Today at Apple's Worldwide Developer Conference Keynote, while talking about Mac OS X Mavericks, Senior Vice President of Software Engineering Craig Federighi announced a new password manager called iCloud Keychain for Safari.
The feature can remember website logins, credit card numbers and WiFi network information and sync them across all systems. It can also autofill credit card information.
Federighi noted that iCloud Keychain can also generate and recommend passwords for users and then the system will use that password, if the user chooses, from then on.
Back in April 2012, MacRumorsnoted that Apple had included strings in developer betas of Safari 5.2 hinting at secure password suggestions coming to Safari in OS X Mountain Lion. Apple did not, however, ultimatelyintroduce the feature for developer or public builds of Mountain Lion.
At today's WWDC keynote, Apple introduced a new Maps app for the Mac. The app, which is similar to the iOS version, supports Flyover and points of interest. Users can add directions and locations to their bookmarks, which can then be sent directly to the iPhone as the two apps are able to sync with one another.
The new Maps also allows for better system wide mapping integration. For example, the redesigned calendar app incorporates maps, allowing directions to meetings to be inserted directly into calendar events.
Apple is also planning to bring iBooks to the Mac with a new dedicated app. On stage, Craig Federighi demoed textbooks in the new iBooks app on the Mac, showing full screen videos and demonstrating the note taking capabilities of the app.
The app incorporates study cards that are drawn from notes taken while reading, in order to facilitate better studying habits. Both of the new apps will be available with the release of OS X Mavericks. Mavericks will be available for developers today and will be released for the general public this fall.
At Apple's keynote at Worldwide Developers Conference today, CEO Tim Cook took the stage to announce some milestones for Apple's App Store as well as its retail store, noting that Apple has now paid developers over $10 billion.
Cook mentioned that the momentum of the App Store is "incredible," with $5 billion being paid out in the past year. Cook also highlighted that the figure was "three times more than all other platforms combined." Cook announced that the App Store has 575 million store accounts, saying that Apple thinks it has more accounts with credit cards than anyone else on the Internet.
Those accounts have downloaded 50 billion apps, with 900,000 apps and 93% of those apps downloaded each month.
In addition to its digital stores, Cook said that Apple's retail stores have also seen success with 1 million visitors daily and 407 stores in 14 countries. Cook then introduced a video featuring the new Apple Store Kurfürstendamm in Berlin, which includes a renovated theater that Apple will use for events.
On stage at WWDC today, Tim Cook stepped aside to allow app developer Anki to debut a new product, known as Anki Drive. According to Cook, "Anki uses iOS devices and the iOS platform to bring artificial intelligence and robotics into our daily lives."
The product uses smart robotic toy cars powered by Bluetooth to drive on a track. The cars know their location and they are able to react to their surroundings in real time. They can see the track up to 500 times a second to analyze their surroundings and they are equipped to handle a multitude of situations on the printed race track. Players can control the cars via the iPad or the iPhone through an accompanying app.
The full Anki Drive experience, which is described as a "video game in the real world," is coming to Apple Stores this fall, while the app is available for download today.
Apple's annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) kicks off today at the Moscone West convention center in San Francisco, headlined by the traditional keynote address beginning at 10:00 AM Pacific Time / 1:00 PM Eastern Time. At the keynote, Apple is expected to provide an overview of its upcoming iOS 7 and OS X 10.9, as well as other announcements such as possible new hardware and a streaming music service.
In addition to Apple's video stream, we will be updating this article with live blog coverage and issuing Twitter updates through our @MacRumorsLive account as the keynote unfolds. Separate news stories regarding the event announcements will go out through our @MacRumors account.
Apple's online stores around the world are currently down in advance of the event.
Live Blog Transcript (In reverse chronological order)
A short time ago, Apple brought back its "Apple Events" channel for Apple TV, confirming that it will be offering live video streaming of today's media event. Apple has now updated its site to promote a live stream available online, making the broadcast available to a much broader audience.
The teaser text on Apple's main page reads: "View streaming video from today's big event starting at 10 a.m. PDT."
The video stream requires Safari 4 or later on a minimum of Mac OS X Snow Leopard, or iOS 4.2 or later for those accessing the stream from a mobile device. Streaming via Apple TV requires second- or third-generation Apple TV with a minimum of software version 5.0.2.
Apple's event kicks off at 10:00 AM Pacific Time, and MacRumors will have full coverage of the event's announcements.
Update 5:34 AM: Apple has also issued a press release announcing the live video stream.
With just hours to go before today's keynote at Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference kicks off, the company has brought back its "Apple Events" channel on the Apple TV, indicating that it will be streaming live video of the event.
A similar channel appeared before Apple's iPad mini media event last October, and the company later revealed that it would also be streaming the event through its website. Apple has, however, yet to confirm that it will be streaming the WWDC 2013 keynote through its website.
As with the previous incarnation of the Apple Events channel, users can also watch videos of previous Apple events and keynotes.
Apple has on occasion offered live video streams of its events, but before last October's iPad mini event the previous time had been the company's "Back to the Mac" event in October 2010.
Apple's keynote kicks off at 10:00 AM Pacific Time, and MacRumors will have full coverage of the event.
Update 5:09 AM: Apple will also be streaming the keynote through its website.
9to5Mac reports that it has "been given a quick peek" at an early beta version of iOS 7, and while the report's source would not allow screenshots to be posted, 9to5Mac is able to share a description of the new design and has created a mockup (at right) highlighting some of the main features. Among the details:
- Skinny font as seen on the iOS 7 banner at WWDC.
- Carrier signal in status bar changed to five white/gray dots instead of bars.
- Flatter icons, in many cases also redesigned.
- Separate black and white themes for each app, although it is unclear how they will be implemented.
We’re not sure if they are A/B decoys, if white iPhones and Black iPhones will have their own color schemes or as someone else suggested, the different color schemes might be invoked by the amount of ambient light or the time of day. [...]
When in “Black mode”, the keyboard is black with gray letters. In “white mode”, gray keys with white letters – a little like Android.
- Walking directions in Maps.
- "Share" menu now scrolls sideways with one row dedicated to AirDrop sharing to other devices and a second row dedicated to services such as Facebook, Twitter, and the rumored Flickr and Vimeo integration. A third row supports system functions like print, copy, and "use as wallpaper".
Apple will be showing off iOS 7, as well as OS X 10.9, at its Worldwide Developers Conference keynote scheduled for later today. While the company should begin seeding versions of iOS 7 to developers today, a public launch is not expected until later this year alongside new iPhone hardware.
KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo has released a brief research note today highlighting the status of the iMac, which he says will see shipments fall to roughly 650,000 units this quarter from 1.75 million units in the first calendar quarter. The drop is due in part to seasonality and in part to a natural decline from the pent-up launch demand during the first quarter. Most importantly for potential iMac customers, Kuo believes an iMac update that will bring Intel's new Haswell processors to the line is coming in June or July.
We attribute the shipments decline to the fact that new product shipments have peaked and due to the arrival of the consumer slow season. But we believe iMac shipments troughed in 2Q13. Apple is expected to upgrade iMac processor to Intel’s (US) latest Haswell processor in June or July. Meanwhile, the consumer peak season has arrived. Thus we expect shipments to reach 1.1mn units in 3Q13, up 69% QoQ. Full-year shipments are forecast to be 4.7mn units, up 31% YoY.
Kuo has been relatively accurate with his predictions over the past several years, and thus his information is closely watched. Today's prediction does, however, mark a shift from a roadmap published by Kuo in January in which he estimated that updated iMacs would arrive around the beginning of the fourth quarter.
Despite the arrival of Kuo's note coming just before the keynote of Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference, there has been no evidence that the company is planning to launch the updated iMacs at the event. Given that Apple just redesigned the iMac late last year, it will very likely maintain that same design for the next generation, making it a relatively standard update that Apple could simply launch without holding a keynote or dedicated media event to announce it.
Just last month, a Wi-Fi card essentially identical in shape and connectivity to the card currently used in the iMac surfaced, with the new card supporting the faster 802.11ac Wi-Fi standard. Apple has been rumored to be bringing the standard to its Mac lineup this year, perhaps as soon as today with any hardware announcements it may make.
Following the release of a public beta nearly two months ago, Adobe today announced immediate availability of the official release of Photoshop Lightroom 5, the company's professional photo management and manipulation software.
Lightroom 5 Advanced Healing Brush (Click for larger)
Adobe highlights six major new and improved features found in Lightroom 5, as well as a number of other smaller features designed to make the software more powerful and efficient than ever.
- Advanced Healing Brush: Remove distracting elements with a single brush stroke. Adjust the size of the brush and move it in precise paths. Unwanted objects and flaws—even those with irregular shapes like threads—just disappear.
- Upright tool: Straighten tilted images with a single click. The new Upright tool analyzes images and detects skewed horizontal and vertical lines, even straightening shots where the horizon is hidden.
- Radial Gradient tool: Emphasize important parts of your image with more flexibility and control. The Radial Gradient tool lets you create off-center vignette effects, or multiple vignetted areas within a single image.
- Smart Previews: Easily work with images without bringing your entire catalog of original images with you. Just generate smaller stand-in files called Smart Previews. Make adjustments or metadata additions to the Smart Previews and apply your changes to the full-size originals later.
- Improved photo book creation: Create beautiful photo books from your images. Lightroom includes a variety of easy-to-use book templates, and now you can edit them to create a customized look. Upload your book for printing with just a few clicks.
- Video slideshows: Easily share your work in elegant video slideshows. Combine still images, video clips, and music in creative HD videos that can be viewed on almost any computer or device.
Lightroom 5 is priced at $149 as a standalone purchase, with upgrading pricing of $79 available to current Lightroom users. Subscribers to Adobe's Creative Cloud service will also receive access to Lightroom 5 with their memberships.
Lightroom competes with Apple's Aperture software, which is available on the Mac App Store for $79.99. Each successive version of Aperture has seen Apple reduce pricing, moves that drove Adobe to slash the price of Lightroom in half to $149 with the release of Lightroom 4 last year. But with no sign of a new version of Aperture and Apple continuing to price Aperture 3 at $79.99, Adobe apparently remains comfortable with its $149 standard pricing on Lightroom while it also seeks to transition users to its Creative Cloud subscription services.
Apple will announce a significant redesign of its iOS software and a streaming-music service tomorrow at WWDC according to a pair of reports from The Wall Street Journal posted this evening.
The newspaper confirms longstanding rumors that iOS will see a substantial redesign overseen by Jony Ive, Apple's chief designer. It sources "people involved in its development" as saying the iOS redesign will drop the skeumorphic design favored by the ousted Scott Forstall in favor of "plain solid backgrounds and more white space."
Ive's substantial "flat" redesign of the iOS interface has been rumored for several weeks. Several alleged leaks have appeared, though it's unclear if any of these have been legitimate.
Prior to the publication of these two articles, prominent Apple journalist John Gruber claimed on a podcast that "all the leaks are wrong" with regards to iOS 7. It's unclear if he was referring to leaked images of the user interface or more broad-based rumors of a significant UI overhaul.
In addition to details regarding the iOS redesign, the WSJ also shared some other possible tidbits about tomorrow's presentation.
The new iOS will also include new ways to share photos and videos with other iPhone users and other enhancements, these people said. The company is also expected to announce a long-expected streaming-music service, new laptops and an update to its Mac operating system.
The new ways to share photos and videos may be a reference to AirDrop, a feature that was rumored to be included in iOS 7. Unlike the UI redesign and the streaming-music service, the paper did not cite any sources with regards to new laptop models and an update to OS X.
In a separate article, the WSJall-but confirmed that Apple will launch a streaming-music service at WWDC tomorrow. The tech press has nicknamed the initiative 'iRadio', and the ad-supported service is expected to significantly compete against Pandora, one of the most popular applications on the iPhone.
The highly anticipated new service—expected to be available only in the U.S.—will allow users to stream a radio-like channel of music based on their interests. It will be supported by text and audio ads from Apple’s iAd service, people familiar with the matter said. It will feature “Buy” buttons to drive downloads, they added.
The paper said talks between Apple and record labels and publishers have been in the works for more than a year, with Apple delaying the planned launch of the service in order to reach satisfactory agreements. Eddy Cue, Apple's senior vice president for Internet Software and Services, is said to be the main negotiator behind the deals.
Contract negotiations related to how much Apple will need to pay in royalties for songs, as well as how much Apple would need to pay for songs that listeners choose to skip. Pandora's contract agreements require that it pay for skipped songs as if they were listened to in full, while the WSJ reports that Apple will not be required to pay for skipped tracks under some of its deals.
On Monday, at the opening of its annual developers conference in San Francisco, the company is expected to unveil an Internet radio service that will stream songs over a data connection instead of storing them on a device, according to people briefed on the negotiations. The service is expected to be free, but supported by ads.
[…]
The overall look [of iOS 7] will be smoother and less ostentatious, according to a person briefed on the company’s plans, who asked not to be named.
The keynote for tomorrow's Worldwide Developers Conference kicks off tomorrow at 10:00 AM Pacific Time. MacRumors will have live coverage of the proceedings.
On this week's episode of his The Talk Show podcast, Daring Fireball's John Gruber shares (via The Tech Block) a few tidbits he's heard about Apple's plans for its new software being unveiled at WWDC tomorrow.
Gruber, who has a number of times in the past been able to share bits of information due to his connections within Apple, notes that he has heard very little about Apple's plans this time around but that one source has indicated "all the leaks are wrong" with respect to iOS 7.
Even Gruber is not entirely sure what that statement means, but iOS 7 has been widely rumored to be adopting a flatter look now that Jony Ive has replaced Scott Forstall in heading up the Human Interface aspects of Apple's software.
I know almost absolutely nothing. I don't think I've been this ignorant of what's coming, software-wise, for a keynote since the iPhone 1 back in 2007. Which is great...I'm super excited. [...]
The one thing I keep hearing over and over again from friends who would know is...the one word I keep hearing is that some of the stuff they're going to show is "polarizing".
And I also heard from somebody that just "all the leaks are wrong". Which is interesting. I have no idea what to make of it.
The keynote for tomorrow's Worldwide Developers Conference kicks off tomorrow at 10:00 AM Pacific Time. As noted in our rumor roundup, Apple will almost certainly be focusing the event on software with its upcoming iOS 7 and OS X 10.9, although the company may also introduce new services such as "iRadio" and new hardware such as updated notebooks and perhaps even redesigned Mac Pro models.
With Apple's 2013 Worldwide Developer's Conference kicking off on Monday, some users are interested in avoiding all of the announcements and waiting until Apple posts the recorded video of the event so as to experience it without already knowing the outcome.
For those individuals, we've posted this news story, which will be updated with the link to the presentation once it becomes available from Apple. No other news stories or announcements will be displayed alongside this story.
Users waiting for the video to be posted are welcome to gather in the thread associated with this news story, and we ask that those who follow the events refrain from making any posts in the thread about Monday's announcements.
Update: Apple will be streaming the event live to both its website and Apple TV. We will also post the archived stream here after the event is over.
Video Posted: The video has been posted, but spoiler-free viewers should be aware that there are major spoilers located at the bottom of that page. Users should be sure to shrink their browsers vertically or turn their iOS devices into landscape mode in order to avoid viewing the spoilers.
Just over a year after plans for a new glass-enclosed Apple Store at the Stanford Shopping Center in Palo Alto, CA were unearthed, ifoAppleStore has obtained photos of the construction that offer the first non-rendered look at the new design aesthetic.
The photos show off the three floor-to-ceiling glass walls around the front of the store along with the structural steel that outlines the roof, which will be a free-floating white roof once it's complete.
As ifoAppleStore notes, the majority of the structural steel has been erected and the glass front has been completed, though the glass still has to be coated in a thin, light-colored material that will give it a "floating" appearance.
This design is similar to new stores being built in Portland, OR and Aix en-Provence, France. Unlike the two other stores, however, the new Stanford store features a stone wall that separates the glass storefront from the standard Apple Store counters and tables.
The store, which is expected to be finished later this year, will replace the current Apple mini-store the at Stanford Shopping Center.
Apple has updated its WWDC app with a number of bug fixes, including a fix for an error that caused videos to stop playing over AirPlay after an interruption and a fix for a disappearing events navigation bar. Here's the full changelog:
Thanks for all the great feedback. This release includes numerous bug fixes:
- Videos now continue to play over AirPlay when the device locks or after interruptions, e.g., a phone call - When playing videos, the audio ringer switch no longer mutes audio - Favorites in Events go all the way to 11 PM - Duplicate section headers in the videos list no longer appear - The navigation bar in Events no longer disappears - Blurry text in session details has been corrected - Version information has been added to augment future bug reports or feedback
To get the most out of the WWDC app, make sure you sign in with your Registered Apple Developer account. If you're not a Registered Apple Developer, you can still use the app — just tap Cancel when you're prompted to sign in.
Apple's annual Worldwide Developers Conference is set to begin next week. The company is expected to unveil several new products at the event, including iOS 7, OS X 10.9, new MacBooks, and its rumored streaming music service.
WWDC is a universal app that can be downloaded from the App Store. [Direct Link]
Following earlier news that Apple has reached an agreement with Sony Music for its upcoming streaming music service dubbed "iRadio," Billboardreports (via AllThingsD) that Apple has also inked a deal with Sony/ATV Music Publishing.
In addition to signing with labels, Apple also needs to reach deals with publishers. The company has now completed agreements with both the label and publishing branches of Sony and Warner, in addition to signing a deal with Universal Music. Apple has yet to reach an agreement with Universal Music Publishing Group, however.
According to Billboard, Apple has agreed to pay publishers a 10% cut of advertising revenue.
The majors publishers had looked like they were going to be the holdout because Apple initially offered to pay them a rate of 4.1% of its advertising revenue, while the publishers had been withdrawing digital rights from the U.S. performance rights organizations BMI and ASCAP because they wanted higher rates. BMG, Sony/ATV, UMPG and Warner/Chappell executives had privately said they were seeking rates of 10%–15% of iRadio's advertising revenue. But when Apple agreed to a 10% rate, Warner/Chappell last week signed the deal and now so has Sony/ATV.
With Universal Music Group chairman and CEO Lucien Grainge on board with the planned Apple service, its likely that UMPG's deal could be announced shortly, too.
Apple's iRadio service is expected to be announced at WWDC next week, with a launch later this year. Recent rumors have suggested that Apple is planning to offer the service for free, using revenue generated by ads to support the program.
9to5Mac has posted a new photograph showing a wave-themed banner with an X in the middle, similar to the iOS 7 banner that was revealed earlier today. The spartan and minimalistic banners are significant change from the style used in previous years, particularly the OS X banner below.
Click image for full size
The X appears to use the Helvetica Neue Ultra Light font, an extremely thin variant of Helvetica and the same font as the iOS 7 banner.
Apple is putting up new banners promoting iOS 7 at the Moscone Center where its Worldwide Development Conference is taking place next week, as noticed by MacStories.
The company had previously confirmed that the next version of the iOS operating system would be unveiled at WWDC. The extremely simple banner features a svelte number 7 against a minimalist background.
Some of the banners already up at the Moscone Center include the tagline 'Where a whole new world's developing'.
WWDC begins Monday with the conference opening with Apple's annual keynote presentation. The company is expected to unveil iOS 7, OS X 10.9, the iRadio streaming music service and new Mac notebook models.
Biggest design overhaul since iOS 7 with Liquid Glass, plus new Apple Intelligence features and improvements to Messages, Phone, Safari, Shortcuts, and more. Developer beta available now ahead of public beta in July.
Biggest design overhaul since iOS 7 with Liquid Glass, plus new Apple Intelligence features and improvements to Messages, Phone, Safari, Shortcuts, and more. Developer beta available now ahead of public beta in July.