Apple's plans for Mac OS X Lion, iOS 5 — and iCloud | Mobile …
Apple CEO Steve Jobs took center stage at the company’s WWDC (Worldwide Developers Conference) today to unveil the forthcoming iOS 5 operating system that powers its iPhones, iPads, and iPod Touches; to provide more detail on the new Mac OS X Lion operating system shipping next month; and to reveal what the new iCloud service is all about to 5,200 developers.
The next Mac OS X: Lion
Jobs had already detailed many of Mac OS X Lion’s expected features in a preview made last October, and the company has posted more details on its website. Among Lion’s key new capabilities of interest to business users are whole-disk encryption for both the startup and external disks, a wipe capability for all data, full-screen applications, a capability app developers can use so that documents autosave intermediate versions within them and that automatically locks documents from unintentional saves after two weeks of nonuse, a revamped Mail client that offers enhanced message threading, the ability to open applications and their documents where you left off when you restart the Mac, support for iOS-style gestures throughout the OS and applications, and a navigation tool for applications and documents called Mission Control. Apple marketing VP Phil Schiller demoed these capabilities at WWDC today.
Developers can create sandboxed apps for greater security, as well as add in-app purchases to programs delivered through the Mac App Store. Schiller says Lion comes with 3,000 new APIs.
Mac OS X Lion Server is also to be made an optional install of Mac OS X Lion (essentially, you download the Server apps into Lion, Schiller said), no longer a separate product. Furthermore, Lion Server will add the ability to create configuration profiles for both Macs and iOS devices that can be delivered to users over the air.
Lion, which will ship in July, will not be available on disc — just from the Mac App Store, with as many as five installs allowed. (For commercial and educational license, the Lion download covers all Macs that a specific individual uses in that organization or a single Mac if it is used by multiple users.) Lion will cost $30, a discount of $100 to $170 over previous versions.
The next iOS: 5
iOS VP Scott Forstall revealed a new notifications capability for iOS 5 that does not interrupt users with a confirmation dialog box. Instead, an auto-dismissing animation appears. The new Notification Center and revised lock screen show all notifications and open the relevant app for any notification with a gesture.
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