When I started cover Apple in 2006 , there was the Mac , Mac OS X , and the iPod . For service , you had the iTunes Store and good old .Mac — nothing too fancy , and while these pieces all worked together , Apple was free to update them on whatever schedules worked well for each product .
Today that could n’t be further from the case . Apple has more intersection and it ’s incorporate them more tightly all the time . But with more make a motion opus , it ’s harder than ever to keep them move in lock step . HomeKit wasannounced with iOS 8 , but nothing was quick to send fora full twelvemonth . Health was announced for iOS 8 but did n’t appear until later thanks to a hemipteron . And now theNew York Timesreports that its sources are sayingthe next - contemporaries Apple TV wo n’t be announced at WWDC .
Missing pieces
Apple is work on a streaming TV package — and that ’s not just a rumor . CBS head Les Moonves in public acknowledged iton stage at the Code Conference , and allege CBS would “ believably ” participate . But later reports claim it ’s also beenpulled from Monday ’s display . The developers conference plausibly is n’t the most born setting to announce a consumer - focused product like a streaming idiot box service of process , so this might not seem like a big deal — unless that announcement came with an SDK for developer to write apps for the Apple TV . ( Apple used to throw an iPod / iTunes / Apple TV - centric public press event in the fall , so perhaps we ’ll see that event back in the rotation this dip , or the Apple TV could be rolled out alongside the iPhone in September or the iPad in October , or perhaps we wo n’t see it until 2016 . )
And what about HomeKit ? Apple confirmed that the Apple TV will be the hub of the system , act as the always - on , always - connected gateway to countenance you control your gadget when you ’re outside your home internet . This is n’t pendent on Modern Apple TV hardware — Apple ’s support pageboy says that the current third - generation theoretical account will work . But the Apple TV does n’t currently have Siri , which is a large part of what will make HomeKit so convenient .
Tighter integration between Io and OS X has n’t do without growing strain , either.iCloud Drive launched with iOS 8but broke syncing with your Mac unless it had Yosemite … which was n’t out yet . Handoff work all right betweentwo devices running iOS 8 , but the literal magic did n’t happen until Yosemite rent you give off tasksbetween your iOS gimmick and your Mac . ( Well , when it worked , anyway . )
What’s next?
We rejoiced when we heard thatiOS 9 might be light on new features , so Apple can instead focus on optimizing the performance of feature introduced in iOS 8 . When Apple put both iOS and OS X on a yearly dismissal schedule , therollouts get a little hairy , and it ’s probably a good idea to slow down a bit and make certain everything works like it ’s supposed to before stack on a bunch of young features and integrations .
I really desire a novel Apple TV next workweek — mostly because I ’m anxious for HomeKit to finally become a robust ecosystem rather of just a tidings with a capital K in the centre . Maybe my lesson is to bear less tending to the rumor mill and just wait until Apple foretell things when they ’re in force and ready . Maybe Apple ’s lesson is to clamp down on leaks to fend off a public perception that things are being retard when they really are n’t . The WWDC 2015 logo read “ The epicenter of change ” over a flesh that looks exactly like an Apple TV . I do n’t want Apple to deal any wine before its time , but if the Apple TV does n’t appear in this year ’s tonic , it ’ll leave an awfully big gob .
