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Ivan Petkov

In 2007, Apple revolutionised the way we perceive and interact with mobile technology, since they put the ordinary user in the centre, instead of business functionalities that dominated high-end phones before the advent of the iPhone. And iPad made the entire PC industry rethink the concept of "personal computer." In 2013, Apple is facing many new challenges. The company must compensate for the gaffe with Apple Maps, win the shaken confidence of its investors who gave the introduction of iPad Mini cold reception, and show consumers that its products are still based on innovations. Apple needed a new image. Therefore, everyone was looking forward to the opening of the annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) that took place on 10-14 June 2013. At it, the company traditionally presents many new products and outlines its development plan for the following year.

Expectations were incandescent because of the presentation of iOS 7 – the mobile operating system that powers the iPhone and the appearance of which has not been changed since 2007, when the smartphone was introduced for the first time. At the opening, Tim Cook and his company revealed a lot of news: the new Mac OS X named Mavericks, Mac Pro, the new MacBook Air laptops and more...

Mac OS X Mavericks

At the beginning of the WWDC, Apple announced that the number of Mac users is currently 72 million, which is a two-fold increase compared to 5 years ago. Tim Cook also emphasised the company’s 15% annual growth in the computing sector, compared to the PC market, which has grown by only 3%. 33% of Mac users now have the Mountain Lion version.

Following a period of more than a year when Apple named their new versions of Mac OS X after cats (Leopard, Lion, Mountain Lion, etc.), now the company is reorienting itself to cities in California. And Mavericks is the first of the new series. The new desktop operating system features:

• a significantly optimised battery life;

• Finder tabs;

• an option to add tags to the names of files, so that they are easier for finding;

• the Mavericks also provides a built-in option for the use of multiple monitors. In addition, televisions that are connected via AirPlay can work as additional screens.

Additional optimisations have also been made in terms of the reduction of the load on the processor and power consumption, such as memory compression and App Nap for redirection of resources to other processes. Apple has added an option for responding to notifications that can be displayed on the screen even when the computer is locked. There are also changes in the interface of the calendar, which is no longer decorated with leather texture and has an option for the display of events from Facebook, as well as weather information. iBooks is another mobile application that has reached company’s computers.

A new Safari browser

The web browser Apple Safari will feature a new Home screen with top visited sites, as well as a new tool which will enable users to continue scrolling further from the end of a site’s article to the next one. As regards performance, the next Safari will offer enhanced features and reduced energy consumption.

MacBook Air

At the WWDC 2013, Apple announced that it will renew the whole series of ultra-thin laptops MacBook Air, which are now equipped with the latest Intel processors from the Haswell series. This has resulted in significant improvements in terms of energy consumption and devices now provide all-day computing per charge - according to Apple, the 11.6" version will work for 9 hours, and the 13.3" version - 12 hours per charge.

In addition, laptops now feature a 40% faster graphics system and compatibility with the new wireless Wi-Fi 802.11ac standard. Along with this, the company will also launch new AirPort routers that are compatible with it. These new laptops are on sale as of today at prices starting at 999 and 1,099 dollars for 11.6" and 13.3" models. The lack of Retina display is the only disappointment for fans of ultra-portable laptops.

Mac Pro

Among other things, the company’s new computer mostly impresses with its appearance. It is a 25 cm high black cylinder with a diameter of 16.8 cm. Its housing is made of special aluminium, which emphasises its black colour, and its innovative design is absolutely memorable.

The model has a 12-core 256-bit Xeon processor with an E5 chipset, two powerful AMD FirePro graphics accelerators with 6 GB of memory. Thus, the machine can be connected to up to three monitors with 4K resolution.

The powerful Mac Pro works with DDR3 RAM running at 1,866MHz and has a special Thunderbolt 2 interface that allows transfer of up to 20 Gbit/s, and the housing of the model provides 6 such ports, in addition to four USB 3.0 ports, two LAN input jacks, HDMI 1.4 and a 3.5 mm audio jack. Furthermore, the model also features Wi-Fi 802.11ac and Bluetooth 4.0 for wireless connectivity.