Apple kicked off its World Wide Developer's Conference in San Francisco on Monday, June 10, finally answering questions about the iOS 7, the OS X, and the new music streaming service, among others. Like any other previous WWDCs, this year's opening was a day of big announcements.
The keynote opened with a video presentation giving Apple developers an overview of the company's design process. Apple CEO Tim Cook took the stage and started to wow the crowd.
Below is a roundup of the biggest announcements during the keynote at Apple's WWDC 2013:
Big Apple Numbers
Cook revealed that the Mac has around 72 million installed base and experienced 100 percent growth since 2008. According to him, the App Store has already 900,000 apps in its portfolio and the iPhone and iPad maker has so far paid around $10 billion to developers. These apps can be tapped by users of iOS devices that have so far sold around 600 million units. Users have downloaded over 50 billion apps and this number increases every second.
Apple's top executive also revealed that the attendees of the WWDC 2013 came from more than 60 countries and two-thirds of them are neophytes to the event. The slots for the WWDC sold out in a mere 72 seconds.
OS X Sea Lion? Nope... Meet the OS X Mavericks
The OS X 10.9 will no longer use a big cats name but rather switch to Mavericks to represent the company's California production. Apple revealed that its predecessor, the Mountain Lion, sold 28 million and its latest version is being used by 35% of Mac owners.
"OS X Mavericks is our best version yet and features new Maps and iBooks apps, Finder Tags and Tabs, enhanced multi-display support, performance and energy saving features, and an all new Safari," said Apple;s SVP of Software Engineer Craig Federighi, during the WWDC keynote.
The Mavericks also features a new Game Center, Calendar, messaging, and phone apps. Other features coming to the OS X are the Maps app and iBooks.
All in all, the Mavericks introduces more than 200 new features for Mac users.
The OS X Mavericks is available now for developers and will officially roll out this fall.
New iOS 7 overhauled to wow users
Tim Cook described the iOS 7 as the most significant change since Apple launched the iPhone.
"There is a profound and enduring beauty in simplicity, in clarity, in efficiency. True simplicity is derived from so much more than just the absence of clutter and ornamentation-it's about bringing order to complexity," explained Jony Ive, senior vice president of Design at Apple. "iOS 7 is a clear representation of these goals. It has a whole new structure that is coherent and applied across the entire system."
As expected, the old rich-texture look was dropped and the iOS 7 received a complete overhaul. The icons look flat and use new colors.
The Game Center's wood and felt elements were trimmed and have been facelifted with a more subtle black and white look. The Notification Center has also been revised and is easily accessible from any screen. The Control Center now makes use of new controls to make life easier when controlling volume, brightness, the flashlight app, AirPlay, music playback, Do not Disturb and the Bluetooth.
AirDrop is also included so users can easily share contents such as contacts, photos, videos. The new iOS was also tweaked to integrate better with car in-dash systems.
iTunes Radio...finally out
After sealing deals with the music industry bigwigs, Apple was able to push with the announcement of the rumored iRadio and officially dubbed the free music streaming service as iTunes Radio with more than 200 stations and an extensive music catalogue.
"iTunes Radio is an incredible way to listen to personalized radio stations which have been created just for you," said Eddy Cue, senior vice president of Internet Software and Services of Apple.
"It's the music you love most and the music you're going to love, and you can easily buy it from the iTunes Store with just one click," Cue added.
It's not R2D2, it's the new Mac Pro
Apple also showcased of what can be the future form of desktops. It is a completely new architecture that will make use of Xeon processors, dual GPUs and ultra-fast memory. The new desktop is just 9.9-inch tall but packs quite some power.
"With the latest Xeon processors, dual FirePro GPUs, ECC memory, PCIe-based flash and Thunderbolt 2, all built around a revolutionary thermal core, the next generation Mac Pro is the most radical Mac yet. All this performance and expandability is packed into a dramatic new design that's one-eighth the volume, and best of all, it will be assembled here in the USA." said Philip Schiller, senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing of Apple.
Apple did not disclose when the new Mac Pro will hit the stores.
Longer battery life for the MacBook Air
The most notable change with Apple's MacBook Air is its longer battery life. The 11-inch Air will have a 9-hour battery life and will sell for $999 (128GB) and $1,099 (256GB). The bigger 13-inch sibling will go for $1,099 (128 GB) and $1,299(256GB) and will have a battery life of 13 hours. These new products will make use of Haswell chips that improve performance and make longer battery life possible. The design of the MacBook Air was not changed.
The new MacBook Airs are already available in the market.
For those who want to see the replay of the WWDC 2013 keynote, can find it here.
