Hi, this is Gary with MacMost.com.
Today at Apple's Worldwide Developer Conference they gave us all sorts of information about
the next versions of Mac OS X and iOS.
So let's take a look.
The first thing they talked about was the next version of OS X for the Mac and it is
going to be called Yosemite going along with the California place name titles.
This new version, of course, is going to have a bit of a makeover like all of them do.
There is going to be new fonts, a cleaner look.
They have cleaned up a lot of toolbars and made a lot of things translucent.
Translucent toolbars, title bars and sidebars so they kind of reflect the colors beneath
them.
They talked a lot about some interesting features.
For instance, there is going to be something called Markup in Mail which allows you to
attach images to mail messages and then mark them up right in Mail.
You can add a little bit of text, arrows, you can crop them.
Things like that.
So it makes it really easy to edit an image and send it to someone.
Also, they have revamped Spotlight.
The Spotlight menu at the upper right hand corner of your screen now you can do lots
of cool things with.
You can still do all of that it looks like except that they have moved it to the center
of the screen.
You click on the magnifying glass at the upper right hand corner and now it goes to the center
and there is even more things that you can do.
As a matter of fact, it reminds me a little bit of the functionality that Siri can do.
Not in the speech department but in to be able to look up information online and get
things like that.
So that is all going to be front and center in the new version of Mac OS X.
There is also talk about a lot of new Cloud features.
One that a lot of people have been asking for is the ability to just store files in
iCloud.
Rather than having them to be documents of say Pages or Keynote, just have files.
It looks like we will get that with stuff they have called iCloud Drive which allows
you to store any files and also access your documents as files rather than only inside
the apps.
That will go between Macs and iOS.
There is also going to AirDrop functionality between Macs and iOS which will be nice.
A lot of people want that.
And something called Mail Drop which allows you when you attach a large file to an email
that iCloud will handle the large file and take that file and if somebody has a Mac or
iOS device on the other end they will get it as normal.
But if somebody doesn't, if they are using another type of a mail server, then it will
actually store the file in the Cloud and allow them to download it.
So it will eliminate the problem when you attach something too big and the other person
at the other side can't get it.
There is also a lot of talk about integration between apps on the Mac and an iOS allowing
you to go between devices.
For instance, you can start composing an email on your iPad and then pick up composing on
your Mac rather seamlessly.
A big feature in cooperation between Macs and iPhones is communication.
They have a couple big features.
One is that your iPhone can act as a conduit between your Mac with iMessages and somebody
who is not using iMessages but using standard SMS.
If somebody sends you a SMS message now you get it just on your iPhone, you don't get
it in Messages on your Mac.
But in the future you will be able to get that through your iPhone and see it on your
Mac in Messages even though they are not using iMessage.
Kind of a big deal too is the ability for your Mac to receive and make phone calls through
your iPhone.
So your iPhone gets a phone call it will show up as a notification on your Mac and you can
actually use your Mac, your speaker and your microphone, to take that call rather than
having to use your iPhone.
Now, of course, there is also a lot of talk about the next version of iOS.
iOS 8 for iPhones and iPads.
The next version is going to have some pretty neat new features but most of the talk today
was about things that developers will be able to do with iOS 8.
So there is going to be more features available for developers, more things they can do, more
tools available to them to make better and better apps.
But there was some talk of new features as well.
Two new features that stood out for me.
One was QuickType which is predictive typing.
So as you are typing on the iPhone, and say you are typing a message, you will see predictive
words show up and you can just tap those rather than completing typing the entire word.
It is supposed to be context sensitive and even person sensitive so it will choose words
depending on who you are talking to and what type of conversation you are having.
Another big new feature, something that is available on apps now but they are going to
integrate it into messages is the ability to easily send and receive both audio and
video messages while you are talking to somebody.
So you can be texting with somebody and then decide, instead of replying to them via a
text message, you can simply hit a microphone button, talk and then it will send them a
piece of text.
Or you can do the same thing with video.
So you can kind of switch the conversation between texting, audio, and video all in the
same conversation.
Now for both Macs and for iOS it looks like Apple wants us to move our photos more and
more to the Cloud.
There is a lot of talk about the iCloud Photo Library.
There is going to be a lot more integration with that in iOS and also not only in the
new version of Mac OS X but there is going to be a new photo app for the Mac coming out
next year that will integrate more.
It sounds like Apple will allow us to basically keep our entire photo library online and access
it easily from all the different devices rather than having to worry about well the photos
are on my Mac and I have to sync them with my iPhone, or between different Macs, and
things like that.
So there is going to be a lot of new features and functionality with these two new OS's
and also with a new app next year.
Siri is also going to get an upgrade.
There will be the ability to use Siri without having to touch the phone.
So you will be able to use your voice to activate it.
Also, a streaming recognition.
So Siri will actually recognize what you are saying while you are saying it rather than
having to complete your sentence and finish it and submit.
Some other interesting things that developers will have is to have the ability to provide
third party keyboards which will be interesting when those become available to see what developers
come up with.
There is also a lot of new tools for developers including a completely new programming language
that Apple has come up with called Swift that should allow developers to create apps even
more efficiently.
So that is a look at the two new operating systems and both are available now for developers.
So developers will be able to get these and start testing their apps out and making new
apps that link into the functionality of these new operating systems.
This summer there will also be a special beta program for non-developers.
So finally Apple is giving a chance for non-developers who really want to use the new operating system
before it is released.
Then it will be released to the general public in the Fall.
Both are going to be free updates just like the previous versions of these operating systems.
So you can look for that.
Also if you want more information the complete video of today's Keynote should be available
by the time that you see this up at the Apple site.