Apple packed gigabytes worth of information into its 2-hour WWDC 2013 keynote session today, but we’re not complaining. The excitable new features ranged from simple software updates to complex multifuctional operations that will thrust technology into the background and user-experience into the foreground. In case you weren’t available to watch our live stream of live blog, here’s a WWDC 2013 recap of including iOS 7, OS X Mavericks, MacBook Air, and iTunes Radio.
Mavericks
OS X 10.9, the next-generation flagship operating system for Apple, is available in beta today for developers and will be released commercially in the fall. The biggest and arguably most important upgrade made to OS X is the battery life. An 11-inch MacBook Air now gets 9 hours of battery life while the 13-incher gets 12 hours, and here’s how.
Mavericks compresses memory for favorable battery life and super responsive graphics. Timer coalescing intelligently reduces the number of high-powered and low-powered optimizations, which act similar to a rollercoaster, to create the most stable and efficient battery life possible.
Other features include Finder tabs and tagging. Users can now tag items to keep things easily searchable and accessible. Tagging an item or document can allow for better organizing and saving by simply dragging, hovering, and dropping saved documents and other apps or items in iCloud or in other specified tabs on your desktop.
The multiple displays feature redefines multitasking, making it easier to move windows across displays and open apps on the second display with the navigation bar at the bottom, while mission control allows for easy to use app dragging and display on both screens. The exec team was even able to demonstrate the power and seamlessness of multiple displays by hooking two Mac Pros up to a third-party Apple TV.
Safari
Safari saw some decent updates this afternoon as well. Bookmarked articles can now be scrolled through seamlessly, from one article to the next, without so much as breaking the user’s concentration to locate a similar article.
Accelerated scrolling in Safari allows for fast searchoing through, for example, dense email inboxes and deep conversations, as well as swiftly and just as smoothley scrolling through image-heavy webpages.
To tie in extended battery life, App Nap keeps track of what’s being computed versus what’s being used and automatically drops CPU power usage of an idle operation or function in order to conserve battery and energy.
Notifications will now be sent to your devices from Safari whether Apple’s flagship browser is running or not. Using fantasy football and breaking news as examples, users will now be able to customize what notifications they’re being sent and from where. And it’ll update apps automatically for you in the background so you don’t have to, across Apple platforms.
Maps
Most would argue Apple’s mapping software is its greatest downfall. No longer having a friendly relationship with mapping pioneer Google, Apple has relied on its own in-house team to create user-friendly mapping interfaces and software to mixed results. However, updates today will give users the ability to sync maps with their calendar in order to figure out and compare the best directions for their scheduled events.
Maps also now has amazing 3-D imaging of buildings and landmarks, which users can sync favorite locations and directions across all device, and let users visit them with as realistically as possible right from their device.
MacBook Air
Intel’s new fourth-gen Core i5 and i7 processors are geared towards ultrabooks, setting things up perfectly for the Air. The new Macbook Airs will run $999 for an 11-inch display with a 128GB Flash drive, and $1,099 for one with 256GB. Similarly, a 13-inch model with 128GB capacity will be $1,099, while $1,299 will get you a 256GB Flash drive. The new line is expected to boast all-day battery life and 802.11ac Wi-Fi support, which is 3x faster than 802.11n.
Many were expecting the steep prices offered along the same lines last year at the debut of the MacBook Pro with Retina Display which initially cost nearly twice what the new Air series does. Apple may be looking to tap into larger markets with more affordability and could do the same with the fabled low-cost iPhone.
iOS 7
iOS 7 was probably the most-anticipated announcement of the entire event, with rumors being spun for months in advance. As expected, we took in a heavy dose of Jony Ive’s flat UI design without the skeumorphic aspects that Steve Jobs himself championed, but it’s okay because iOS 7 boasts some of the same innovative spark that Apple may have been missing as of late. The apps and icons are color coded, based in black and white, and feature colors from a compltely new palette.
Interestingly, the entire UI of iOS 7 shifts on an axis when physically shifted by the user in order to give the best possible viewing angle. Even better is that this feature extends beyond the home screen and occurs with all apps.
The comprehensive redesign also includes the new unlock screen with rounded numerals, multiple pages for each app, cleaner typography all around, full screen edge-to-edge photos, ability to swipe between messages or apps, the notifications center available directly from lock screen, and “today view” which shows all that’s on tap for the day from all information saved in iCloud and in your calendar.
Safari for iOS 7 is multifunctional as well, allowing for more than the previous 8-tabs open at once, easily navigabale swiping cues, and improved bookmarking for easy access.
Now with iOS 7, Apple has an answer to the naysayers who thought its mobile operating system was dead in the water without NFC capability. Air Drop shows users which friends are in close proximity and makes items easy to share anything–photos, articles, documents, social media, etc.–with multiple friends at once. No need to worry about security either as Air Drop will use securely encrypted peer-to-peer Wi-Fi.
The camera feature now offers a slew of new filters for amateur photographers to salivate over, while the photo app helps to easily manage and share pics, organize photos in collections (albums), and pull out interesting and patterned images that might be of interest to the user.
Oh, and by 2014 iOS will be integrated into a bevy of cars to create a completely hands-free and eyes-free iOS 7 experience while driving safely behind the wheel.
Siri
Updates to Siri were minimal in terms of time spent showcasing them at WWDC, but they surely bolster the functionality of the voice recognition system. The new interface includes cool voice-activated sound wave that appears along the bottom of the screen when prompted while new options are available for women’s and men’s voices (in different languages too).
Even better with Siri is that ow recognizes a innumerable commands as well as answers to more questions by tapping into the likes of Twitter and Wikipedia, while yielding Bing search results.
iTunes Radio
Move over Spotify, Pandora, and even Google Play Music All Access. Finally Apple launched a music streaming service to call its own. The specs are nothing out of the ordinary, being tossed around effortlessly like the rest of the rumors. The service allows the user to customize and stream their own music channel, opt for channels specified to artist, song, favorites, etc. and will be completely free of charge as iAds will power its revenue stream. Apple will take note of when you like a song or play it often, and will tailor and suggest stations based on your anayltics.
Users will, however, have the option to purchase and download the song afterwards and can even stream ad-free with an iTunes Match subscription. But will Apple’s iTunes Radio streaming service really be able to compete with the likes of Spotify and Pandora?
Other Gadgets?
Rumors also bounced around of the iPhone 5S, low-cost iPhone, next-gen iPad, and iPad mini 2 making appearances at WWDC today. Apple likes to march to the beat of its own drum, however, and tends to break up events for souped-up devices like into their own launch events. Tim Cook noted in prior statements and quarterly earnings conference calls that Apple wouldn’t be putting out any new gadgets until the fall and today’s WWDC only bolsters the fact. Stay tuned to BostInno for the latest Apple releases as we’ll be keeping a keen ear to the ground.
