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Despite the name, Apple's annual World Wide Developer's Conference isn't just for developers and Apple staff, it's one of Apple's biggest events of the year for discussing the latest and greatest products and software. Alas, don't get your hopes up for new iPhones or iPads -- those typically get their own events in the fall.
Today is all about the operating system software, with major changes in store for both the desktop/laptop OS X and the mobile iOS. We apologize in advance for the lengthy post.
5. OS X Yosemite
The changes here are huge, starting with a complete visual overhaul that makes the desktop OS much more iOS 7-like (flat design, smoother and thinner fonts, lots of white and translucent effects throughout). Or, if you prefer less brightness, there's now a "dark" mode with light text on dark panels.
Safari is basically a new browser, with a unified search and address bar, almost no buttons, and big claims of performance tweaks that will increase your browsing speed and more importantly, your Macbook's battery life. There's also a bird's eye view of all open tabs (similar to Mission Control's preview of all open desktop applications).
The best part? OS X Yosemite will be part of the company's new public beta program, which means us adventurous types can test it now instead of waiting for an official release.
4. iOS 8
The changes to Apple's mobile OS aren't as drastic, though they are still handy. A few of the tweaks include:
3. Spotlight Is Finally Important
When I got my first Mac, one of the universal suggestions was to replace Spotlight with a third-party app called Alfred. The general consensus was that Spotlight's universal search function was too limited feature-wise.
On both mobile and desktop devices, the new Spotlight is integrated into everything -- Calendar, mail, the OS itself. Plus, Apple added an Ubuntu Linux-like web search next to search results from your device. It also appears in the middle of the screen, instead of hiding away in the corner.
2. iCloud is Now Dropbox-like
Apple hasn't had a great record with cloud services, and its existing solution, iCloud was extremely limited compared to others -- it'd sync some things (photos, calendar, etc.) but it wasn't a true cloud storage drive, like DropBox, OneDrive or Box. It is now, and it'll even be compatible with Windows machines. It'll also allow you to send large email attachments, up to 5 GB, using your iCloud drive and the built-in Mail app.
Storage prices are:
1. Continuity
For those who own an iPhone or iPad and a Macbook or iMac, this will be the biggest and most welcome change. Apple devices are great, but they operate separately -- write a document on one device before saving it and manually opening it on another, some of your texts and Messages sync while others (with Android users) don't, etc.
It's hard to describe everything that Continuity is within a reasonable amount of words, but now, more than ever, your devices are connected. Your Macbook senses your iPhone, and prompts you to tether your Internet connection on the go. Phone call coming in? You can answer it on the Mac or the phone. See a phone number on a webpage? Right click it and your phone will call it. Start an email on your phone, then hit a button on your Mac to type it using a real keyboard.
To be fair, we've seen a lot of these features before -- Google Voice plugins and the Gmail inbox for the calling features specifically -- but Apple has built them into the OS itself, which should make things a lot less wonky than relying upon third-party apps and plugins.
What feature are you most excited about? Tweet us @FindLawLP.
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