Apple Goes Maverick with OS X, Updates IOS

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Apple is aiming to once again, ‘Think Different’ with new hardware and software updates for it product portfolio. At Apple’s annual World Wide Developers Conference (WWDC) today the company announced OS X Mavericks, updated the MacBook Air and Mac Pro and announced the new IOS 7 mobile operating system.

The new IOS 7 mobile operating system is now being made available in developer preview, with general availability set for later this year. The highlight of the new release is an overhaul of the user interface, including a new Control Center feature. The Control Center will be the central point for managing commonly used device settings from one central location.

IOS 7 will also improves the IOS notification center that first debuted in the IOS 5 release. In the new release, notifications will be available to users directly from the lock screen. Multi-tasking, which is something that IOS competitor have often knocked Apple on, will also get boost.

During the WWDC keynote, Apple CEO Tim Cook took the time to take specific aim at rival Google’s Android. Apple’s CEO berated Android fragmentation as being detrimental to both users and developers. While 93 percent of IOS users are currently running IOS 6, Cook noted that Android’s installed base includes a mixed bag of older Android releases including Gingerbread with 37 percent of users and Ice Cream Sandwich at 26 percent of users.

OS X Mavericks

Apple is also previewing its latest Mac OS X released, Mavericks. The new release will fix Apple’s longstanding lackluster support for multiple displays.

A number of power utilization and performance enhancements are also being baked into the operating system. The new Timer Coalescing and App Nap features aim to optimize the power and CPU utilization of any given app that is running in Mavericks. A new Compressed Memory technology will further improve performance by compressing the memory from apps that are not currently active.

OS X Mavericks will also include a new version of the Safari web browser that Apple claims will be faster than Google’s Chrome. The new Safari will enable users to more easily share their browser tabs with other users.

Apple is also unveiling new versions of the iWork office suite that will now be iCloud enabled. The new iCloud versions will enable iWork applications and data to be accessible via multiple browsers running on both OS X as well as – for the first time – Windows too.

Hardware

On the hardware front, Apple announced a new set of MacBook Air notebooks, powered by Intel’s Haswell chip architecture.

Phil Schiller, senior vice president of worldwide marketing at Apple, told the WWDC audience that the 13-inch Haswell MacBook Air will have up to 12 hours of battery life.

Apple also used the WWDC event as the venue to announce its latest generation Mac Pro desktop. The new Mac Pro will be a major refresh for Apple, leveraging Intel Xeon processors and multiple AMD GPUs. Apple has faced criticism in recent years that it no longer could innovate in the desktop space. It’s a claim that Schiller responded too during the WWDC keynote time.

“Can’t innovate anymore my ass,” Schiller said.

Sean Michael Kerner is a senior editor at Datamation and InternetNews.com. Follow him on Twitter @TechJournalist.