Apple WWDC: Likes, Hopes and Despair

Here’s my relatively short take on today’s Apple WWDC keynote.

Like

By far the new feature set for both the new OS X and the new iOS that I am most excited about is the ability to split the screen on your Mac and iPad, and use two apps separately.  This will be huge for iPads and MacBooks.

Hope

I would really like to use Safari.  I hope, but so far see no evidence, that Apple will fix the custom zoom level issue that makes Safari unusable.

Despair

It would be very hard to overstate how underwhelmed I was with the Apple Music presentation.  Other than the potential to save a few dollars a month over the Spotify family plan, I saw nothing that would support a move from Spotify.  Additionally, anything that involves- or even reminds one of- the tangled mess that is iTunes is a non-starter.

My feelings are best summed up by a Facebook exchange I had with my friend Adrian during the keynote address:

Him: I feel like I’ve died and gone to a heaven filled with people who talk music industry bullshit.
Me: Yeah, I love Apple, but every bit of that Apple Music stuff was painful to watch.

Granted, I am not in the target demographic, because, while I listen to a lot of music, I am profoundly uninterested in current pop or mainstream rock music, and I have no interest in connecting with (which really means being marketed to by the managers of) mainstream artists.

Maybe the kids will make Apple Music what Tim Cook envisions.  Time will tell,  but I have some doubts.