wwdc2012

Apple's Power Nap lets Macs update while asleep

Apple's newest Macs will be able to accomplish updates, data refreshes, and more -- all while the computers are asleep.

At its Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco today, Apple unveiled a feature called Power Nap. Available on second-generation MacBook Airs and MacBook Pros with Retina Displays, Power Nap is all about keeping Macs up to date even while they're snoozing.

The computers will be able to fetch data while in sleep mode, do an iCloud sync, update system software, get e-mail, and even do a Time Machine backup.

This could be a very useful feature for heavy … Read more

Siri gets smarter, can launch apps

Apple announced several upgrades for Siri today at the WWDC, including a jump to the lastest iPad.

The personal assistant will now include better responses and several integrations, incluing OpenTable, Rotten Tomates, Yelp, and sports data. Siri can also now launch apps, update Facebook or Twitter, and speak more languages.

According to Apple, Siri is optimized for use in 15 countries. In addition to English, French, German and Japanese, Siri can now converse in Spanish, Italian, Korean, Mandarin, and Cantonese.

Apple is also working with automakers to integrate Siri into cars through a "Eyes Free" feature, which will … Read more

Apple: 365 million iOS devices sold; 80 percent running iOS 5

Curious how popular Apple's iOS platform and devices are? Look no further than the stats the company announced at Worldwide Developers Conference today.

According to Apple senior vice president for iOS Scott Forstall, the company has sold 365 million iOS-based devices through March 30. A whopping 80 percent of those devices are now running Apple's latest mobile operating system, iOS 5.

Speaking of iOS 5, Forstall offered up a host of staggering stats related to its built-in applications. For example, he says that iOS 5 users are receiving 7 billion push notifications each day, for a total of … Read more

OS X Mountain Lion upgrade to sell in July for $19.99

Mountain Lion will sell for $19.99 for existing OS X Lion and Snow Leopard users.

Revealed by Apple today at its Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco, the new version of OS X will start shipping in July. The new OS will be available in Apple's Mac App store.

Apple's newest operating system builds in several features inspired by its iOS mobile devices. Apple SVP Craig Federighi, who showed off the system, said the new OS has more than 200 new features, including notifications, Reminders, Game Center, Documents in the Cloud, and Messages.

Many of these features … Read more

Apple unveils iOS 6 with 200 new features, updated Siri

Apple showed off the latest version of its mobile operating system today at its Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco. iOS 6 brings 200 new features to the iPhone and iPad.

The revamped operating system includes an updated version of Siri. In addition, iOS 6 comes with more personalization options, allowing users to turn on a do-not-disturb mode as well as respond to phone calls with a set message and set VIP status for individuals whose e-mails come through as alerts.

Apple will also finally allow Facetime to work over the cellular network; it previously worked only over a Wi-Fi … Read more

Apple's new Safari takes a page from Chrome

SAN FRANCISCO -- Apple unveiled a new version of Safari today at the company's World Wide Developer's Conference here. The browser takes some visual cues from the competition but manages to maintain its unique take on browsing.

Not unlike Google's Chrome, Safari 6 ditches its search bar in favor of a unified search-and-URL location bar. As with Chrome, and optional in Firefox, the search-location bar clears up a significant chunk of the ever-dwindling browser screen real estate. You'll have more room for extension icons, basically.

During the WWDC keynote this morning, Apple's new head of … Read more

Mountain Lion shipping in July

Mountain Lion, originally seeded to developers in February, will be available from the Mac App Store in July for $19.99.

Apple's new operating system takes the Mac OS in a new direction, with Apple integrating a number of iOS-inspired features from its mobile devices. Apple SVP Craig Federighi says the new OS has over 200 new features, including notifications, Reminders, Game Center, Documents in the Cloud, and Messages. Many of these features are standalone programs, but some such as the Notification Center and sharing tools are systemwide services. Apple is also enhancing security options with its Gatekeeper technology, … Read more

Apple's Mountain Lion roars to life with 200 new features

Mountain Lion, aka OS X version 10.8, will better tie together the worlds of OS X and iOS with a host of new features.

Revealed today at Apple's WWDC in San Francisco, first on the list will be iCloud, new to OS X. The cloud-based service already boasts 125 million registered users, according to Apple. Applications like mail, contacts, calendar, Messages, Reminders, and Notes will all sync up, along with a new feature dubbed "Documents in the Cloud," which can sync documents from Pages, Keynote, Preview, and TextEdit.

Users can simply drag and drop documents to their cloud-based storage, as if it were just another folder on the desktop.

Developers can also add iCloud to their own applications, courtesy of an API (applications programming interface) from Apple.… Read more

Apple's Mac base hits 66M users, 40 percent on Lion

Apple's Mac userbase has grown to 66 million users, the company announced today at its Worldwide Developers Conference.

The company, which also unveiled new MacBook Pros and a MacBook Air at the event, says that it has sold 26 million copies of Mac OS X Lion since its launch last summer, and 40 percent of its users are running that operating system.

That 40 percent figure proved important to Apple. During its keynote, the company said that it took Microsoft's Windows 7 platform 27 months to hit the same penetration rate as Lion, which needed only nine months … Read more