Archive for the ‘Software’ Category

Company byte: Porsche Design

Tuesday, July 12th, 2011

Porsche Design is a luxury brand with a special focus on products that are technically inspired. The brand Porsche Design was founded in 1972 in Stuttgart-Germany by Professor Ferdinand Alexander Porsche, designer of the Porsche 911 sports car.

Porsche Design is a luxury brand with a special focus on products that are technically inspiredThe product portfolio includes watches, sunglasses, luggage, electronic products, a line of fragrances for men as well as a sport and fashion collection.

Product portfolio includes the P'9981 smartphone, watches, sunglasses, luggage, electronic products, a line of fragrances for men as well as a sport and fashion collection(Update: Porsche Design has launched the P’9981 smartphone from BlackBerry.)

Porsche Design products try to embody functionality, timelessness and purist design. They impress by the technical innovations they incorporate.

All products of the brand are designed at the Porsche Design Studio in Zell am See, Austria, and are sold worldwide in the brand’s own stores, in franchise stores, shop-in-shops, quality department stores and exclusive retailers.

Company byte: Research In Motion

Monday, July 11th, 2011

Research In Motion Limited (RIM) is a Canadian multinational  telecommunications company that makes the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet computer, as well as BlackBerry smartphones.

Update (30 January, 2013):

Along with the launch of the new BlackBerry 10 platform, President & CEO Thorsten Heins has announced that the company will change its name from Research In Motion to BlackBerry.

Research In Motion, maker of BlackBerry smartphones and the PlayBook tabletRIM was founded in 1984 by Mike Lazaridis, who currently serves as its co-CEO along with Jim Balsillie.

The company designs, manufactures and markets wireless solutions for the worldwide mobile communications market. The introduction of the BlackBerry solution in 1999 provides platforms and solutions for access to information, including e-mail, voice, instant messaging, short message service (SMS), Internet and intranet-based applications and browsing.

Headquartered in Waterloo, Ontario in Canada, RIM operates offices in North America, Europe, Asia Pacific and Latin America. RIM is listed on the NASDAQ Stock Market (NASDAQ: RIMM) and the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX: RIM).

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Behind-the-scenes story about Microsoft Kinect for Xbox 360

Saturday, July 9th, 2011

Dr Jamie Shotton had joined the Machine Learning & Perception group at Microsoft Research Cambridge (MSRC) in June 2008 as a post-doc for a few months when he was roped in by the Xbox product group to help launch the product by Christmas 2010.

He shared the experience with 4th year undergraduate Engineering students at the University of Cambridge Engineering Department earlier this year.

The body was divided into 31 different body parts to be recognised and reconstituted into a human pose.

The body was divided into 31 different body parts to be recognised and reconstituted into a human pose.

I was browsing through the university’s newsletter last week when I came upon this interesting story about some of the developmental challenges of the Microsoft Kinect for Xbox 360 and how they were surmounted. You can read the full original article here. Images used in this posting are from the original article.

The Kinect for Xbox 360 is a motion sensing input device for the Xbox 360 game console. Based around a webcam-style add-on accessory for the Xbox 360 console, it allows users to control and interact with the Xbox 360 without the need to touch or hold a game controller such as a joystick – depending instead on bodily gestures and spoken commands.

Dr Jamie Shotton from the Cambridge research laboratory in the UK

Dr Jamie Shotton from the Cambridge research laboratory in the UK.

Shotton now works for Microsoft at their Cambridge research laboratory in the UK. He had completed his PhD research in computer vision from 2003 to 2007. His initial research at the MSRC was on automatic visual object recognition – teaching computers how to recognise different types of objects in photographs such as cars, sheep and trees.

“Little did I know at that point how quickly I would get pulled into the frenzy of research and development around Kinect, and how this blue-skies research could be applied to such a practical problem,” Shotton recalled.

Enabling tools

At the point that Shotton was invited, Microsoft had already developed a few enabling tools.

Shotton's research into automatic visual object recognition trained computers to recognise different objects in photographs.
Shotton's research into automatic visual object recognition trained computers to recognise different objects in photographs.
Shotton's research into automatic visual object recognition trained computers to recognise different objects in photographs.
Shotton's research into automatic visual object recognition trained computers to recognise different objects in photographs.

Shotton's research into automatic visual object recognition trained computers to recognise different objects in photographs.

Depth-sensing camera. The new Kinect camera worked at 320×240 pixels and 30 frames per second versus other depth cameras at very low resolutions of 10×10 pixels.  “You could even make out the nose and eyes on your face,” “Shotton observed. The better depth accuracy helped with human pose estimation by eliminating objects in the background since they were further away. The colour and texture of clothing, skin and hair could also be normalised away. The depth camera was “active”, illuminating the subject with its own structured dot pattern of infra-red light so that the camera worked even in the dark.

Prototype human tracking algorithm.  The algorithm constantly compares its predictions of the body’s movements with the actual movements and then makes adjustments to improve the accuracy of its predictions.

Showstoppers

The tracking algorithm suffered from three limitations. First, the subject had to stand in a T-pose for the algorithm to lock it in initially. Second, if the subject moved too erratically and therefore unpredictably, the algorithm would lose track and would not be able to recover until the subject returned to the T-pose for recalibration. This could happen as often as every 5-10 seconds. Finally, the algorithm only worked with the limited number of body sizes and shapes that it had been trained with. Shotton’s mission was to overcome these showstoppers.

Overcoming the limitations

To allow the algorithm to recognise a subject and its posture without having to start from a T-pose, Shotton leveraged a fellow researcher’s (Dr Stenger) technique called “chamfer matching”: the subject’s image was compared with a training database of body images and once the closest match was selected, the 3D data for that match could then be utilised as the human pose for the subject.

However, there was an astronomical number of human poses based on the different combinations of position and orientation of body parts such as the arms, legs, knees and ankles. Shotton divided up the body into 31 parts so that each of the parts could be matched independently before building up the skeleton and body pose from the position of these parts. This was where Shotton’s PhD work on object recognition came in handy.

Although this substantially reduced the size of the image database needed to train the algorithm, the training database was still huge. The team had recorded hours of footage at a motion capture studio with several actors doing “gaming” moves such as dancing, running, fighting and driving.

The millions of training images would have taken months to train the algorithm. The team got help from colleagues at Microsoft Research in Silicon Valley who had developed an engine called “Dryad” for efficient and reliable distributed computation. Using a cluster of 100 powerful computers, the training time was reduced to less than a day.

Read the details of Shotton’s experience in the full original article here.

Travel: Asus Eee Pad Transformer in Germany

Tuesday, July 5th, 2011

We had the chance to bring the freshly launched 10.1-inch Asus tablet with us to Germany and the Czech Republic.

It proved to be the favourite gadget for the kids, and a very useful gadget for the adults.

The kids on the Asus Eee Pad Transformer whilst taking a break from sight-seeing.

The kids on the Asus Eee Pad Transformer whilst taking a break from sight-seeing.

The Asus Eee Pad Transformer TF101 was launched in Singapore at the end of April. Here’s the nifty little device in action along the castle route from Frankfurt in Germany to Prague in the Czech Republic and back.

Using an Asus EeePad Transformer tablet instead of paper to do museum sketches

Using an Asus EeePad Transformer tablet instead of paper to do museum sketches

Erin loves visiting museums, and usually she sketches some of the exhibits that interests her on a paper notepad. This time, she was delighted to use the sketching app (Kids Doodle – Movie Kids Paint by Bejoy Mobile) on the Andoid tablet to do her sketches – in colour.

The app was in colour and could even reproduce the neon lighting effect of this exhibit!

The app was in colour and could even reproduce the neon lighting effect of this exhibit!

How do you keep the kids occupied while waiting for tea to arrive? You guessed it, let them at the tablet. Erin used it to write her journal of what she’d seen while Justin plays the games on it.

Erin dressing up her electronic doll in a girly app (Maidens Avatar Creator by Magicsoft) while waiting for tea to be served.

Erin dressing up her electronic doll in a girly app (Maidens Avatar Creator by Magicsoft) while waiting for tea to be served.

We don’t allow games and books during meals, so waiting for the meal to arrive is often the time to catch a breather and relax.

Afternoon tea at the Cafe in the cellar of Heidelberg Castle.

Afternoon tea at the Cafe in the cellar of Heidelberg Castle.

They love those quiz apps from the Android Market.

Anyone for maths quiz before pizza and kebab lunch at Weinheim?

Anyone for maths quiz before pizza and kebab lunch at Weinheim?

As I said mealtimes are reserved for relishing the food, conversation and company.

Pizza and kebab anyone?

Pizza and kebab anyone?

At the Frankfurt Zoo, Erin used the camera on the tablet to snap photos and record videos, which she then uploaded to the Internet, back at the hotel, to share with her friends. We also used it to surf the net check maps and to read up on the sights we planned to visit the next day.

The Frankfurt Zoo has a fabulous collection of primates.

The Frankfurt Zoo has a fabulous collection of primates.

Back at the hotel, the kids also used the tablet to read ebooks and worksheets in pdf format. It was a long vacation and we didn’t want the kids to totally lay off homework.

Almost every town we visited in Germany had an H&M. But the clothes just didn't suit us and we fell back on brands like Espirit and Benetton.

Almost every town we visited in Germany had an H&M. But the clothes just didn't suit us and we fell back on brands like Espirit and Benetton.

And finally shopping. No prizes for guessing how the Justin occupied himself while the rest of the family was busy shopping away.

Microsoft to release web-based Office to stave off Google

Tuesday, June 28th, 2011

Microsoft is offering for the first time a full Internet-based version of Office 2010, in an attempt to counter Google’s Apps for Business – the latter’s equivalent office productivity software online.

Office 365 - Full Microsoft Office on the cloud.Available today in 40 markets, the cloud-based Office 365 suite of programs will cost small businesses $6 per user per month for software that includes Office Web Apps and Exchange e-mail software. For an additional $12 a month, companies can add a full version of Office, including Word and Excel programs, reports Dina Bass in Seattle for Bloomberg. The full online version of Office is a follow-up to last year’s release of the more basic Office Web Apps.

Google charges companies an annual fee $50 per user for its office-productivity software – Apps for Business, and offers a free version for consumers.

Both Microsoft and Google are going after users who want to work on applications hosted on the Internet, rather than software installed on a local hard drive.

Microsoft claims that it has almost 50 million users for its consumer version of Office Web Apps, which are scaled-down versions of the Office applications. Google claims 30 million active users for it Google Apps. This includes some 3 million corporations and other organizations that use its Apps business software.

Work on your documents anytime, anywhere. Microsoft Office 365.

Work on your documents anytime, anywhere. Microsoft Office 365.

This update represents the first time Microsoft will sell a full version of Office through an Internet-based cloud service, and also marks the first time companies can license the programs on a per-user, per-month basis, said Wes Miller, an analyst at Directions on Microsoft in Kirkland, Washington.

For larger businesses, $2 is enough for just basic e-mail, whereas $24 a month will get a full copy of Office and other programs like social networking and videoconferencing. These software services are an update to an earlier product called Business Productivity Online Suite, or BPOS.

“Microsoft released Office 2010 a year ago, and said earlier this month that it’s being adopted by business customers five times faster than the previous version. Sales in the business division, which is mainly revenue from Office, rose to $5.27 billion last quarter, exceeding the $4.9 billion average of analysts’ estimates compiled by Bloomberg. The unit is Microsoft’s biggest in terms of revenue,” reports Bass.

RIM introduces Version 2.1 of the BlackBerry WebWorks SDK for Tablet OS

Friday, June 24th, 2011

This release from Research In Motion (RIM) adds new APIs and application functionality which developers can leverage to create WebWorks applications that deliver a richer, more interactive end-user experience.

The BlackBerry WebWorks SDK is the toolset that supports developers who wish to build applications using standard web technologies for the BlackBerry WebWorks Platform.

BlackBerry WebWorks is RIM’s open source, mobile web platform that enables developers to build standalone, integrated applications for BlackBerry devices.

 

RIM releases Version 2.1 of the BlackBerry WebWorks SDK for Tablet OS

RIM releases Version 2.1 of the BlackBerry WebWorks SDK for Tablet OS

The new APIs enables the following:

More Ways to Monetize

With support for the BlackBerry In App Payment API, developers can now include In App Payment Services as part of their applications. This enables them to sell digital goods directly from their BlackBerry PlayBook applications.

More Ways to Integrate

Developers can now further integrate their applications with the functionality of the Tablet OS for PlayBook and can create new BlackBerry experiences that leverage the PlayBook’s professional grade features. Among the new APIs that enable deeper integration are:

  • Camera API for taking pictures/video taping from within the WebWorks applications with the PlayBook’s powerful dual HD cameras
  • Microphone API which developers can use to activate the capability to record audiowith the PlayBook’s microphone
  • Identity API provides applications with the ability to retrieve information about the BlackBerry PlayBook PIN
  • File IO API which gives developers the possibility to read, copy and write files onto the Tablet OS file system.

More Development Choices

In addition to JavaScript many Tablet OS WebWorks APIs can now be called using AJAX which allows for increased development flexibility for developers who prefer a RESTful or URI implementation.

The new File Properties API, Home Screen Category and App Securities Permissions also enable deeper app integration with the BlackBerry PlayBook and expand development choices.

To help developers with a smooth transition to version 2.1 of the BlackBerry WebWorks SDK, RIM has also updated the API Reference Guide and included an additional mechanism to call some of the WebWorks APIs.

BlackBerry PlayBook launched in Singapore

Wednesday, June 8th, 2011

Singapore is the first country in Asia where RIM has launched the 7″ tablet computer. Orders can be placed starting tomorrow with delivery by the end of June.

Official launch of the RIM BlackBerry PlayBook in Singapore

Official launch of the RIM BlackBerry PlayBook in Singapore. Hosted by Venetta Lopez and The Flying Dutchman.

Singapore is an important market for Research In Motion (RIM)  – one that demands high-quality and high-performance technology. The BlackBerry PlayBook is targeted to please both consumers and business customers.

Gary from RIM showing how compact the 7 inch PlayBook is in the hands

Gary from RIM showing how compact the 7 inch PlayBook is in the hands.

For the moment, RIM is working with carrier partners, distributers and retailers sell authentic cases and accessories throughout the island nation. A list of retailers from which to pre-register and pre-order the tablet can be found here.

Retail prices and promotions will be revealed during the PC Show tomorrow. 3G/4G is still being developed and will likely be launched in the US first.

Come July, the PlayBook will get its own native email, contacts and calendar apps instead of relying completely on a companion BlackBerry smartphone. However, to access enterprise email, coupling with a BlackBerry smartphone will still be necessary for security reasons.

The PlayBook was launched at the Red Dot Museum. That's Irene Ang and Patricia Mok planking on the reception desk.

The PlayBook was launched at the Red Dot Museum. That's Irene Ang and Patricia Mok planking on the reception desk.

The launch event was held at the Red Dot Museum at 7:30 pm today.

Apple previews iOS 5 at WWDC 2011

Tuesday, June 7th, 2011

The new version of iOS for Apple’s iPhone, iPad and iPod touch includes Notification Center, iMessage, Newsstand, Twitter integration among 200 New Features.

iOS 5 for Apple iPhone, iPad and iPod touchAt the Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) 2011 today, Scott Forstall – Apple’s senior vice president of iOS – paraded 10 of the promised 200 new features for the iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch. Although customers will only be receiving the update in autumn, developers will get their version of iOS 5 today.

Main new iOS 5 features

Notification Center, a new way to easily view and manage notifications in one place without interruption.

iMessage, a new messaging service that lets users easily send text messages, photos and videos between all iOS devices.

Newsstand, a new way to purchase and organise a user’s newspaper and magazine subscriptions.

PC Free feature, iOS 5 users can activate and set up their iOS device right out of the box and get software updates over the air with no computer required.

“iOS 5 has some great new features, such as Notification Center, iMessage and Newsstand and we can’t wait to see what our developers do with its 1,500 new APIs,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “Perhaps iOS 5’s paramount feature is that it’s built to seamlessly work with iCloud in the Post PC revolution that Apple is leading.”

The details

With iOS 5 and iCloud, you just enter your Apple ID and password and iCloud will seamlessly integrate with your apps to automatically and wirelessly keep all of your mail, contacts, calendars, photos, apps, books, music and more, up-to-date across all your devices without ever having to connect to a computer.

Notification Center in Apple iOS 5Notification Center provides iOS 5 users with an innovative way to easily access all notifications―text messages, missed calls, calendar alerts, app alerts and more, all in one place, from anywhere in iOS 5. When they arrive, notifications appear briefly at the top of the screen without interrupting what you’re doing. With one swipe you can see all your notifications, and a simple tap will take you right to its app for more detail. Notifications also appear on the lock screen, with the ability to be taken to the notifying app with just one swipe. This is similar to the consolidated notification alert bar and window on newer BlackBerry devices like the Torch.

Newsstand in Apple iOS 5Newsstand is an easy-to-organise bookshelf displaying the covers of all your newspaper and magazine subscriptions in one place. A new section of the App Store features just subscription titles, and allows users to quickly find the most popular newspapers and magazines in the world. For subscribed titles, new issues appear in the Newsstand and are updated automatically in the background so you always have the latest issue and the most recent cover art.

Safari gets new features in iOS 5Safari sees new features for the browser in iOS 5. Safari Reader will strip down poorly formatted pages into an RSS-like view, and provides a link that allows you to e-mail the entire text of a story from within Safari. Reading List lets you save articles to read later and they automatically show up on all your iOS devices. Tabbed browsing is now available on the iPad making it easy to flip between multiple web pages on the tablet.

Twitter integration in Apple iOS 5iOS 5 includes built-in Twitter integration, so you can sign in once and then tweet directly from all your Twitter-enabled apps, including Photos, Camera, Safari, YouTube and Maps with a single tap. New APIs give third party developers the ability to take advantage of the single sign-on capability for their own iOS 5 apps.

iMessage in Apple iOS 5iMessage in iOS 5 brings the functionality of iPhone messaging to all of your iOS devices―iPhone, iPad and iPod touch. Built right into the Messages app, iMessage allows you to easily send text messages, photos, videos or contact information to a person or a group on other iOS 5 devices over Wi-Fi or 3G. iMessages are automatically pushed to all your iOS 5 devices, making it easy to maintain one conversation across your iPhone, iPad and iPod touch. iMessage also features delivery and read receipts, typing indication and secure end-to-end encryption.

The new Reminders app helps you manage your tasks; create and group related tasks together; and set time or location-based reminder alerts, priorities and due dates, so you can be reminded of a task as its deadline approaches, or when you arrive or depart a given location. Reminders can also be viewed in iCal and Outlook and are updated automatically.

New features in the Camera and Photos apps give you instant access to the camera right from the lock screen, and you can use the volume-up button to quickly snap a photo. Optional grid lines help line up your shot and a simple tap locks focus and exposure on one subject. The new Photos app lets you crop, rotate, enhance and remove red-eye, and organise your photos into albums right on your device to share them on the go.

PC Free feature in Apple iOS 5With the new PC Free feature, iOS 5 users can activate and set up their iOS device right out of the box with no computer required, and iOS software updates are delivered over the air and installed with just a tap. Wi-Fi Sync in iOS 5 transfers and backs up your content securely over SSL and wirelessly syncs purchased content from your device to your iTunes library.

Additional new features in iOS 5

Game Center in Apple iOS 5Game Center, now with the ability to add photos to your profile, purchase new games from within the Game Center app and easier ways to find friends and new games.

Mail enhancements which include the ability to compose messages using draggable addresses, and a new formatting bar with bold, italics, underline and indention controls; and

• a system-wide split keyboard to make it even easier to type on your iPad.

Availability

Beta software and SDK for Apple iOS 5The iOS 5 beta software and SDK are available immediately for iOS Developer Program members at developer.apple.com. iOS 5 will be available as a free software update for iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS, iPad 2, iPad, iPod touch (fourth generation) and iPod touch (third generation) this autumn. Some features may not be available on all products.

Steve Jobs unveils Apple’s new iCloud at WWDC 2011

Tuesday, June 7th, 2011

Steve Jobs personally unveiled the much anticipated iCloud during the keynote address at the annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) 2011 in San Francisco.

ON 6 June 10 am PST (local time 7 June, 1 am), Steve Jobs revealed the set of free cloud services that promises to work seamlessly with applications on the iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, Mac or PC to automatically and wirelessly store a user’s content in iCloud and again automatically and wirelessly push it to all of the same user’s devices. When anything changes on any one of the devices, all of the user’s other devices are wirelessly updated almost instantly.

New Apple iCloud services unveiled by Steve Jobs at WWDC 2011“Today it is a real hassle and very frustrating to keep all your information and content up-to-date across all your devices,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “iCloud keeps your important information and content up to date across all your devices. All of this happens automatically and wirelessly, and because it’s integrated into our apps you don’t even need to think about it—it all just works.”

iCloud services

• The former MobileMe services — Contacts, Calendar and Mail — are all completely re-architected and rewritten to work seamlessly with iCloud. Users can share calendars with friends and family, and the ad-free push Mail account is hosted at me.com. A user’s inbox and mailboxes are kept up-to-date across all of the user’s iOS devices and computers.

New Apple iCloud services unveiled by Steve Jobs• The App Store and iBookstore can now download purchased iOS apps and books to all a user’s devices, not just to the device they were purchased on. Simply tapping the iCloud icon will download any apps and books to any iOS device (up to 10 devices) at no additional cost. The App Store and iBookstore now let a user see his/her purchase history.

• iCloud Backup automatically and securely backs up a user’s iOS devices to iCloud daily over Wi-Fi when the iPhone, iPad or iPod touch is charged. Backed up content includes purchased music, apps and books, Camera Roll (photos and videos), device settings and app data. If a user replaces an iOS device, simply entering his Apple ID and password during setup will prompt iCloud to restore the new device.

iCloud Storage• iCloud Storage seamlessly stores all documents created using iCloud Storage APIs, and automatically pushes them to all of a user’s devices. When document is altered on any device, iCloud automatically pushes the changes to all the other devices. Apple’s Pages, Numbers and Keynote apps are already using iCloud Storage. Users get up to 5GB of free storage for their mail, documents and backup — and this does not include the storage for music, apps and books purchased from Apple, as well as the storage required by Photo Stream. Users will be able to buy even more storage, with details announced when iCloud ships this fall.

• iCloud’s Photo Stream service automatically uploads the photos taken or imported on any of your devices and wirelessly pushes them to all of the user’s other devices and computers. Imagine taking a bunch of photos with your iPhone at a birthday party and seeing them ready to share on your iPad when you return home. Photo Stream is built into the photo apps on all iOS devices, iPhoto on Macs, and saved to the Pictures folder on a PC. To save space, the last 1,000 photos are stored on each device so they can be viewed or moved to an album to save forever. Macs and PCs will store all photos from the Photo Stream, since they have more storage. iCloud will store each photo in the cloud for 30 days, which gives users ample time to connect devices to iCloud and automatically download the latest photos from Photo Stream via Wi-Fi.

• iTunes in the Cloud lets you download previously purchased iTunes music to all of your iOS devices at no additional cost, and new music purchases can be downloaded automatically to all your devices. In addition, music not purchased from iTunes can get gain an improvement in quality by using iTunes Match, a service that replaces your music with a 256 kbps AAC DRM-free version if the service can match it to the over 18 million songs in the iTunes Store. It makes the matched music available in minutes (instead of weeks to upload your entire music library), and uploads only the small percentage of unmatched music. iTunes Match will be available this autumn (only in the US) for a US$24.99 annual fee. Apple today is releasing a free beta version of iTunes in the Cloud, without iTunes Match, for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch users running iOS 4.3. iTunes in the Cloud will support all iPhones that iOS 5 supports in autumn.

Apple is ready to ramp iCloud in its three data centers, including the third recently completed in Maiden, NC. Apple has invested over $500 million in its Maiden data center to support the expected customer demand for the free iCloud services.

Pricing & Availability

The iCloud beta and Cloud Storage APIs are available immediately to iOS and Mac Developer Program members at developer.apple.com. iCloud will be available this autumn concurrently with iOS 5. Users can sign up for iCloud for free on an iPhone, iPad or iPod touch running iOS 5 or a Mac running Mac OS X Lion with a valid Apple ID. iCloud includes 5GB of free cloud storage for Mail, Document Storage and Backup. Purchased music, apps, books and Photo Stream do not count against the storage limit. iTunes Match will be available for US$24.99 per year (US only).

iTunes in the Cloud is available today in the US and requires iTunes 10.3 and iOS 4.3.3. Automatic download of apps and books is available today. Using iCloud with a PC requires Windows Vista or Windows 7. Outlook 2010 or 2007 is recommended for accessing contacts and calendars.

Apple reveals Mac OS X Lion at WWDC 2011

Tuesday, June 7th, 2011

Mac OS X Lion has 250 new features and can be downloaded in July from the Mac App Store for US$29.99.
Mac OS X Lion fromApple
The eighth major release of Apple’s desktop operating system will feature more than 250 new features and 3,000 new developer APIs.

Main new features of the Mac OS X Lion
  • New Multi-Touch gestures
  • System-wide support for full screen apps
  • Mission Control, an innovative view of everything running on your Mac
  • The Mac App Store will now be built right into the OS
  • Launchpad, a new home for all your apps
  • A completely redesigned Mail app

“The Mac has outpaced the PC industry every quarter for five years running and with OS X Lion we plan to keep extending our lead,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing, who briefed WWDC 2011 attendees on Lion. “The best version of OS X yet, Lion is packed with innovative features such as new Multi-Touch gestures, system-wide support for full screen apps, and Mission Control for instantly accessing everything running on your Mac.”

Mac OS X Lion from Apple

Mac OS X Lion from Apple

The details

New Multi-Touch gestures and fluid animations built into Lion let you interact directly with content on the screen for a more intuitive way to use your Mac. New gestures include momentum scrolling, tapping or pinching your fingers to zoom in on a web page or image, and swiping left or right to turn a page or switch between full screen apps. All Mac notebooks ship with Multi-Touch trackpads and desktop Macs can use Apple’s Magic Trackpad.

Full screen apps take advantage of the entire display and are perfect for reading email, surfing the web or browsing photos, especially on a MacBook Air or MacBook Pro. With a single click your app fills the display and you can swipe from one window to another, between full screen apps, or back to your Desktop, Dashboard or Spaces® without ever leaving full screen. iWork and iLife apps, as well as Safari, iTunes, Mail, FaceTime and others, all take advantage of Lion’s system-wide support for full screen apps.

Mission Control combines Exposé, full screen apps, Dashboard and Spaces into one unified experience for a bird’s eye view of every app and window running on your Mac. With a simple swipe, your desktop zooms out to display your open windows grouped by app, thumbnails of your full screen apps and your Dashboard, and allows you to instantly navigate anywhere with a tap.

The Mac App Store is now built into Lion and is the place to browse for new Mac apps, buy them with your iTunes account, download and install them. Apps automatically install directly to Launchpad, and with Lion’s release, the Mac App Store will be able to deliver smaller “delta” app updates and new apps that can take advantage of features like In-App Purchase and Push Notifications.

Launchpad makes it easier than ever to find and launch any app. With a single Multi-Touch gesture, all your Mac apps are displayed in a stunning full screen layout. You can organise apps in any order or into folders and swipe through unlimited pages of apps to find the one you want.

Lion includes a completely redesigned Mail app with an elegant widescreen layout. The new Conversations feature groups related messages into an easily scrollable timeline, intelligently hiding repeated text so the conversation is easy to follow, and retaining graphics and attachments as they were originally sent. An powerful new search feature allows you to refine your search and suggests matches by person, subject and label as you type. Mail includes built-in support for Microsoft Exchange 2010.

Additional new features in Lion

Resume, which conveniently brings your apps back exactly how you left them when you restart your Mac or quit and relaunch an app.

Auto Save, which automatically and continuously saves your documents as you work.

Versions, which automatically records the history of your document as you create it, and gives you an easy way to browse, revert and even copy and paste from previous versions.

AirDrop, which finds nearby Macs and automatically sets up a peer-to-peer wireless connection to make transferring files quick and easy.

Pricing & Availability

Mac OS X Lion will be available in July as an upgrade to Mac OS X version 10.6 Snow Leopard from the Mac App Store for US$29.99. At about 4GB, it is the size of an HD movie from the iTunes Store. Mac OS X Lion Server requires Lion and will be available in July from the Mac App Store for US$49.99.

Lion requires an Intel-based Mac with a Core 2 Duo, i3, i5, i7 or Xeon processor and 2GB of RAM. The Lion upgrade can be installed on all your authorised personal Macs.

The Mac OS X Lion Up-To-Date upgrade is available at no additional charge via the Mac App Store to all customers who purchased a qualifying new Mac system from Apple or an Apple Authorised Reseller on or after June 6, 2011. Users must request their Up-To-Date upgrade within 30 days of purchase of their Mac computer. Customers who purchase a qualifying Mac between June 6, 2011 and the date when Lion is available in the Mac App Store will have 30 days from Lion’s official release date to make a request.