There had been an uneasy quiet at Apple, the maker of the iPhone, iPad and iPods. It had been more than six months since the company had made any major announcements.
However, the Cupertino-based company on Monday broke its silence with a string of announcements that is typically Apple – making its laptops thinner and more powerful, adding a new, more user-friendly update to its iOS operating system and announcing a new product that could revolutionise desktop computing.
At the WWDC, Apple annual jamboree for app developers, Phil Schiller, Senior Vice-President Worldwide Marketing, gave a sneak peak into the next generation of Mac Pro. Outfitted with the latest Intel Xeon processors, AMD FirePro GPUs and PCIe-based flash storage, the performance will be packed into a new design that’s one-eighth the volume - a fitting answer to its detractors who claimed that there was nothing more to innovate.
The special event started off with the Developer Preview of Apple’s latest Mac OS, the OS X Mavericks, which brings a refreshed version of Maps to the Mac, which is now deeply integrated into Mail, Contacts and Calendar. Apart from Maps, Apple’s iBooks library service has also been brought to Mac, along with Finder Tags to enhance search experience.
iOS 7, Apple’s latest mobile operating system, was also announced with new user interface, features like Control Centre, and refreshed Camera, Notifications and Safari apps among others. iOS users will get redesigned icons, typography and wallpaper appearance, that augment the Retina Display.
Stating that iCloud has been the fastest growing cloud service, Apple also introduced iWork for iCloud, which now gets multi-platform support.
Apart from renewing its OS and Cloud service line-up, the Californian computing giant also introduced the updated MacBook Air with fourth-generation Intel Core processors and flash storage claimed to be 45 per cent faster than the predecessor. The new 13-inch MacBook Air is claimed to have 12 hours of battery life, and the 11-inch variant can deliver up to 9 hours.
The Developer Release of OS X Mavericks has been made available to developers, and users will get the final release later this year. iOS 7’s Beta Version has also been made available for iPhone developers, and will come to other devices later this year.
The new MacBook Air has been made available and the range starts at Rs 67,900. The new Mac Pro will also be made available later this year.