Apple, back in the game...

So WWDC has been and gone, with some interesting insights into what is coming in the near future from Apple; at least from a software perspective!

I was actually expecting to see some hardware announcements there, whether an iWatch or a refreshed iMac or Macbook, or whatever. Just expected to see something.

I was disappointed.

But then after looking at what's coming in OS X 10.10 "Yosemite", and iOS8 I quietly forgot about my absent-hardware-invoked sadness.


First up, OS X "Yosemite". A new simplified, more iOS-esque flat design. Gone are the drop shadows and reflections and rounded window corners. In are a flat aesthetic, gradient-less colours, revised cartoony icons as well as a nice feature which allows the user to go for a dark background to the finder bar.
Also present is a new Spotlight search which appears centre stage when activated. A rejigged notification centre which allows more customisation and reorganisation by the user to see the most relevant content at a glance.  I'm currently awaiting the link to the beta of this... Hope it comes soon!

iOS 8, has a stack full of new features and refinements which take it to the next level, and in some minds a step way ahead of Android. Notifications can be handled from the notification itself e.g.  users can respond to messages right there in the notification. Notification centre itself has be improved much like Yosemite to allow 3rd party functions as well as user customisation. iMessage now acts much like WhatsApp with media and location data incorporated. Users can make use of 'Continuity' which allows them to work on the iOS device, then 'handoff' the workflow to a Mac to resume the work; This also works with users being able to field calls and messages from their Macs as well. There's also iCloud Drive, like Dropbox, there's improvements to Siri with music recognition powered by Shazam, Health apps, as well as an improvement to Spotlight... Many features and enhancements.

As well as all this, Apple also announced 'Swift', a new programming language for Mac and iOS.  The image below shows the main highlights, but this probably needs a post of it's own at some point!

So I'm not disappointed, I'm excited by these new pieces of software and can't wait to get my hands on them.  Given the improvements to iOS, I might even be convinced to go for a new iPhone too (when they finally announce/release it... ;) )

What I wanna see at WWDC 2k13

Let's keep this really simple.  What do I wanna see at the WWDC today from SF?

1)  iOS 7 with a super funky UI refresh.  I wanna see it made available immediately, although I assume it'll be a week or so later.  The colours on the WWDC logo might relate to things here, though they remind me of Google's GMail Android app refresh.  (I like this concept idea from SimplyZesty on YouTube)

2)  Macbook Air/Pro refresh with Haswell processors.  If I'm honest, I've got a little fetish for the Macbook Air, and I'm in the market for a new laptop in the next month or two.  Would love to see a retina display on the Air alongside those spec upgrades.  By the way, please make 256Gb SSDs the bottom line standard, 128Gb cant fit all my shizzle on it, especially if I decide to use Bootcamp for my Windows 8 fix.  I know Cloud storage is funky and cool, but I still like locally stored shizdiz.  Yep.

3)  I saw in the schedule for WWDC that there's something about bringing apps for iOS to OS X.  Hmmm, is this another step towards the Windows Phone/8 unified-ness for Apple?  I hope so.  But I hope it's not a lame tacked on effort like 'Launchpad'.

4)  The new Mac Pro device to actually be a super phenomenal high powered hybrid beast.  I know this isnt gonna happen, but I'd like to see some new hardware in terms of totally new.

5) iRadio, I don't care.

6)  At least show us whether it's gonna be an iPhone 5S or an iPhone 6, or tell us the specs.  Just give us something.  Please Tim, please.

7)  Phil Schiller.  I love your enthusiasm, but your voice is annoying.  Please don't do a Keynote.  Cheers.

There's other things I wanna see, and I'm reallllllllly hoping that Apple will wow me and make it worth staying up late to stream it live.  Time will tell, and in less than 12 hours, I should be satisfied and gratified in a non innuendoish way.  Yes that's a made up word.