The first official hint that something big and hardware-related was on the cards came in the morning when Apple closed down its online store with a provocative message, but no details. Thankfully, answers were only a couple of hours away. Apple started its Worldwide Developers Conference on Monday with a satisfyingly informative keynote address that launched a redesigned MacBook Pro that’s almost as thin as the MacBook Air and includes a Retina display, upgraded its standard MacBook Pro as well as MacBook Air lines, announced additional features for the Mac OS X Mountain Lion, and previewed the mobile software iOS 6.
This new MacBook Pros will have Retina Display screens as an option, but only on the 15th model and for a steep upgrade price of $400. Apple’s products are notoriously pricey, so you can expect to shell out $1799 for the bare-minimum version, and upwards of $2700 for a “fully-loaded” model.
Apple also had two major software announcements. The first was regarding a new OS X version called Mountain Lion, which will integrate Apple’s iCloud service much more prominently than the current OS X Lion version. Mountain Lion will also integrate Apple’s GameCenter, providing it another link to the company’s mobile devices.
The main big news from the iOS 6 preview was Apple’s announcement of its in-house Maps service that will include turn-by-turn navigation, realistic 3D graphics, live traffic updates, and Siri integration, and effectively do away with Google Maps integration. The company also revealed improvements to Siri, including the ability to launch apps, new languages, and its integration within cars. Siri will also, as expected, come to the new iPad with iOS 6.
The new version of the mobile software will also include Facebook integration in the Contacts list, Calendar app, Notification center, and with Siri FaceTime video chatting will be allowed on cellular networks instead of just Wi-Fi. The Mail app will now support photo and video attachments, while a new VIP section will let users receive notifications from a selected group of users.
Despite all this and the release of Samsung’s Galaxy S3, we still have no news about the next iPhone. Well, that’s the state of things at the moment.
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