WWDC 2012
Saturday, 07 Jul 2012 19:20:38 · 7 minute readLate as always, Apple’s 23rd WWDC kicked off almost a month ago after selling out in just 1h43m! This years event kicked off with Siri warming up the crown and GarageBand on an iPad playing a sting after each joke. Apple touted some interesting facts about the App Store
- 400+ million accounts
- 650,000+ apps
- 225,000+ iPad specific apps
- 30+ billion app downloads
- $5+ billion handed out to developers We were then launched into the Mac half of the event…
MacBook Air
Keeping the same design as the last generation, the new Air gets updated CPU, RAM and graphics, better IO to the SSD, and USB 3.
11" | 13" | |
---|---|---|
Processor | 1.5GHz dual-core i5 (Turbo Boost up to 2.6GHz) | 1.8 dual-core i5 (Turbo Boost up to 2.8GHz) |
Memory | 4GB | 4GB |
Graphics | Intel HD Graphics 4000 | Intel HD Graphics 4000 |
Storage | 64GB SSD | 126GB SSD |
Connectivity | 2xUSB, 1xThunderbolt, WiFi, Bluetooth | 2xUSB, 1xThunderbolt, WiFi, Bluetooth, SD card slot |
Battery | Up to 5 hours web surfing | Up to 7 hours web surfing |
Price | £849 | £999 |
It should be noted that whereas some manufactures are installing separate USB2 and USB3 ports, Apple has integrated the two into one physical port.
MacBook Pro
The ‘Pro has similar updates as the Air.
13" | 15" | |
---|---|---|
Processor | 2.5GHz dual-core i5 (Turbo Boost 3.1GHz) | 2.3GHz quad-core i7 (Turbo Boost 3.3GHz) |
Memory | 4GB | 4GB |
Graphics | Intel HD Graphics 4000 | Intel HD Graphics 4000 Plus NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M with 512MB of GDDR5 memory |
Storage | 500GB HDD | 500GB HDD |
Connectivity | 1xEthernet, 1xThunderbolt, 1x FireWire 800, 2xUSB, Audio in/out, SDXC slot, WiFi, Bluetooth | 1xEthernet, 1xThunderbolt, 1x FireWire 800, 2xUSB, Audio in, Audio out, SDXC slot, WiFi, Bluetooth |
Power | Up to 7 hours web surfing | Up to 7 hours web surfing |
Price | £999 | £1,499 |
The New MacBook Pro*
The New MacBook Pro shows us the direction that Apple are going to take with its products. It’s just as much about what is has as what it hasn’t… Dubbed The MacBook Pro with Retina Display, this beauty has a 2880x1800 display, at normal viewing distances the naked eye cannot distinguish one pixel from another.
This ‘Pro doesn’t have an optical drive, or a spinning hard drive. It has soldered RAM modules. There isn’t a FireWire or Ethernet port… Its biggest asset is the Retina display, but it also boasts a new thinner design, just a little thicker than the Air. It has a newly designed thermal system too, bringing air through gills in the side of the laptop using asymmetrical finned fans to reduce perceived noise levels.
The Retina display packs a whopping 5,184,000 pixels onto the 15.4" screen. It has more pixels than an HD TV. There are so many pixels that the preview window in Final Cut Pro displays HD video!
Base Model | Upper Model | |
---|---|---|
Processor | 2.3GHz quad-core i7 (Turbo Boost up to 3.3GHz) | 2.6GHz quad-core i7 (Turbo Boost up to 3.6GHz) |
Memory | 8GB | 8GB |
Graphics | Intel HD Graphics 4000 Plus NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M with 1GB of GDDR5 memory | Intel HD Graphics 4000 Plus NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M with 1GB of GDDR5 memory |
Storage | 256GB SSD | 512GB SSD |
Connectivity | 2xUSB, 2xThunderbolt, 1xHeadphone, 1xHDMI, 1xSDXC slot, WiFi, Bluetooth | 2xUSB, 2xThunderbolt, 1xHeadphone, 1xHDMI, 1xSDXC slot, WiFi, Bluetooth |
Battery | Up to 7 hours web surfing | Up to 7 hours web surfing |
Price | £1,799 | £2,299 |
OS X Mountain Lion*
Apple also announced Mountain Lion, the eighth major release of OS X. The company was quick to note that in nine months 40% of OS X users are currently running OS X Lion, Windows 7 has achieved the same percentage in 26 months. They also announced 66m OS X users, triple that of five years ago!
Mountain Lion is packed with over 200 new features of which Apple demoed eight.
- iCloud
- 125m users since October 2011
- Fully integrated with Mountain Lion
- Several apps use iCloud:
- Messages
- Reminders
- Notes
- Plus many more
- Documents in the Cloud for OS X and iOS - Edit on one device and see live updates on the other!
- Notification Centre
- Banners for quick notifications
- Alerts for important notifications
- Do Not Disturb switch for when you don’t want to be disturbed
- Automagically set when giving a presentation!
- Dictation
- Talk to type
- Siri-like interface
- Works in any text area - MS Word, Wordpress, Facebook, etc.
- System wide sharing
- Much like the iOS “Share to…” integration
- Safari
- Currently featuring the fastest JavaScript engine
- Chrome-like unified search/URL field
- iCloud tabs - Tabs across multiple devices
- Power Nap
- Keeps your MacBook (Air/Pro) up to date while it sleeps
- Up-to-date iCloud
- Time Machine backups
- AirPlay Mirroring to Apple TV!
- Game Centre Mountain Lion boasts 1,700 new APIs for developers to use. It will be available via the Mac App Store in July for just £13.99 and will upgrade all of your, compatible, personal Macs running Snow Leopard or Lion.
iOS 6
Apple’s last announcement was iOS 6. iOS is currently running on over 365m devices, and 80% of those devices are running the latest release (iOS 5). Apple took a jibe at Android where is noted that only around 7% of its install base is running the latest version. Apple also gave us a quick insight into some push notification stats, on average Apple pushes 7b notifications a day! And by WWDC had pushed over 1.5 trillion notifications to iOS devices!
Packed with over 200 new features, Apple demoed just a few.
- Siri
- Eight months old
- Learning new skills
- Sports (e.g. player cards)
- Restaurants (e.g. ratings)
- Movies (e.g. reviews)
- Launch apps!
- ‘Eyes Free’
- Working with a number of car manufacturers
- Single button to interact with Siri on steering wheel
- No need to take eyes off the road
- Even more languages
- Worldwide local search
- Available on the New iPad
- Facebook integration - e.g. ’like’ stuff on App Store
- If you get a call at an inconvenient time, e.g. a meeting, you can now slide up the lock screen to send a predefined SMS (e.g. “I’ll call back soon”), you can also set a reminder so that when you leave the area you are currently situated your iPhone will remind you to call the person back.
- Do Not Disturb (same as OS X)
- Filter what calls come through
- Repeated calls from non-approved numbers will come through as it may be an emergency.
- Filter what calls come through
- FaceTime
- Current WiFi only restriction to be lifted
- Unified Apple ID and phone number (to better integrate FaceTime for Mac, iPhone, iPod, iPad)
- Mobile Safari
- iCloud tabs - start where you left off when you left your desk
- Offline reading list
- Easy photo uploading
- ‘Smart Apps’
- If you are on a company website that also has an iOS app, a notification will slide down with a link to the App Store.
- If you install the app then the website owner can pass the app data so the app can start up with the same information you were looking at on the website
- Fullscreen mode in landscape
- PhotoStream
- Shared streams
- Choose photos and friends to create a stream album
- Allows commenting
- Available in iPhoto, Aperture, website, AppleTV
- Shared streams
- Mail
- VIP inbox for urgent mail
- Flagged messages inbox
- Insert photos and videos from Mail!
- Open password protected (some) documents
- Pull to refresh
- Passbook
- Think of all the passes you might have
- Airport boarding pass
- Movie tickets
- Store cards
- Electronic versions in one place
- Location based notifications
- Place pass on the lock screen for easy access
- Updatable
- Update the balance on a store card
- Update the gate number on a boarding pass
- Think of all the passes you might have
- Guided Access
- Fine grained parental controls
- Disable controls in any app
- Single app mode
- Exams
- Guided tours (do they already use this in the Apple Stores!?)
- Menus in swanky cafés?
- Maps
- Local search
- Traffic news
- Turn-by-turn navigation
- Powered by TomTom
- Active on the lock screen
- Siri integrated
- Fly Over 3D model view
And many APIs for developers to get their hands on. iOS 6 will be available on the iPhone 3GS and higher, the iPad 2 and higher, and the fourth generation iPod Touch.
That summed up WWDC 2012. Time Cook came to the stage to wish everyone a great week and closed the keynote.