Apple unveiled new operating systems on Monday for its Mac line of personal computers and its hit mobile devices, the iPad and iPhone.
The company revealed the first details for apps to monitor users’ health metrics and to control their automated home systems.
Yet tech watchers hoping for a major new product release at the World Wide Developers Conference in San Francisco to jump-start Apple’s growth were disappointed.
Apple’s OS X, nicknamed Yosemite after the famous California park, will be available for free in the autumn and will feature refined design, and better search results that mimic the information cards provided in Google Now search results.
The operating system integrates closely with users’ other Apple products, allowing them to switch seamlessly between devices.
Apple said it now has a record 80 million users on its Mac platforms.
The new operating system for iPads and iPhones, iOS 8, boasts better interactive notifications, allowing users to reply to messages directly from their lock screens. It addresses a key gripe of many iPhone users by allowing them for the first time to use popular third-party keyboards such as Swype.
The new iOS 8 introduces a Family share scheme, which automatically shares key documents among up to six designated family members while alowing them to share each other’s media content.
HealthKit is Apple’s answer to the Samsung fitness app recenty launched in the Galaxy S5. It will gather data from third-party wearable devices and can even be programmed to reach out to doctors if it senses something amiss.
The HomeKit platform sets up a common protocol for controlling home technology such as garage doors, thermostats and lights through an iPhone or iPad, opening up a major new battlefront with rival technology giant Google, which is developing a competing system.
Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook said the Cupertino, California, company has now sold more than 800 million iOS devices, including more than 500 million iPhones
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