Here’s a major, major new feature for the App Store in iOS 7: your apps will now automatically update themselves to the latest version, no manual updates required.
That’s a feature everyone’s going to love… until they hate it when apps invisibly stop working because something broke between versions, but users didn’t realize it had updated.
The App Store is also getting some new ways of browsing apps: by age, or by apps that are popular in your immediate area. Very cool.
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:
Craig Ferenghi just gave us a demo of iOS 7. Here’s what is new about the look and design ethos of iOS 7.
Tim Cook just took the stage to unveil the latest version of iOS, the world’s best-loved mobile operating system. It’s iOS 7, a redesigned operating system for a new generation of mobile users who already take the iPhone for granted. And it’s a radical redesign: “the biggest change to iOS 7 since the iPhone.”
There are way too many changes to count here. Jony Ive has made a point that this is a vast simplification and clarification of iOS that was only made possible by a radical collaboration across all departments at Apple.
We’ll delve into more features soon. For right now, enjoy this gallery of iOS 7.
Apple just gave developers at WWDC a sneak peek of the next Mac Pro, a revolutionary and radical new design for the next ten years. “Can’t innovate anymore, my ass!” quips Phil Schiller.
It’s a major departure, with a new stealth look. The new Mac Pro is built around a new unified thermal core, with a new generation 12-core Xeon processor. Twice as fast as the previous generation. The memory’s also super charged, 1866MHz DD3 with a 60GBps bandwidth. This is a powerhouse.
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!
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.
To rousing applause, Tim Cook has just taken the stage at the 2013 Worldwide Developer’s Conference at the Moscone Center in San Francisco.
Today, Tim Cook is expected to unveil Apple’s new streaming music service, iRadio, along with iOS 7 and OS X 10.9. In addition, we’re expecting new MacBooks, a radically redesigned iOS experience courtesy of Jony Ive, and possibly new Mac Pros.
This year, Apple kicked off the WWDC keynote with something different: a video presentation expressing Apple’s design ethos. It was very pretty, and forecasts some radical changes to iOS and OS X 10.9.
We can’t see what’s coming next. But first, the obligatory numbers.
With just over two hours to go until Apple kicks off its WWDC 2013 keynote, the Apple online store has gone down. We can’t say we’re hugely surprised, but the move does suggest that we won’t just see software previews today, but also new hardware as well.
We’ve been hearing a ton of leaks and details about Apple’s new iRadio streaming music service lately, enough to get a complete picture of the Pandora-like service, which will not only serve up a streaming music station of music you’ll like based upon your iTunes collection, but allow you to buy any tracks you hear with a single tap. And it’ll all be supported by iAds.
All the music labels are reportedly on board, and so we should hear Tim Cook announce the service in just a few hours. But in case there was any doubt, the Wall Street Journal is now weighing in, confirming that iRadio is a go.
For the past year, Apple’s head of design Jony Ive has reportedly been taking a hatchet to the skeuomorphic design principles of iOS. When iOS 7 is announced later today, it is widely expected that he will show us a much more modern-looking operating system, one emboldened by what is widely called a ‘flat’ design aesthetic.
But let’s keep a little bit of perspective here. Jony Ive isn’t completely overhauling iOS 7 because of some petulant, blind hatred for skeuomorphism. He’s doing so because he’s a pro, and skeuomorphism is solving a problem that iOS no longer has: how to teach people to use devices that, a mere six years ago, seemed impossibly futuristic and sci-fi-like!
Today’s WWDC, and at the very least, we’re expecting new Macbooks based off of Intel’s new Haswell processors. But whither iMac, and when will Apple’s line of desktops be upgraded? It looks like Haswell-based iMacs could be announced today as well.
By far the best way to keep up with an Apple keynote when you’re not attending is to watch it live, but that’s a treat Apple doesn’t offer all that often. Fortunately, it will be at WWDC 2013 today. You can watch the company’s grand unveiling of iOS 7 and OS X 10.9 live through your Apple TV.
Today’s the day, folks! In just a few hours, Apple will kick off WWDC 2013 with a first look at its next-generation iOS 7 operating system. We’re expecting big changes with this update, and according to sources for The Wall Street Journal, those will include a brand new look, new ways to share your photos and videos, and a new music streaming service.
You can also expect to see a glimpse of OS X 10.9 and new notebooks at the event.
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.
Let’s be honest about what we really want from Apple this week. We all want to know if Apple can still blow us away, or if they’re just a boring company now.
There are two schools of thought.
You won’t have a lot of spare time at the World Wide Developer’s Conference — what with the sessions and a packed schedule of parties — but here are a few great ways to spend those precious hours, whether you know San Francisco like you know your code or are here for the first time.
Apple’s Worldwide Developers conference is right around the corner, dear brethren, and on this episode of The CultCast, we’ll ponder the new hardware rumors surrounding the big event, like whispers of new MacBooks with dramatically extended battery life and even more power; Airs with retina displays, and why that’s now very possible; updates to the long-neglected Mac Pro; Intel’s powerful yet power-sipping Haswell chips; and soooo much more!
Join us and Gizmodo Chief New York Wired Editor Joe Brown for an extra long CultCast all about our WWDC expectations, hopes and dreams. Stream or download new and past episodes on your Mac or iDevice by subscribing now on iTunes, or hit play below and let the good times roll.
Show notes up next. Namaste.
SwiftKey creator TouchType will be closely watching Apple’s WWDC keynote on Monday, hoping that the Cupertino company opens up its iOS platform to third-party keyboards for the first time. The SwiftKey keyboard has been exclusive to Android since its inception, but the company is itching to bring it to iPhones, iPads, and iPod touches.
The famous Macintosh Picasso logo was developed for the introduction of the original 128k Mac back in 1984. A minimalist line drawing in the style of Pablo Picasso, this whimsical graphic implied the whole of a computer in a few simple strokes. It was an icon of what was inside the box, and became as famous as the computer it represented.
The logo was designed by Tom Hughes and John Casado, art directors on the Mac development team. Originally the logo was to be a different concept called The Macintosh Spirit by artist Jean-Michel Folon, but before the release Steve Jobs changed his mind and had it replaced by the simple and colorful drawing by Hughes and Casado. It’s been beloved ever since, and the graphic style has endured across decades.
I’m not going to list all the problems with Apple’s iPhotos for OS X. I’ll just say that it’s clunky, slow, the library bloats as fast as a mob informer that’s been dumped in the Hudson, Photo Stream doesn’t work reliably and – every frikkin time I switch back to the app – it flips to the “Last Import” section in the source list. So I set out to find an alternative. This article will tell you all about my final choice – called Pixa – and a little bit about the alternatives.
The iPad is pretty great for photographers, but in typical Apple fashion, if you want to really use the device then you keep knocking up against crazy and annoying limits. The most obvious of these is probably the whole iPhoto/iPhoto problem: two apps, for Mac an iOS, that share a name but little else. They certainly don’t share their photos.
So what would I like to see fixed in iOS7? Here’s a list, complete with some suggestions for making things better
Jason Citron is a veteran of both the console and gaming space, involved with developing Double Fine’s Brutal Legend in 2006, and then releasing one of the first hit iOS games in the early, heady days of the iOS App store, a match-three puzzle game with a twist, Aurora Feint. Soon after, he created OpenFeint, which was the de facto leaderboard and multiplayer matching system for Apple mobile devices long before Game Center.
After OpenFeint was sold to Japanese social-gaming company, GREE, in April of 2011, Jason headed out to engage his passion for video game development once again with a new company, Hammer & Chisel, and a new game, announced today, called Fates Forever, an iPad-only massively online battle arena (MOBA) game.
Citron took some time out of a busy schedule to talk to Cult of Mac about the new game, it’s mechanics and business strategy, and his own take on what iPad games should be.
Casemakers are known to gamble on upcoming iOS product launches. Every day they can have their product on the shelves closer to launch is a day they have a leg up over their competitors in the hyper-competitive case market.
Case in point, here’s a story about Hard Candy Cases gambled (and lost) $50,000 on iPhone 4S moldings from China to get their cases first-to-market. When the iPhone 4S actually debuted, though, it looked identical to the 4, instead of the radical redesign the case makers expected. Oops.
Now the same case maker is doing the same thing, gambling on the iPad 5 launch. This time, though, Tim Hickman has less to lose.
The current Internet scuttlebutt has it that when Tim Cook takes the stage on Monday for the WWDC keynote, he will not only unveil iOS 7, but a new, flatter ‘look’ for the entire mobile operating system spearheaded by Jony Ive. This would bring the look of iOS closer to modern design principles employed by the likes of Google and Microsoft, and finally flush Scott Forstall’s skeuomorphism turd.
Developer Steve King wanted to give people an idea what a redesigned iOS 7 with flatter, less skeuomorphic design elements would really look like, so he mocked up a flatter iOS 7. But what makes King’s mock-up even more existing is it’s all done in HTML, CSS and Javascript (no images!), meaning it’s fully interactive in any browser.