Monday was the launch of Apple’s World Wide Developer Conference (WWDC) and as usual, lots of exciting things were announced during the key note speeches.  I sat down with my friends over at WBIR to discuss the new iOS 6 operating system and the features that users can expect. 

    The top two things that caught my attention were the new maps app and the fact that Facetime is available over cell connection instead of needing WiFi.  The maps app was particularly interesting to me from the perspective of the amount of effort and cash it took for Apple to develop this (re: Airplanes and helicopters) application that seems so menial.  One of the common gripes with the iPhone though is that navigation and the maps app left some to be desired, so clearly Apple felt like it needed to take matters into its own hands.  New with this version of the application are turn-by-turn audible directions / navigation and Siri integration (Siri can now launch it, and other apps).  For Facetime, it is interesting that Apple has not included this.  In the past, you would need to jailbreak your devices to accomplish this, so it would at least appear that they recognized this as a short coming and have now added it in to accommodate customer desires.  As a side note though, I’d be paying a little closer attention to your data usage to make sure you don’t accidentally send your bill through the roof!

   Of the items announced at WWDC, I was personally most interested in the changes to the Macbook lineup.  The retina screen on the Macbook Pro is going to be amazing.  I anticipate talking about these changes in an upcoming segment, so stay tuned.  For now, check out my comments on the 10 News at 5 show below.

 

–Dan Thompson