The lengthy Apple [AAPL] product drought is becoming a deluge this Fall, with September’s new iPhones and iOS 7 releases set to be followed by an October release of OS X Maverick, likely in conjunction with new Mac hardware.
This makes sense as the company seeks to improve its position as we enter the crucial Christmas period. An October release of Maverick also matches previous reports claiming Apple had diverted some development resources to iOS 7 from the OS X team, which makes a later release of the Mac software even more logical.
The introduction of the new OS X also seems a good moment for the company to introduce new hardware to run it on.
This should be of particular interest to Apple’s professional users given the company’s promise the all-new Mac Pro would ship in “Fall 2013″ — a flagship release that suggests a series of interesting new directions for the company, not least the handling of 4K content at native (ie. uncompressed) resolution.
Expectation surrounding the new Mac Pro is such that it makes perfect sense for the firm to split its iOS product releases from the Mac/OS X release schedule. The company wants to direct attention at its new iPhones next week, rather than sharing too much of the spotlight with other products in its range.
Reports that OS X Maverick will ship in October (c/o, 9to5Mac) is the strongest suggestion I’ve seen yet that Apple’s other hotly-awaited solutions, iWatch and an Apple TV upgrade, may not appear until early next year as the company works to use its product releases in order to maintain the momentum of the firm. New products should help keep the company high on the news agenda.
In conjunction with Maverick it makes sense for Apple to introduce upgraded versions of some or all of the iMac, MacBook Pro and Mac mini systems. It also seems incredibly likely the company will introduce a new 4K display at its October event, as it makes no sense to work on 4K video on your new Mac Pro without also using a monitor capable of displaying such content.
Apple’s Mac Pro drew gasps from WWDC attendees on its announcement, driving Phil Schiller to remark, “Can’t innovate anymore? My ass,” to rapturous applause.
The Mac Pro will be equipped with next generation Ivy Bridge Xeon E5 processors, dual workstation-class AMD FirePro GPUs, Thunderbolt 2, PCIe-based flash storage, and ultra-fast ECC memory. These systems are up to 2.5 times faster than the current Mac Pro and deliver up to 7 teraflops of computational power.
The new OS X will deliver 200 features and improvements. Macs running Mavericks should be more responsive and (with an eye on mobile Macs) far less power hungry than before, and will also gain support for iOS-like features such as Notifications, iBooks and Maps.
Additional highlights within the release include:
- Finder improvements include searchable Tags and tabs.
- Mavericks’ support for multiple displays includes the capacity to use an AirPlay-equipped Apple TV to use your TV as a second display for your Mac.
- Safari has been redeveloped to be faster. Shared Links in the Sidebar shows you links shared by your friends on Facebook and LinkedIn.
- iCloud Keychain stores your website login information, credit card numbers and Wi-Fi passwords, and pushes them to all of your devices so you don't need to remember them — though this feature is likely to be far less well-received than the company may have helped, given the ghastly privacy intrusions confirmed by recent revelations of the actions of the NSA.
Google+? If you’re one of those who likes to use social media and also happen to be a Google+ user, why not join AppleHolic’s Kool Aid Corner community and join the conversation as we pursue the spirit of the New Model Apple?
Got a story? Drop me a line via Twitter or in comments below and let me know. I’d like it if you chose to follow me on Twitter so I can let you know when these items are published here first on Computerworld.
No comments:
Post a Comment