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Apple’s 2012 WWDC kicked off in San Francisco today with a keynote introduced by Tim Cook, revealing the latest iOS, new OSX and the thinnest MacBook yet.
The keynote started with what appeared to be Siri doing a kind of stand-up routing, including jokes like: "How many developers does it take to change a lightbulb? None, that’s a hardware problem," And "I am excited about the new Samsung, not the phone, the refrigerator."
After this little giggle, it got down to the important stuff. Here’s a rundown of what’s in store for avid Apple fans:
MacBook Air
MacBook Air will now feature up to 2.0ghz i7, 3rd gen Ivy Bridge CPU, 60 per cent faster graphics, and up to 8GB of memory. There is a USB 3 also onboard, along with up to 512GB of flash storage.
Coming in 11-inch and 13-inch sizes and Combining USB2 and USB3 ports, MacBook Air starts shipping today.
MacBook Pro
MacBook Pro’s discrete GPU is now the GeForce GT 650M. Featuring 3rd gen Core, Ivy Bridge CPU up to 2.7Ghz, and 8GB 1600Mhz memory, MacBook Pro is also 60 per cent faster.
It is also available in 11-inch and 13-inch sizes and shipping as of today.
This year’s event revealed another laptop line, dramatically unveiled underneath a black sheet…
Next gen MacBook Pro
Being thinner than the average finger, the next gen MacBook Pro is just 0.71-inches thick and weighs 4.46lbs.
This is the only MacBook to feature Retina Display and comes with a 15.4-inch screen with a pixel density of 2880×1800. It will ship with Lion and is available from today.
Apple claims that this is the ‘world’s highest resolution notebook display’, and features the ‘best stereo speakers ever put into a desktop or notebook computer.’
Starting configuration – 15.4-inch, 2.3Ghz processor, 8GB RAM, GT 650M 1GB, 256GB flash – will cost $2199.
Mountain Lion
The 8th major release of OSX is Mountain Lion, which has iCloud support built right in. Dictation is also available and enables users to control everything on their Mac by voice, including social media sites such as FaceBook.
Apple has made it easier than ever to share within OSX apps, user can now tweet straight from Safari, and even send any image in ‘quick look’ to Flickr. The new iCloud tabs show all the pages you have open across all devices.
Mountain Lion will cost just $19.99 and will be delivered next month via the Mac App Store.
iOS 6
The last thing on the list was iOS 6, which has seen a huge update with 200 new features.
Siri can now launch apps, tell you football stats and make restaurant reservations; FaceTime will now work via Cellular on iOS 6; and new feature ‘PassBook’ enables users to store boarding passes, ticket info and other important documents in one safe place.
Another exciting thing to feature on the new iOS is Maps. Away with Google, Apple has built an entire new mapping solution from the ground up. The new mapping system features 3D buildings and a ‘Flyover’ function.
So, no news about the iPhone 5 or Apple TV as was highly rumoured leading up to the event.
Apple’s WWDC 2012 is taking place in San Francisco until June 15th.
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