MacRumors

At the end of Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference keynote yesterday, CEO Tim Cook introduced a new TV ad focusing on how Apple's products and services enrich lives. The ad's tagline is "Designed by Apple in California", leveraging the statement displayed on every Apple product to make an emotional connection with consumers over the care the company puts into its products.

This is it. This is what matters. The experience of a product. How will it make someone feel? Will it make life better? Does it deserve to exist? We spend a lot of time on a few great things, until every idea we touch enhances each life it touches. You may rarely look at it, but you'll always feel it...this is our signature, and it means everything.

Bloomberg now reports that the ad is part of new campaign being launched by Apple and longtime advertising partner TBWA\Chiat\Day. The company's "Photos Every Day" and "Music Every Day" ads that have been running over the past several months are also part of the campaign.

After years of product-oriented ads that have failed to stem market-share losses to devices built on Google Inc.’s Android software, the campaign will emphasize the quality and reliability of Apple’s ecosystem of products, apps and content, said the people, who asked not to be named because the plans aren’t public. The company previewed one of the ads yesterday. Others will follow in coming months, one of the people said.

According to the report's sources, the summer campaign will not focus on any single product, instead promoting the overall brand and seamless integration of the Apple ecosystem.

Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook reorganized Apple last year to encourage collaboration among units so that Macs, iPhones and iPads work better together, and the planned ads will focus on how the products can simplify users’ lives, hearkening back to Apple’s roots, the people said.

Apple has also launched a new "Designed by Apple" page on its website, offering a longer version of the text from the new commercial, as well as hosting the company's "Intention" video that opened yesterday's keynote.

Sources indicate that TBWA\Chiat\Day has become somewhat frustrated by a lack of clarity from Apple marketing chief Phil Schiller about what direction the company's ads should take. Pressure has reportedly increased following waning consumer enthusiasm for Apple's ads, such as the "Genius" ads that briefly aired last year. The new campaign seeks to refocus Apple's advertising efforts on the company and its connections with users, hopefully bringing a stronger and more cohesive message.

With the introduction of its new Haswell-based MacBook Air models yesterday, Apple revealed a strong emphasis on battery life, pushing the rated operating time from five hours to nine hours on the 11-inch model and from seven hours to 12 hours on the 13-inch model.

Even with the focus on battery life, Apple was also able to bring some minor performance improvements, as seen in Geekbench 2 benchmarking results highlighted by Primate Labs. Overall, the new MacBook Air models performed 3-8% better than their previous-generation counterparts.

With Haswell, Intel's focus was on reducing power usage. Rather than improve performance by 25%, Intel improved performance by 10% while consuming 25% less power.

Apple then went a step further. Apple reduced power usage even more by selecting processors with lower frequencies. In the low-end Air, the frequency has been reduced to 1.3 GHz from 1.7 GHz, while in the high-end Air, the frequency has been reduced to 1.7 GHz from 2.0 GHz.

The new MacBook Air is available now through Apple's online store, although the company recommends waiting until tomorrow before trying to obtain one at any of its retail stores. Pricing begins at $999 for the 11-inch models, with the 13-inch models starting at $1099.

Apple has announced the winners of its annual Apple Design Awards at WWDC, highlighting an array of apps from utilities to games on both iOS and the Mac. Apple's Design Awards were created to recognize apps that "raise the bar in design, technology, and innovation."

iPhone and iPad
- Yahoo! Weather
- Badland
- Letterpress
- Ridiculous Fishing
- SkyGamblers: Storm Raiders (Also Available on Mac)
- Evernote (Also Available on Mac)

iPad Only
- WWF Together
- Procreate

Mac Only
- Coda 2

This year's awards also include two apps from student developers. Finish is a streamlined task manager designed to help users organize to-dos into tasks, while mosaic.io allows users to display a photo mosaic across two or more iOS devices.

Student Winners
- Finish
- mosaic.io

Finally, Apple highlighted three other student created apps which student scholarship applicants designed to describe their experience and background for a chance to win tickets to WWDC. Winners included Louis Harboe, Bryan Keller, and Puck Meerbug.

2012 winners of the Apple Design Awards included Jetpack Joyride, Paper, and Sketch.

At this morning's WWDC keynote in San Francisco, Apple announced the latest iteration of OS X, Mavericks, which features a new tabbed finder, independent handling of multiple displays, tagging, and a Safari redesign.

As promised, Apple has begun offering developers beta access to Mavericks. The beta software can be downloaded from Apple’s developer site and devs can also access the new iOS 7 beta as well. According to Apple, Mavericks is its most power efficient operating system yet.

While developers can get immediate access to Mavericks, the general public will need to wait for the software’s official release, which is expected to take place in the fall.

At today's Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco, Apple offered a sneak peek at the upcoming Mac Pro, which features a radical tubular redesign along with Intel Xeon processors and ECC memory.

After the keynote, WWDC attendees were able to get a closer look at the Mac Pro and Engadget posted a number of photos as well of a video of the new Mac Pro.

The new Mac Pro is a fraction of the size of Apple’s last Mac Pro, which was originally released in mid–2010 with a small update in 2012. Though it is significantly smaller, the Mac Pro will include features like a full-sized HDMI connector, four USB sockets, six Thunderbolt 2 ports and two gigabit Ethernet ports.

Apple has not given an exact release date for the Mac Pro, but it is expected to debut later this year and it will be the only current Apple product assembled solely in the United States. MacRumors has additional photos of the Mac Pro provided by a developer.

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Apple has released the first build of the iOS 7 Beta to developers, ahead of what is likely to be a long summer of beta testing.

The first build, number 11A4372q, was released for the iPhone 5, 4S and 4, along with the fifth-generation iPod Touch and new betas for the Apple TV and a beta of Find My iPhone. Apple also released the first build of the Xcode 5 Developer Preview.

Devices should be backed up using iTunes or through iCloud prior to installation of iOS 7, and following installation, can be restored through either process.

As usual, Apple warns developers that "pre-release versions of iOS are considered Apple Confidential Information and are subject to the terms of your iOS Developer Program License Agreement. Unauthorized distribution or disclosure of Apple Confidential Information is prohibited."

Download Links (Users must be a registered Apple developer to use these):

- iPhone 5 (Model A1428)
- iPhone 5 (Model A1429)
- iPhone 4S
- iPhone 4 (GSM Rev A)
- iPhone 4 (GSM)
- iPhone 4 (CDMA)
- iPod touch (5th generation)
- Mobile Device Installer Package

As part of its flurry of updates to Apple.com today, Apple's web team posted the new OS X Mavericks background image at 5120x2880. That resolution is identical to the one anticipated for a 27" Retina display for the iMac or a standalone Retina Thunderbolt Display.

The image, which was noticed by Twitter user Marvin Scharle, is similar to Retina-sized images that were included in Lion in 2011, long before Apple had released any Retina-equipped Macs publicly.

With Apple's announcement today that the new Mac Pro would include support for 4K video displays along with Thunderbolt 2, the company is clearly getting ready for larger Retina panels in the future.

Apple has posted the Jony Ive introduction video for iOS 7, along with the full-length keynote, the 'Designed by Apple' television ad that Tim Cook showed at the end of the keynote, and the introduction video from the keynote that is part of the same campaign.

The 'Designed by Apple' ad, featuring a voiceover from actor Ben Affleck, is a branding spot looking to reinforce the company's California roots.

This is it. This is what matters. The experience of a product. How will it make someone feel? Will it make life better? Does it deserve to exist? We spend a lot of time on a few great things. Until every idea we touch enhances each life it touches. You may rarely look at it, but you'll always feel it. This is our signature. It means everything.

Apple has posted a video of the full two-hour WWDC Keynote on its website. The video should also be made available on the Apple Keynotes Podcast on the iTunes Store later today. [Podcast links: Keynotes, Keynotes in HD, Keynotes in 1080p HD]

Other WWDC Keynote highlights:

- Apple Unveils iOS 7 with Major Design Overhaul, Multitasking and Control Center
- Apple Offers Sneak Peek of Completely Redesigned Mac Pro
- Apple Announces New MacBook Airs with Haswell Processors and 'All-Day' Battery Life
- Apple Apple Announces OS X 'Mavericks' with Tabbed Finder, Safari Redesign, Maps and iBooks
- Apple Announces iTunes Radio, Ad-Supported, Free for iTunes Match Subscribers

- Apple Announces New Airport Base Station and Time Capsule with Faster 802.11ac Wi-Fi
- Apple Announces 'iWork for iCloud' for In-Browser Use
- Apple Announces iCloud Keychain, 1Password-Like Password Manager
- Apple Announces New iBooks and Maps Apps for OS X Mavericks
- Apple Tops $10 Billion in App Store Payouts, 1 Million Daily Retail Store Visitors
- Anki Debuts 'Anki Drive' Intelligent Robotic Car Game

At today's Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco, Apple unveiled the latest iteration of its mobile operating system. As expected, iOS 7 features a major design overhaul that removes many of the skeuomorphic elements found in previous versions of iOS, instead favoring a clean and gloss-less "flat" look. Demos of all of the apps can be found on Apple's iOS 7 website.

"It's the biggest change to iOS since the introduction of the iPhone," said Tim Cook. "It has a whole new structure that is coherent and that is applied across the entire system," said Jony Ive in a video showing off the new operating system. "We've considered the tiniest details like refining the typography to much larger ones like redesigning all the icons."

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At today's WWDC keynote event, Apple offered a sneak peek of its next-generation Mac Pro, a line of desktop computers that has not received a significant update in several years. The preview began with a teaser video showcasing the radically redesigned tubular tower.

The next generation Mac Pro is architected around an ingenious unified thermal core that allows the desktop to efficiently share its entire thermal capacity across all the processors. The result is a pro desktop with breakthrough performance packed into a design that is one-eighth the volume of the current Mac Pro. Next generation Intel Xeon E5 processors with up to 12 core configurations deliver double the floating point performance. With two AMD FirePro workstation-class GPUs, the all-new Mac Pro is up to 2.5 times faster than the current Mac Pro and delivers up to an amazing 7 teraflops of compute power. The new Mac Pro also features PCIe-based flash storage that is up to 10 times faster than conventional desktop hard drives and includes the latest four-channel ECC DDR3 memory running at 1866 MHz to deliver up to 60GBps of memory bandwidth. With all that power, the new Mac Pro lets you seamlessly edit full-resolution 4K video while simultaneously rendering effects in the background.

New generation Intel Xeon processors, ECC memory, and new PCIe flash storage will debut in the new Mac Pro. External expansion will be available via six Thunderbolt 2 ports and graphics will be handled by dual workstation AMD FirePro GPUs with support for up to three 4K displays.

Compared to the previous Mac Pro, the next-generation model is approximately 1/8 the size. The new Mac Pro will also be assembled in the United States. A special WWDC session tomorrow will see representatives of The Foundry and Pixar showing off how The Foundry's MARI 3D digital paint tool can take advantage of the upcoming Mac Pro hardware.

At today's WWDC keynote in San Francisco, California, Apple announced new 11-inch and 13-inch MacBook Airs, which have been designed with battery life in mind. As expected, the new Airs use Haswell processors that offer enhanced performance and significantly improved battery life, but feature no cosmetic changes.

With the new Haswell processors, The 11" MacBook Air will now have nine hours of battery life while the 13" MacBook Air will have a stunning 12 hours of battery life.

In addition to Haswell processors, the new MacBooks feature 802.11ac compatibility, with support for the "Gigabit WiFi" 802.11ac specification. Gigabit WiFi offers speeds up to three times as fast as existing 802.11n wireless networks.

The 11" MacBook Air starts at $999 with a 128GB hard drive and the 13" MacBook Air with a 128GB hard drive starts at $1099. Apple's MacBook Airs are available today from Apple's Online Store and at retail locations.

At today's WWDC keynote event, Apple announced the next version of its Mac operating system, dubbed "Mavericks" after a surfing area north of Half Moon Bay in California. Mavericks will feature many new Finder features including tabs, full-screen capability, tagging, and independent handling of multiple displays.

Tagging items allows users to categorize and search for files more easily. With multiple displays, Finder will display a menu bar in each to allow easier control of all apps. Mission Control has also been modified to allow easy transfer of apps between displays, and Mavericks can display apps through a connected Apple TV.

A new feature called Timer Coalescing will reduce CPU activity by smoothing out active processes and idle time while another new feature, Compressed Memory, will compress inactive memory to make free space available to running apps.

Safari gets a revised Top Sites page and a sidebar with direct bookmark and Reading List access. Also visible in the sidebar are links shared by friends through social networks. The browser's memory and energy usage has also been improved in Mavericks.

Keychain moves to iCloud in Mavericks to enable cross-device synchronization of passwords for use within Safari and other apps. Keychain will be able to suggest strong passwords and will remember credit card information to make online shopping easier.

Notifications also get an overhaul with the ability to respond to iMessages or even decline Facetime calls right from the notification banner. After waking from sleep, notification banners for alerts received during sleep will appear on the lock screen.

A Maps app will come to the Mac in Mavericks, offering search capabilities, Flyover views, turn-by-turn directions and the ability to send directions directly to an iOS device.

iBooks is coming to the Mac as well, with direct access to content available in the iTunes Store. Reading features include bookmarks, a night mode, and access to embedded multimedia elements.

Registered developers can preview Mavericks starting today and the final public release of the OS is planned for the fall.

Apple announced iTunes Radio today, a new internet radio service that is built into the Music app in iOS 7. The new feature offers music discovery through featured and genre stations provided by Apple or through the creation of new stations based on a specific artist or song.

iTunes Radio is an incredible way to listen to personalized radio stations which have been created just for you,” said Eddy Cue, Apple’s senior vice president of Internet Software and Services. “It’s the music you love most and the music you’re going to love, and you can easily buy it from the iTunes Store with just one click.

iTunes Radio keeps track of all of the songs listened to for easy access later for purchasing or repeat listening. iTunes Radio will also be available on Mac and PC through iTunes and Apple TV.

iTunes Radio will be available in the fall for free with ads while iTunes Match subscribers get an ad-free experience. The service will be available starting in the US only at first.