OS X Mountain Lion Is Packed With New Features

WWDC 2012 had both its excitements and its disappointments. To the dismay of a lot of us, Apple’s glorious Retina Displays will not be included throughout their entire laptop lineup, but on the bright side, we have an entirely new addition: the new MacBook Pro with Retina Display. With all of its upgraded hardware, Apple just had to make it even better with improved software as well. OS X Mountain Lion will be the next big thing for Apple as it plans to improve the current OS X and include new features as well.

The basic structure and ideas for Mountain Lion seems to mirror a lot of what iOS already has to offer, creating an overall mobile experience, loaded with simple gestures and finger movements. Notifications will now alert you of incoming messages, emails, reminders and much more. An easy swipe to the right on your trackpad will bring it right up. As Apple has always strived for simplicity and ease of use, Mountain Lion is no exception. By incorporating Facebook integration, we can now post updates and statuses on Facebook directly from our Mac, without having to go back to your Facebook page.

iMessage was released to the public months back as a beta, and rightfully so. The numerous bugs and issues it had made it practically useless. With Mountain Lion, iMessage will do what it was created to do: send messages. Exactly like iMessages on your iPhone, this app will send messages to any other Apple product, as long as there is WiFi. This makes communicating with your friends so much easier as you will no longer have to stop what you’re doing on your Mac and reply with your iPhone. To make things even easier, with the help of the Cloud, all of your messages will stay updated throughout all your devices.

An interesting feature that Mountain Lion will have is called Power Nap, which allows your Mac to quietly update itself without leaving sleep mode. This seems rather convenient as it prevents you from missing an important software update or Time Machine back-up. Lastly, Dictation might be a solution to a keyboard-free experience. Similar to Siri, it translates what you say into text.

OS X Mountain Lion will be available to all users through the Mac App Store in July for only $19.99. All of these features and more can be found on Apple’s website. 

Next-Generation MacBook Pro With Retina Display Announced

After months of rumors and speculations, Apple has announced the next-generation MacBook Pro with Retina display that is going to accompany Apple's original MacBook Pro lineup which has only seen spec bumps, respectively. It packs a 15-inch Retina Display that boasts deeper blacks, wider viewing angles and reduced glare with a whopping 2880x1800 resolution with 220 ppi and a thinner aluminum unibody casing at 0.71 inched thick whilst losing the optical drive just as we predicted, and weighing at 4.46 pounds. This is a redesigned 15-inch MacBook Pro that shares the same non-user upgradebale hardware as the MacBook Air lineup, only that it offers Pro powerful performance at a thinner form factor. 

Apple's next-generation Retina MacBook Pro features a quad-core Intel i5 or i7 Ivy Bridge processor, up to 16GB of RAM, and Nvidia Kepler GeForce GT 650m GPU with 1GB of VRAM. Storage is SSD-exclusive with a 256GB SSD on the entry-level with an option to go all the way up to a 768GB SSD. Battery life is rated to 7 hours, and ports include an SD card slot, HDMI, USB 3, two Thunderbolt ports, and a headphone jack. 

The new Retina MacBook Pro comes with Bluetooth 4.0, a redesigned slimmer MagSafe 2 power connector, backlit keyboard and a new ultra quite fan. Unfortunately, we're not getting a larger Multi-Touch glass trackpad this time around. Apple has also announced a FireWire 800 and Ethernet Thunderbolt adapters that will make good use of the new MacBook Pro's two Thunderbolt ports.

The entry-level Retina MacBook Pro with a 256GB SSD, 8GB of RAM and a 2.3GHz quad-core Intel i7 processor and packing the world's highest resolution display will set you back $2,199. They're shipping today.

The Redesigned 2012 MacBook Pro: WWDC Predictions

WWDC 2012 is only a day away, and we're expecting some great new things to come out of Apple. Amongst them is a newly redesigned line of MacBook Pros. Other than the obvious faster, better internal hardware specs including a Retina display, the unibody MacBook Pro is in desperate need of renovation after all of these years with only minor specs bumps. Firstly we think it's most likely that we will see a thinner unibody MacBook Pro tomorrow, but contrary to popular speculations it will not share the same slanted form factor as the MacBook Air, but instead it will be have a shaved body and thinner lid design; possibly even losing the optical drive as a result. 

A second major change in the purported new redesigned MacBook Pro we think will be a slightly wider glass trackpad making it the largest, most spacious trackpad ever to be put on a laptop. A larger trackpad area will let users spend less time repeating a swipe in order to scroll across the Retina display's massive resolution.

Lastly, our wishful thinking includes a black aluminum MacBook Pro option and new accessories like a backlit wireless Bluetooth keyboard with a black key layout. What ever WWDC 2012 holds, we will cover all the juicy news!

iOS 6 Confirmed For WWDC 2012

A new banner went up today at Moscone West ahead of Apple's June 11 WWDC event confirming iOS 6 along with a spanking new logo. We're expecting a major design overhaul and a bunch of new features, but we will know exactly come June 11.

Apple WWDC 2012 Announced, Starts June 11

It's the time of the year again where Apple holds its annual WWDC developer conference in San Franscisco, CA starting on June 11. Apple plans to talk about Mountain Lion, iOS with more than 100 technical sessions lead by Apple engineers covering a wide range of technology-specific topics to help developers with integrating the latest iOS and OS X technologies.

• 100 hands-on labs staffed by more than 1,000 Apple engineers providing developers with code-level assistance, insight into optimal development techniques and guidance on how they can make the most of iOS and OS X technologies in their apps;
• the opportunity to connect with thousands of fellow iOS and OS X developers from around the world—last year more than 60 countries were represented;
• engaging and inspirational lunchtime sessions with leading minds and influencers from the worlds of technology, science and entertainment; and
• Apple Design Awards which recognize iPhone®, iPad® and Mac® apps that demonstrate technical excellence, innovation and outstanding design.

We have a great WWDC planned this year and can’t wait to share the latest news about iOS and OS X Mountain Lion with developers,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing. “The iOS platform has created an entirely new industry with fantastic opportunities for developers across the country and around the world.

Besides the usual focus on Apple software, we're also expected Apple to announce some new hardware like ultra-thin MacBook Pros packing Intel's latest Ivy Bridge processors at WWDC 2012 like it has done in the past.