving it off of mine. —Jason Snell

Dan’s Take: Touch ID

Of all the things I’d like most to see make its way to the Mac platform, the idea of Touch ID is perhaps the most interesting. I’ve long made sure that all of my Macs have long, secure passwords, and while it’s not quite as annoying to type them out on an actual physical keyboard, the idea of being able to simply press a finger against the touchpad (or a Touch ID reader elsewhere) is definitely attractive.

Even more so if Apple opens it up to third-party developers in the same way that it’s done on iOS. Creating different, strong usernames and passwords for all your accounts is tired, even with the help of Apple’s Keychain or other tools like 1Password. Thanks to Touch ID, logging in to my bank account on my phone is actually way faster than doing so on my Mac, where I have to go look up my two-factor authentication code.

In most cases, that would probably require new hardware, but even just setting up a system whereby I could use my iPhone or iPad’s Touch ID sensor and a wireless connection between that device and my Mac to authenticate would be a welcome workaround until I end up refreshing my current Macs. —Dan Moren