Once again, Steve Jobs took to the stage to deliver the WWDC keynote. Here is the summary:
- Setting the stage for the keynote, Jobs said, “If the hardware is the brain and the sinew of the product, the software in the middle is the soul.”
- Apple now has 54 million Mac users worldwide with notebooks now accounting for 73% of sales.
- Mac OS X Lion:
- Over 250 new features
- Multi-touch gestures – First seen at ‘Back to the Mac’ event last fall
- Full-screen mode for applications (with swipe to toggle)
- Mission Control: Unified interface to let you see what is going on your Mac and manage multiple desktops, full-screen apps, and dashboard widgets
- Mac App Store is now number one channel for buying software, according to Schiller
- A number of iOS features coming to Lion including push notifications, and in-app purchases
- Launchpad: Pinch motion brings up all applications and allows customized display
- Auto-save: Automatically saves documents in background. Includes document history to retrieve previous versions
- AirDrop: Allows document sharing over Wi-Fi by letting you drag and drop documents to peers on local network
- Mail: UI revamped and similar to that in iOS
- Mac OS X Lion to be available only through Mac App Store for US$29.99 as a 4GB download.
- Mac OS X Lion will be available in July. Developer Preview available now.
- iOS 5 announced:
- iOS now on over 200 million devices, including 25 million iPads
- App Store now has over 425,000 apps, including 90,000 iPad-specific ones. 14 billion downloads in less than 3 years!
- Latest version adds 1500 new APIs and some 200 new features
- New Notification Center replacing modal alerts. Located at top of screen and opened by swiping down from top (very similar to Android)
- Lock screen also presents notifications. You can swipe the notification to enter the app directly.
- Newsstand: Centralized management of subscriptions such as magazines and newspapers
- Twitter integration including single sign-on for apps
- Improved Safari, including tab support for iPad version
- New Reminders and To Do list functionality
- Camera: Improved performance and new features such as camera icon on lock screen for quick access, volume button now acting as shutter button, and auto exposure/focus lock at touch
- Improved Mail app
- New split thumb keyboard for iPad only (portrait mode)
- PC-free set up: No longer need PC to set up and update iOS. Includes OTA delta updates.
- Improved Game Center which turn-based game support, achievements, game downloads and more
- iMessage: new messaging service for iOS devices only. Can send texts, photos, videos, and group messages over 3G or Wi-Fi. All messages are encrypted.
- Apple will ship iOS 5 “this fall” and it will support all devices supported by iOS 4 (first and second generation iPad, iPhone 3GS/4, third and fourth generation iPod touch)
- Apple iCloud:
- To address issue of content management (music, photos, videos) across multiple devices
- Digital hub moving to the cloud with PC becoming just another device that accesses this content
- It replaces MobileMe with new Contacts/Calendar/Mail apps which will be free
- Cloud services will also be extended to Apps, iBooks, Documents, and Photos
- iTunes also moving to the cloud with your music synced across devices. It will also include a service iTunes Match which will provide you with AAC DRM-free versions of songs you did not purchase on iTunes for US$24.99 per year
- Apple will provide users with 5GB of storage for mail, documents and backup.
- iCloud available today to developers as part of iOS 4.3 beta. It will be rolled out as a beta service in iOS 4.3 and then in iOS 5 in the fall.
As expected, no devices were announced which means that the rumour mill will continue to go crazy over the next few months…