Apple WWDC 2011 Round Up

Mac OS X Lion + iOS 5 + iCloud = WWDC! Yesterday, Apple team did exactly what everyone was expecting from them.

Apple CEO Steve Jobs kicked off the event with his keynote, and then Apple VP, Phil Schiller, along with Senior VP of iOS software, Scott Forstall revealed the best offerings of this season in front of 5200 attendees at San Francisco’s Moscon West center.

Let’s take a look at the things announced on the first day of developers’ conference.

Mac OS X Lion

Since Apple had previewed Lion OS at Back to the Mac event, they didn’t give much emphasis on 250+ new features. However, Phil Schiller presented a demo of 10 key features of Mac OS X Lion, which includes -

1. Touch Gestures – New multitouch gestures for Mac user interface.
2. Full Screen Apps – Now, users can open different applications in full screen window.
3. Mission Control – A new way to see what’s running on your Mac system.
4. Mac App Store – New application store will be available directly from Launchpad. It will also serve delta app updates.
5. Launchpad – This feature will display all the Mac apps on your screen.
6. Resume – With Resume, you can bring back your application to the state where you have left it.
7. Auto Save – It will automatically save the documents.
8. Versions – It will keep the records of your documents while working on them.
9. AirDrop – A peer to peer wireless connection feature to allow file sharing.
10. Mail – A completely redesigned mail app for Mac users.

Apple has not released this update yet, as they are still working on its features. For Mac OS X 10.6+ based users, the update will be available in July this year. Please note that Mac OS X Lion costs $29.99, and it can only be downloaded from Mac App Store. Mac OS X Lion Server version will be available for $49.99.

iOS 5

The next big release is iOS 5. The fifth generation iOS is being tested at Apple labs and will be launched in this Fall (probably with iPhone 5).

Read the Apple PR for more details -

With iOS 5 and iCloud®, you just enter your Apple ID and password and iCloud will seamlessly integrate with your apps to automatically and wirelessly keep all of your mail, contacts, calendars, photos, apps, books, music and more, up-to-date across all your devices without ever having to connect to a computer.

Notification Center provides iOS 5 users with an innovative way to easily access all notifications―text messages, missed calls, calendar alerts, app alerts and more, all in one place, from anywhere in iOS 5. When they arrive, notifications appear briefly at the top of the screen without interrupting what you’re doing. With one swipe you can see all your notifications, and a simple tap will take you right to its app for more detail. Notifications also appear on the lock screen, with the ability to be taken to the notifying app with just one swipe.

Newsstand is a beautiful, easy-to-organize bookshelf displaying the covers of all your newspaper and magazine subscriptions in one place. A new section of the App Store™ features just subscription titles, and allows users to quickly find the most popular newspapers and magazines in the world. If subscribed to, new issues appear in the Newsstand and are updated automatically in the background so you always have the latest issue and the most recent cover art.

Safari is the world’s most popular mobile browser, and with iOS 5 it’s now even better. New features include Safari® Reader, which gets all the clutter out of the way and sets the right font size on a web page, so you can easily scroll and read through a story; Reading List, so you can save articles to read later and they automatically show up on all your iOS devices; and Tabbed Browsing, which makes it easy to flip between multiple web pages on iPad.

iOS 5 includes built-in Twitter integration, so you can sign in once and then tweet directly from all your Twitter-enabled apps, including Photos, Camera, Safari, YouTube and Maps with a single tap. New APIs give third party developers the ability to take advantage of the single sign-on capability for their own iOS 5 apps.

iMessage in iOS 5 brings the functionality of iPhone messaging to all of your iOS devices―iPhone, iPad and iPod touch. Built right into the Messages app, iMessage allows you to easily send text messages, photos, videos or contact information to a person or a group on other iOS 5 devices over Wi-Fi or 3G. iMessages are automatically pushed to all your iOS 5 devices, making it easy to maintain one conversation across your iPhone, iPad and iPod touch. iMessage also features delivery and read receipts, typing indication and secure end-to-end encryption.

The new Reminders app helps you manage your tasks; create and group related tasks together; and set time or location-based reminder alerts, priorities and due dates, so you can be reminded of a task as its deadline approaches, or when you arrive or depart a given location. Reminders can also be viewed in iCal® and Outlook and are updated automatically.

New features in the Camera and Photos apps give you instant access to the camera right from the lock screen, and you can use the volume-up button to quickly snap a photo. Optional grid lines help line up your shot and a simple tap locks focus and exposure on one subject. The new Photos app lets you crop, rotate, enhance and remove red-eye, and organize your photos into albums right on your device to share them on the go.

With the new PC Free feature, iOS 5 users can activate and set up their iOS device right out of the box with no computer required, and iOS software updates are delivered over the air and installed with just a tap. Wi-Fi Sync in iOS 5 transfers and backs up your content securely over SSL and wirelessly syncs purchased content from your device to your iTunes® library.

Additional new features in iOS 5 include:

• Game Center, now with the ability to add photos to your profile, purchase new games from within the Game Center app and easier ways to find friends and new games;
• Mail enhancements which include the ability to compose messages using draggable addresses, and a new formatting bar with bold, italics, underline and indention controls;
• AirPlay® Mirroring to wirelessly display everything you do on your iPad 2 right on your HDTV through Apple TV®; and
• a system-wide split keyboard to make it even easier to type on your iPad.

Availability
The iOS 5 beta software and SDK are available immediately for iOS Developer Program members at developer.apple.com. iOS 5 will be available as a free software update for iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS, iPad 2, iPad, iPod touch (fourth generation) and iPod touch (third generation) this fall. Some features may not be available on all products.

iCloud

Apple has officially entered in cloud business with iCloud service. Although they had MobileMe platform for users, it wasn’t performing too well for the company, and now they have revamped the entire cloud strategy with this new service.

Apple CEO Steve Jobs said -

Today it is a real hassle and very frustrating to keep all your information and content up-to-date across all your devices. iCloud keeps your important information and content up to date across all your devices. All of this happens automatically and wirelessly, and because it’s integrated into our apps you don’t even need to think about it—it all just works.

iCloud will allow users to store and backup their data in the clouds. Currently, Apple is offering 5 GB of space for iCloud users. Apart from this, Apple has launched iTunes in the cloud and iTunes Match services for music lovers. iTunes in the Cloud and iCloud are available at free of cost, but iTunes Match will cost $24.99 per year. More details here.