Apple renames Passbook to Wallet

During its WWDC conference today, Apple announced that it has decided to change the name of its stock iOS app Passbook to Wallet. The move makes sense, considering that last fall it took over Apple Pay duties, and soon it will be getting store and reward cards.

Apple Maps gaining public transit directions

It's transit time! Apple just announced at its Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco's Moscone West that its mapping and navigation service will soon provide transit lines, bus stations, ferry lines and more.

Available across Mac, iPhone, iPad and iPod devices, the improved Apple Maps app will sport departure times, multi-modal routing with step-by-step directions, estimated times for walking directions and much more.

Apple Pay coming to UK in July, loyalty and rewards program in tow

Apple Pay, Apple's wireless payment system, will be coming to the United Kingdom next mont with 250,000 UK merchant locations. Commuters using London transportation system will be able to use Apple Pay, too.

Furthermore, the system will be available to Discover's 50 million card members this fall, said Apple during the WWDC keynote today.

Trader Joe's, J.C. Penneys and many other retailers will be joining Apple Pay soon. Small businesses will be supported on Apple Pay through Square via a brand new reader compatible with Apple Pay that will be available in Apple Stores soon.

Spotlight gets smarter in iOS 9

Spotlight search has been completely redesigned for iOS 9, and it brings with it a new interface, a new search API, deep linking to search results, and more. With an interface that harkens back to the pre-iOS 7 days, search is now a powerful new tool in iOS.

Siri to get much more intelligent in iOS 9

Finishing up with OS X El Capitan, Apple's Craig Federighi moves on to talk about Siri. Apple has been working on a number of improvements to the digital assistant, which has been criticized over the years for lagging behind the efforts of Google and others.

In line with run-up event rumors, Siri is getting more intelligent in iOS 9 thanks to 'Proactive,' which makes your device more contextually aware. This allows Siri to respond to queries more intelligently based on your location, the time of day and other things.

OS X El Capitan available to developers today, public beta in July, rolling out to everyone this fall

Apple has taken the stage this morning inside San Francisco's Moscone West to deliver the latest advancements to its three crucial platforms: iOS, OS X and watchOS.

According to Apple, registered Mac developers will have their chance to download the first beta of OS X 10.11 El Capitan later today, which just got officially announced, after the event has wrapped up (currently, Apple's portal for developers is down).

Apple announces Metal for Mac

Among the many improvements Apple's Craig Federighi announced for OS X El Capitan, is the addition of Metal. Launched on iOS 8 last year, Metal provides the lowest-overhead access to the GPU, enabling you to maximize the graphics and compute potential of apps and games.

Apple announces OS X El Capitan

Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference has kicked off in San Francisco this morning with a keynote talk at 10am PST. Surprisingly, Apple has skipped the usual round of business updates and went right for the big news.

Following months of speculation and rumor mongering, the California firm has formally unveiled the next major version of the Mac operating system. It's called OS X 10.11 El Capitan.

Yup, you read that right.

Philips to add HomeKit support to existing and new Hue lights this fall

Philips Hue, a personal wireless lighting system that we reviewed thoroughly, will get updated with support for Apple's home automation platform called HomeKit, the company confirmed Monday in a post on Facebook.

Upcoming Hue lights released this September and onwards will have built-in HomeKit support. Existing Hue lights will be upgraded with HomeKit compatibility through a free software update that will unlock new features for your existing Hue hardware, said the firm.

Apple beefing up iCloud infrastructure ahead of rumored TV push and streaming-music launch

As it gears up to launch its subscription music-streaming service today and a rumored television service later in the year, Apple's reportedly been building out a high-speed network to ensure glitch-free delivery of content, Bloomberg reported Monday. But the firm isn't just building a more efficient iCloud.

In a typical Apple fashion, it's been pouring billions of dollars into upgrading how it builds data centers in order to speed up content delivery, and optimize services such as iCloud, iTunes and Siri.

Additionally, the initiative should help with iCloud outages that have become the norm lately as web services have traditionally been Apple's weak spot.