Apple WWDC: 17 Cool Innovations
Apple unveiled useful tweaks and new ideas at its Worldwide Developer Conference. Take a peek at our favorites, from MacBook Pro to iOS 6.
June 12, 2012
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Apple staged another marathon keynote presentation at its annual World Wide Developer Conference in San Francisco on Monday, June 11. The company managed to pack in updates to its MacBook Pro line (MacBook Air and Pro), including a brand-new MacBook Pro with the company's retina display technology--which first became available on the iPhone 4, then the third-generation iPad. This display set the standard for super-crisp resolution, and many Apple-watchers have expected it to show up on a laptop device. Apple also packed in more horsepower, not only in its current MacBook Air and Pro machines, but also in the new MacBook Pro.
While Apple announced Mountain Lion, the 8th release of OS X, back in February, the product is only a month away. After reminding the developer audience about how fantastic it will be, Apple threw in a few quick updates as well.
Finally, Apple rolled out the much-anticipated iOS 6, the next iteration of its mobile OS, with some 200 or so new features. Luckily, since the opening keynote was already more than an hour old by the time iOS 6 showed up, the company showcased only a handful of new features--some of them pretty interesting, like a new Maps app that seems to want to kick Google Maps in the gut.
"Google last week held a Maps-oriented press conference at its San Francisco office, an event widely seen as an attempt to retain mindshare for its software in advance of Apple's expected rejection of Google's technology," my colleague Thomas Claburn wrote in his WWDC coverage.
Apple also delivered an update to the ever-popular Siri voice assistant. As my colleague Eric Zeman noted "While Apple stopped short of calling the new Siri a 1.0 full release, the personal assistant gains appreciable powers. First, it can open other applications. That means if you're sitting at your desk, you can grab your iPhone and ask Siri to open the music player, and she will. Same goes for tons of other apps and actions. The added number of apps with which Siri can interact is a serious improvement. The fact that it works better for researching sports scores/stats, movies times and ticket purchases, and dinner reservations is all a bonus."
iOS 6 will be available in the fall, just in time for ... the annual announcement of a new iPhone.
The following slideshow highlights some of our favorites from the Apple WWDC 2012 keynote.
Most prognosticators anticipated a new fleet of Mac hardware, namely an update to the Mac Pro, the MacBook line, and iMac. We got some of that. Specifically, we got an update to the MacBook Air and MacBook Pro thanks to Intel's Ivy Bridge architecture. The MacBook Air gets 2.0-GHz dual-core Intel Core i7 processors, the 13-inch MacBook Pro gets a 2.9-GHz dual-core Intel core i7 processor, while the 15-inch MacBook Pro comes with a quad-core processor running at 2.7 GHz. But all (ahem) retinas were on the new MacBook Pro with its Retina display. It packs in more than 5 million pixels, for a 2880 x 1800 display--four times the resolution of previous MacBook Pros, and a 220 pixel-per-inch density in a 15.4-inch display. Apple claims the display reduces glare by as much as 75%. Many of Apple's apps have been updated to support the new display (Safari, Messaging, Final Cut 10), and other software makers (Adobe, Autodesk) are working on doing the same.
The new MacBook Pro includes two Thunderbolt ports and USB 3, in addition to HDMI. And yet it is still 0.7-inches thin and 4.46 pounds, almost as lithe as the MacBook Air. It includes flash storage--up to 768 GB. Apple claims four times the storage performance, faster boot times, and that it's quieter. The MacBook Pro supports 801.11n WiFi (not 802.11ac, however) and Bluetooth 4.0.
The power behind the new MacBook Pro is all under the hood, most notably the quad core Intel i7 Ivy Bridge processor, running at a 2.7-GHz clock speed, with turbo boost speeds up to 3.7 GHz. It also has 16 GB of memory (really fast memory, Apple claims). Combine that with the NVidia graphics processor (not to mention 1 GB of video memory), and you've got a pretty phenomenal media monster machine. Apple says that the battery life is seven hours. All of this comes at a price: the new MacBook Pro with Retina display starts at $2,199.
It wasn't a surprise that Apple announced iOS 6, its next mobile OS. It is, undoubtedly, also a prelude to a new phone coming in the fall. But there's plenty to love about it now, from the Siri update to Facebook integration to a new Maps application and much more (in fact, more than 200 new features). The OS is in developers' hands now, and will ship, Apple says, in the fall. The OS will run on the iPhone 3GS, iPhone generation 4 devices, including the iPod Touch, the iPad 2, and the new iPad. In addition to some of the great new features detailed in the next several slides, iOS 6 includes shared photo streams and an enhanced email client that includes a VIP list inbox and the ability to insert photos and videos as you compose a message, for example. You can also create per mailbox passwords, for even better security control on the device. (Oh, and you can refresh your inbox with a nifty little pulldown.)
Siri opened the World Wide Developer Conference keynote with a brilliant stand-up routine, noting, for instance, that new versions of Android--Ice Cream Sandwich and Jelly Bean--were shipping or forthcoming, and asking: "Who names these things, Ben & Jerry?" Besides evolving her sense of humor, Siri can now launch apps, find all sorts of sports information, make restaurant reservations, find movie reviews, and more. Siri also supports many more languages (it now works in 15 countries). Apple has worked with a dozen car manufacturers to include Siri support right from the steering wheel. (Apple calls this Eyes Free.) This will be available in the next 12 months, Apple said. You can also use Siri to post Tweets and Facebook status updates. And it will now work on the newest iPad.
In iOS 5, Apple integrated Twitter, but not Facebook. iOS 6 corrects that, big time. In addition to the Siri/Facebook integration, developers can add Facebook support directly into their apps. Facebook is also part of the notification center and, as you'd expect, Facebook events populate your iOS Calendar and Facebook contact information can feed your iOS contact app.
With all of these apps, it's just so easy to forget about the poor little phone. Apple didn't ignore it, adding features that let you more aptly and politely ignore your callers. For example, when a call is coming in, instead of simple "answer" and "ignore," you can send the caller a text message, or you can have the app send you a reminder to call that person back. That reminder can be geofenced, meaning you get the message based on geography, for example when you leave a building. Better yet, Apple included a Do Not Disturb feature, which can ignore all incoming notifications and text and phone calls. Phone calls can be controlled at a granular level, meaning that you can set up a VIP or exception group; or you can have the DND ignored if someone calls back a second or third time (meaning, it could be an emergency).
Apple vs. Google really heats up now: Google Maps is no longer the default iOS mapping app, replaced by Apple Maps, a vector-based mapping app Apple says was built from the ground up. Apple Maps includes local search with more than 100 million business in the system, real-time traffic data and crowdsourced incident reports, turn-by-turn navigation with built in ETA and re-routing based on incidents, integration with Siri so users can ask for directions, the location of gas stations, and so on, and what Apple calls Flyover (the ability to see images within the map from the "air"). The Flyover demonstration brought up a 3-D view of a building, which you can tour in 360 degrees with pretty amazing fidelity (Google introduced 3-D support a week earlier). Maps is very visually appealing, with street signs popping into view, info cards on points of interest, and more.
Apple has improved Safari in iOS 6. The browser includes an iCloud tab, so you can save sites to the cloud and access them easily on other devices connected to iCloud. (This is also available in the Safari browser that comes with the new desktop OS, Mountain Lion.) Safari will also cache pages for offline reading. And it supports full screen landscape mode. In addition, Safari includes smart app banners--the ability to let visitors to your website know that there's an iOS app available, and take them directly to an app. This is obviously handy for developers trying to get more people to download apps, but it's also handy for users, too. Finally, you can post videos or photos to a website without leaving the browser.
FaceTime has been a killer app for iOS devices, but until now, FaceTime only worked on Wi-Fi. Apple announced that FaceTime will now work over cellular connections. Also, you can make FaceTime calls with your iPad using your iPhone's phone number. Apple is trying to make FaceTime the ubiquitous video calling app. I think they're coming after you Microsoft/Skype.
This bit of news was unexpected. Apple has created a central location to store and manage passes and tickets--say for flights, or drinks (think Starbucks and other retailers that offer digital-based shopping certificates and coupons). Apple demonstrated a real-time update to a mobile boarding pass when the flight's gate had changed. Passbook even works from the lock screen and sends notifications. All of this acts as a handy way to manage all of these in-app items. And Apple has given developers the tools to integrate Passbook into their applications.
Mountain Lion will be available in July for $19.99. That's even cheaper than Lion, which set all kinds of records according to Apple (26 million copies). The upgrade (at that price) will be available to current Lion and Snow Leopard users, and free to anyone who buys a new Mac as of now. The features are well known, but Apple also announced the addition of voice dictation, Airplay mirroring support (up to 1080p resolution), and Power Nap, which keeps your Mac up to date when it's in sleep mode (that includes getting software updates, backups, queuing notifications and more). Twitter will be available at the OS level (meaning developers can build tweeting into their apps). And Gatekeeper lets users control the sources apps come from, for more security (let's hope IT administrators can somehow lock this down on behalf of users). In the next few slides, we'll detail a few other OS X features.
One of the apps Apple has expanded is iMessage. It includes support for photos and video, and it syncs your iMessaging activity between Apple devices. Start in Mountain Lion, end on your phone.
Sharing--that iOS tool that lets you share a photo or document via email or a social network--is now available in OS X. Just select from within apps that have take advantage of it and you can send items via email, Facebook, or Twitter, for example.
Mountain Lion now gets a notification center, much like iOS (sense a pattern here?). You can view your messages, act on them, create them. This includes the ability to create messages for Facebook (aka Status updates) and Twitter (aka Tweets). The notification center also supports voice dictation, which is built into the OS. You can swipe the notifications on or off screen.
iCloud support is now built into OS X Mountain Lion. This also enables Documents in the cloud, which keeps all of your documents (the ones you bother to put in iCloud) up to date across devices, automatically synced. Start expecting to see iCloud buttons in your apps.
Apple has updated its Safari browser. The company says it has the fastest Javascript engine of any browser. It also includes an iCloud function where Web pages can be shared among iCloud-connected devices, and an offline reading mode for Web pages. A tab view lets you pinch to see all of your tabs on your screen, and swipe between them. The browser includes a universal search field and makes suggestions--as many modern browsers are beginning to do.
Apple has updated its Safari browser. The company says it has the fastest Javascript engine of any browser. It also includes an iCloud function where Web pages can be shared among iCloud-connected devices, and an offline reading mode for Web pages. A tab view lets you pinch to see all of your tabs on your screen, and swipe between them. The browser includes a universal search field and makes suggestions--as many modern browsers are beginning to do.
Apple staged another marathon keynote presentation at its annual World Wide Developer Conference in San Francisco on Monday, June 11. The company managed to pack in updates to its MacBook Pro line (MacBook Air and Pro), including a brand-new MacBook Pro with the company's retina display technology--which first became available on the iPhone 4, then the third-generation iPad. This display set the standard for super-crisp resolution, and many Apple-watchers have expected it to show up on a laptop device. Apple also packed in more horsepower, not only in its current MacBook Air and Pro machines, but also in the new MacBook Pro.
While Apple announced Mountain Lion, the 8th release of OS X, back in February, the product is only a month away. After reminding the developer audience about how fantastic it will be, Apple threw in a few quick updates as well.
Finally, Apple rolled out the much-anticipated iOS 6, the next iteration of its mobile OS, with some 200 or so new features. Luckily, since the opening keynote was already more than an hour old by the time iOS 6 showed up, the company showcased only a handful of new features--some of them pretty interesting, like a new Maps app that seems to want to kick Google Maps in the gut.
"Google last week held a Maps-oriented press conference at its San Francisco office, an event widely seen as an attempt to retain mindshare for its software in advance of Apple's expected rejection of Google's technology," my colleague Thomas Claburn wrote in his WWDC coverage.
Apple also delivered an update to the ever-popular Siri voice assistant. As my colleague Eric Zeman noted "While Apple stopped short of calling the new Siri a 1.0 full release, the personal assistant gains appreciable powers. First, it can open other applications. That means if you're sitting at your desk, you can grab your iPhone and ask Siri to open the music player, and she will. Same goes for tons of other apps and actions. The added number of apps with which Siri can interact is a serious improvement. The fact that it works better for researching sports scores/stats, movies times and ticket purchases, and dinner reservations is all a bonus."
iOS 6 will be available in the fall, just in time for ... the annual announcement of a new iPhone.
The following slideshow highlights some of our favorites from the Apple WWDC 2012 keynote.
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