WWDC 2014 is all ready to accelerate into first gear today, and if you’re reading this then the chances are that you have a fervent interest in what Tim Cook and his executive team are planning to announce. The annual developer meet-up, affectionately known as WWDC, is Apple’s unique way of showcasing its new technologies and products to developers and journalists, while also giving developers an opportunity to offer hands-on labs and valuable feedback sessions. It’s also a great insight into how Apple sees its own roadmap for the year ahead, so here are the details of how, where and when you can follow along at home.
In less than 24 hours the big initial WWDC keynote will be over and we'll know the answers to so many of the questions that we've been posing over the last few weeks. With banners already giving huge hints that we'll be seeing the first glimpses of iOS 8 and Mac OS X 10.10, we're still left with plenty to guess.
With June 2nd now creeping up on us, we're just few hours away from some significant revelations from Apple at WWDC 2014. But what are we to expect from this annual show-piece? Here, we discuss what might, and what almost certainly will be announced at WWDC, along with a few hopeful stabs in the dark for good measure.
While there were smartphones before the iPhone, none had quite managed to garner the same success as the iconic Apple handset. Gone are the days where phones are just there to make and receive calls, and the iPhone is the prime example of the handheld device that encroaches on other areas of our lives. If you've ever looked at the accessories that take iPhones and turn them into other things that would normally be a whole separate device, then you'll know what we mean.
In our quest to help you discover some of the best apps at discounted rates, we've featured quite a few App Store gems for those rocking an iPhone, iPod touch or iPad. In the name of fairness, we're today turning our attention to the Google Play Store, with five great apps having just gone free of charge.
Clearly not dissuaded after the monumental flop that was Google TV, the company behind Android is once again set to enter the set-top fox fray, this time using the power of its smartphone and tablet operating system as a basis for its new kit.
It's now so close we can taste it, and as the hours tick down to this year's WWDC event, we're starting to get more of an idea about what Apple will be announcing at the event.
Gesture-based interaction is on the rise, and as well as the more common, touch screen-based gestures, engineers have long since been looking at other ways for us to communicate with our digital devices using swipes, taps, and other such movements. Kinect is a prime example of this advancement in action at end user level, and now, a group of individuals from Sweden have come up with something equally cool for iPhone. The Fuffr case - yes, that's its actual name - utilizes the space around the iPhone when the device is laid flat, and with the potential to move all of an app or game's controls away from the screen, could revolutionize the way we use our mobile devices in general. Think of it as Leap Motion, except for iPhone!
Digital delivery is very much the future of how we are going to get our games, and with PSN, Xbox LIVE, Steam and others going great guns, the days of having to wait for a little plastic disc to arrive in the post are thankfully coming to a close. The lack of having to send anything trough the postal system allows companies to offer big discounts at times too, something that Steam has very much taken advantage of over the years.
Even though the tiled nature of Windows Phone serves as a quirk, it's also a hindrance to those who like their traditional wallpapers. Recognizing this, Microsoft has come through with a compromise in Windows Phone 8.1, allowing wallpapers to be spread across tiles in a neat, mosaic fashion. But there is still a conflict of interests between tiles and wallpapers thanks to fixed-color tiles, and with everything appearing a little too busy and cluttered, one developer has decided to create an app that renders these stubborn tiles completely transparent.
