Apple Unveils New Offerings At WWDC
Apple uses the stage of its annual Worldwide Developers Conference, WWDC for short, to showcase its latest offerings. This year's lineup includes new computers, a new operating system, and a new lineup of software.
Senior vice president of software engineering at Apple, Craig Federighi took the stage with a joke, referring to the company's newest OS X as "Sea Lion" in reference to the previous operating systems being named after big cats. The newest operating system will ship with the name "Mavericks," however, and it will be optimized for work with multiple monitors and extended battery life. Extended battery life will be a boon to Apple's lightest laptop line, the Macbook Air, which will ship new models beginning Monday, June 17. Beyond the name, however, the OS's changes look to be optimizing and practical yet cosmetically modest.
More dramatic cosmetic changes to an operating system were reserved for the newest and biggest update of Apple's mobile operating system, iOS 7. The WWDC showcase demonstrated a mobile platform with a complete superficial overhaul and newly optimized features like multitasking.
One of the biggest spectacles at the WWDC was Apple's new desktop computer offering, the Mac Pro, which features a 10 inch tall cylindrical tower with a thermal core. The desktop will be outwardly expandable with Intel's new high speed cable interface, Thunderbolt 2.
Less spectacularly, Apple also demonstrated its latest software offerings, which include an iCloud port of its iWork suite, making its productivity software accessible via a browser and thus by non-Apple computers for the first time.
Apple's showing at this year's WWDC has already been measured a success, with overwhelmingly positive responses online.
Apple iOS 7 Full Feature Presentation (30 Minutes) WWDC 2013