2013

Apple unveiled on Monday a new look for Siri that came with new voice options, actions, and some hot integration, including in-car options and music streaming.

The voice command technology has new voices, female and male -- also available in French and German. Siri's display includes a new look that shows a sound wave at the bottom while its detecting a user's voice and full-screen results.

Users can instruct Siri to complete functions like "turn off my Bluetooth," or "increase my brightness," according to software VP Eddy Cue. The digital assistant also has a … Read more

Google Docs has been around for a while, but later this year, Apple will give its iWork suite of apps the iCloud treatment, letting you create, access, and edit Pages, Numbers, and Keynote documents from a Web browser on a Mac or Windows PC. Apple calls it iWork for iCloud.

Naturally, Apple would prefer if you used its Safari Web browser to access your cloud-based iWork content, but you'll also be able to use Microsoft's Internet Explorer and Google's Chrome browsers (Apple says iCloud for iWork is optimized for those browsers).

Apple is releasing a developer beta … Read more

As was widely speculated, at WWDC 2013 today Apple unveiled iTunes Radio, its entry into the already-crowded streaming-music field.

Like the popular streaming-music service Pandora, iTunes Radio lets you create personalized radio stations based on one or more artists, albums, songs, or genres of your choice. This makes it an attractive alternative to your iTunes library if you're looking to discover new music. And if you are already using iTunes or the built-in Music app on iOS as your media player of choice, then jumping onto iTunes Radio is almost a no-brainer, since it will come built into these … Read more

While Apple's updates to Safari for OS X Mavericks are more about keeping up with the Joneses, Safari for iOS 7 looks to forge new ground by making the browser look and feel more like the operating system.

Safari for iOS 7 features a nearly chrome-less interface ("chrome" refers to the visible interface portions of software), a new tab view, fewer restrictions on tabs, and iCloud Keychain integration, Apple announced at its Worldwide Developers Conference on Monday.

By default, the iOS 7 Safari is set to what looks like full-screen mode. With the browser's chrome mostly … Read more

After more than a year of negotiations with the music labels and publishers, Apple Monday unveiled its much-talked about free, streaming radio service -- called iTunes Radio -- at WWDC in San Francisco.

"It is the best music player we have ever done," said Apple iTunes chief Eddy Cue, who showed off the product.

Apple's product aims most squarely at Pandora, which has more than 70 million active monthly listeners but is available only in the U.S., Australia, and New Zealand. iTunes Radio will launch in the U.S. this Fall, but Cue said it will roll out in other countries soon after. … Read more

Apple has dramatically revamped the look and feel of the iOS user interface for its mobile devices.

"It's the biggest change to iOS since the iPhone," Apple CEO Tim Cook said Monday during the keynote event at the Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco, where the company introduced the new version of the software that runs its iPhones and iPads.

For the latest version of iOS, called iOS 7, the company revamped the user interface, giving it a new "flat" design. What does that mean? For one, Apple has taken the edge off the icons that populate its home screen. And some of the icons now sport a new logo and color.… Read more

SAN FRANCISCO -- To silence a growing chorus of discontent against an operating system design that's remained more or less static since 2007, Apple needed to go big. With iOS 7, it did. Apple's crisp, newly announced OS update gives the mobile operating system a radical new look and some first-for-Apple features for iPhone and iPad fans, like quick-access system controls, automatic app updates, and Apple's AirDrop file-sharing system.

The visual overhaul, which becomes available this fall, is a clean sweep that changes absolutely everything, from the typography and color schemes to the typical icon and button … Read more

Apple gave its fans a peek at the next Mac Pro desktop computer at WWDC in San Francisco.

The new desktop computer is built for Apple's "most advanced users," according to Apple executive Phil Schiller. It is the fastest and most expandable device.

"Like with the MacBook Air, our engineering team has thought about the technology today and what would be possible with a new Mac desktop," Schiller said.

This is "the future of the pro desktop," he added. Schiller also taunted the company's competitors: "Can't innovate anymore, my ass,&… Read more

SAN FRANCISCO -- Call it the Revenge of the Cube.

Apple has introduced a new version of the high-end Mac Pro desktop at WWDC 2013. The updated model skips Intel's fourth generation of Core i-series processors, previously codenamed Haswell, instead sticking with pro-level Xeon processors. But it's the design of this new Mac Pro that became a conversation topic: instead of a big square box, the new Pro is a shiny black cylinder that looks like it fell off the engine of a starship.

Steve Jobs had a similar dream years ago in the G4 Cube, a famously … Read more