Work thankfully wasn't terribly busy today, so I—along with probably every other Apple-lovin' geek on the planet who was able to—watched the live feed of Apple's WWDC keynote today. And like everyone else who saw it, I have a few opinions that—since this is my blog and I'll write what I damn well please—you can take or leave as you want.
OS X 10.9
Mavericks? Really? I lived in northern California—on the coast, no less—for sixteen years and never even heard of Mavericks. Apple, you couldn't have come up with just one more cat name before moving on to OS XI? In my opinion, that was just plain stupid, considering 10.9 doesn't appear so radically different from 10.8 that it would justify a whole new naming convention. I think you jumped the gun here, guys.
I was secretly hoping that when Craig Federighi took the stage he'd look at the crowd and say, "I know a lot of you will be disappointed, but there will be no OS X 10.9." After the huge sigh of disappointment from the audience died down, he'd smile, point his clicker at the screen and say, "Say hello to OS XI!" And then unveil the most amazingly redesigned OS since X itself appeared—and only then with a new naming convention in place. That would've been the Apple I've come to know and love.
Sadly that didn't happen. I guess we'll will have to wait until next year.
Needless to say, I was underwhelmed by 10.9. Yeah, there are a couple new features (including much-improved power management) that I'll undoubtedly find useful, but on the whole the presentation was a major snooze-fest.
Will I upgrade? Duh!—if only for the better power management.
Mac Pro
"Can't innovate any more, my ass!" ~ Phil Schiller
Amazing. Beautiful. I couldn't decide if it was plucked from the core of a crashed UFO or if it's a Cray Mini-Me. Once again, Apple does what Apple does best and it sort of made up for Maverick. I applaud their vision. But with the overall downturn in desktop PC sales, is anyone paying attention? Will the new Pro be a smashing success? Only time will tell—as evidenced by how quickly the cheap self-destructing knock-offs appear on the market running Windoze 8.
iOS7
I love my iPhone. I love my iPad. But like many have said lately, let's face it—the OS that runs those amazing devices is looking a little long in the tooth. While iOS7's fresh coat of paint—while undeniably beautiful—is less than the wholesale reimaging I was expecting, but the new feature set is everything I'd hoped for. I'll be upgrading my devices the moment it's available.
I've already blogged my peace on the WWDC, but felt compelled to comment. 🙂
I agree the "Mavericks" is a bit esoteric outside the surfing world, and when it was first announced I was shaking my head… but it's growing on me. As for the new OS not being revolutionary enough to merit a code-name shift… I'd argue that there aren't going to BE any more revolutionary changes to OS X. We're on a path where OS X and iOS are converging. At this point, they're just swapping features. That being said, don't think I'm not hoping for a massive injection of new-style hotness for OS XI. Apple is more than capable of shaking things up and moving the desktop OS in a new direction. But will they? Windows 8 was a horrible attempt that failed utterly.
My take on the Mac Pro is that it's more a powerful consumer computer with none of the expansion or customization options that "pros" want in a machine. In many ways, I think it's a cruel joke played on all the Mac power users who've been kept waiting YEARS for a new machine. I'm glad I moved to iMac last year after giving up we'd ever see a new Mac Pro, because I'd make the same decision even now that it's (going to be) available.
"Cray Mini-Me". Or, maybe just a bit R2D2.