Last week, I wrote up a list of what mobile operating systems I’m considering to replace my current one. My end result was Android, as its the most webOS-like solution for now. I noted that today’s World Wide Developer Conference (WWDC) might change things vis-à-vis iOS and boy, did it. Just not in the way I thought.
The first half of today’s keynote event focused on Apple’s new notebooks, all available today. The Macbook pro and Macbook Air both got jumped-up specifications and, in a rare event for Apple, both went down by $100 in price. Apple also introduced the crazy-expensive Next Gen Macbook Pro, a thin, powerful laptop complete with a Retina Display. Not for the faint of wallet, the new hotness starts at $2,200. Think of it as a Macbook Air Pro, and try to remember how overpriced the Macbook Air was at first too. There are also some serious downers with the MacBook Air Pro in the form of no user upgradable RAM or Ethernet jack.
Not that we care. We still want one.
What does any of this hardware nonsense have to do with mobile OSes or Android? Not too much. That was the second part of the keynote, software. MacOS 10.8, a.k.a. Mountain Lion, is still on track for July. I admit to not being as happy as I thought I would be with Lion (10.7), but I am cautiously optimistic about Mountain Lion. Where the current OS dipped their toes in the water of cloud connectivity, ML embraces it. For a $20, you can upgrade all of your machines running 10.6 (Snow Leopard) and up. Your account will be synced over the cloud, and you can keep all your machines up to date. Indeed, a new feature called PowerNap will make sure you stay up to date even when your machines are asleep. You can even see what tabs are open across your devices.
Now, you can know for sure just what your son is looking at in his room at 1 AM.
The integration and basing behind a username reminds me of webOS’s Synergy, but taken to the next level. Indeed, iOS continues the same trend with iOS 6, coming this fall. Siri is even more tightly integrated, as is Facebook. As predicted, Apple has announced its own map solution, complete with turn-by-turn GPS. Some automakers are testing a Siri button, which means you can have your iPhone replace your dedicated GPS — much like many have already done with their Android device. Photstreams are now sharable, which is cool, and Facetime can be used over cellular networks instead of just WiFi. Apple has also added “reject call with a text” functionality and a simple Do Not Disturb mode, something my Palm Treo has before the iPhone ever existed. I wasn’t expecting it to take so long for them to add this basic functionality.
My ancient tech mocks you!
I’m still planning on getting an Android device, simply because Apple didn’t introduce new hardware and I’ll be damned if I use a device without 4G. However, the tight integration of mobile and desktop OS, as well as the strong use of the cloud infrastructure has me intrigued. My next smartphone may not be an iPhone, but maybe the one after that. I’m dying to install iOS 6 on my wife’s iPad, and if my existing Macs won’t run Mountain Lion, I actually intend to go out and buy one.
But not one of those new Macbook Pros. I’m not made of money.
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