* Apple really is convinced they have the power problem licked. If they’re really allowing “true” multitasking and doing automatic background updates of apps and revamping the UI to the point that transparency is the new skeuomorphism, then either the 2013 iPhone will have an i7 CPU and 16 GB of RAM and an arc reactor in back, or it will be dead every day by 10:30 AM. Door number three implies that Jony Ive and his gang actually graduated from Hogwarts and have licensed a Time-Turner or similar. This one is the grand bull moose gold medal “I’ll believe it when I see it” of updates.
* No iWatch. No iTelevision. No competition for Google Glass. Let the howls of outrage commence. And yet, when you think about it, the new-look iCloud is something that has to work to make possible all that other bullshit. After all, centralized notifications – delete one place and it’s done everywhere – is the sort of thing you’d want working on any notional iWatch, correct? Once iCloud is in place to act as the backbone for everything you want to pass between machines, it’s easier to just hang a watch off the same service. Or a television. Or contact lenses. Or whatever.
* Note that iTunes Radio is free and ad-free with iTunes Match, which I’m already paying $25/year for. Don’t know if that will do for Spotify or not, but iTunes in the Cloud and iTunes Match and now iTunes Radio are all part and parcel of something I’ve been thinking about for a while: ten years ago, Steve Jobs was pitching the Mac as “the hub of your digital life.” Your digital camera, your iPod, your CD collection, all flowing through your Macintosh. Now, in 2013, the aim is plainly for iCloud to become that hub, for better or worse. It’s not unlike what Google has wanted you to do for years now, although in Apple’s case it seems to be more about “make sure all your devices are concurrent” rather than “be the central repository at which everything looks.”
* Yes, this new iOS cribs shamelessly from Android, Windows Phone, and the late lamented WebOS. I think at some level Apple has decided “screw it, if everyone is going to steal from everyone then we’re just going to take what we want and to hell with it.” The result looks like all the best bits of other interfaces while still remaining iOS – the learning curve won’t be sharp at all. At least we can hope.
* The filters thing is entirely out of hand. I’m so over filters. It’s getting ridiculous.
* Automatic web search from within Siri…using Bing. How things have changed. If this were Yahoo, it would be huge, and sort of make sense – as it is, it’s just a little bewildering; the last thing Apple needs at this point is another frenemy relationship like the one that led to the Maps fiasco. Although having Wikipedia in Siri will do nicely. Save me the time of launching Google, speaking the search term, scrolling down to the Wiki entry and tapping.
* It seems like the white iOS devices are now the official “default,” much the same way that the MacBook Air has become the “default” Mac. And much as I prefer the black, I think the white legitimately looks better without a case, especially with those well-lit low corner shots with the gleam of the chamfered aluminum.
* Once again, I’m convinced we are looking at October. It usually takes four months. Look for the next-gen iPhone to arrive with the fall leaves.