Month: June 2013

At its Worldwide Developers Conference on Monday, Apple unveiled the highly anticipated iOS 7 operating system for the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch, to initially favourable review. This latest event was not the anti-climax like some in the recent past. Ok, so we were made to wait 90 minutes into the keynote before we got to see what we were all waiting for – but what is 90 minutes, when we’ve been waiting 18 months for any real progress with iOS.

While many have been downplaying the importance of this year’s WWDC due to a lack of new mobile device announcements, we believe Apple wanted to focus attention on the iOS platform. In our view, users will find the modern, flat interface, with its translucent, precision feel and gestures as well as improved built-in apps a satisfactory leap towards a new frontier for their iOS devices.

The refreshed user interface with iOS 7 was a big change through more striking colours, a simpler interface, translucency, new typography, full screen interface, “subtle motion” capability and more. Clearly, Jony Ive’s influence on iOS 7 was felt in a meaningful way with this release. Many new features come with iOS 7 and multi- tasking was one that we believe users will appreciate, along with AirDrop for peer-to-peer transfer, a new Siri voice and expanded intelligence, iOS in the car and other new features.

We believe that the improvements in iOS 7 should give iPhone users, and investors, a new reason to be excited about their iOS devices and subsequent new mobile devises. At the end of the day, we believe iPhone users get over new hardware within a few hours when updating their phones, but the OS is what mesmerizes people longer term. Overall, we believe the event sets the stage for new products over the next 6 quarters including iPhone 5S, a cheaper iPhone, a television, iPhone 6, iWatch, and possibly a payments solution.

We were left more underwhelmed by what we saw of the new Mac OS X (v10) – Mavericks, which by contrast felt evolutionary rather than revolutionary. From what we saw the UI for Mavericks in the most part has not changed noticeably from Mountain Lion and as entertaining as Craig Federici was, there was not enough crossover UI design from iOS 7 for our liking. It remains to be seen that by time of release this will change. A new iWork suite is due to be released later in the year. It seems logical for Apple to carry across much of the iOS 7 UI design to Mavericks as well as on iCloud (via browser).

So, what of Apple’s so called imminent demise?

“Can’t innovate anymore, my ass.’ Phil Schiller’s one-liner during the WWDC keynote just may be one of the best in Apple history. People may forget what drives Apple, but Apple does not. Back in the dark days, before Steve Jobs returned their products had become mediocre, uninspiring. The success of iMac proved that Apple was still able to innovate. From that point on, a series of successes put Apple into the black and removed all the question marks surrounding it. After iMac there was iBook, AirPort, iPod, MacBook (Pro), iPhone and iPad, products that fueled Apple’s continued rise, made one thing abundantly clear. Apple would continue to grow as long as it continued to innovate. Schiller’s 2013 affirmation of this belief suggests he and Apple are confident about their pipeline for a little longer yet.

The most significant update to Windows 8 has arrived in the form of Windows 8.1, code-named “Windows Blue”.

So what can Windows 8.1 provide you with?

Windows 8.1 has brought back the iconic start button, in some form. The start button can now be found in the classic desktop that Windows have maintained since Windows 95. However, the start button is not reverting to its old ways, now the metro start screen will be present instead. The addition of the metro start screen causes you to spend less of your time in the desktop mode than ever before.

The metro start screen is not the only new feature, now Snap Mode allows you to have 3 apps on one screen and to be able to work on two on screen instances at once.

The new Windows PC settings feature eliminates the constant flickering between the PC settings and the control panel, to configure and customise your Windows.

The new start screen now has the ability for you to view your installed apps, on a variety of different sized tiles. The apps which you find are your favourites to use can be separately viewed in the primary view. “Windows Blue” will now allow you further control over the presentation and use of your apps on your computer.

The search feature is also far more encompassing than before. The improvement to the search feature can now return apps, files, Bing results and much more. There is also an Internet explorer11, which allows for deeper integration of Microsoft’s Skydrive system storage and the ability to log into any windows 8 computer with your Microsoft account and have available all your settings.

Have Microsoft pleased or displeased their sceptics? Current users of the Windows 8 system will likely to be happy to receive Windows 8.1 update. The majority of who may be intrigued by the new layout and more personal features. However, to some extent, Microsoft haven’t pleased their sceptics, many sceptics believe Microsoft are playing a long term game, which will result in the transition of a greater number of people to the windows 8 system, through further updates.

Last week GEEX was lucky enough to visit Apple’s Worldwide Developer’s Conference in San Francisco. Over the week we got behind the stage access to Apple’s up and coming products.

The Keynote speech on Monday has to be our highlight of the week. We got a first-hand demonstration to the new Mac Pro, Mac Air, iTunes Radio, iOSX ‘Mavericks’ and iOS7.

The new Mac Pro took us by surprise. Its new sleek curved design is miles apart from the old silver blocky towers, as well as being tiny! “Can’t innovate any more, my ass,” said Phil Schiller, senior vice president of worldwide marketing at Apple, as he unveiled the new Mac Pro at Apple’s WWDC conference. So we can keep you up to date on this product make sure you sign up to our subscribers list by clicking here.

Another great revelation was the new Macbook Air. The biggest and best change to the Air was the switchover to Intels latest Haswells Processors. Schiller said the two companies worked hard together so that the new MacBook Air can deliver “all-day” battery life. The current 11-inch MacBook Air promises up to five hours of battery life, but the new model will offer nine hours. Meanwhile, the 13-inch MackBook Air will go from seven hours of battery life to 12 hours. For more information on leasing a Macbook Air click here..

A bit of a let-down was the unveiling of iTunes radio. Users can create and share radio stations as well as listen to others radio stations. The biggest change was to iOS7. The update, which will be available to users this fall, brings changes like a vertical slide to unlock button, translucent app and keyboard icons, updated weather apps and receding control buttons when browsing Safari. Apple was behind times with this update by making the overall design looking a lot flatter.

Maverick’s Apple’s update to iOSX. Mavericks will feature better battery life through new features, faster apps, and an “App Nap” feature helps idle apps quit taking up your power. With this new update comes a new Safari, with new LinkedIn and Twitter reading lists.

The rest of the week we spent being developers getting one on ones with those Apple geniuses to help us better our knowledge of Apple software and what’s to come with Apps including the iOS7 software.

Apple unveiled the new Mac Book Airs today and was centred on two themes; Speed and longevity.

The biggest change to the laptops (which we predicted correct) is the switch to Intel’s latest Haswell processor. Schiller said the two companies worked hard together so that the new MacBook Air can deliver “all-day” battery life. The current 11-inch MacBook Air promises up to five hours of battery life, but the new model will offer nine hours. Meanwhile, the 13-inch MackBook Air will go from seven hours of battery life to 12 hours.

In addition with the new Intel HD Graphics 5000 graphics card, performance for games and graphics-intensive apps should be about 40% faster.

The refreshed MacBook Air is also capable of running on 802.1ac Wi-Fi network, which is up to three times speedier than the current 802.11n network. Of course, to support those faster speeds, you need a new router, so Schiller introduced a redesigned AirPort Extreme and AirPort Time Capsule

Today was a great start to the week of conferences here at WWDC, starting off with the Keynote speech. It was a brilliant experience watching this here in San Francisco; it wasn’t too flashy and left you wanting more.

The key highlights of the speech were iTunes radio, the new Air Pro, an introduction to iOS X ‘Mavericks’ as well as the design of iOS 7.

iTunes Radio

A big non-surprise was the unveiling of iTunes Radio. Apple iTunes Radio, is an online streaming music radio service which could have up to 300 million users within a year, directly challenging a similar service from Google as well as smaller companies such as Sweden’s Spotify US-based Pandora and British-based Last.fm

Users are able to create radio stations they want to listen to, and then share it with others as well as listen to other people’s radio stations.

iOS 7

Apple showed off a major overhaul of iOS7 on day one. CEO Tim Cook called it the biggest change to iOS since the iPhone.

The update, which will be available to users this fall, brings changes like a vertical slide to unlock button, translucent app and keyboard icons, updated weather apps and receding control buttons when browsing Safari. Apple was behind times with this update by making the overall design looking a lot flatter.

iOS X – Mavericks

Apple said today it was ditching the kitty descriptors for each new version of its operating system and moving to descriptions of places in California. The next one, named after the famous big-wave surf spot near Half Moon Bay, will offer up support for multiple display monitors and file-tagging.

Mavericks also offers up better battery life through new features, faster apps, and an “App Nap” feature that helps idle apps quit taking up your power.

With this update comes a new Safari, too, with LinkedIn and Twitter reading lists.

Make sure you follow the blog for more info on products such as the Mac Pro and Macbook Air.

This morning I downloaded the new WWDC App from Apple to help me get the best out of the conference next week. Although Apple will be keeping everything to themselves about the new update from iOS 7, we think they’ve let slip through the app a few hints and clues as to what we can expect from iOS.

The app itself is flat. You’ve probably heard that iOS is planning to become flatter software, and we think the obviousness of the flat app highlights how flat the new iOS 7 software is actually going to be.

To my surprise the drop shadows are more restrained, with a tighter gradient. This is true across all of the User Interface (UI) elements, but in a flat design, it can become especially important when having more than one layer, as when the schedule grid disappears under the date layer.
I knew flat was coming, but this is the first glimpse of ‘Apple flat’, which should be said, it looks a lot like Google.

A more of a subtle change is the loss of the shadow in the icon bottom row. Now, instead of squaring off an icon, the app just highlights the icon itself. iOS has always been a rather boxy, regimented UI, but this particular design is way more open, even when compared with the confines of 2012’s app. This could carry over to a more open-feeling iOS in general.

This is just an appetiser; the main course can be consumed on June 10th. I can’t wait. However, this sneak peak is still encouraging. It succeeds in a clean, crisp and functional new iOS facing.