Apple’s Steve Jobs took the stage at his company’s Worldwide Developers Conference today and, along with several other senior Apple officials, showcased what’s coming from Apple’s desktop operating system, Mac OS X Lion; the operating system that powers the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch, iOS; and the long-rumored “iCloud” online storage system.
Here’s what we’ve got.
Mac OS X Lion
A $30 upgrade due in July, Apple’s latest version of its desktop operating system, OS X Lion will be installable on any and all Macs you own for one price. That’s a wheel of a deal if you own more than one Mac.
The software will only be available through Apple’s new Mac App Store, though. It’ll be a four-gigabyte download—which is a big, big file—but it’ll install in place without needing to reboot.
Features include the ability to run apps in full screen, multi-touch gestures for trackpad-equipped computers, and automatic saving and versioning of documents (close out of your programs without saving first).
iOS 5 (iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch)
Apple’s next version of its mobile operating system, iOS 5, will be available this fall for iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPad, iPad 2, and third- and fourth-generation iPod Touch devices. Here’s a look at some of the new features.
– Notification Center: You’ll be able to swipe down from the top of your screen to see a list of app-specific notifications (Facebook updates, text messages, etc.). You’ll also be able to view notifications from your device’s lock screen and swipe on a particular running app to go directly into that application.
– Newsstand: Subscriptions to periodicals will all live in the same place and new issues will be downloaded automatically in the background and placed in the Newsstand for offline use.
– System-level Twitter integration: You’ll be able to sign into your Twitter account right from within your iPhone and iPad settings menu and then use the service with any app that supports Twitter features.
– Safari web browser: You’ll be able to e-mail an entire story you find online to someone, not just a link to that story. There’s also a new feature called “Reading List,” which lets you save articles to read later. Furthermore, you’ll be able to send out Twitter updates and site links directly from Safari, too. Finally, Safari has added tabbed browsing so you can have multiple web pages open at the same time and instantly switch between them.
– Reminders: Apple’s version of a to-do list will allow to you set reminders for yourself and, more impressively, let you set up location-based reminders. For instance, you can set up a “geo-fence” around your office that reminds you to call your spouse when you leave the office.