Apple Shows Off New iOS 7, Mac OS X At WWDC 607
Nerval's Lobster writes "Apple CEO Tim Cook kicked off his company's Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) in San Francisco with a short video emphasizing the importance of design, particularly that which evokes some sort of emotional connection such as love or delight. But that sentimental bit aside, this WWDC was all business: huge numbers of developers attend this annual event, packing sessions designed to help give their apps an edge in Apple's crowded online marketplace (some 50 billion apps have been downloaded from the App Store, Cook told the audience during his keynote). Apple also uses its WWDC to unveil new products or services, attracting sizable interest from the tech press.
This time around, the company introduced Mac OS X 'Mavericks,' which includes 'Finder Tabs' (which allow the user to deploy multiple tabs within a Finder window—great for organization, in theory) and document tags (for easier searching). Macs will now support multiple displays, including HDTVs, with the ability to tweak elements between screens; Apple claims the operating system will also interact with the CPU in a more efficient manner.
On top of that, Apple rolled out some new hardware: an upgraded MacBook Air with faster graphics, better battery life (9 hours for the 11-inch edition, while the 13-inch version can draw 12 hours' worth of power). Apple has decided to jump into the cloud-productivity space with iWork for iCloud, which makes the company's iWork portfolio (Pages, Numbers, and Keynote) browser-based; this is a clear response to Office 365 and Google Docs.
And finally, the executives onstage turned back to iOS, which (according to Apple) powers some 600 million devices around the world. This version involves more than a few tweaks: from a redesigned 'Slide to Unlock' at the bottom of the screen, to the bottom-up control panel that slides over the home-screen, to the 'flat' (as predicted) icons and an interface that adjusts as the phone is tilted, this is a total redesign. As a software designer, Ive is clearly a huge fan of basic shapes—circles and squares— and layering translucent elements atop one another."
This time around, the company introduced Mac OS X 'Mavericks,' which includes 'Finder Tabs' (which allow the user to deploy multiple tabs within a Finder window—great for organization, in theory) and document tags (for easier searching). Macs will now support multiple displays, including HDTVs, with the ability to tweak elements between screens; Apple claims the operating system will also interact with the CPU in a more efficient manner.
On top of that, Apple rolled out some new hardware: an upgraded MacBook Air with faster graphics, better battery life (9 hours for the 11-inch edition, while the 13-inch version can draw 12 hours' worth of power). Apple has decided to jump into the cloud-productivity space with iWork for iCloud, which makes the company's iWork portfolio (Pages, Numbers, and Keynote) browser-based; this is a clear response to Office 365 and Google Docs.
And finally, the executives onstage turned back to iOS, which (according to Apple) powers some 600 million devices around the world. This version involves more than a few tweaks: from a redesigned 'Slide to Unlock' at the bottom of the screen, to the bottom-up control panel that slides over the home-screen, to the 'flat' (as predicted) icons and an interface that adjusts as the phone is tilted, this is a total redesign. As a software designer, Ive is clearly a huge fan of basic shapes—circles and squares— and layering translucent elements atop one another."
Looks like (Score:5, Insightful)
The new IOS 7 UI looks an awful lot like another mobile UI I've seen without the 3d effect. We better check to see if flat images are patented or part of brand distinction.
Re:How stupid is a Mac Pro Cylinder? (Score:5, Insightful)
I mean really... why?
One thing you should be happy about... putting all the expansion OUTSIDE of the computer using STANDARDIZED interfaces (Thunderbolt was actually developed by Intel and you can get PC adapters) means that any money you put into expanding a computer will be easily portable to other computer or when you upgrade a computer. This isn't necessarily true with internal cards (think ISA / VESA / PCI / PCIe / PCIx). Also, you don't have to worry about upgrading your computer's power supply or cooling when you add expansion.
Re:How stupid is a Mac Pro Cylinder? (Score:3, Insightful)
and how likely do you think that is considering the formfactor
Re:How stupid is a Mac Pro Cylinder? (Score:4, Insightful)
Which would work much better with a stackable case, no? Like you can do with existing PC hardware.
So instead there will be a circle that has a stack of stuff near it.
Summary fail (Score:2, Insightful)
Macs will now support multiple displays, including HDTVs,
Um....
Macs have supported multiple displays for something like 20 years. They've supported HDTVs since DVI-HDMI adapters were invented. The news here is that OSX Mavericks has significantly improved multi-monitor management, such as the ability to have a menu bar and dock on all screens simultaneously and new window grouping features.
I know it's hip to complain about how the editors can do basic fact checking, but this is ridiculous.
Re:So long lamedroid and windows mobilame. (Score:2, Insightful)
Multiple displays since 1987 (Score:5, Insightful)
The NeXT CyLINDER (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:How stupid is a Mac Pro Cylinder? (Score:5, Insightful)
As long as the parts are all standard and easily replaceable
Ah ha ha ha ha ha ha ha... ha.... Yeah, probably.
Re:So long lamedroid and windows mobilame. (Score:2, Insightful)
On the contrary, Apple didn't really show anything very new here. Maybe the new Mac, but iOS 7 in particular is just an incremental upgrade with no big headline features like they have always had in the past.
Apple seems to have lost its spark, at a time when its rivals are releasing some really new and interesting stuff.
Re:How stupid is a Mac Pro Cylinder? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Multiple displays since 1987 (Score:4, Insightful)
We waited a half hour after the end of the keynote for this terrible summary, really? Multiple-monitor support has been in the Mac OS since 1987; the summary doesn't make it even reportedly clear that today's announcement was about (much-needed, IMO) new features for said ability. And "including hdtvs"? Again, this has been possible since hdtvs came into existence (via hdmi out or div->hdmi adapters). The new feature here is being able to use an airplay-cable device as a secondary display.
OS X has THE worst multi-monitor support in the industry. Without question. I actually broke down and sold my secondary display because it is next to worthless on a Mac. I like to run XCode in full-screen mode (more real estate for dual pane mode). The second monitor is literally just a gray colored paper weight in this mode. Do I really need to use my air-play compatible device as a second display? Not at all. It will still be useless to me.
Re:Multiple displays since 1987 (Score:4, Insightful)
I'm glad to see they're finally fixing all of these issues - which is exactly why I was disappointed with the shitty summary saying "Macs will now support multiple displays, including HDTVs!"
Re:How stupid is a Mac Pro Cylinder? (Score:5, Insightful)
The rotation is nice in theory, but notice that the power cable port is right there as well and also rotates with the unit. So this rotation is great when nothing is plugged in. As soon as you start plugging stuff in then either it doesn't rotate or you've got so much extra cabling on your desk that it's a spaghetti nightmare.
Re:How stupid is a Mac Pro Cylinder? (Score:5, Insightful)
Did you look at the specs or just one photo? 12 Xeon cores, up to 128GB RAM, 2 GPUs w/ 6GB RAM, PCIe SSD, etc - with a single near silent fan in a 10" x 6 1/2" form factor?
I'd never buy one and I'm sure it's going to be absurdly expensive and proprietary - but "nothing pro about it"? Right. Macs have never been made for the home enthusiast upgrader market, and clearly they aren't starting now...
Re:How stupid is a Mac Pro Cylinder? (Score:5, Insightful)
Actually it looks like with this design there will be NO upgrading video cards. Do you really think any third party is going to design a card for the small section of the market that is the mac pro. At least with the old mac pro they used standard designs, the only difference being the bios.
Re:Cooling (Score:4, Insightful)
6" is 152mm. That's not massive. It's ~25% larger than a 120mm fan.
And there's only one instead of 4-8 fans.
It's actually 60% larger than a 120mm fan. Don't forget about that r^2 term. And one larger fan draws more air per minute with lower power and, more importantly, significantly less noise than 4-8 fans.
Re:So long lamedroid and windows mobilame. (Score:2, Insightful)
Which is why their 93% of devices run the latest OS made me laugh. It is not the latest OS if it is missing the stuff people care about.
Re:Cooling (Score:5, Insightful)
You know what I think?
You probably shouldn't spend money on a cylindrical Mac Pro.
That way you won't have to be angry about them.
You must be new here. Every Apple related story posted here draws several times more people who log on just to tell each other how much they hate Apple and how they would never buy an Apple product because they all suck than it draws in Apple Fanboys extolling said products virtue. Any Apple Fanboy that shows his face here gets shredded, it's like throwing a child into a shark pond. The purpose of Apple and Microsoft stores on /. is mostly to goad the hater crowd into boosting click-through rates....
Re:How stupid is a Mac Pro Cylinder? (Score:4, Insightful)
You are not the target audience. They will sell a zillion of these things to Pixar/Disney. A quiet, powerful device you can easily move around and reconfigure by plugging things in and out external devices instead of opening it up. In fact, I'm guessing the fact that they're selling them on the market is probably just to defray the cost of building these for Disney.
Re: How stupid is a Mac Pro Cylinder? (Score:4, Insightful)
As I said, if your billable rate is $250/hr (and if you're a professional, you're likely billing that out or even higher) and the machine causes you 4 hours of being unusable when you need it for work per year (during business hours - virus infection, screwing around getting some peripheral to work on a PC, chasing down crashes due to a windows bluetooth driver etc - all of which I've dealt with on PCs in the past 12 months) then after 5 years as far as the company is concerned, it has paid for itself.
This is why Linux or in some cases Windows (for example) is a non-starter for many people. If you consider your time to be worthless, great. Some people don't.