Tuesday, June 7, 2011

WWDC 2011 announcement roundup


If you did not spend $2000 for an Apple WorldWide Developers Conference ticket, you might not have enjoyed the event first-hand. But here are the major announcements made from Apple at the event today in San Francisco.
Mac OS X Lion


The next major upgrade to Mac OS X, called Lion, with a version number of 10.7 will show up this July. It will be distributed exclusively through the Mac App Store for $29. All personal Macs you have will be upgraded. 

If you have purchased a Mac recently, you can upgrade for free provided that you act quickly. More details are available on the press release.

Over 250 upgrades come with this version of Mac OS X such as the Launchpad, Mission Control and more.

Press Release
Official Site

iOS 5


The next version of Apple's mobile OS was also announced. Coming this fall, iOS 5 will bring over 200 new updates to your iPod touch 3rd or 4th generation, iPhone 3GS and iPhone 4m iPad and iPad 2. Some of the most remarkable features include a unified notifications system, Newsstand, Twitter photo service integration, iMessage and more. Boy Genius Report and Mashable have done pretty good summaries of what's significant with the new iOS. The official site and press releases do the rest.

Oh, and did I mention that you no longer need a Mac or PC to own an iOS device now? The iPhone, iPad and iPod touches are independent of your Mac or Windows iTunes now.


Press Release
Official Site

iCloud



Yeah, the iCloud is here too. Steve Jobs has this to say about the iCloud:
“Keeping these devices in sync is driving us crazy. We’ve got a great solution to this problem. We’re going to demote the PC and the Mac to just be a device. We’re going to move the digital hub, the center of your digital life, into the cloud.”
Basically, this thing takes your iTunes to the cloud. But it's more than just an Amazon Cloud Player or Google Music. Apple is known to keep everything in their ecosystem perfectly integrated with each other. MobileMe has been replaced by iCloud, which is free. iCloud will keep all your apps and push it to your devices. You can have your email, contacts, calendar, documents from iWork and more online.

You get 5 GB of free storage, and support for upto 20,000 songs. You can also stream your photos from one iOS device to the other through iCloud using Photo Stream.

Press Release
Official Site


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