Creative genius at Apple has done it again, they have added a major face lift to the ageing iOS, OS X and hardware’s to get the right front of the competition from Google, Microsoft and others. During WWDC 2013 keynote, Apple has brought an overall redesign to their products including the major overhauled to iOS 7, OS X 10.9 Mavericks along with redesigned hardware changes for Mac Pro and MacBook Air and a new music streaming service iTunes Radio. Here’s our full roundup of all major announcements happened during the WWDC 2013 keynote.
Overhauled iOS 7
Apple has to bring in major changes to their next iOS, as competition from Google Android OS and others like Microsoft’s Windows Phone 8, Firefox OS, Ubuntu OS etc were heating up. Thus creative geniuses from Apple revealed the completely redesigned iOS 7 for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch devices. The new mobile operating system from iOS, revamped the core apps like Camera, Calendar, Weather, Calendar and others, along with new features like Control Center, AirDrop for iOS, and smarter multitasking.
- Flat Design – Removing the skeuomorphic design, iOS7 goes to quite a flat look with reworked icons and apps. With a transparency effect in place, users can see behind the icons, providing a rich feel with new image based backgrounds.
- Notification and Control Center – Notification Center which is available from any screen including the lock screen, features ‘Today‘ a section that shows new mail, missed calls, to-dos that need doing, and more. Control Center on the other hand gives you quick access to various iOS controls like WiFi, Bluetooth etc, and recently used apps.
- Multitasking – With Apple devices getting powerful hardware, multitasking was indeed needed to be bumped up with new features. iOS 7 learns which apps user use the most and gives those apps more background updates. Earlier double-tab revealed only an app icon list of recently used apps, but now it gets a live preview of the apps running background.
- Camera and Photos – Camera in iOS 7 gets Instagram like filters built right into it and along with still, video, panorama shooting formats, the camera now has square – front and centre. Photo app in iOS 7 brings in smart groupings of photos and videos into Collections, Moments, and Years, based on time and place. With iCloud shared photo streams allow users to share photos with their friends and they can all see in a single feed.
- Safari browser – Safari for iOS7 gets a redesign with full-screen browsing, new tab view, unified smart search field, iCloud Keychain that can remember your account names, passwords, and credit card numbers.
- AirDrop – Users can share photos, documents, contacts, videos and even anything from any app with nearby people by just tapping the share button.
- Siri – gets redesigned with a new interface, smoother male and female voice and extra new capabilities. Siri now displays web search results from Bing, Wikipedia, and Twitter (have they removed Google search from it?) and can do more tasks like controlling brightness, Bluetooth, reading out voice mails and more.
- App Store – also gets a redesign with recommended apps section for users based on age and their current location. It also brings in an automatic update for apps in the background without much users interference.
- Find My iPhone – better security if your iPhone gets stolen, turning off Find My iPhone or erasing your device requires your Apple ID and password.
- Along with it default Apple apps like Calendar, Weather, Mail and Messaging apps get redesigned and loaded with new features.
iTunes Radio
The iTunes Radio offers live streaming radio with access to all the music collection from iTunes. It’s music discovery allows the user to find songs that are trending on Twitter and based on events. Users can create a new station based on their interest or can listen to more than 200 genre-based stations already available. The service is way similar to popular Pandora music streaming service and Google Music All Access.
The service is ad-supported for free users and premium subscription cost around $24.99 a year. If you are an iTunes Match subscribers, then you can have an ad-free experience. Currently, iTunes Radio is available only in the U.S and will expand to more countries soon.
OS X 10.9 Mavericks
Ditching out the cats from OS X, Apple unveiled the new OS X 10.9 Mavericks, a name associated with California location. The new OS X brings in lots of features mainly the Finder Tabs, Tags, Multiple displays and a slew of other improvements.
- Finder Tabs – help you to merge or consolidate multiple windows into one window, removing the clutter from your desktop. Users can navigate between tabs, customise views, move a file from one tab to another and reorder them however they want.
- Tagging – a simple and yet powerful way to organise and find your files. It’s remind us about the WordPress blog tagging functionality, the user can tag files with a keyword, like shopping. Then when you want to find those files in local storage or iCloud, just click shopping in the Finder sidebar or enter it in the search field.
- Multiple Display – Better support for every display connected to your Mac, bring in menu bar and Dock to the display you’re working on. The user can have multiple app windows running on either display. Mission Control has been updated and with updated Airplay can support Apple TV box for an extra display.
- Safari Browser – Gets performance boosts and innovative new feature. It has a new sidebar with shared links which shows links posted by people you follow on Twitter and LinkedIn, and a Reading List.
- iCloud Keychain app – that can remember your account names, passwords, and credit card numbers.
- Notifications – with revamped notification app, the user can reply to a message directly from notification, can respond to FaceTime video call, or delete an email right from a notification.
- iBooks and iBooks Textbooks comes to Mavericks with auto sync from your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch. Other Apple apps like Calendar, Apple Maps gets a design face lift and more built-in features.
Cylinder Styled Mac Pro
Mac Pro gets an overhaul with a new cylinder like design, powered by the next-generation Intel Xeon processors with up to 12 core, dual GPUs featuring AMD FirePro workstation-class GPU with up to 6GB of dedicated VRAM, PCI Express-based flash storage, high-performance Thunderbolt 2, ultra-fast memory with four-channel DDR3 memory controller running at 1866MHz, and support for 4K video.
It has a unified thermal core that’s been built around a single piece of extruded aluminium designed to maximise airflow as well as thermal capacity It works by conducting heat away from the CPU and GPUs and distributing that heat uniformly across the core. It also has built-in USB 3, Gigabit Ethernet, and HDMI 1.4 ports along with 802.11ac Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.0.
MacBook Air
MacBook Air models get better battery life with 11-inch MacBook Air promises 9 hours battery life and the 13-inch model lasts up to 12 hours. The hardware power has been upgraded with fourth generation Intel Core processors with Intel HD Graphics 5000. Both models have latest 802.11ac WiFi technology for faster connectivity.
The 128GB, 11 inch MacBook Air priced at $999 and 13-inch with $1,099.
Wrapping up, Apple has used their strong hold in creativity to build some stunning software and hardware. In the coming months, we will be trying out the new iOs 7 and OS X, and sharing our experience using it.