Monday 10 June 2013

iOS 7 and OS X 10.9 announced at WWDC 2013

Introduction
Whether you a a Microsoft supporter, Google fan or Apple enthusiast WWDC is the event of the year because it is the time when Apple announces their newest operating system for their device that they'll launch later this year. It is the operating system all other operating systems will be compared to and it is the OS which is the most popular, most publicised and with the most available apps.

Like all Apple keynotes the morning started with a video boasting about all Apple has achieved and then Mr Tim Cook (CEO of Apple) took to the stage to talk about WWDC (Worldwide Developers Conference) itself and how it has been such a success. Apparently it only took 71 seconds until all the seats were sold out and that is even with adding another 2000 seats for the conference!

He then went on to talk about the iconic App Store and how next month it will be 5 years old. 50 million apps downloaded, 900,000 apps in the App Store and 375,000 apps are designed specifically for the iPad. Apple apparently paid out $5 in the last year to app developers alone which is at least 3 times more than any other platform.
"On behalf of Apple, I'd like to thank all of the developers here for making such incredible apps." ~ Tim Cook (CEO of Apple).

OS X 10.9
Then Cook went on to talk about the Apple Mac. The annual  growth rate for Mac is 15% compared to the growth rate of 3% for PC's. The iMac is the No.1 desktop computer in the US and Mountain Lion got 28 million downloads making it their best ever software release.

Craig Federighi (Senior Vice President of Software engineering at Apple) then came on stage to talk about OSX and their latest operating system, 'Mavericks'. The new desktop operating software introduces tagging; this allows you to tag documents (no matter where you save them) so they are easier to find. Mavericks also has better support for multiple displays. If you have a HDTV with Airplay connected you can connect that and the dock and menu bar is now on your second screen instead of just your wallpaper. Mission Control is now optimized for two screens two. We don't exactly know how but no doubt it will work great.
Apple are adding Apple Maps to OS X 10.9 (since it was such a great success on iOS 6) and they are updating Safari so it has more features similar to what is already available on Google Chrome.

Apart from that though, 'Mavericks' doesn't seem to be like a major update. It enhances your experience on Mac however it just adds onto the previous OS instead of reinvent a things. Apple obviously knows not to change their winning formula. OS X 10.9 will be available before the year is out.

Next on the agenda was iCloud. iCloud hasn't been an amazing success since it's launch a couple of years ago however Apple are betting on it this time. They are launching iWork for browsers. It will work in real time however sounds extremely similar to Google Drive. Only major differences between iWork for the web and Google Drive is that Google's design is better however iWork for the Web has more features to offer. It works on every browser 'even Internet Explorer' and it will be available to the general public later this year. I think it will be extremely useful to see how it compares with Microsoft Office 2013 on SkyDrive and Google Drive.

iOS 7
Then Tim Cook came back out and started talking about the thing everyone wanted to hear about. iOS. He started with a number of bar charts showing how much better iOS is to any other operating system and how it is the dominating force.
Cook then stated that Apple has sold over 600 Million iOS devices!

As expected Cook then said "iOS 7 is the biggest change to iOS since the introduction of iPhone. It's packed with tons of new features, and a stunning new user interface."
He then showed of a video explaining some of the features of iOS 7. 
All icons have been redesigned, all typography has been changed and the lock screen has been reinvented.
The design looks a lot cleaner and there is a lot more white space. The app icons look a lot more colourful and childish however some of the native apps do look like they have wasted space. Some of the native apps even look extremely similar to current Android apps which are for the same purpose. The user interface even has some similarities to Windows Phone.

As predicted the calendar app has been completely changed. It now is a lot cleaner and has more functions. The weather app has been updated with a automatic updating app icon (aka Live Tile to current Windows Phone users) and the iMessage app has also been reinvented. Despite this though the iMessage app now looks crowded and like it has too much information trying to fit in such a small space. Apple seems to have ran out of felt and wood because all the apps and parts of the UI now feature a clear background.
You can now use AirDrop which is cool (if you want to BlueTooth stuff again) and they say that you will also be able to experience a longer battery life. Apple has added a Control Center which gives you easy access to tweak media playing, brightness and other settings.

Safari has been rebuilt from scratch. It now lets you use more of the screen and share/sync your web pages easier.