Crappy Catalan Electricity supply delays Mac20Q viewing of the WWDC Keynote
Bloody typical! As you might expect when I wanted to watch the WWDC keynote where Apple would tell us what was coming next with iOS and the next version of the OSX operating system, the electric failed. The electric was off for 2 or 3 hours and there was nothing else for it, but to go and do some gardening. I hate gardening! I had to hear someone on Twitter suggest to me that I could watch the keynote on my phone, him knowing that now I’m using the Samsung Galaxy S3. I expect he thought that it would be kind of sacrilegious to do something like that. I dare say it amused him too.
Is it boring to be flat?
We all expected that the new version of iOS would be as flat as a pancake. And true to form Johnny Ive has brought the flat look to the iphone and ipad operating system. There are times when I really don’t like the minimalism that you get from modern designers. Nothing wrong with three dimensional and colourful icons if it is done properly.
A lick of paint or something with more substance?
Quite often what happens when designers get their hands on things, is that they get more concerned with the look of things rather than how it works. There is the old phrase which comes from Bauhaus Germany about 1933 – Form follows function. Sometimes I wonder though if the designers actually use the tools within an operating system to actually to do some work for themselves. I am more interested in how the functionality works, such as how you put text into a document, how one application will work with another application and make things easier for us to do what we want to do! It really has to be more than just looking pretty.
Copy and steal!
Now that I have been using Android for over a week, I can say that there are some good things within the Android operating system. I have already noticed that there are one or two things that look suspiciously Android like in the new iOS operating system, iOS7. I will get specific about which features look like they have been taken from Android after I have had a proper chance to watch the keynote speech later on today.
Tiny jet engine or a trash can?
As you might expect from Apple the new Mac Pro is an amazing looking piece of design work! There are quite a number of people that have commented on its looks, saying that it looks more like a trash can with maybe an ashtray on the top. I have been more generous to think about this new Mac Pro lying on its side and perhaps looking like a jet engine. For sure, it is not going to be too long before someone creates decal,s which can be used to make it look like R2D2. The new computer looks like it is going to be incredibly fast and incredibly expensive. I couldn’t afford one, probably don’t need one, but sure as hell I want one!
What sort of cat is called a Mavericks?
Mavericks, is the title of the next version of mac OSX and it seems to have broken away from the feline theme. Judging by what I have read so far on the Apple website, the next version is heavily influenced by what a mobile computer needs. It was expected that there would be more emphasis on making the two operating systems work closer together and look similar too. There has been a lot of emphasis on extending the battery usage of a laptop computer by optimising the operating system. There are claims that it will be possible to get 12 hours of battery life out of the new Mac Book Air computers that were also announced at WWDC.
Now to watch the video of the Keynote proper
I have tried watching it, the bandwidth is sucking badly. Starting to get the gist of the new stuff though.Surprised there is no further addition to Mac OSX of voice control in a Siri style. Safari has had some love and iWork has gone to the Cloud. I wonder how that fits in with the standard versions of the iWork suite.Could be very useful for someone that has to use a Windows computer at work and needs to get access to a Pages, Numbers or a Keynote document. I know my wife could make use of such a function. Here in Spain they just look at Macs and think expensive. If you do a costing taking everything into consideration I find Macs to be great value personally.
