So – as every apple fan boi sits down to watch streams from deep inside the WWDC it soon becomes apparent that the streams are few and far between. What few streams available are ropey at best. I will never understand the reason behind the no streaming rules from Apple.
Ahh well – least we still get to see live picsupdates from MacRumours
Rather then try and compete with the thousands of sources for news, I just wanted to do a quick round up of the features I am looking forward to detailed at the WWDC.
So here goes….
OS X Lion
- OS X Lion (Obviously) the latest version of the OS X family, and has many features to make every geek will love.
- Full screen apps in OS X Lion – ok im not so fussed about this, as I quite like the way I work at the minute.
- Mission Control – an iOS type view of your applications (least all the ones currently running)
- Targeted facial enhancements and tracking in Photo Booth – Photo Booth can now ‘intelligently’ follow your face and before ‘enhancements’
- … Then there’s the deal breaker, the price and release date of OS X Lion, during the WWDC the price was revealed at $29.99 which should hopefully mean about £25 unless the tax man is planning a holiday in the back end of the year. Release date is set to be sometime in July. OS X Lion will be available via the AppStore only.
iPhone
Then the WWDC moved on to talk about the iPhone enhancements. The release of iOS 5 brings with it some pretty special updates. Yes, most have been around for ‘years’ if you chose to jailbreak – however, still nice to see!
- Better notifications – the SMS notifications (and others) will no longer ‘steal focus’ and will wait patiently for you, even at the lock screen.
- Integrated twitter – Nothing more needs to be said really
- Safari gets tabs – Mobile safari on iOS 5 gets tabbed browsing 🙂
- “geo-fenced” reminders – Need a reminder to do something when you get to your destination? Or when you leave a destination? The all new built in list making app has the perfect solution.
- A much faster camera then the current slooooowwwwwwww iOS 4 camera
- Mail also gets an overhaul in iOS 5: Rich text formatting, control indentation, draggable addresses
- PC Free operation, no longer will you have to ‘hook’ up to your PC/Mac to sync, backup or update your iOS devices.
- iMessage – iOS’s answer to BBM
- WiFi iTunes syncing …… *cough* about time *cough*
iOS 5 will be shipping ‘this fall’ and will support iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPad and iPad 2, 3rd and 4th generation iPod touch.
I am also glad to see the crazy price for Mobile Me has now been waved and it’s now FREE! Or at least will be once the ‘maintenance’ has been completed.
Cloud
Cloud based iTunes storage should also make sharing your music between you iOS devices. Once you have paid for a song via iTunes, any of your iOS devices can automatically download from the cloud! This can download to up to 10 devices at once!
But don’t panic, you don’t have to upload your entire library – iTunes Match will scan you music and match your music and only upload the ones thats missing. (Flat fee of $24.99 p/a even if you have 20,000 songs) iTunes match will also upgrade your ripped music to 256kbps AAC DRM-free.
That’s all for now.. Just have to wait patiently for all the stuff coming out.