Every year a few quality apps are selected to win the coveted Apple Design Award at WWDC. It’s a developer’s dream to be recognized by Apple for making great software, and the Design Award is the pinnacle of accolades in the Apple developer community. This year’s winners include some very popular titles you may have heard of, like Letterpress and the newest iOS version of Evernote.
Ironically, one of the apps Apple selected for a Design Award this year has been killed in iOS 7.
The first betas for iOS 7 and OS X Mavericks and are now available for registered developers to download in Apple’s Dev Center. The iOS 7 beta is only available for iPhone models and the iPod touch. Apple has said that an iPad version will be coming in a few weeks.
OS X Mavericks is available as well for Mac developers. The Xcode 5 developer preview is available with support for iOS 7 and OS X Mavericks. Apple has released an iOS 7 beta for the Apple TV as well. Lastly, there’s a new beta of the Find My iPhone app with support for the new security features Apple has in iOS 7.
Source: Apple
During today’s WWDC keynote, Apple’s Eddy Cue briefly mentioned Bing integration in iOS 7. While demoing new features in Siri, Cue mentioned that Bing is used to power web searches. Nothing was said about Google, and that shouldn’t come as a surprise.
Apple has been distancing itself from Google for quite some time. For instance, Apple Maps is now on iOS and OS X. Bing integration in Siri, while a more subtle move, is definitely a knife jab at Google. And Microsoft couldn’t be happier.
Today Apple unveiled iOS 7, the software’s biggest redesign since the debut of the original iPhone. We’ve already told you everything that was just announced at WWDC, so now it’s time to take a closer look at what iOS 7 looks like.
Apple has posted some gorgeous new images on its website alongside video walkthroughs. Here’s iOS 7 in action:
It’s only been moments since Apple ended its WWDC keynote, and the entire show is already available for streaming online. You can visit Apple’s website to stream the full 120-minute ordeal in all of its glory. The video file should also be hitting Apple’s podcast feed any moment now.
Apple’s live-streamed the event, but if you weren’t able to watch as it was happening, you can get caught up now. Streaming from Apple doesn’t necessarily work well in all browsers, so your best bet is Safari.
Don’t forget to also check out our mega roundup of everything Apple announced today.
Source: Apple
After unveiling the radically redesigned iOS 7 and some of its marquee features, Apple announced availability info at WWDC. Developers will be able to get their hands on the first beta of iOS 7 later today, and the public release will happen later this year.
Apple typically issues several betas to developers in the months leading up to a new iPhone announcement. Expect that to happen again this year.
iOS 7 will run on the iPhone 4 and up, iPad 2 and up, and the 5th gen iPod touch.
The rumors were right. Apple has unveiled iTunes Radio (previously dubbed ‘iRadio” by the rumor mill) in the iOS 7 Music app. The service works a lot like Pandora. You can create stations based on artists you like and share what you’re listening to over social networks.
There are featured stations as well as the collection you create based on your own tastes. iTunes Radio is built into iOS 7, the Apple TV, and an upcoming version of iTunes.
The service is free with ads, and if you have an iTunes Match subscription, there are no ads.
iOS 7 just got announced, and boy is it a doozy. The look is new totally new, and Apple has introduced some really big new features.
Here are some of the main additions:
Were you beginning to think iWork was dead? Fear not. Today Apple announced iWork for iCloud, its answer to cloud-based document creation in the browser. Also, new versions of the three existing iWork apps are coming later this year.
Apple’s Phil Schiller just announced a new lineup of MacBook Airs based on Intel’s Haswell processor. The 11-inch Air now has 9 hours of battery life, and the 13-inch now boasts 12 hours! The exterior design hasn’t changed. This is a huge internal specs bump.
The new 11-inch starts at $999 with 128GB of flash storage. The 13-inch starts at $1099 with 128GB of flash storage.
Shipping today from Apple.com!
Maps isn’t the only iOS app coming to OS X Mavericks. Apple is bringing iBooks, allowing you to read, take notes, and have everything synced up across all of your devices. The standalone iBooks app looks like a nice powerhouse for reading and annotating on the desktop. There’s a neat notes feature which looks tailored for students.
The interface is clean and minimal, just like everything else we’ve seen so far in Mavericks.
It was bound to happen eventually. Whether you like it or not, Apple is bringing its official Maps app to OS X Mavericks.
The new app will let you search for locations and send directions from your Mac to your iPhone via iCloud. There’s full support for everything in Maps on iOS, like 3D flyover data and points of interest with services like Yelp. You can bookmark a place on the Mac and it syncs up with all of your devices instantly. Just don’t get lost.
While unveiling the new OS X Mavericks at WWDC, Apple talked about the upcoming iteration of Safari.
Apple’s software guy, Craig Federighi, joked about calling the next version of OS X “Sea Lion” today at WWDC. He said the company didn’t want to delay the release due to a “lack of cat names.”
So instead, Apple is taking a new direction. Cat names are no more. Now OS X will be named after aspects of California, the state where Apple is based.
“We went to our backyard” for OS X 10.9, said Federighi. Enter OS X Mavericks.
Today Tim Cook gave an Apple State of the Union update at WWDC 2013. He kicked off with Apple Retail, highlighting the recent opening of Apple’s new store in Berlin. “It’s a fantastic store in a great location,” he said. “Only Apple could do this.”
Cook went on to talk about Apple’s success on the digital storefront: the App Store and iTunes.
Here are some big numbers that were mentioned:
People camped out all night:
It all started as a concept in a forum. A designer who goes by the online name of “Sentry” posted mockups of a redesigned app switcher for the iPhone. It was such a unique and innovative take—webOS-like app cards and quick access to Settings toggles—that it got picked up by dozens and dozens of big websites, Cult of Mac included. “This is the awesome, radically redesigned app switcher we want to see in iOS 7,” we said at the time.
iOS 7 is right around the corner, and there’s been no indication that the app switcher will get a significant update.
Several months after the concept was first posted, it became reality in the form of an iPhone jailbreak tweak called Auxo. Now that hundreds of thousands of jailbreakers are using Auxo as a default app switcher replacement on the iPhone, an iPad version has finally been released.
China is largely known for cheap iPhone knockoffs and fake Apple Stores, and now a Chinese businessman is impersonating Steve Jobs himself. And he isn’t using the late Apple co-founder’s likeness to peddle plastic phone shells on the corner market.
Lei Jun owns Xiaomi, a multi-billion dollar tech company that is commonly referred to as “the Apple of the East” in China. As you can see in the photo above, Lei rocks a black turtleneck and jeans behind an Apple-like presentation at Xiaomi product unveilings. The fact that he’s selling iPhone look-a-likes certainly helps his falsified persona.
Have you tried searching in Messages on the Mac? Well don’t try now unless you want to get really frustrated. Among the app’s other numerous bugs, Messages can tend to suddenly throw a tantrum whenever the search bar is invoked.
Flexibits, makers of popular iPhone calendar app Fantastical, have announced their next app: Chatology, a tool for searching Messages on the Mac.
Every year Apple holds the iTunes Festival, a month of free concerts with some of the biggest names in music. The shows take place at the Roundhouse in London, and this year’s lineup includes artists like Justin Timberlake, Jessie J, Phoenix, Queens of the Stone Age, Jack Johnson, and Thirty Seconds to Mars.
Today the official iTunes Festival 2013 app got updated with Passbook support, allowing attendees to download tickets straight to their iPhones. So how do you get your hands on a ticket to see your favorite artist for free? As you can imagine, your chances of going to the iTunes Festival are slim. And that’s because Apple doesn’t put the show on for normal music fans in the first place.
Apple has been using ideas that originated in the jailbreak community for years. A jailbreak tweak called MobileNotifier enhanced push notifications in iOS 4, and Apple hired the guy who made it and released Notification Center in iOS 5. Jailbreakers were doing multitasking and tethering before Apple too.
Looking ahead at iOS 7, I honestly have no idea what to expect from Apple. Jony Ive has never really been a big fan of skeuomorphism, so flatter and more minimalist graphics wouldn’t surprise me. Some truly innovate ideas for enhancing the iOS experience have arisen in the past year, and I think it would be foolish for Apple to not at least draw inspiration from these three.
We’ve been hearing about Apple’s plans for a music streaming service for over a year now. Negotiations with the labels have kept Apple’s product, commonly referred to as “iRadio,” at bay. With competitors like Pandora, Spotify, Rdio, and now Google, the race is on.
Word on the street has been that a least a couple of the big labels have been holding out on Apple, but now Warner has signed on. All signs point to Apple wanting iRadio to be ready in time for an unveiling at WWDC on June 10th.
Did you know that you can add Passbook passes to your iPhone from your Mac? It’s a feature Apple hasn’t really promoted, but iCloud syncs passes added from OS X to the iPhone with a click of a button.
Hat tip to David Chartier for pointing out this feature on his Finer Things in Tech blog. When viewing a Passbook pass from a source like Ticketmaster or Second Gear Software, simply click the “Add to Passbook” button. You’ll then see the above prompt, and the pass will be added to your iPhone via iCloud.
For more great Passbook tips, check out our handy roundup.
Source: Finer Things in Tech
The Chicago Sun-Times, one of the remnants of traditional paper journalism, has let go its entire photography staff of 28 people. Now its reporters will start receiving “iPhone photography basics” training to start producing their own photos and videos.
The move is part of a growing trend towards publications using the iPhone as a replacement for fancy, expensive DSLRs. It’s a also a sign of how traditional journalism is being changed by technology like the iPhone and the advent of digital publishing.
It takes practice to learn how to efficiently type on the iOS keyboard. Because all the keys are virtual, you have to tab through multiple layouts to access all of the available characters. I remember how slow I was at alternating keyboards to type numbers and punctation when I got my first iPhone. Over time, muscle memory kicks in and it becomes second nature.
What if there was a more productive way to type on iOS? A new jailbreak tweak called AltKeyboard is a fantastic enhancement every iPhone typist needs.