Well, well. I think this was one of the best WWDCs ever.
The presenters were relaxed and except for Tim Cook's rehearsed usual fact files, I think it went pretty well. Everyone seemed really excited to present their respective segments. Craig Federighi was very relaxed and even funny on several occasions. And he really interacted very well with the audience. This was probably the first event that these guys did a really good job, post Steve Jobs...
The only negative: Too many references about Scott Forstall's skeuomorphic designs. Hey, I kind of liked it and it gave ipad software some character and made it stand out; i.e. the book shelf, notes, and reminders. In fact, I am probably one of the few people who says BRING BACK SKEUMORPHISM! (Did you see the new plain looking notes and calender in iOS and OSX? Uggh!!).
Scott was not the bad guy - O.K. he screwed up on maps and may have been an arrogant control freak, but let's stop beating the dead horse....
The new features of iOS7 and OSX Mavericks look very good indeed along with the new MacPro (not that I'd ever have enough money to buy it). I think Apple is on a roll, both on the hardware and software side.....
O.K. iOS7 has been released in its beta form for the iphone. Here are some things that I like about the release:
1) It supports all devices dating back to ipad 2 and iphone 4. Yay, apple! At least you support your devices for few years. My last year's xperia got a late update and will probably be stuck at the current version of android os.
2) Multitasking - looking good!
3) Automatic app updates and preferential fetching of the apps, according to usage. Brilliant
4) Other changes including control center, weather, maps and various apps
5) I love the changes they have done to the notification center, and the addition of the today screen! HP Palmtop, anyone?
6) Auto update of apps - FINALLY!!!
My only gripe is that they could have added some real time information in the icons or made cool apple widgets showing information, like the dashboard in OSX (Am I the only one who uses dashboard? I love it, especially checking the weather and system stats, memory etc..)
People say they are copying from android, windows phone and I agree....Hell, they are copying off ubuntu mobile/jolla/meego as well. But they refine the ideas, and make them slick and easy to use - the same that they do with hardware. Speaking of which, once you use an apple multi-touch trackpad, you'll never and I mean NEVER EVER want to use a clumsy windows touchpad...It's that good. And it's really so good that I don't even feel the need to use a touch screen...But that's a story for another day...
Can't wait for the fall to install it my ipad 2 (which my family and I love, love, love, love and love) and download and try OSX Maveriks on my unibody Macbook white ( as far as I'm concerned, Apple lost it's distinctiveness after it developed the current Macbooks with black keyboard! )
