Exciting news for Apple users! The technology giant announced today that they will be releasing their iOS 7, as well as the new OS X Mavericks for the Mac.
The announcement was made during their keynote speech at the Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco less than an hour ago. In addition to talking about the launch, they went into the new features that will make this version the most advanced yet.
The Speech
Apple started off by addressing the retail situation around the world. They now have 407 stores, the latest in Berlin. They also spoke about the 50 billion apps in the App Store, 375,000 of which are for the iPad alone. They showed a graph of their app sale shares, which is 74% of all apps purchased (Android taking 20%, Others taking 6%).
This was all filler, but welcome filler given the number of developers present that are responsible for the success of Apple’s apps in the first place. Even so, everyone was eager to get to the bulk of the keynote.
OS X Mavericks
After speaking a bit about the Mac, they made their first announcement: the release of the OS X Mavericks. It is the first operating system for the new generation Mac computers not named after some form of cat. But that is hardly the most interesting part about it.
First up was Finder Tabs, a feature that got a lot of positive feedback from the gathered crowd. Basically, the finder windows can now be expanded using tabs for multiple searches without multiple windows. This is in addition to multiple displays, file tags that better organize large number of files without folders, improved battery and wake times, and independently panned Spaces on every screen.
What is so cool about the multiple displays in particular is that each screen has its own dock, menu, functions and features. They won’t just be an extended version of the same display, giving it an exciting purpose for the Apple TV in particular.
iOS 7
Next came the announcement of the iOS 7. This was a huge reveal, one that had been rumored for a couple of weeks as people speculated about what might included in Apple’s keynote speech.
“iOS 7 is the biggest change to iOS since the introduction of the iPhone,” Tim Cook told the crowd. “It’s packed with amazing new features, and an amazing new interface.”
First, they showed off the general design. The lockscreen is brand new, and you slide the screen upward to unlock it. All settings and volume controls are set in a separate area that can be slid up on the touch screen from the bottom.
All icons are on the home screen, and they look slightly different with their flatter design. The biggest change is probably the keyboard and UI setting controls, which are all see-through, allowing you to see everything that is behind it. Which this sounds like it might be disorienting, it is actually an attractive feature that sets the iOS 7 apart from its predecessors.
The Control Center has been completely redesigned, allowing you to take all of your most used features and make them available from any screen. You can now have all of your chosen quick access tools right at the bottom of the interface in a drawer that can be swiped from the bottom of the screen. It also comes with the notifications menu at the top, which you can select for seeing your notifications for the day, rather than alerts at once.
Anyone who wants a peer-to-peer file sharing program will have AirDrop, integrated for various devices like the iPhone 5, iPad and iPad Mini. This seems to be an attempt to compete with other services, like Dropbox.
Safari will be more focused towards customization and social networking this time around. Sharing links will be easier than ever before, as will quick bookmarking and access to sites through the redesigned browser. It will take less resources to run, as well, further improving on the battery life.
Photos can be automatically organized into Moments, rather than an endless scroll of images. The camera itself has built-in filters, and modes can be switched through swiping the screen, rather than buttons.
Sick of buying flashlight apps? The iOS 7 now provides one in their Control Center for you to use. A small feature, but still a cool one that many people will use.
Other features include a new calendar app, a new weather app (that looks almost exactly like Yahoo’s weather app), a better world time clock, folders that can have multiple pages, and multitaking in all apps.
All in all, this is an incredible overhaul of the original features of the iOS. Even the OS X Mavericks seems like it will be an improvement, with apps like their disastrous Maps being updated.
Keep your eyes peeled for the Fall!
Source: Tech Crunch
