In January 2012 I wrote about why iBooks will never come to Mac OS and I was happily proven wrong a year and a half later. At last week's WWDC in San Francisco, Apple announced that iBooks would indeed arrive with Mavericks (a.k.a. OS X 10.9), the next generation of OS X due this fall. 

My theory in early 2012 was that Apple was intentionally restricting iBooks to iOS in order to squeeze every last cent out of consumers. Students going to college buy a lot of MacBook Airs and my thinking at the time was that Apple could drive iPad sales because students wanting iBooks (and textbooks created with the then-new iBooks Author) would snap up iPads as a secondary machine. You know, for studying. 

While it was true for almost two years, Apple came to its senses and decided to stop handing the eBook business to Amazon's Kindle Store on a silver platter. Apple realized that in order for people to invest in an eBook ecosystem they need to be able to consume their purchased content on all of their devices (iOS and OS X). Students writing papers for college need to be able to reference their textbooks on their iPads and their Macs. 

I still prefer my MacBook Air to my iPad (although the ratio has crept up a little since I wrote that post in 2012) and my workflow hasn't changed much in the 18 months since my original piece:

I'm biased because I write for a living and love Apple notebooks so much that I started a little website about them back in 1995 -- before Google or the term "blog" even existed. I know that there are a whole generation of keyboard cutters coming up in the ranks, but I'm not one of them. My iPad will never fully replace my MacBook Air with it's glorious keyboard, USB ports and external mouse. At least not in the foreseeable future.

While my prediction about Apple never producing iBooks for OS X was flat wrong, Apple agreed with the point of my article. In order for iBooks to be successful (and to better compete with Amazon's Kindle Store) iBooks has to be available on its mobile and its desktop platform. And I'm thrilled that Apple has seen the light. 

Now, what do I do with all the Kindle books that I've purchased?

At The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW), Steven Sande writes that developers have noted that the forthcoming icon for the Clock app will have a moving second hand and show the correct time down to the second. The current, static icon shows the time as 10:15 exactly. There's a screen shot of the new iOS 7 app, check it out.

Sande suggests that this API will be available to all developers and there's the notion that icons could become dynamic. This little touch is fantastic and I can see all kinds of uses for it, such as showing changes in content or news or weather. This could be used for many things beyond the longstanding badge concept for notification. So, for example, a time-delayed, multiplayer game could show whether you're winning or losing. This doesn't obviate the usefulness of badges, rather it could be complementary to them, depending on how the animation is accomplished.

There was a wider discussion on iOS 7 icons at several sites this past week, observing that some of the icon images on Apple's site differ from the ones in the beta version released to developers at WWDC last week. So, that could be another example of this dynamic quality, or just ordinary design differences.

Some call this "eye candy," as they have called the Mac or iOS interface. This has been the label hung on Apple products for decades, first by PC users about the Mac interface and now by other mobile device vendors about iOS. Somehow, there's the lingering feeling that something fun can't be really powerful or truly useful.

Instead, Apple has long known that these small niceties around details in the interface can have a strong impact on the user, creating a sense of fun and enjoyment. And loyalty.

When Eddy Cue announced iOS in the Car at WWDC this week he displayed a slide that showed the logos of 12 car manufacturers that were launching the technology first in their 2014 models. But one brand was noticeably absent: BMW.

iOS in the Car is an iPhone integration with automobiles that will be a feature of iOS 7 coming out in 2014. It will allow your vehicle's in-dash screen (typically used for navigation, entertainment, etc) to act as a secondary display for the iPhone, giving you access to Apple's iOS Maps app (and navigation) via an "eyes-free" integration with Siri. Cue mentioned that it will also work with Messages and third-party apps like Twitter and Wikipedia.

Cue's slide of participating car manufacturers (above) included the following logos:

• Honda

• Mercedes-Benz

• Nissan

• Ferrari

• Chevrolet

• Infinity

• Kia

• Hyundai

• Volvo

• Acura

• Opel

• Jaguar

BMW explained its absence from the iOS in the Car program to ArnoldClark.com, saying, "we have such an advanced multimedia offering that has been in vehicles in various guises for more than a decade, it would not be that straightforward to start changing all of the architecture of a car as has been implied [by Apple]."

The BMW spokesperson also told ArnoldClark.com that iOS integration with a car's dashboard is "not as simple as it sounds", so they believe iOS integration with BMW is unlikely to happen in the short or mid-term.

The statements are a curious about-face, considering that BMW issued a press release just five days earlier touting Siri integration with BMW's voice command controls and BMW iDrive.

BMW later back-pedalled from its remarks, telling AutoBlog that it is "currently investigating the technical challenges required to integrate iOS in the Car" and that a "final decision has not been made".

Is BMW's in-dash experience (below) so much superior to what iOS in the Car will offer? Clearly, it's too early to tell, but I think that BMW would be foolish to totally rule it out this early in the game.

Are you interested in better iOS integration with your vehicle? Would it influence your vehicle purchase decision?

At WWDC this week Apple announced its rumored "iRadio" streaming music service. The service, dubbed iTunes Radio allows users to stream music using a radio station model via the Music app built into iOS. The tagline is that iTunes Radio "builds and brings together stations that you'll love from day one."

The most obvious comparison is to Pandora which launched its streaming radio service in 2008 and currently has over 70 million active monthly listeners. The free version of Pandora is ad-supported and includes ads in the form of music interruptions, skins, and popup ads below the album artwork. Pandora free is limited to 40-hours of listening per month and twelve skips every 24 hours (touching "thumbs down" or "don't play for a month" count as "skips"). Pandora One, the company's premium service, costs $36 per year (or $3.99 per month) and is limited to six skips per hour.

Donald Bell wrote a nice piece comparing iTunes Radio and Pandora for CNET.

iTunes Radio is also free in ad-supported mode, but offers a premium version (without ads) to subscribers of its $25 per year iTunes Match service. (The beta version of iTunes Radio distributed to developers plays ads even if you're a Match subscriber, but that will be fixed when the service is released.) iTunes Radio will be available on iOS, Apple TV, OS X and Windows in the United States when it ships in the fall.

I'm disappointed that iTunes Radio is only available using the "radio station" model where you pick an artist, track or genre and it builds a radio station around it. iTunes Radio, like other "radio" services, allows you to tweak what songs are played by touching Play More Like This, Never Play This Song or Skip. You can also control the balance between playing the hits and discovering new songs, but that's about it. Radio services don't allow you to play specific tracks, artists, or albums in a specific order. 

Streaming services like Spotify, Rdio and Mog use a "catalog" music streaming model that allows you to listen to any of the tracks in their 16-20 million track catalogs, on demand, with a paid monthly subscription of around $10 per month. Some catalog streamers (like Spotify and Google Play Music All Access) are hybrid services that also offer a curated "radio station" option.

Apple most likely chose the radio station model because:

1. It's less like to canibalize its iTunes music sales. A buy button is prominently displayed in the upper-right hand corner of the iTunes Radio now playing screen putting you just a touch away from being able to purchase a track. 

2. It was a much easier sell to the music labels. I'm sure that the buy button in the upper-right corner was a significant part of Apple pitch to labels. 

3. It was easier to close deals with three major music labels (which came down to the wire) as opposed to getting deals with all of the labels representing the 26 million plus tracks in the iTunes Store's massive music libary.

Personally, I'd rather have a "catalog" (or hybrid) music streaming service from Apple (imagine, every track in the iTunes store being free to listen to!) over a "radio" service, which is why I don't see canceling my Spotify subscription any time soon. Ever since I've bought into the catalog streaming model, I've purchased very few individual tracks (although I've still purchased a few pre-release albums and live recordings) -- which is probably the exact reason why Apple (and the labels) opted for iTunes Radio on Monday. I hope that Apple eventually expands it's music subscription offering, but judging by how long it took it to secure deals with three music labels (iRadio has been rumored since September) I'm not optimistic.

How do you consume music these days? What music services (if any) do you subscribe to?

The developer previews of Apple's iOS 7 and OS X Mavericks that were announced yesterday at WWDC are packed with new features -- and an entirely new user experience in the case of iOS 7 -- but I was disappointed that several needed features didn't appear to make the cut.

There are a number of features that are noticeably absent from the first developer build of iOS 7 (11A4372q). These should be taken with a grain of salt however, as a lot can change (and hopefully will!) before iOS 7 is released in the fall.

Default apps – There's no way to change default apps, so we're stuck with Safari, Email and Calendar, for the time being. 

Lower case keyboard – Although there are some nice UI tweaks to the new keyboard, lower-case keys are still represented by capital letters. Something I'll never understand.

Alternative keyboards – I'm not holding my breath for this one. Apple's previously said that third party keyboards are a security risk because they can contain key loggers. 

Landscape springboard – I still find it amazing that the iPad home screen can be displayed in landscape mode, but the iPhone's can't. Curiously the new iOS 7 Multitasking Switcher and Control Center both work in landscape (as do most apps, including Mail, Messages and Safari) yet the springboard doesn't. 

Upside-down springboard – When Jony Ive finally realizes that landscape mode is useful on an iPhone, I hope he allows the Springboard (and apps) to be used fully upside-down too (like the iPad does). Since the iPhone 5's ports on the bottom of device, it's almost impossible to use when plugged into power and sitting upside-down in the cup holder of a car. 

Public transit directions – The updated Apple Maps app while improved, still refers you to other apps and the App Store when you touch the link for "transit directions"

Widgets – Although we got similar functionality in Control Center and Notification Center, there's no substitution for real, live widgets. But Jony Ivy continues to tease us with his animated iOS icons! First it was the updating date on the Calendar app, now the Clock icon is live, right down to the sweeping second hand.

Lock screen widgets – While the new Today screen in Notification Center is an improvement over iOS 6, I'd still prefer to have real widget that I can customize.

Menubarlets – Apple tweaked the menu bar in iOS 7 with carrier dots and a new charging icon, but there's still no way to add icons for things like the current temperature, like you can in Android.

Multiple user accounts – While Apple hasn't released a version of iOS 7 for the iPad yet, there's no signs of multiple user support in the current developer build of iO7, so it's looking unlikely this go around. 

Better/more printing options – While the new Share Sheet and AirDrop functionality are welcome additions, they don't change the fact that there are only a small amount of printers that support AirPrint. 

OS X Mavericks is missing one major feature that was rumored to be coming: full Siri integration. The first developer build of Mavericks ships with the same Dictation and Speech Control Panel that debuted in Mountain Lion (OS X 10.8), but no Siri. Which is a shame. Hopefully Siri will arrive in a subsequent build of Mavericks.

I'm sure more missing features will come to mind, and I'll update this post when then do. In the mean time, what's missing in iOS 7 and Mavericks for you?

Apple's WWDC hardware announcements (MacBook Air, Mac Pro and AirPort) are pretty cool, but there was just as much hardware that didn't make the cut at yesterday's keynote. Here's a short list. 

A new iPhone 5S/6 – While we got a preview of iOS 7, no new iPhone hardware followed. This isn't surprising as developers need to get their hands on the new iOS and APIs and get their apps working properly with iOS 7 before a new iPhone is released. Look for a new iPhone in the fall.

New iPads – I was personally hoping for a Retina iPad mini yesterday, but alas, it wasn't meant to be. Some attribute it to components, speculating that the Retina panel still isn't thin enough to fit into the iPad mini's smaller bezel, while others speculate that the batteries necessary to power a Retina mini aren't thin enough and/or aren't delivering acceptable run times yet.

New MacBook Pros – While Apple gave us a nice update to the popular MacBook Air (albeit without a Retina panel) it didn't release a bump to the MacBook Pro (nor one with a thinner form factor). This wasn't surprising though, the MacBook Pro was just updated in October 2012 and it already has a Retina display option. When the workhorse MBP gets its eventual bump (likely in the fall or Q1 2014) look for it to inherit the Intel Haswell chip, PCIe SSD, and 802.11ac Wi-Fi that just arrived in the new 'Air.

iWatch – I'm not surprised that Apple didn't announced its rumored watch yesterday. As I wrote in my piece handicapping WWDC the timing isn't right for iWatch. Even though Tim Cook finds wearables "incredibly interesting" and Apple has filed for a trademark on the term "iWatch," the hardware isn't ready for prime time. iWatch is a holiday-quarter product if there ever was one. 

The Apple television set seems to be a joke at this point and almost no one was expecting one to arrive at WWDC, so let's just put that one to bad for the time being.  

What hardware were you secretly wishing Apple would announce?

OS X Mavericks

Apple ran out of cat names so it switched naming conventions to California landmarks for its major operating system releases and OS X "Mavericks" is the first. The newest version of the Mac desktop operating system is due in the fall and focuses on better battery life and responsiveness. It boasts over 200 new features including a tabbed Finder, Tags and much improved multiple-monitor support. As expected, Mavericks is decidedly flatter in design as evidenced by the updated Calendar app which has ditched the leather and paper metaphor for a more simple and clean design. 

Notable features: Calendar is now location, travel time, weather aware and adds local weather and travel time directly to calendar events. Safari is much faster and comes with some handy sidebar improvements to Bookmarks, Reading Lists and Shared Links. A new dedicated Maps application features bookmarks, real-time traffic and one-click send to iOS. A surprising omission is full Siri support. You can read about the new features on the OS X Mavericks preview page and in the press release.

iOS 7

The most anticipated software announcement was iOS 7, the next major release of the OS that powers the iPhone and iPad. New features include Control Center, iTunes Radio, AirDrop and major updates to Notification Center, Multitasking, Siri, Camera, Photos and Safari. Like Mavericks, iOS got the flat treatment, but even more dramatically. The entire OS has a more subdued and subtle look and feel and all of the Apple icons are simpler and cleaner. 

Notable features: Control Center provides a slide up tray with quick access to AirPort, Bluetooth, brightness, music, AirDrop, AirPlay and a welcome built-in flashlight. Notifications, Multitasking and the Camera app are greatly improved, but the show stealer is iTunes Radio, which is free ad-supported Internet radio. The kicker is that iRadio is ad-free for iTunes Match subscribers (which costs $25 per year) -- a nice surprise. You can read about the new features on the iOS 7 preview page and in the press release.

MacBook Air

On the hardware front, Apple used WWDC to announce refreshed MacBook Air notebooks based on Intel's latest Haswell processors, 802.11ac Wi-Fi and PCIe-based flash storage that is up to 45 percent faster than the previous generation (approaching 800 Mbps in early benchmarks). The best feature in the new MBAs is all-day battery life. The new 13-inch MacBook Air gets up to 12 hours of battery life and the 11-inch MacBook Air delivers up to 9 hours of battery life. The 11-inch models featuring double the storage and 13-inch models starting at a new lower price of $1,099. You can read about the new features on the MacBook Air product page and in the press release.

Mac Pro

Billed as a "sneak peek into the future of the Pro desktop" the new Mac Pro is just one-eighth of the volume of the previous Mac Pro (9.9 inches tall, 6.6 inches in diameter). The new Apple tower (or should I say cylinder?) features a new unified thermal core, with three logic boards mounted on a triangular-shaped heat sink with a fan at the top. Hardware-wise the new Mac Pro features a new-generation Intel Xeon E5 chipset with up to 12 cores of processing power, 2.5x faster dual workstation AMD FirePro GPUs (4096 stream processors, 384-bit memory buses, 528 GBps total bandwidth) and 2.5x faster flash storage (PCIe controller, 1.25 GBps reads, 1.0 GBps writes).

It also features 2x faster ECC memory (1866MHz DDR3, four-channel controller, 60 GBps bandwidth) and 4K video support (multiple streams, supported on every port, three simultaneous displays). The new Mac Pro comes with a ton of ports on the backplane, including six Thunderbolt 2 ports being driven by three controllers (20 Gbps throughput, 6 devices per port, backwards compatible), four USB 3 ports, two Gigabit Ethernet, and a HDMI 1.4 port.

Apple said that the next-generation Mac Pro is coming "later this year" and that it's designed and assembled in the United States. You can read about the new features on the Mac Pro product page and in the press release.

And there was more too. Stay tuned for more updates and analysis this week on The Apple Core. 

What was your favorite WWDC announcement?

Apple executives at Monday's keynote for its annual Worldwide Developer Conference in San Francisco rolled out the latest in Mac laptops and showed off forthcoming Mac Pro workstations, as well as offered a glimpse at the future OS X and iOS versions. While over the past few years, Mac hands at WWDC may have felt a bit neglected, this year's pitch sounded a new push for the Mac platform bringing it into what Cupertino calls the "Apple ecosystem."

At recent conferences in the spring, Apple CEO Tim Cook used the word "ecosystem" loosely, a shorthand for a market "the iPad ecosystem," or as a term for leveraging cloud services. However, from the WWDC demonstrations it was clear that the Apple Ecosystem is the deep integration of Apple hardware (for both mobile devices and computers), Apple operating systems (both OS X and iOS), Apple software (from Apple and third-party developers), Apple's iCloud services, its various online and bricks and mortar stores.

This rich tech stew was aimed squarely at potential "switcher" customers who are currently running Apple products with Windows machines. Apple is, after all, one of the world's biggest Windows developers. While Windows users are Apple's predominant base for its iOS platform, Apple wants to give them new reasons to join the Mac fold, making them full members of the ecosystem.

What drew my eyes were the many new pieces of expanded integration between mobile iOS devices, Mac applications and iCloud services. This was clearly seen in the iCloud integration of bookmarks, iCloud Keychain password security that syncs across Apple platforms, Notifications on OS X Mavericks, and in the integration of Maps data in calendar events that are then presented across devices. The 1.8 million iBooks will soon be able to be read on a Mac.

So, iOS apps will be able to send push notifications directly to a Mac and vice versa. When you check out a restaurant on your Mac, the location information will be automagically added to the Calendar, along with a map, directions and notifications. All of this will automatically sync across devices. This Apple Ecosystem is approaching a seamless, integrated workflow between mobile and desktop computing environments.

The Mac advantage has always been about integration between hardware and native software. Apple hardware was and continues to be better than that from PC makers, and Mac users believe that the software is also way better than Windows. Those can be a religious debate.

However, it is with the combination of hardware and software as an integrated platform that we find the real Mac advantage. The Wintel model has never been able to approach the level of Mac integration, especially now after PC vendors have spent the past 5+ years driving to the bottom of a commodity market hole, the reputation of the PC platform is in sorry shape. Microsoft's OS strategy is both roiling and confusing the market. All this makes the Mac look even better.

Apple has spent years checking off the problems Windows users have expressed with the Mac:

Wintel compatibility. Migration to the Intel processor and support for virtualization let Windows users run their programs if they must. Only the Mac can run Windows, Linux and OS X. Check.

Niche platform. The installed base of Macs is now 72 million, according to Apple at WWDC. That's small potatoes compared with Windows but it's a secure and solid base. There are 6 million Apple developers with millions using Apple's IDEs. You can run your Windows programs or even better, Mac programs. Check.

Niche player. Sorry, Michael Dell, Steve Ballmer and company. Apple is the leading technology company in the world, even when its stock has fallen 30 percent in the past year. It sells products that people want and love. Check.

Before the WWDC announcements of OS X Mavericks and iOS 7 there were plenty of great reasons to buy a Mac. Now, the Apple Ecosystem integration and services must be at the top of that list. There's a new expectation that this fall, all of it will work better together. And much better than with the Windows competition.

A new "Apple Events" tile that prominently shows the WWDC 2013 logo was added to the Apple TV interface overnight. Clicking on the tile reveals that Apple will indeed broadcast a live video stream of the event for Apple TV users. MacRumors notes that a similar channel appeared before Apple's iPad mini media event last October.

Apple issued a press release at 8:30 am ET announcing the live stream, as noted by our own Zack Whittaker.

LIVE VIDEO STREAMING: Apple will broadcast its WWDC 2013 keynote address using Apple’s industry-leading HTTP Live Streaming, which is based on open standards. Viewing requires Safari on iOS 4.2 or later on any iPhone, iPad, iPad mini or iPod touch; Safari 4 or later on Mac OS X v10.6 or later. Streaming via Apple TV requires second or third generation Apple TV with software 5.0.2 or later. The live webcast will begin at 10:00 a.m. PDT on Monday, June 10, 2013 at www.apple.com. 

(Curiously, Apple published the release on BusinessWire but not on its own corporate PR website.)

In related news, I received a tip last night that Apple will also stream the WWDC keynote via its WWDC app for iOS devices. The speculation was likely driven in part by a late Sunday update to the app (v1.0.2) which listed its only new feature as "Enhancements for video playback."

The tip also mentioned that the video stream would only be available to developers that registered before June 8, and not to users that click "Cancel" on the app's login screen. Now that the live stream will be available via Apple TV and on the Apple website, chances are quite good that Apple will also make it available via its WWDC app. I highly doubt the claim about the stream being available exclusively to developers at this point. 

In retrospect, the copy on the WWDC videos page ("Coming soon to a screen near you" displayed above a white iPad) was probably a subtle telegraph of Apple's intentions to live stream today's keynote address. Or was it?

I have found that a number of iMac users — especially former Windows users — may not be aware of the iMac's easy A/V expansion via support for DisplayPort or that one Mac can boot another Mac as if the second box was an external hard drive. This latter capability comes from Apple's continuing support for Target Disk Mode, which is a longstanding technology on the Mac and spans SCSI, FireWire, USB and now Thunderbolt connections.

Foskett provides a bunch of good of tips for using the iMac as a laptop display and the everyday use of this useful-but-a-bit-kludgy non-KVM setup. For example, he offers suggestions on where to keep the extra, but still necessary iMac keyboard and mouse, and warns that users must take care in plugging and unplugging devices.

Note that, if you simply unplug the Mini DisplayPort cable from a closed-lid MacBook, it will immediately go to sleep. This will disrupt anything you’re doing and might be a Very Bad Thing. To keep this from happening, open the lid first, then unplug the video cable.

Check Out: Mountain Lion's new buddy: Redundant Array of Independent Servers

On the server front, Foskett said that it's easy to set up OS X as a bare-bones server without requiring OS X Server itself. He also offers that "a genuine iTunes instance is much more reliable than any alternative media server, and the same goes for a real Mac OS X AFP service."

One handy tip for using an iMac as a server is to reduce the screen resolution in the control panel. A lower-res screen is a huge help, since I’ll mostly be using it via VNC (with Screen Sharing from the MacBook Pro or Wyse PocketCloud Remote Desktop Pro on the iPad and iPhone). I dropped it to 1600×900, but could go further. It still looks fine when it’s running the iMac’s panel but is way better for use in VNC! Plus, it’s very "Inception" to show a screen sharing session to the iMac’s guts on its own panel via the MacBook Pro!

Check out this Tech Field Day article as well as the rest of Foskett's series on expanding iMacs.

Let's review some of the items that Apple could announce at WWDC on Monday in San Francisco. Below are each of the major possibilities and my estimation of the liklihood that it will be announced next week.

Read this

WWDC 2013 to announce iOS 7, OS X 10.9 previews: What else?

• Read more

iOS 7 (100%) – Apple's announced major iOS releases at the last three WWDC conferences and 2013 won't break that pattern. iOS 7 has been spotted in server logs and Apple needs to release a major update to iOS to stay competitive with the increasingly competitive Android, Windows Phone and even the upstart Blackberry 10.

OS X 10.9 (100%) – While we might not know the name of Apple's next cat (my bet's on "Ocelot"), you can expect it to pounce at WWDC 2013. Like iOS, Apple has a history of previewing the next major OS X version at its developer conference (except for a hiatus at 2010) and the timing is right. 

iRadio (75%) – Apple is late to the already crowded music subscription party and it needs to put a horse in the race before Spotify, Rdio and Google run away with it. (Heck, even Twitter released a dark horse music service this year.) Apple pioneered digital music commerce and singlehanded rescued an industry from a death spiral, but Steve Jobs' stubborn insistence that people want to own their music put the company at a huge disadvantage. Apple might not have all of its label agreements in place by Monday but that hasn't stopped it before. Apple announced digital music, TV, movie and book services before it had all the major players on board and music subscriptions won't be any different. 

MacBooks (75%) – Intel just released new Haswell processors that are destined for the MacBook Pro and MacBook Air and they haven't been updated in 360 days, so they're definitely due for a refresh. Leaked model numbers all but confirm Apple notebook updates at WWDC. Rumors suggest that the MacBook Pro could get a slimmer case and faster 802.11ac Wi-Fi looks likely. Just don't expect a Retina MacBook Air just yet. 

Mac Pro (25%) – After a three year dry spell, Apple's professional Mac tower is easily the product most "due" for an upgrade. Apple uncharacteristically confirmed a redesigned Mac Pro for "later" in 2013, but June still leaves a half a year on the calendar. While WWDC would be a good audience of power users to announce the Mac Pro to, Intel's Ivy Bridge E processors aren't due until September, so it's a little too soon.

iWatch (10%) – Although there have been a flurry of rumors swirling around Apple's wrist-computer, the timing isn't right for iWatch. Even though Tim Cook finds wearables "incredibly interesting" and Apple has filed for a trademark on the term "iWatch," the hardware isn't ready for prime time. Some point to the wildly successful Pebble Kickstarter project as validation of the space, but it's only half-baked. While it's the product I most want to see at WWDC, Apple's entry into the wearable computing space isn't likely to debut on Monday. iWatch is a holiday-quarter product if there ever was one. 

iWork (10%) – iWork received its last major update in 2009, so it's more than due for a refresh. Apple's been hiring iWork engineers since February but I'm not convinced that they're working on the OS X version (the iOS apps get the lion's share of updates). Color me skeptical on iWork. 

So there you have my WWDC 2013 odds and predictions. Time to pull up a chair and see what unfolds on Monday.

What are your WWDC dreams and aspirations?

Researchers from Georgia Tech have uncovered a way to hack into an iPhone or iPad in less than a minute using a "malicious charger." The group plans to present its findings at the Black Hat conference in Las Vegas on July 27, 2013. 

Billy Lau, Yeongjin Jang and Chengyu Song are presenting a session is called "Mactans: Injecting Malware Into iOS Devices Via Malicious Chargers" at the popular security conference next month. The name "Mactans" comes from Latrodectus Mactans, the  highly venomous (and deadly) black widow spider.

According to the synopsis on the Black Hat website, the Mactans session will describe how USB capabilities can be leveraged to bypass Apple's defense mechanisms built into the iPhone.

To demonstrate practical application of these vulnerabilities, we built a proof of concept malicious charger, called Mactans, using a BeagleBoard. This hardware was selected to demonstrate the ease with which innocent-looking, malicious USB chargers can be constructed. 

A BeagleBoard is a low-power open-source hardware single-board computer produced by Texas Instruments in association with Digi-Key.

Perhaps the most amazing aspect of the exploit is that it doesn't require the device to be jailbroken and it can be performed in under a minute according to the team. It also doesn't require a physical access to the device, except for the charger that is. While it would be unusual for dock cables to be left out in public (the things cost almost $20 each), a restaurant or coffee shop could leave some charging cables out for patrons to use (although I've only seen this a couple of times).

I suppose a malicious individual could carry a hacked cable and wait for people to ask to borrow it, but this is a long shot at best. And besides, a dock cable connected to a BeagleBoard would look suspicious to anyone borrowing a cable from a stranger. Details on the hack are slim ahead of the conference but the researchers suggest that someone with more resources could be much more malicious:

While Mactans was built with [a] limited amount of time and a small budget, we also briefly consider what more motivated, well-funded adversaries could accomplish.

Besides setting up a fake "charging station" in a public place, one use case could be a dock cable connected to a "battery" with a BeagleBoard hidden inside. I guess the moral of the story is not to be promiscuous with your iPhone and iPad charging, at least until the details of the hack are released next month. 

Apple today released the OS X Mountain Lion v10.8.4 Update which is recommended for all OS X Mountain Lion users. The update includes a fix for iMessages displaying out of order and Microsoft Exchange and Calendar compatibility improvements. 

According to the release notes: 

• Compatibility improvements when connecting to certain enterprise Wi-Fi networks
• Microsoft Exchange compatibility improvements in Calendar
• A fix for an issue that prevented FaceTime calls to non-U.S. phone numbers
• A fix for an issue that may prevent scheduled sleep after using Boot Camp
• Improves VoiceOver compatibility with text in PDF documents
• Includes Safari 6.0.5, which improves stability for some websites with chat features and games
• A fix for an issue that may cause iMessages to display out of order in Messages
• Resolves an issue in which Calendars Birthdays may appear incorrectly in certain time zones
• A fix for an issue that may prevent the desktop background picture from being preserved after restart
• A fix for an issue that may prevent documents from being saved to a server using SMB
• Addresses an issue that may prevent certain files from opening after copied to a volume named “Home"
• A fix for an issue that may prevent changes to files made over NFS from displaying
• Resolves an issue saving files to an Xsan volume from certain applications
• Improves Active Directory log-in performance, especially for cached accounts or when using a .local domain
• Improves OpenDirectory data replication
• Improves 802.1X compatibility with ActiveDirectory networks
• Improves compatibility when using mobile accounts

The 10.8.4 update is available in the Mac App Store (instructions) and as a direct download (342MB Delta or 810MB Combo).

Apple today released a new companion iOS app for its annual WWDC developer conference which kicks off on June 10 in San Francisco.

The WWDC app (free, App Store) is similar to many other conference apps in that it includes times, locations, and descriptions of sessions, as well as maps and floor plans, but it also includes one very powerful new feature: video.

According to the app description "session videos are just a tap away for all Registered Apple Developers," meaning that current Apple Developers will be able to view the videos from their iPhones and iPads.

Session videos are described as being "available daily," so it's unlikely that they'll be streamed live, but it's a nice consolation for Apple developers unable to travel to San Francisco next week and for those that were shut out when WWDC '13 tickets sold out in two minutes.

It's unclear whether Apple will stream the keynote address (where the new products are announced) directly in-app, but it's not out of the question. The event is sold out, so Apple has nothing to lose. Plus it would make the live stream exclusively available on iOS devices, similar to when it required an Apple device to watch a video stream of the 2012 iPad mini launch.

One more thing.

The purple WWDC '13 app icon (pictured) doesn't have the white border, gloss effect, diagonal stripes or gradients found in previous Apple iOS icons. It also features a large white icon on a dark background, which is consistent with the design aesthetic of Jony Ive's iOS 7 icons which are rumored to be flatter and more simplistic, as seen in this purported photo of the new iOS 7 home screen.

While the photo is lacking in detail, designer Surenix reproduced the fuzzy icons and created the following mockup which provides a peek at what Apple's new, flatter app icons could look like in iOS 7:

Here are the same icons in iOS 6, for comparison:

Right off the bat a more consistent design sensibility is evident in the iOS 7 icons. They're more unified and look like they came from the same design team. Most notably, the white borders and gloss effect found in the iOS 6 app icons are gone. Also missing are the faint diagonal stripes from the Messages and Phone app icons. The gradient backgrounds appear to have been completely removed from the Messages and Phone app icons yet curiously, they're preserved in the Music and Safari app icons.

The camera lens and gear wheel are slightly larger in the Camera and Settings app icons and the music note was changed from a dark red to white, which better matches the Messages and Phone app icons. iDownloadBlog also notes that Jony Ive appears to have added a touch of reality to the iOS 7 Weather app by adding clouds to its updated icon. If the leaked photo is indeed real, Ive also ditched the "73 degree" text from the old Weather app icon.

After the departure of Scott Forstall in October 2012, Senior Vice President of Industrial Design Jony Ive was promoted to head Apple's new Human Interface group. Ive has been rumored to minimize the use of skeuomorphism in Apple’s iOS in favor of a flatter design. If real, the leaked image of the iOS 7 home screen would appear to bear that out.

iOS 7 is widely believed to be announcemed at Apple's annual developer conference, WWDC, which opens on June 10, in San Francisco.

What do you think of Ive's flatter app icons? 

With WWDC arriving in a week, there are new signs. Or to be more accurate, new signs discerned.

MacTrast Managing Editor, J. Glenn Künzler, took a look at the diminishing stock of Mac Pros in advance of WWDC. He called it a "remarkable shortage."

Stock-outs and diminishing retail supplies are a key sign that Apple may be preparing to release new models of a product – something which Mac Pro users have been awaiting for a very long time. It’s also worth noting, however, that other models of the Mac Pro aren’t facing as significant of stock limitations – although all models are out of stock at at several major resellers.

A good sign.

MacNN reports that the forthcoming OS X 10.8.4 update adds support for the NVIDIA Geforce GTX Titan graphics card, which the company is pitching to gamers but which will also appeal to the professional 2D/3D and 4K video content market. According to reviews, a three-way Scalable Link Interface (SLI) setup (costing $3,000), the cards can support 5,760-by-1,080-pixel resolution across three monitors.  

The update is also said to have a number of improved NVIDIA graphics card drivers to correct display flaws, and the current beta -- version12E55 -- also includes drivers for the Geforce GTX Titan, though it is possible some of these changes will not appear in the final release and are simply being "test bed" deployed before formal inclusion in a future build.

Mac professionals want a powerful, integrated machine. The question continues whether Apple is committed to it, despite the promises by CEO Tim Cook that "something really great" is coming in 2013.

Some are concerned that Apple now sees Thunderbolt as a way to avoid manufacturing a replacement for the Mac Pro. Instead of an integrated, powerful tower desktop with super-fast bandwidth and internal bays for expansion, users would be asked to make do with an iMac, and Thunderbolt for external expansion, even for video cards. PCIe card cages with this capability have arrived with support from several vendors.

This question may, or may not, be answered next week.

All AppleCare Service exam testing will now be done online, the note said. There will be no more testing centers nor proctored exams. Previously, the initial ACMT certification were done at training centers or at certain seminars and proctors were required for exams taken at training centers. However, the cost of the exams will be the same, however, there won't be travel costs.

Three exams will offered online: the Apple Macintosh Service Certification Exam; the OS X v10.8 Mountain Lion Troubleshooting Exam; and the iOS Qualification Exam.

If you are in the process of becoming ACMT certified, you should continue your studies and complete the ACMT exams. If you need to be ACMT certified before June 23, use the existing exams. If you need to be ACMT certified on or after June 23, use the new online exams available after that date.

I need to recertify ACMT before June 23rd. What should I do? Recertify with the existing exams. After you do so, your ACMT certified status will be permanent.

The release of the Apple iOS 6 STIG is a major stride in building a multivendor environment, supporting a diverse selection of devices and operating systems, DISA officials said. This STIG and the recently approved STIGs for the BlackBerry and Samsung Knox operating systems demonstrate DISA's commitment to validate a range of devices that meet DOD security standards so the best technology is available to achieve mission requirements, they added.

Actual orders will be tied to identification of specific operational requirements and funding availability of using organizations, officials said.

In announcing the latest STIG approval, DISA officials said a key objective of the Commercial Mobile Device Implementation Plan is to establish a department-wide mobile enterprise solution that permits the use of the latest commercial technology -- such as smartphones and tablets -- and the development of an enterprise mobile device management capability and application store to support about 100,000 devices from multiple vendors by February.

The release said the Defense Department currently has more than 600,000 "commercial mobile devices in operational and pilot use," including some BlackBerrys (470,000), iOS devices (41,000) and Android devices (8,700).

The site Patently Apple said that all the device companies are working on adding fingerprint security to their devices for this contract. The next round of iOS will likely support fingerprint scanning technology.

It's been rumored since January that Apple's next iPhone would in fact debut with their patent-pending fingerprint technology and on April 22, Patently Apple broke the news that the fingerprint sensor may have been the culprit holding back a new iPhone. In hindsight, Apple could have been still working out specification details about the fingerprint scanner with the Pentagon.

Speculation aside, the news concerning Apple devices being "approved" for lower level non-classified communications security may not have covered the full story. In order for Apple to have been considered for the new Pentagon contract, Apple had to first be approved for clearance. At the end of the day, it's now clear that Apple is firmly in the race for the new Pentagon contract.

Great news for the platform.

John Rizzo at MacWindows says that the wrong version of Microsoft Windows 8 may not install in Apple's Boot Camp or in Parallels Desktop or VMware Fusion solutions. Or the version may be more software (and cost) than you need.

There are two primary SKUS: plain old Windows 8 Upgrade and Windows 8 Pro Upgrade.  However, there's also the OEM System Builder License for Windows 8. 

Windows 8 Upgrade will not work if you're creating a brand new installation of Windows 8 in Boot Camp, or are creating new virtual machine with Parallels Desktop, VMWare Fusion, or Oracle VirtualBox. For these situations, you need a Windows 8 System Builder OEM version. The term "System Builder" refers to people who build their own PC from parts. Creating a new virtual machine or a Boot Camp partition is the equivalent of building your own system.

Check out the full MacWindows article for pricing, feature and compatibility issues.

Rizzo also raises another excellent point: there's no reason not to keep your previous virtual machines installed (except I would add for disk space on a machine with solid-state disks). This is an easy way to make sure of compatibility when transitioning your workflow. As Rizzo says, "having multiple OS's installed at the same time is one advantage of virtual machines over Boot Camp."

Speaking of virtualization, Codeweavers earlier in the month released an update to CrossOver 12 for both Mac and Linux versions. Version 12.2 improves Quicken stability as well as CrossOver's "Mac Driver" integration technology that was introduced in Version 12. It allows CrossOver to work without the X Window System required with previous versions.

On the Mac OS, we have continued to improve our new Mac Driver technology. This release includes support for drag and drop in the Mac Driver, as well as changes which should improve the visual experience and reduce window flicker. The Mac Driver is maturing rapidly and will be the default option in our next major release. All experienced CrossOver users are invited to turn it on and see how it works.

"Sorry. I don't update like that."

"I'm sorry, I can only do one thing at a time."

"I guess PowerPoint isn't one of those things."

"Should we just play chopsticks?"

Imagine the above, spoken in Siri's voice, while comparing the iPad side-by-side with the latest Windows 8 tablet from ASUS. (The fact that Microsft chose Siri to mock the iPad is ironic considering that Windows can't currently compete with Siri.)

Then it flashes a price comparison:

Then it closes with the new Windows slogan "Less talking, more doing." That's the dialog of a new 30 second video "Windows 8: Less talking, more doing" that was just posted to Microsoft's Windows YouTube account. 

Where to start?

I think that Microsoft's first point about Windows 8's live tiles is the most salient point of the bunch. As I've said here many times before, iOS' grid of icons UI hasn't changed since the original iPhone came out in 2007 and it's stale as hell. Apple needs to overhaul the iOS springboard with multiple-sized, live-updating widgets. What was revolutionary five years ago has turned into a useless and kludgy interface. Case closed. 

The spot's second jab, about being able to see two apps at once on Windows 8, is legitimate, but disingenuous. While it can't display two apps simultaneously, iOS has had multitasking since iOS 4 in 2010. Ok, so it's not real desktop class multitasking, but the feature is available on iOS, you just can't view two apps simultaneously on the iPad. Deal breaker? Hardly. 

Microsoft's third point about iOS not having PowerPoint is total crap. While true, it's only because Microsoft hasn't released Office for iOS so that it give Surface a perceived advantage. It's no different than Apple not releasing Keynote for Windows. But Keynote is substantially better than PowerPoint (on the desktop and on the tablet) and it opens .PPT files so the argument is bogus. I wouldn't use PowerPoint for iOS if Microsoft offered it for free tomorrow. Microsoft would get more credibility if it mentioned Word and Excel, which are better than Pages and Numbers.

And let's not forget that the ASUS VivoTab Smart doesn't include PowerPoint, it's an additional purchase. Office 2010 costs $100-$400 more (depending on your license), Office 2013 will set you back $140-$400 and Office 365 costs $100 per year. 

The video's main argument is on price. It quotes the 64GB iPad at $699 and the ASUS VivoTab Smart 64GB at $449, both accurate points. However, the video neglects to mention that you can purchase a 16GB iPad for $499 (and a 16GB iPad mini for $329), so you only showing the $700 iPad is misleading.

Microsoft's iPad comparison website has a few legitimate points (microHDMI and microSD ports, better printing options, multiple user accounts), but a lot can inferred from the features that it omits (like unit sales, installed base, market share, etc.)

Here's the video embed, so you can judge for yourself:

What's your take on the MS spot and on Surface in general?

Update: Some of the initial reviews of the VivoTab hardware on Amazon are pretty scathing.

Update 2: At the end of its comparison, Microsoft falsely states that the ASUS VivoTab Smart has a "bigger touchscreen" than the iPad:

The ASUS VivoTab Smart is lighter than the iPad, has a bigger touchscreen and more ports, works with more printers, lets you see two apps at once, and runs Microsoft Office and other desktop programs.

Update 3: It appears that Microsoft has updated the VivoTab comparison page to remove the erroneous "bigger touchscreen" claim.