The first thing Apple talked about was Mac OS Lion. This is their next operating after Snow Leopard. Basically Lion has a lot of new features, and Apple stressed that key features from IOS were integrated into Mac OS. For Example, apps on IOS are full screen and it has a home page where it stores the apps. This will be on Mac OS, so it will have an IOS feel to it. I, myself, don't really care much for IOS, but I am looking very much forward to the new Mail application and Resume built into Lion that resumes everything from where you last left (for example when you have to restart your computer). I am looking forward to this and many more features of Mac OS Lion. I will do an in-depth review on it when it is released this July. It will be offered as a download in the Mac app store for $29.99.
The second thing Apple talked about was IOS 5. The next version of IOS will replace push notifications with a notification center. What is the point of that? If are a heavy gamer on idevices push notifications can be a pain. You will be in the middle of a very intense game ready to beat the next level when all of the sudden a box will pop up in the middle of the screen saying that somebody commented on your facebook status. You must press "close" or "view" to get rid of the pop-up. This can be very annoying when you are busy on an app and a push notification interrupts what you are doing. Apple, in the release of IOS 5, made a separate notification center that allows you to view all your notifications on one page. Another feature that seems useful is that they made IOS PC free. What does this mean? It means that you will no longer need the 30-pin connector cable to sync your device to itunes. You can now sync your device to iTunes via WIFI, no cable. Unfortunately this doesn't help me in the fact that I still have an 80gb iPod classic, I still need to sync if via a cable (doesn't run IOS). That's right, I am old school. These are just two of the features of IOS 5, but there are many more that I will be talking about when it is released this fall. No news on whether it is free or not though, but it sounds like it is a free download or else they would have given a price.
The last thing that Apple presented today was iCloud. iCloud is pretty much like Mobile Me, but easier and free. Basically it syncs your documents, calendars, photos, and other media to the iCloud (servers at Apple) where then it can be synced instantly to all of your iDevices and computers. It works with Mac and PC. A feature that it has is when you purchase a song on, say your iPad, it will automatically download it to your Mac (or PC), your iPhone, and your iPod Touch. And don't worry, you only purchase the song once and will be synced to everything, it will not bill you four times. This iCloud service, as I said before, is free and it offers 5GB of storage.
So that is all that Apple had to offer for WWDC 2011. I plan on reviewing all three of these products as they become available. If you have any questions feel free to comment or send me an email.
