WSJ confirms iRadio, iOS 7 details ahead of WWDC keynote
Apple is all but certain to announce a streaming music service at its Worldwide Developers Conference today in San Francisco, per a report from the Wall Street Journal. A second report from the paper confirms some details about the next version of iOS, iOS 7, which will be the centerpiece announcement for Tim Cooks keynote speech.
“iRadio,” as the service has been unofficially nicknamed, will be supported by text and audio ads as well “Buy” buttons place alongside the track in progress to drive sales, say the WSJ. There have been no rumors of a paid tier, unlike those of Spotify, Pandora, Rdio, Google Play Music All Access, and similar competitors.
The WSJ indicates that talks about starting a streaming service at Apple started over a year ago, around the time Spotify announced that it was coming to the US (Sean Parker indicated that Appletried tacitly to prevent it from crossing over from Europe). The announcement of Googles own streaming music service reportedly reinvigorated Apples discussions, pushing them to bring the service to light at WWDC.
Of iOS 7s look and feel, the WSJ says only that the new version will feature Jony Ive-inspired “plain solid backgrounds and more white space.” The papers sources related their worry that the look of iOS was becoming “outdated.” The paper confirms new photo and sharing features, but does not name rumored partners Flickr and Vimeo.
Ars Editor at Large Jacqui Cheng and Tech Director Emeritus Clint Ecker are on the ground in San Francisco and will be reporting live from the WWDC keynote at 10 AM PDT, as Senior Products Specialist Andrew Cunningham and Gaming Editor Kyle Orland report on the madness of opening day at E3.
via ArsTechnica
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