Apple WWDC 2012 Highlights

Apple WWDC 2012Here are some key highlights and summary for the Apple® WWDC 2012 (Worldwide Developers Conference) that just ended.

 

iOS6

Coming 19th September 2012, the much anticipated iOS6 will support the iPhone® 3GS and later, iPod Touch® that are 4th Generation and newer, and the 2nd and 3rd Generation iPad® (leaving out the original two-year-old iPad)

 

Siri®

Siri will receive a series of updates, including knowledge of all kinds of Sports News and Scores, (with information on even the height of the National League players!! – But we are not sure if this is limited to US Sports information only, stay tuned for updates)

Siri will also be updated with restaurant search and reservation functions and Yelp integration. Movie reviews and ratings as well as showtime information are also included in the update with Rotten Tomatoes integration.

With In-car integration from the various car makers to add steering wheel buttons within the next 12 months, you can now concentrate on driving without having to look at your phone to use Siri!

Siri can now launch apps and with new language support that includes Cantonese (!!), Mandarin, French, German, Italian, Korean and Spanish!

It will also be available for the new iPad via a future iOS update.







Facebook Integration

You can now log in to Facebook in the Settings, and able to post photos, update your status, view Facebook events in your Calendar and even post your location from Maps!

 

Apple Maps

With the newly designed Maps App with 3D views, moving away from Google Maps, it will include Traffic information crowd sourced from iOS users, and it will also include a Garmin-like navigation for drivers with Siri integration for spoken turn-by-turn directions, and you can even ask Siri to find the nearest Petrol kiosk!!

Other iOS updates :

FaceTime® chat is not limited to a WIFI connection anymore, and it is now possible over our cellular network! A “Do Not Disturb” setting is also available now.

There will be a new Swipe control to send out custom messages with one tap when you are busy or in a meeting when an call comes in.

The new Mail App will also include a “VIP Inbox“, where certain email addresses can be marked as VIPs and whenever you receive a email from them, it will appear like a SMS on the lock screen.

You can also view your desktop tabs on your iPhone or iPad with iCloud® tab syncing for Safari, for all your offline reading needs, like the Reading Lists on Instapaper.

With the new photo sharing feature, you can also share Photo Streams and choose the photos to share and who you want to share them with.

There is also a Passbook app, that keeps track of your store cards, tickets and boarding passes.

 

MacBook®

The new MacBook Air® will come with Intel Ivy Bridge chip and available up to 8Gb Ram and 512Gb Flash Storage. FaceTime® camera now comes in 720p and the new MacBook Air will also add USB 3.0!

Price of the 11-inch MacBook Air will be priced between USD$999 to $1099 (depending on configurations and storage space), and it is available NOW!

MacBook PRO will also get the Intel Ivy Bridge chip with USB3.0, an improved graphics chip, plus a better camera as well. Price remains about the same, but specs are upgraded 🙂

The Next Generation MacBook Pro is the “new thing” !! It is about as thin as the MacBook Air, and the 15.4 inch screen comes with Retina™ Display, resembling that of the New iPad®, the new MacBook Pro is powered by a quad-core Intel Ivy Bridge chip and NVIDIA graphics chip. The New MacBook Pro (or Retina MacBook Pro) will also ship immediately, BUT the price for the Retina MacBook Pro starts at $2199 (USD)

 

Mac Pro®

Mac Pro will also receive an update in three configurations, 3.2Ghz Quad-Core, 2.4GHz 12-core and 3.2GHz varieties.

iMac and Mac Minis remains unchanged for now.

 

Mountain Lion

Apple’s next version of OS X® will be available from July via the App Store℠ for USD19.99 (!!)

Here are the key highlights of the new OS X :

  • iCloud integration will be available for Reminders, Notes, Messages and Documents
  • Notification Center, similar to what we have on our iPhones
  • Voice Dictation will allow you to perform speech-to-text
  • Power Nap allows your Mac to update and sync information while it sleeps
  • AirPlay® Mirroring now allows you to get 1080p streamed to your HDTV and also sends audio to AirPlay enabled stereo systems.
  • Game Center will allow cross-device, online multiplayer gaming with our iOS devices.
  • The Safari® browser will gain a “smart search” feature where we can do our search direct from the address bar. And with iCloud support in Safari, all your tabs on your iOS devices and the Mac will be synced. Another new feature is Tabview. When you Zoom Out from pages that are opened, you will see a new view with all the open tabs on Mobile Safari, with previews of the page.
  • Sharing is now built into the OS X, allowing sharing of information directly to emails and other social sharing networks.

 

Beta Release is now available for developers, and public release is expected this Fall (late September 2012).

Update July 25, 2012 – Mountain Lion (OS X 10.8) is released and is available from App Store now!

 

 

 

 

Apple®, iPhone®, iPad®, iPod®, Siri®, MacBook®, MacBook Air®, Mac Pro®, iMac®, FaceTime®, Retina™, OS X®, iCloud® , App Store℠, AirPlay® and Safari® are trademarks of Apple Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries.
All other trademarks mentioned in the article belong to their respective owners and the brandnames are mentioned for identification purposes only.
SingaporeanLifeStyle.com is an independent website and  is not sponsored by Apple Inc.




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Apple WWDC 2012 Highlights — 2 Comments

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