Apple will offering a live stream of the WWDC 2013 keynote today on the Apple website. You can also watch the live stream on the newly added “Apple Events” channel on Apple TV.
Live Streaming video requires Safari 4 or later on Mac OS X v10.6 or later; Safari on iOS 4.2 or later. Streaming via Apple TV requires second- or third-generation Apple TV with software 5.0.2 or later. If you’re looking for older videos from Apple’s past events you can find them archived here.
Apple CEO Tim Cook sat down with Kara Swisher and Walt Mossberg of AllThingsD yesterday and you can now watch the entire interview here on the embedded video below.
Tim Cook discussed quite a few topics during the interview but a few stand out from the rest. One of the more notable moments in the interview was when Tim Cook mentioned that there’s a possibility that iOS could offer a richer API toolset for developers. Apple has received a lot of criticism of being too locked down and developers have long wanted to get deeper access to iOS, which soon could be a reality. Cook did mention that although 3rd parties may gain more access into iOS, they would not do it in such a way that compromises the customer experience.
Of course no major announcements were made, not that we we’re expecting any, but Cook did seem to hint at a few things to come. One of those things is Apple TV, not the little content streaming box but an actual Apple Television. Cook mentioned that it’s an area that needed to be brought up-to-the-times as television hasn’t changed much over the years. Perhaps, Apple could do with TV what it did for the smart phone industry. Here is a quote from Tim Cook on the question about an Apple TV.
I don’t want to go into detail, but it continues to be an area of great interest for us. The product and relationships we’ve built provide a lot more knowledge than we would have otherwise. And popularity has been larger than we thought, and we aren’t marketing it.” – Apple CEO Tim Cook
During the interview they touched on other subjects like wearable tech, Android, and they even went into taxes, which Apple has recently been under the microscope for, mainly in how it manages it’s finances over seas and how that tax money makes it back, or doesn’t, to the US. Cook does mention that it’s not a situation unique to Apple and it is an area that needs reform.
Thanks to MacRumors for the video link.
3DMark, the go-to benchmarking software, is not only improving it’s Windows based tests but it’s also moving onto other types of hardware besides the PC. Apple iOS, Android, and Windows RT are all fair game when it comes to being benchmarked by 3DMark.
I must admit that I never really thought about benchmarking my smartphone, it’s kind of interesting idea. We read the specs on our tablets and smartphones and we know how much memory we have and what our screen resolution is but do we really know just how much power we have to work with ?
When it comes to performance in multitasking, surfing the web, or gaming we really don’t think of measuring it all, at least not as often as we should. For the most part we download our apps and they run, but can they run better? How far can we push the hardware, what are the limitations, and how does it stand up against the competition? These are all great questions that can be answered by a trusted benchmark tool that provides a standard to go by.
The new benchmarks are visually, much improved and a leap ahead from previous iterations. There are three benchmarks, FireStrike for Windows gaming PC’s, CloudGate for Windows Notebooks and home PC’s, and Ice Storm for Android, iOS and Windows mobile. This is great for enthusiasts who really want to get a clearer picture of what’s going on under the hood of their favorite non-PC devices.
To make things even better, the basic version is free and can be found at 3DMark along with complete details on the benchmarking software.
Yes, it’s actually going be be here. Thanks to this funny video poking fun at how long it has taken for PopCap to create the sequel to the original, we now have a time frame for the release date.
It looks like Plants vs Zombies 2 will be available sometime in July and the official title will be, Plants vs. Zombies 2: It’s About Time. The video doesn’t provide us with much else besides a bit of humor, we will just need to hang in there a bit longer for some gameplay footage or screenshots.
Chat Heads was recently brought to iOS but it wasn’t quite the same as the Android version which allowed for the ‘Chat Heads’ to be visible even when the Facebook app isn’t open. Facebook mentioned that they couldn’t do the same for iOS due to it being too locked down.
It didn’t take long though for someone to Jailbreak hack this thing apart and make it happen, well sort of. It’s a bit buggy at the moment but appears that having ‘Chat Heads’ be persistent throughout iOS is possible if you have a Jailbroken phone and the people at the Verge show us how.