Taking a look back at another week of news from Cupertino, this week’s Apple Loop includes a look at the disappointing iPhone 6S leak, the launch of Apple Music, iOS 8.4′s strengths and weaknesses, the update to iTunes and issues with iCloud Music, the new iPod range, Apple’s US market share numbers, and the first full trailer for Michael Fassbender’s ’Steve Jobs’.
Apple Loop is here to remind you of a few of the very many discussions that have happened around Apple over the last seven days.
iPhone 6S Chassis Leaks
Let’s start with the iPhone 6S. Apple is expected to announce its next handsets in September, and if it follows previous patterns this will be the iPhone 6S (and presumably the iPhone 6S Plus) iterating on the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus design. 9to5Mac has obtained sample shot pictures of the chassis, which reveals a handset with a similar exterior to the iPhone 6, but hints at potential changes inside the casing:
As expected, these photos show that the next-generation iPhone will have a rear design identical to that of the current iPhone, similar to the transition from the iPhone 5 to iPhone 5S. Our images show no noticeable external changes coming from the iPhone 6… but it is possible that Apple’s final hardware could include additional tweaks.
Jay McGregor has taken a look at the case shots here on Forbes, and also notes the frustrating lack of changes to the look of the new iPhone:
It’s practicaly identical to the 4.7-inch iPhone 6 in shape and design. From the rear-camera placement, to the speaker and headphone-jack arrangement on the bottom of the device, there’s no visible exterior change I can see from the photos provided.
These internal changes point to a reworking of some hardware, and there’s one major element that would require this level of change, as Forbes’ Gordon Kelly points out:
A good point has also been made that the expected arrival of Force Touch will also have an impact. Force Touch is primarily integrated into the display, but there will inevitably be knock-on effects for the rest of the design as well.
SAN FRANCISCO, CA – JUNE 08: Apple’s senior vice president of Internet Software and Services Eddy Cue speaks during the Apple WWDC (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
All Your Music, All The Time, With Apple Music
For Apple, this week was all about the public availability of Apple Music. The service went live on Monday (along with updates to iOS and iTunes for software support), and it’s had a rough ride. The new Music app has drawn particular ire. It has to support local playback, streaming playback, playlist and recommendations, the new streaming radio services, and the social network-like stream of Artist Connect, and the flair and reputation of Apple to make things that ‘just work’ is not present.
The on-boarding process ‘mess’ has been screenshotted and captioned by the team at User On Board, and illustrates the issue nicely.
Stephen Lambrechts has already pulled out a number of issues with the Apple Music app that he’d like the team at Cupertino to address in ‘5 Issues We Want Apple Music To Fix‘:
Surprisingly, Apple Music streams at a bitrate of 256 kbps, which is lower than most of its competitors. Spotify, Rdio, MOG and even Beats Music, which Apple Music’s streaming foundation is built on, all stream at 320 kbps (Beats Music still streams at this quality on Android and Windows Phone devices, rubbing even more salt on our wounds).
And then there’s Tidal, which manages to stream its music at the lossless FLAC bitrate of 1411 kbps. So what gives, Apple? Why is the biggest and baddest new streaming service on the block peddling inferior audio quality?
Apple Music hasn’t changed the streaming world as many expected, but that was never the goal. It was to deliver the same raw product as every other service but with Apple’s unique take. It’s not quite managed the latter as you can see, although one area does make the service attractive to many… the family subscription:
But there’s one part of Apple Music that has caught my eye, and it’s the part that I think will give Apple the short-term victory that the subscription service will need. While individual monthly subscriptions are the de rigueur $9.99, if you are using Apple’s Family Sharing iCloud service a $14.99 monthly fee will allow six family members to use the Apple Music service.
That’s significantly cheaper than buying everyone their own subscription. It’s streets ahead of Rdio and Spotify’s $5 per additional person plan, and there’s no similar offer with Tidal or Google Play Music. The closest is Rhapsody’s five-person family plan which is the same price, but is limited to US customers only (which means it’s not an option open to me).
As for Beats 1 and Zane Lowe’s style, anyone who’s heard him previously on BBC Radio One will know he’s scared of using a fader and talks over everything, so at least one thing arrived and was exactly as expected. Radio futurologist James Cridland has reviewed Beats 1, and the industry expert is not impressed:
Apple have launched a live, linear radio station – something you’ll see in this presentation just doesn’t work on mobile phones. They’ve done the bare minimum in terms of integration. The radio producers have been lazy with their production. Tuning in is unintuitive on iOS, and was impossible on OSX at launch. The launch was botched, confused, lazy, uninspiring and most of all, deeply ignorant.
But at least they’ve tried, right?
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