A new Apple Mac Pro on display at the conference.Apple Inc unveiled a music streaming service called iTunes Radio and new mobile software, in the biggest redesign of its operating system since the original iPhone was introduced in 2007.
The new software, designated iOS 7 and announced at Apple’s annual developers’ conference in San Francisco, sports a streamlined design, employs translucency and a fresh palette of colours, and features animation in apps.
Apple’s iTunes Radio, one of the more highly anticipated features of the new iOS 7, comes free, supported by ads across many devices including iPhones, iPads and the Apple TV.
Much like rival Pandora Media Inc’s internet radio, the service – which launches in autumn, months after Google Inc.’s All Access on-demand competitor debuted – allows listeners to customise their own radio stations by genre, skip songs multiple times, or just tune in to some 200 featured stations.
Apple has been talking to record companies for the past year in hopes of getting the service off the ground, seen as crucial to retaining users as music consumption grows alongside smartphone use. It will also come free of ads for customers who subscribe to Match, another Apple music service.
Apple has been talking to record companies for the past year in hopes of getting the service off the ground
Executives also showed off a new line of Macbook Air computers. They gave a sneak peek at a cylindrical Mac Pro desktop, in a rare preview of upcoming hardware. And, in a continuation of efforts over the past year to wean itself off arch-rival Google’s services such as maps, Apple’s updated Siri voice software on the iPhone will turn to Microsoft Corp.’s less-popular Bing as its default in-app search engine.
Previously, Siri handled web search queries by asking users if they would like to access Google, which dominates Internet searches. With iOS 7 however, users can still choose to ask specifically for Google results.
The latest Macs will run a new computer operating system christened OSX Mavericks – named after a famous California surfing spot and a departure from Apple’s penchant for naming software after big cats like Mountain Lion.
The real makeover was reserved for iOS 7, a smartphone and tablet platform overhauled by resident creative honcho, Jonathan Ive. It comes with a new edge-to-edge look that uses translucency to highlight underlying content, new typefaces, and new icons. Apple plans to release iOS 7 in autumn.
It will support multitasking for all apps.
The conference, whose tickets sold out in just over a minute after they went on sale in April, comes as Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd solidified its lead in the smartphone market in the first quarter with a 33 per cent share followed by Apple with 18 per cent, according to market research firm IDC.