From the Moscone Center, on Monday, as Steve Jobs delivers the keynote address at Apple’s 2011 Worldwide Developers Conference.
The wait is finally over, and Apple fans from all over the globe can rejoice because Steve Jobs has taken the stage at the Moscone Center for WWDC 2011. Right now, Steve is talking about Mac OS X Lion, the next big cat version of the Macintosh operating system.
Scrollbars disappear. Why have them when you don’t really need them, anyway? Instead of static scroll bars in windows, the scroll bars will now only appear when you are actually scrolling. Also, there are many more gestures for the touchpads and magic mouse devices. Tap to zoom, pinch to zoom, and swiping have all received upgrades. There will also be full screen apps. Steve showed off iPhoto, demonstrating the great full screen capability of apps in Lion. Macworld’s Jason Snell commented that full screen interfaces would be a challenge since lots of apps just don’t scale to fullscreen.
There is also a full screen Photobooth UI now. The software now features targeted facial enhancements like “enlarged eyes.”
A three-finger swipe takes you to Mission Control– giving a birdseye view to everything on a person’s Mac system. It is a combination of Expose and Spaces.
AirDrop is a quick, ad hoc file transfer system. You can drop files between computers easily without setting up sharing systems and stuff, or going through IM. This will be a great addition to the Mac platform.
The price for Lion is only going to be $29.00! That is amazing, because previous versions of the operating system have been priced at $129. The reason for this great price? It is only available via the Apple App Store as a 4 gb download that installs in place. It can then be installed on all authorized Macs. Nice!
Next topic of discussion: iOS 5. It’s going to be a major release, with ten new features. The first one? Brace yourselves:
One: Notifications. Yes, and they will be able to display on your lock screen, just like in Android.
Two: News Stand — a feature that combines iBooks with magazines. Reading on the iPad can now allow audio and video at the same time, too. The App Store has a special area now for just newspapers and magazines.
Three: Twitter? That’s what Steve said, but I don’t get it. I thought we already had Twitter. OH well, I guess this is a highly integrated form of Twitter.
Four: Safari — Safari engine, open sourced, accounts for about 90% of all mobile browsing, including on Android. Now, Safari mobile gets Reader, lightning fast switching between tabs, full tabbed browsing on the iPad, and that integration with Twitter mentioned earlier.
Five: Reminders — Now, reminders are automatic, truly save time, and don’t rely on third party apps. You can make lists and keep multiple ones, and dates. You can assign locations. I can remind you when you arrive and when you leave. Reminders sync with iCal.
Six: Camera — This will make taking photos on the iPhone faster, thanks to a shortcut on the lock screen. At last! You double-click the home button and it brings up the shortcut to the camera. You can also use volume up to take a photo. Pinch to zoom and built in photo editing are coming to the camera as well.
Seven: Mail — The Mail app is one of the most used apps on iPhone, iPad and iPod touch, and in iOS 5, there will be rich text formatting and full text searching, and even indentation control. Wicked.
Eight: PC Free — This is for the Post PC world, and no longer will you need a PC to setup a new iDevice. You setup and activate, right out of the box. What this means for software now is Delta Updates, needing no PC to install them.
Nine: Game Center — Social gaming includes photos with profiles, game recommendations, purchase and download right from Game Center, and added support for turn-based games.
Ten: iMessage — iMessage is for all customers. It brings messaging to any iDevice, not just the iPhone customers. Send text messages, photos, videos, contacts, group messages. Get read receipts, and delivery receipts. Push capable. Works over 3G and wifi. Everything is encrypted.
Eleven: cable bundles power all your electronics
Great improvements from Apple!
