Daryl Baxter.

WWDC: Predictions.

Under a day to go before the main event, and everything thats been seen on the web, i thought i’d do a list of what i’m expecting/hoping to see:

iOS 6

• Maps
• Facebook Integration
• Unified Bar on Safari, as to how it looks on Mountain Lion
• Baidu Search
• Widgets
• Siri API
• Siri Maps outside USA
• Weather Icon changes to location of the phone at last. If you’re in Lincoln, it shows Rain. If in Spain, a Sun.
• Communication between apps. No filesystem, but just better app communication.
• Maybe, a refreshed UI throughout.

From what I’ve seen previously, the features are mostly common sense, i.e, what is the next update that people actually want? When Mountain Lion was announced, iOS 6 features are probably being shown on the 10.8 section on the Apple site. The ‘Do Not Disturb’ notification option perhaps, and more powerful Mail options?

Mountain Lion

• Siri Dictation
• Release Date & Price

Apple TV

• Regarding the new Apple TV OS, there was a new UI only in March, it would be completely nonsensical to me. So i think, perhaps the UI will remain, but an additional option will appear in an update for ‘Apps’.

The next post will be how right or wrong i was based on this :)

Looking forward to 6PM tomorrow!

Tim Cook at the D10 Conference.

As i’m having trouble sleeping in this mad heatwave, I stayed up for the 2AM Interview between Tim Cook at D10.

This is a conference that is now in its 10th year, it’s a great 3 days of interviews from all walks of technological life. Bill Gates and Steve Jobs had a joint interview a few years ago which was a brilliant highlight which should be seen on YouTube as soon as.

The above are only highlights of an hour show, but it gives you a great idea of it.

A website analysed what the interview gave, especially the bits of Facebook and ‘other’ Apple TV.

All in all it was enthralling and really shows that he knows that after nearly 14 years of being at Apple there won’t be any ‘massive’ changes undertaken unlike how the Forbes article from last week gave that impression.

And i’m getting the feeling this year’s WWDC is going to have a fair few surprises that will be much more than iOS 6 and Lion.

Source.

‘I don’t know what AirPlay is’

So i come across a report..

Glenn A. Britt, the company’s chief executive, said in a group interview on Friday that the challenge for digital video was that there was no simple way to get Internet-based video onto the television screen. He wasn’t familiar with AirPlay.

“I’m not sure I know what AirPlay is,” he said, though he noted that he was an enthusiastic Apple customer.

Source.

Now, you might be expecting to read the following of ‘Surely he must know, it’s advertised on Apple’s website on every page that shows an iOS Device, and Mountain Lion’.

But i’m not.

Instead, i think that it’s a misconception that every feature that Apple does, everyone knows about. And a feature like this, is one that could sneak upon you, and slap you across the face, and you only realised what’s happened from the stinging pain on your face.

Now Airplay allows an app to be streamed to an Apple TV from any iOS device, and soon to be a Mac from Mountain Lion.

If you are a licence fee payer, you can stream BBC iPlayer from your iPhone 4S or iPad to your Apple TV, and you’ve got Eastenders playing on your widescreen HDTV.

In America, ‘Hulu’ is the one of the most popular catch-up services going, mainly because it shows more than one TV Network of shows, so you can watch The Office from NBC, or switch to watching the finale of Desperate Housewives from ABC.

So when a Chief Executive of a major TV cable company says he doesn’t know what Airplay is, you can be sure that the potential of what this feature can do will slap him in the face soon enough.