Apple : Live: WWDC 2014 Liveblog: All the latest from Apple's Keynote |
- Live: WWDC 2014 Liveblog: All the latest from Apple's Keynote
- WWDC 2014: You can now receive SMS texts and calls on your Mac
- WWDC2014: Apple OS X 10.10 Yosemite unveiled on first day of WWDC 2014
- Updated: OS X 10.10: what to expect
| Live: WWDC 2014 Liveblog: All the latest from Apple's Keynote Posted:  Ahh, the smell of OS updates is in the air! Must be WWDC 2014 day, the day when Apple makes all our dreams come true by changing the font on the Calendar app slightly and trying to make us all sign up to bigger iCloud accounts. That's right, it's keynote time: and what are we expecting to hear from Apple today? We'll be honest, it's a mixed bag.
11.58 - WE'RE DONE. *Drops mic* 11.56 - He's summing up about platforms and integration now. This doesn't sound like he's building to anything. Here you go - info on the devices coming. So it's no luck if you're on an iPhone 4... but if you are, then just give in and buy a new phone. You'll feel a lot happier, promise.
11.55 - Tim Cook is back. Please don't launch anything. I'm very tired. 11.54 - The way Health is glossed over makes me think that there's no iWatch. But, here's a good piece of news: iOS 8 is coming soon and will run on loads of devices - but the slide with the ones on was really quickly shown. Definitely iPad mini on there, FYI. (The only one I saw at the bottom). 11.53 - If you're into this, all this is in a book in iBooks - and when iOS and OS X Yosemite go live, you can submit apps straight away. 11.52 - The demo is over. Phew. I was about to make a run for it. 11.51 - The blimp is rising and falling because of a copy and paste. I feel like that should mean something. I'm guessing that blimp-fans are going to love this feature. 11.49 - We're hearing about code now... I'm trying to pretend I understand it all. Uh huh, points, mmmm yes, NSImage. Yep, blimp. Wait, that last one was a picture of a blimp. I got that. 11.45 - What does this mean for the end user? Apple has just made a lot of developers very happy with lots of new, modern features (and secure) and make it all a lot slicker and easy to do. So new apps will be less bug-filled (in theory), less heavy and even making them will be a little more accessible to the average user.
Even older apps will benefit, so this is all good for you if you're thinking of waiting for an iPhone 6 or iPad Air 2. 11.44 - It's getting a lot more technical now. Take this away though: casual and high power gaming is going to get even better on the iPhone and iPad Although I will say this: Apple has developed its own programming language called Swift, and it 'totally rules'.The room just went bonkers. 11.42 - Apparently Epic had to keep turning the number of objects up and up as they didn't think it was possible on a mobile. As soon as iOS 8 is available, Zen Garden will be in the App Store for free. That's going to fix a train journey when you're stressed.
11.40 - Epic showing off a 'Zen Garden' showcase. You can simulate 5000 petals on the screen at once and interact with all at once. You can have loads of fish with AI - and Metal frees up CPU space to be able to do this. This looks like it could be a gamechanger. Thank you, thank you. I'm here all week. Try the veal. 11.39 - This looks impressive. Console level graphics on an iPad - Tim Sweeney from Epic Games is on stage to talk us through it. 11.37 - Metal is the way the new devices will be able to render 3D graphics more effectively than ever before. Currently there's a heavy layer between the game and the hardware, which means up to 10x faster elements to make everything more slick. 11.36 - Homekit announced!
The internet of things is brought to the iPhone. Only your iPhone can unlock your garage, your front door. Or group things together - tell Siri you're going to bed and your doors will lock, garages will shut and the thermostat will drop. 11.35 - The Camera API is being opened up too. This means you can more easily and seamlessly add things into your phone and have full access without messing up your photos. 11.34 - Third party apps can use TouchID too now. Finally again. iPhones are far more secure apparently now thanks to this new feature - and third party apps are totally segregated from the TouchID info.
11.33 - YOU CAN HAVE THIRD PARTY KEYBOARDS! THANK HEAVENS! 11.31 - If you've got Bing Translate you can show changes to the words in real time as you zoom in - and then you can Pin it to your Pinterest board right from in Safari.
11.29 - Extensions are the big thing being chatted about now. So third party stuff is so much more accessible in basic apps. And widgets for the Notifications Center - if you download an app that can work in this area, the widget comes right in. You can even bid on eBay stuff from the NC. Not bad when you want to win that guitar / dumbell / picture of Tim Cook. 11.25 - Lots of new stuff for developers with iOS 8 - making it a "giant release". There are lots of new features for the app store. 1. Adding explore tab - find the app you're looking for 11.20 - Just heard someone swear blind we're going to see a new 4.7-inch iPhone today. Can't see it happening, chum. But I'll high five you if you're right. 11.18 - There's a new photo app for the Mac as well, shipping next year, with iCloud baked right in. Look at photos on the Mac now, and then edit it in the Cloud, to make even old photos look better. More advanced on the Mac, too. 11.16 - Photos can be edited more comprehensively - the image algorithm is really intelligent when it comes to altering exposure, brightness etc. And when you make the edits the pics show up on all other devices in the stream. 11.14 - Photos and iCloud are being mixed to allow all snaps to being seen on all devices. Obvious. 11.13 - All purchases from the family are mixed into one account. That's gonna be mega handy - as long as you share the same credit card across up to 6 people. And if kids try to buy something, you get messaged on your device asking for permission. 11.12 - That was quick on Health. Thought it would be more. Next up is Family Sharing. Once you've set up a family, you can get a shared photostream, shared reminder list, plus you can find your friends.
11.10 - The new Healthkit works with medical professionals - Mayo Clinic reckons it will 'revolutionise' the medical industry thanks to doctors being able to see when patients are in trouble. PLEASE SOMEONE MAKE A DRE JOKE SOON. 11.09 - Next up is Health. A guy next to me actually just sat up higher and shook himself a bit. Apple wants to stop all the health apps being silo'd. HealthKit does just that - and comes with a corresponding app: Health. These allow you to monitor the information you're interested in - Nike Logo on stage now. Nike going to integrate HealthKit into Nike Plus. 11.07 - You can configure your iPad or iPhone before you even open the box, so IT workers won't need to flash software onto each device before it even gets sent out. 11.06 - Now we're talking Enterprise - 98% of the Fortune 500 uses iOS for Enterprise. That's an impressive stat. 11.05 - Next up: iCloud Drive. You can open documents from other apps, and those edits are saved right to original version. Plus access to docs on Mac and Windows. 11.04 - Craig is sending over some comedy video and audio - it's in danger of actually being funny. You can hear audio from Messages by just raising it to your ear... I bet that comes to calling as well in some way. 11.03 - This is Apple taking the fight to WhatsApp - and it looks like it's doing pretty well with it. If the next thing being said is 'This is available on Android' then the rest might as well go home. 11.00 - More control over whether you want to be in group iMessages, share location, see it on a map right inside Messages. Apparently the most-used apps on an iPhone, this. Now Messages will let you choose Do Not Disturb on each thread and even the attachments in one portal for when you want to see what's been shared.
10.59 - Loads more languages added in, privacy is higher. Just hope the keys can recognise my fingers a little better too. Continuity being chatted about now - but given we've already seen it on the Mac, this is just being glossed over. 10.58 - In iOS 8, Quicktype supports next word predictions like all the other phones on the market - anything being added in from Swiftkey here? Apple wouldn't be the first to license the tech. 10.56 - Mail is more intuitive than ever before, as is Spotlight, which lets you search for news, songs, restaurants, and movies. It's all drawing from the web as well, meaning it's not just checking through the phone any more. Keyboard is updated! Quicktype! 10.52 - Messaging now lets you swipe a message down while you're writing to get back to your inbox - which makes it easier to look through your missives without having exit the app.
The ease with which you can write a message in the Notification Center looks great - plus you can Like Facebook posts too. 10.51 - Double tapping will give you access to not only the 'open' apps, but also recent people as well. Single gesture to mark as unread for your messages too. 10.50 - This is a 'giant release' apparently. Craig is coming back to talk about the end user features. Builds on the design on iOS 7 - so more of the same, no revolution. But interactive notifications! You can now reply from the bar itself - finally. Calendar too - and even on the lockscreen. 10.49 - 'Today we're announcing iOS 8'. 10.47 - Apple showing that over 90% are on the latest release, which is compared of 9% of KitKat. Loads are using a version from four years ago. Yes Tim, Android is fragmented. iOS is vertically integrated. We get it. 10.46 - Nearly half customers in China in last six months switched from Android to iPhone - although that's not surprising given how it's only been recently added officially into the region. 10.45 - Tim is back to talk about iOS 8. We've had over 100 million iPod touch units sold, 200 million iPads and half a billion iPhones. 130 million new customers who bought an iOS device in the last 12 months bought their first Apple device.
10.44 - OS X Developer preview is available now, and the full (FREE) version is here in the fall. And there will be a summer beta for the public too! 10.42 - He just picked up the phone - nervy moments. 'How you doin'? This is Dre!' Craig just called him Doctor. One drink if you're playing the game. Dre is having some developer love right now. He sounds super excited to start working for Apple... But there was no rapping. 10.41 - Craig just rejected a call from his Mom. Cold. HE'S CALLING DRE! 10.38 - The Mac can now accept calls, show messages and even use the Mac as a speakerphone. This works when the phone is in another part of the house too. Can dial the phone too! The Mac is basically now very, very aware of what you're doing on the phone and uses its capabilities too. Eddy Cue just got karaoke shamed on a massive pic.
10.35 - Continuity is the next big buzzword. Want to use your Mac, iPhone or iPad? The transitions need to be as seamless as possible, apparently. Now Airdrop works across iOS and Mac! If you didn't know that wasn't in there, well, now you do. Next up is Handoff - so your devices are aware of each other. So you can just swipe up from Mac or iPad and see the info from one device to another. Shown off with email, and the room went BANANAS. 10.32 - Showing how you can email an image from the web to a buddy and showing how great Markup works. Can use a magnifying glass to zoom in, and then use a track pad tp draw on the image with a fancy image - markup can work out when you're drawing an arrow and 'Apple-ises' it.
Does the same thing with a speech bubble. Apple knows how bad we are at sketching digitally. 10.31 - More on the new Safari design. The Safari search bar is trying to nab some juice from Google by working out suggestions on things you might be searching for - taking another page view from the search giant. 10.30 - Safari is more efficient now too, meaning longer battery life when doing things like streaming and is super fast too, apparently. 10.27 - The Favorites Bar is going (by default). It now lives in the URL as a tap, and you can subscribe to RSS links and recent messages from friends to make it easier to share links. 10.26 - Messages is here next - Maildrop is coming in. Instead of message bouncing back, your email can work it out and then encrypt any attachments and send them to the Mac separately - up to 5GB in size.
Markup lets you write all over your emails, and on PDFs too. You can sign documents on your trackpad or the iSight camera. Fiddly. 10.24 - ...iCloud Drive! All docs are accessible inside a folder, meaning you can get content from iOS docs. All files from any sort, tags too, and they're synced automatically from any Macs. It even works on Windows too. 10.21 - More on Spotlight - can look up people, launch apps, see contact info, messages from one another. Events and reminders are filtered in too - Craig has got some great banter about Sir Jony Ive's spoons. Maps is included too - Yelp is included, can even type in a movie to see where it's playing, as well as content to stream from the iTunes store. 10.19 - Calendar has a new day view, info on the events as they come along. Messages getting new lok too - translucent sidebar and scrolling through the messages. Notification Center has a today view and more widgets too to give you the info you need, when you want it. As long as there's a widget.
10.18 - 'A more gorgeous and useable version of OS X'. A more refined version of the notification centre. Yosemite has a new Spotlight interface, giving a big field in the middle of the display or an inline preview of documents. The new search feature can even harness the power of the internet. This is the future, people. We're seeing how it looks now.
10.16 - Talking about how 'refined' this iteration is. 'You wouldn't believe how much time we spend on designing the trash can'. Dark mode is also added in, making it a more pleasing system to use. 10.12 - Craig Federighi is showing off the new OS on a video right now. Refined fonts, some new icons that have got people chirpy in the crowd... it's all there.
10.12 - Jokes aplenty on the new name for OS X - Oxnard, Weed - the latter had 'strong support in the marketing team'. OS X Yosemite, take a bow. 10.10 - Ragging on Windows 8 now - a year longer in the market, and only 14% of the market compared to 50% of Macs on the latest software. Helps that Mavericks is free. 10.09 - Talking Macs: 5% industry decline has been ignored as Macs have grown 12%. 40 million copies of Mavericks installed already, which is the 'fastest adoption ever of such software'. 10.08 - Here to talk about OS X and iOS, according to Cook. 'Engineered to work together seamlessly'. Then he says that there's a HUGE RELEASE... for developers... coming. He's so teasing. 10.07 - Apparently the youngest developer here is only 13 years old. Isn't it a school day? 10.06 - 1300 developers gathered together in 1990 - and now it's a huge conference for developers and Apple. 70% are first time attendees. And even those on scholarships too.
10.05 - Tim Cook is in the house! Looking relaxed. Lots of people clapping him probably helps. 'We're here to celebrate all the amazing apps the developers are creating'. That's good. 10.04 - 'My iPhone is as important as my guitar'. More important is the kid with the robotic arm who can do this thanks to an iPhone. Fair play. 10.02 - We've had two Tinder-based jokes already. They love that here. Chuckles aplenty. 10.00 - Game time! We're hearing about how people imaging a developer would look. What about journalists, Apple? We're here too! Also hearing about which app people couldn't live without. Instagram, Pinterest, Evernote. All the faves. 09.58 - So, what are we thinking is going to be the big thing today people? I'm thinking odds of: evens on iOS 8, 2/1 on OS X Yosemite and 8/1 on an iWatch. And 100/1 that Dre is named the new Apple CEO.
09.55 - #liveblogupdate Nothing is really happening. I'm trying to generate a Mexican wave, but people keep glaring at me for knocking over their laptops. 09.54 - Tried to start a debate about 'Which fish would you be?' with some people around me - they didn't seem to want to play. Probably because I did't specify fresh or sea water. 09.53 - 'The presentation will begin shortly'. 'Please switch devices to silent.' 'Please don't forget about Dre'. Two of these phrases were just uttered over the speakers. 09.52 - Few people at the front just standing in front the stage chatting. Soaking in the atmosphere. Sensing the electricity in the air. Drinking it all down. Or they've forgotten where they're sitting. 09.51 - Nobody around here is looking at the stage. They're all to busy liveblogging. Like me. This has gone a bit Inception. 09.49 - Bastille being played a very high volume right next to my head. Wonder if there's any way I can convince them to switch it to Basshunter. 09.45 - Things are heating up. Someone next to me just tried to get up and found themselves unable to navigate out due to too many people. Really hoping that wasn't an aborted toilet break... this thing is two hours long. 09.30 - I'm are sitting comfortably waiting for the event to begin. T-minus 30 minutes people. Are you excited? You better be. COME ON. BE EXCITED. No? Oh, okay.
09.10 - A spontaneous game of "hide and seek" breaks out - unfortunately one person hasn't quite grasped the concept of "hide."
08.59 - Wonder what this is referring too? Eight new devices to be shown off? The number of times Tim Cook will address Dre as "The Doctor" during his keynote? Or maybe, just maybe, it might have something to do with iOS 8 - probably not though.
08.51 (San Fran time) - In the glorious "holding area" of the Moscone West centre in San Francisco waiting with the pack of assorted press from around the world for the main doors to open at 09.00. That's a full hour before WWDC 2014 kicks off, so plenty of time to elbow my way to the front and attempt to storm the stage. Spoiler alertAfter the retail updates that nobody cares about and the reminder that Quite A Lot Of People now use iPhones, Tim Cook and co will probably announce some upgraded Macs and MacBooks and a new version of OS X Mavericks named after another California surf spot. Then, after exhaustively running through the minutiae of that, we'll hear about iOS 8 and its Healthbook app. There'll be some vague hints about what the iPhone 6 will be capable of, but it's very unlikely that Apple will actually announce a new iPhone today. Then come the wildcards: could Tim Cook finally let us in on the cosmic joke that is the iWatch? Will he announce an Internet Of Things friendly standard for the iHome so you can control your future fridges with your iPhone? Will Dre come out and drop Still D.R.E. with Eddy Cue filling in for Snoop? There is no way to know until the whole shebang kicks off. So join us here for our liveblog at 6pm BST / 10am Pacific / 1am June 3 Australian Eastern time - or join in the fun over on Twitter.
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| WWDC 2014: You can now receive SMS texts and calls on your Mac Posted:  Apple began its 2014 Worldwide Developers Conference with the announcement of Mac OS X Yosemite and continued on to talk about ... continuity. "It starts with AirDrop - it now works between iOS and the Mac," Craig Federighi, Senior Vice President of Software Engineering at Apple explained. AirDrop makes transitions between iOS and Mac seamless while Handoff helps your devices see each other using proximity awareness; you can to swipe up from a Mac or iPad and see the info from one device and "hand it off" to another. The new lock screen icon on the lower left allows you to swipe up and keep working on your iPad in real-time to do things like compose emails on a Mac and finish it off on an iPad, or complete the last bits of a Keynote presentation on an iPhone and hand it over to the Mac for a presentation. Another new feature is Instant Hotspot, for automatic configuration by close proximity, or recognized devices. Using your Mac as a phone?The Mac can now accept calls, show messages and even use the Mac as a speakerphone. This works when the phone is in another part of the house too - and you can even dial phones too. The Mac is basically now very, very aware of what you're doing on the phone and uses its capabilities too. To demonstrate, Federighi called Dr. Dre, of the recently acquired Beats company to welcome him during the conference. iMessages gets upgraded tooFederighi also noted that "the next thing we wanted to handle was SMS." More specifically, your SMS and other non-iMessage messages can now sync across all of your Apple devices and you will now be able to make and receives calls from your Mac running the new OS X Yosemite operating system. "We love iMessage, but we have these green bubble friends. You know they have inferior devices." |
| WWDC2014: Apple OS X 10.10 Yosemite unveiled on first day of WWDC 2014 Posted:  Craig Federighi, Senior Vice President of Software Engineering at Apple, unveiled the new version of Mac OS X v10.10 at WWDC 2014. The new operating system has been named "Yosemite" and is available for developers and will be available generally for free this autumn. The Yosemite operating system upgrade will enable users to deliver files on AirDrop from Apple mobile devices to Mac desktop and laptops and vice versa. A new feature called Handoff will allow users to send files between devices via a swipe. For example: as users working on an Apple device approach a second Apple device, they will be asked if they would like to transition files to the second device. Yosemite's display will feature "translucency" that enables live windows to take on the personality of the user's desktop, including adaption to the user's desktop color scheme. The translucent display will also appear on the application dock, including an updated translucent trashcan. Today viewThe Notification Center will now feature a "Today View" that provides an at-a-glance look at apps like iCalendar, Weather, and apps downloaded from the App Store along the right rail of a user's desktop. Yosemite will also feature a new "Dark Mode," which is designed to provide a more organic visual transition between apps and windows. Dark Mode allows users to turn Apple's bright gray menu bars to a darker gray. The feature extends through to apps like iCalendar and Apple Maps. Yosemite's desktop will now feature "Spotlight" functionality that enables users to active a large search bar display in the middle of the computer's screen. The functionality is similar to swipe-down search on iOS. Spotlight will include an internet search feed that can retrieve search results from the Web. MailDrop and MarkUpApple's Mail tool has been updated with a feature called "MailDrop" that enables users to independently host up to 5 gigabytes of data that can be remotely accessed by all mail users. Yosemite's "MarkUp" update gives users the ability to draw notes and make edits to all attachments included in emails. Apple CEO Tim Cook said 40 million Mavericks operating systems have been installed on roughly 80 million Macs. He also said Windows 8 adoption is only at 14% on PCs. |
| Updated: OS X 10.10: what to expect Posted:  With OS X Mavericks, Apple showed it still had tricks up its sleeve regarding desktop operating systems. Long-time apps like Finder got welcome upgrades and rubbed shoulders with newcomers from iOS, such as iBooks and Maps. Support for multiple displays was given an overhaul, and iCloud Keychain made its debut, to help Mac and iOS users keep regularly used online details safe. There were big improvements to battery life and app efficiency, and to ensure everyone with a supported Mac could upgrade with a minimum of fuss, Apple scrapped price tags entirely, making Mavericks the first free major OS X update. But what happens next? When will the successor to Mavericks appear, and what will it offer? What will it be called, and what will it look like once Jony Ive's got his claws in deep? As ever, Apple is keeping quiet, but we've made some educated guesses about what's to come in OS X 10.10… OS X 10.10 name and brandYes, OS X 10.10 - which is the version number that's already been found in analytics - not OS X 11.0. Version numbers don't need to jump from something-point-nine to something-point-zero. 10.10 is simply the tenth 10.x update and not the same as 10.1. Also, anyone clamouring for OS X.1 should probably be mindful that 1) OS X is now the product name, not a version number, 2) lots of 'X' posters are already up at the WWDC venue, and 3) Tim Cook would sooner make the next iPhone out of dead bees than use such a foul combination of characters. In recent years, numbers have counted for little anyway ? we've come to know OS X by its codenames. Previously, these were big cats, but Mavericks showcased a switch to Californian locations, which is set to continue. The internal codename is Syrah, a dark-skinned grape/red wine, but that's going to change before the public release. The unknown is which location is going to be used. Mavericks is a surf spot but the word has a dual meaning, positioning Apple as unorthodox. Apple's chosen name for OS X 10.10 will likely attempt to highlight individuality once more, or some other important aspect of OS X, even in an oblique manner. Apple Insider reported that Apple hasdlodged trademarks for OS X Sequoia, OS X Mojave, OS X Sonoma, and OS X Ventura; banners have also been spotted that suggest Yosemite might be the final choice of name. How any of these might be applied to OS X remains to be seen. We just hope we won't see OS X Alcatraz: the most locked-down OS X ever. OS X Death Valley is probably one to avoid, too. OS X 10.10 price and release dateMavericks was free, and so it stands to reason that OS X 10.10 and all subsequent releases of OS X will be too. This makes a lot of sense, because Apple is primarily a hardware company (and a very profitable one), and so it can afford to give away its operating systems, unlike Microsoft, which makes a huge amount of money from licensing and direct sales of Windows. Expect OS X 10.10 to again be a digital-only update via the Mac App Store. As for when OS X 10.10 will appear, Lion saw OS X move to an annual release cycle, although this slipped a little with Mavericks, reportedly so Apple engineers could get iOS 7 ready in time for the release of the iPhone 5s. It wouldn't surprise us to see this as the actual plan this year: an announcement at WWDC and then a final release in 'fall 2014', which will probably mean October.
An iOS 7-like interface for OS X 10.10?The radical visual overhaul of iOS has made quite a few people assume OS X will have a similar design language as of OS X 10.10, and the rumour mill has been buzzing about Apple experimenting accordingly. However, OS X Mavericks showcased subtler changes, ditching UI chrome from the likes of Calendar, resulting in a more uniform OS, but still a familiar one. From a system standpoint, we expect to see further refinement of some kind. Jony Ive is obsessed with getting UI out of the way, so content can shine, but if every window behaved as iBooks does, removing chrome entirely until it's needed, we suspect Mac users would go nuts. Less extreme changes could work nicely on the desktop: flatter, simpler icons; the re-emergence of some colour in an OS that's become depressingly monochrome; and an emphasis on subtle depth, layering and transparency. However, plenty of reports have suggested we're going to see far more radical changes; OS X won't necessarily be a straight clone of iOS, but the update will reportedly very obviously visually separate OS X 10.10 from its predecessors. How that will work in practice is anyone's guess; any major departure in design language is likely to leave OS X looking fragmented, rather like it did during the 'Mac OS 9 to OS X' transition. Apps reliant on default frameworks would get the new look for free, but others wouldn't, resulting in a mishmash of styles rather than a beautiful, coherent whole. Regardless, expect more Helvetica Neue than you can shake a stick at.
Window-snapping in OS X 10.10This one is admittedly pure speculation, based largely on rumours surrounding iOS 8. We're still unsure about this, but there are suggestions the iPad will get a window-snapping feature, enabling you to view apps two-up, rather like in the latest flavours of Windows. If that functionality comes to the iPad, it would also make sense to bring it to OS X. The Mac's window management has always been a bit awkward, and so simplifying a means to get two apps side-by-side without faffing about dragging and resizing would be of value to users. (In the meantime — and in the event this rumour doesn't come to pass — third-party apps like Moom ably provide such functionality.) New OS X 10.10 apps and featuresIn recent versions of OS X, several iOS apps have made their way to the Mac. Reminders and Notes mirrored their iOS equivalents, making it easier for people to switch between Apple's platforms. With Maps, users could finally work with Apple's maps solution on the desktop and send directions to mobile devices. And then iBooks arrived, primarily, we imagine, because it was simply too absurd that you could buy a book in Apple's bookstore and not read it on your Mac. Of the remaining iOS-only apps, Newsstand would be the most obvious OS X candidate, magazine subscriptions joining books. We can also see a place for Weather ? although, surprisingly, even the iPad doesn't yet have an Apple weather app. Smaller features might also make their way across: an optional PIN-style passcode lock; notification tabs for 'today', 'all' and 'missed', and a Notification Center that's an overlay rather than intrusively pushing everything else off-screen. Control Center is also rumoured to be making its way to the Mac, which would replace or augment existing menu bar extras. The existing extras perform the vast majority of tasks iOS's Control Center covers, but are perhaps opaque to new users, not least in how to activate them from various System Preferences panes. A central location for them would therefore be beneficial. One final group of apps we've not mentioned is those related to elephant-in-the-room iTunes. This digital jukebox grows increasingly bloated, performing more tasks than it was ever designed for. By contrast, separate iOS apps — Music, Video, iTunes Store, App Store, Podcasts — seem more usable and efficient. We'd be happy to see iTunes radically rethought, but it would require a monumental effort on Apple's part and leave question marks over the Windows version; on that basis, we think this is unlikely to happen, even if it's top of our wish-list. OS X 10.10 to iOS 8 AirDropOn the Mac, AirDrop provides a fast, simple means of wirelessly transferring files between computers. On iOS, AirDrop provides a fast, simple means of wirelessly transferring content between devices. Right now, though, these identically named features don't communicate between platforms. We're sure there are complex technical reasons why AirDrop for OS X and iOS don't communicate, not least down to the rather more restricted nature of iOS and its lack of a file system, but we think this is one of the problems Apple may well announce it's solved at WWDC. It'd certainly be useful to be able to fire content between an iPad and a Mac without having to resort to email or a third-party utility or service — even if the file and content types are perhaps restricted to those fully compatible with iOS. More iCloud in OS X 10.10The OS X 'Internet Accounts' pane in System Preferences is getting crowded, with various email services, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Yahoo, AOL, Vimeo, and Flickr. Expect new additions, but also for Apple to increasingly push iCloud. OS X defaults to saving in iCloud, and we're likely to see more developers encouraged to integrate it more heavily within their apps. We could see iCloud becoming more fleshed-out regarding working across multiple platforms and apps, using OS X tagging to automatically build projects, and introducing collaboration features. Additionally, it would be sensible for Apple to rework Time Machine so you can back-up your Mac to (and restore it from) the cloud. This would, though, require a radical rethink in Cupertino regarding the miserly 5GB of space Apple offers for free (and the laughable 50GB maximum), but if Yahoo can offer 1TB of space for free, there's no reason Apple can't follow suit − and never having to worry about your data's safety again, no matter how much Apple kit you own, would be a great differentiator for the company and a huge new feature for OS X. We also expect further changes to OS X's core, with speed and stability improvements to fully take advantage of the Mac Pro's power, while also ensuring the system remains energy-conscious for the next generation of Apple notebooks.
OS X 10.10 and SiriWhen it comes to interacting with your computer, the mouse/pointer paradigm is deeply ingrained, but it's been shaken up by touchscreens, hence Apple's move to gestural input in OS X via the trackpad (and competitors working on hybrid devices). As smartphones have shown, voice can also be a great way of interacting with any device − as long as the system is smart enough. No doubt some will argue there's no place for voice on OS X, because your Mac isn't something you want to talk to in order to get a job done, but OS X's accessibility settings already offer voice-oriented features. These include the means to read text aloud or define speakable workflows. There's no reason this can't be part of the default experience, not least for quick tasks that are otherwise cumbersome to deal with, such as entering calendar appointments or performing tedious maintenance. Imagine an OS X Siri that could offer to automate tidying. "Siri, tidy my Desktop." "OK. Do you want me to add all downloaded music to iTunes, photos to iPhoto, and documents to your Documents folder." "Sure." "And would you like me to do this automatically in future, so you can spend more time being 'productive', searching the web for LOLcats?" On second thoughts…
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