A Life For Itself

Tag: WWDC

  • WWDC 2016

    Not much of interest coming out of WWDC 2016. Now I’m not disappointed that I didn’t get to stream it earlier. No word on any new Macbook Pros, so not sure if I should start saving up.

    OS X becomes macOS

    Since I don’t own a Mac, neither the name change from OS X to macOS, nor Siri’s impending presence in the OS are really important to me. I hardly use Siri on my iPad as it is.

    Hopefully this won’t become an annoyance when I have to ask people if they’ve upgraded their Macs to macOS and they look at me as if I’ve asked the question in Klingon. The folks with whom I might have that interaction do not keep up with tech news, nor do they read this site.

    Apple Pay

    Don’t use it or any other contactless payments system. Still not sure which one I want to use, but I’m sure it won’t be Apple Pay. I’m not getting an iPhone or Apple Watch anytime soon, if ever, and I’m not about to lug around my iPad to make payments.

    Apple Pay is another one of those things that I’d probably use if it were on Android. But it won’t be.

    iOS 10

    The lock screen updates seem interesting. More like Android. I’ll probably take advantage a lot for news and weather.

    Photos

    Don’t do much with photos either way, so nothing for me here. I like Apple’s current photos app, for what it’s worth.

    Maps

    I’ll still use Google Maps, even on iOS. I quite like Google Maps for iOS.

    iMessage

    Nothing I was hoping to hear. Not that I expected it. Gizmodo thinks it’s inevitable for iMessage to open up. We’ll see.

    Don’t care about message animations or any of that stuff. Guess I’m not in their target audience.

    The rest of iOS

    Don’t use Apple Music (Amazon and Google Play) or News (Flipboard), so not interested much in their next versions of those.

    Deleting Apps

    I guess I’ll delete the Apple pre-installed apps that I don’t use. Their presence has never been much of a bother, so I guess to cut down on the number of screens on my iPad, I’ll go ahead and delete them when I can.

    Actually, I’ll probably delete Apple Music and News first.

    tvOS

    Don’t own an Apple TV. I’m a Roku guy. Live channels sound cool, though.

    watchOS

    Don’t own one. Not buying one.

    #

    So far, I’ve been disappointed by both of the major developer conferences. Nothing really much of interest earlier and not only did Google not announce a new Nexus 7 at I/O, they started the countdown on my Chromebook (it’ll still be usable by the end of the year, but won’t be having access to Android apps).

    Looks like I’ll be standing pat for a while longer, technology-wise. And that’s all good. I can save up for a while in case someone decides to put out something that I really want.

  • iMessage on Android? Rumor

    Don’t tease me.

    Gizmodo is reporting on a rumor making the rounds today that one of next week’s announcements at WWDC will be iMessage coming to Android.

    Do not tease me.

    I was thinking about this just the other night as a “wish, but probably won’t ever happen” kinda thing. I was talking to my cousin in iMessage on my iPad, while working on this site using my Chromebook. I was wishing I didn’t have to jump between the two devices to keep the conversation going (and also was getting tired of tap-typing).

    With iMessage on Android, later this year, I could, with a truly-Android compatible Chromebook, do indeed that — just use the Android app to talk in iMessage and not have to go from device to device. Or, perhaps with an iMessage app for Windows. That would be cool, too.

    (I could do the same with a Macbook right now and if you’re willing to make a donation for me to buy one, leave me a comment below and I’ll start a GoFundMe for that purpose.)

    Plus, since I carry an Android phone around, being able to keep in touch with my iPhone-user friends (and coworkers) inside of iMessage would be a plus, since 99% of them refuse to use Hangouts. And I wouldn’t have to switch to the iPad when talking to those friends, another bonus.

    (The other day, an iPhone-carrying coworker needed assistance with something or other and sent me a message that showed up as an iMessage instead of SMS. I just happened to be on my iPad at that moment and got the message. Most days, I’m not on my iPad at that time of day, so fortunately for her, I was able to take care of her issue. With iMessage on Android, the message would have come to my phone and she would have been able to get me either way.)

    But at the end of the day, Apple wants you to buy iPhones and iPads (and Macbooks) and if iMessage is a must-have or even just an enticement, I don’t expect to see it show up on Android anytime soon. Aside from the reasons mentioned in the article, I can’t think of any (good) reason for Apple to open up iMessage to Android users. The article itself states it’s probably longshot.

    Still, it would be a really cool app to have. And having it would certainly end any of the (admittedly lukewarm) thoughts I’m having about using Google’s upcoming communications apps, cross-platform or not.

    (Just in case: no, I’m not interested in WhatsApp. Or Telegram. Less so in Facebook Messenger. I have Bleep, but see above issue with Hangouts.)