Apple pulled out the all the stops yesterday, the first day of its annual Worldwide Developers' Conference, being held in San Francisco, announcing various upgrades and new products and services.
There has been a lot of speculation and secrecy surrounding Apple's future plans, especially with CEO Tim Cook having been criticised for failing to innovate since the death of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs.
Both the company's desktop and mobile operating systems received renovations, while new-generation desktop and laptops were unveiled, as well as the company's much anticipated streaming music service.
There was, however, no mention of Apple's rumoured budget iPhone or the iPhone 6, which is expected to make its appearance at the beginning of next year.
Smooth operator
As expected, Apple introduced the next generation of its mobile operating system, iOS 7, showcasing a redesigned user interface with a host of new features.
Apple's senior vice-president of software engineering, Craig Federighi, dubbed iOS 7 as "the most significant iOS update since the original iPhone" and added that the operating system is a combination of design and engineering.
iOS 7 features a new Control Centre, which allows users all-on-access to various controls with one swipe from the bottom of the screen. Siri has also been enhanced with new male and female voices, and includes Twitter search and Wikipedia integration.
The AirDrop feature shows contacts nearby and enables sharing with other users without a network connection. The new camera and photo app enables users to add real-time photo effects and automatically organises pictures based on time and location.
iOS 7 will be available as a free software update for iPhone 4 and later, iPad 2 and later, iPad mini and iPod touch (fifth generation). Apple says some of the features may not be available on all products.
Apple also released a developers' preview of its 10th generation operating system for desktop - OS X Mavericks. Mavericks has more than 200 new features, and brings Maps and iBooks to the Mac PC. It also, introduces Finder Tags and Tabs, and includes the latest version of Safari.
iOS 7 and OS X Mavericks were made available to developers immediately after they were announced, but Apple claims they will only be available to the public closer to the fourth quarter of the year.
Joining the stream
Apple also announced its version of a streaming music service called iTunes Radio. The free Internet radio service features over 200 stations tailored to the music users listen to on iTunes.
Apple has also incorporated Siri into iTunes Radio, enabling users to ask Siri what songs are playing, or to play similar songs to what is currently playing.
iTunes Radio is an ad-supported service and free for everyone. iTunes Match enables users to listen to iTunes Radio without any ads in between songs. With iTunes Match, all music ? even songs imported from CDs ? are stored in iCloud. It allows iTunes Radio to use information about the user's entire music collection to further personalise stations.
Apple's announcement of iTunes Radio follows Google's release of its streaming music service, All Access, at its developers' conference last month. Google's service is available for $9.99 a month.
PC overhaul
Building on its Mac PC range, Apple gave developers a first look at the next-generation Mac Pro desktop, featuring overhauled Xeon processors and dual workstation-class GPUs. Apple's senior vice-president of worldwide marketing, Philip Schiller, dubbed it the "most radical Mac yet".
Apple emphasised the Mac's expandability, and fitted the new Pro with six Thunderbolt 2 ports delivering up to 20Gbps of bandwidth to each external device. Each of the six Thunderbolt 2 ports supports up to six daisy-chained devices, giving users the ability to connect up to 36 high-performance peripherals.
Apple also updated its MacBook Air with all day battery life. The new MacBook Air will feature power-efficient fourth-generation Intel Core i5 and Core i7 processors that give the 13-inch MacBook Air up to 12 hours of battery life and up to 10 hours of iTunes movie playback. The 11-inch MacBook Air delivers up to nine hours of battery life and up to eight hours of iTunes movie playback.
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