Steve Jobs used to take care of Apple’s biggest product unveilings prior to his passing in 2011, and since then, they’ve been shared around among the top company executives. Scott Forstall handled everything iOS, but his departure from Cupertino last year left the door open for someone else.

At WWDC on Monday, Craig Federighi, Senior Vice President of Software Engineering, took to the stage to present iOS 7 and OS X Mavericks, and he’s now being hailed the perfect frontman for Apple, with developers, fans, and even investors impressed by his pitch.

At a glance, Apple’s latest MacBook Air notebooks appear identical to their predecessors, but when you take a look under the hood, there are some obvious differences. Not only do they boast Intel’s latest Haswell processors, but they also have larger capacity batteries and smaller solid-state flash drives.

Apple announced during its WWDC keynote that iOS 7 will finally bring support for third-party game controllers, and the Cupertino company has followed that up with a new set of guidelines which detail a standard for iOS and OS X game controllers.

The document is designed to ensure all game developers are working with the same specifications, so no matter who your favorite title was built by, it should be compatible with your controller.

iTunes Radio is one of the staple features in iOS 7. The Pandora-like music streaming service is integrated directly into the stock Music app. Apple’s Eddy Cue demoed it for the first time yesterday, and iOS 7 beta testers can try it out now.

When iTunes Radio launches publicly alongside iOS 7 later this fall, it will not be available outside of the U.S., notes Bloomberg. This likely has to do with the fact that Apple has to setup licensing agreements with record labels in each country ahead of time.

Apple finally announced its long-rumored iTunes Radio service yesterday at WWDC, and even though it doesn’t officially launch until this fall, we’ve been taking it for a spin in the iOS 7 beta. Initially, iTunes Radio has left us fairly impressed, except for one huge omission: all the curse words are missing.

When you stream music via iTunes Radio stations, all songs with profane lyrics are streamed in an edited edition, even on user-created stations. We’re not just talking about radio edits where more family appropriate lyrics are dubbed in. Nope, iTunes Radio just strips out the whole word so you’re left with awkward gaps in the song as your favorite artist chokes out a horrific blast of profanity.

During our time playing with iTunes Radio we haven’t come across a single explicit track that isn’t censored, so if you love to bath in the crass lyrics of hiphop’s greatest living legends, you’re out of luck. 

Apple kicked off its WWDC keynote yesterday with an animated video explaining the philosophy behind its design process. Now the segment has been uploaded to Apple’s YouTube channel for the world to see.

“Here, simple phrases paired with elegant visuals describe the thoughts and emotions that go into creating each Apple product.” The video is very much about the company’s core values, like the ad we showed you yesterday.

Bloomberg says that “ads coming this summer won’t focus on the iPhone or any other single product, instead promoting Apple’s brand appeal and its collection of products that work seamlessly together.” The most recent TV ads to come out of Apple have focused on specific aspects of the iPhone, like music and photography.

Android chief Sundar Pichai has revealed on Twitter that he is “excited” to try out the new iOS 7 beta that Apple released to registered developers following its WWDC keynote on Monday. He’s even willing to splash $99 on a developer account to get early access to it.

Read the rest of this post at Cult of Android »

I’ve already written up my thoughts on iOS 7’s new look, and particularly its new icons. But I’m interested in how you feel about it. Am I the only one who thinks Apple took a step in the wrong direction when it was designed certain aspects of its next-generation mobile operating system?

OS X Mavericks has some crazy new power-saving technologies, as demoed yesterday at the WWDC Keynote. Most of these are system-based: the OS stops wasting CPU cycles running animations that are hidden behind another window, for example. But some, like this neat addition to the battery menu, are about advising the user what’s sucking the juice.

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.