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Liveblog highlights:
- 40 million copies of the Mavericks operating system have been installed since its October 2013 release.
- Apple previews Mac OS X Yosemite, with iOS 7 styling, improved search and notifications.
- A new cloud storage service, iCloud Drive, syncs across Macs, iOS (and also Windows).
- In Yosemite, AirDrop works between Mac and iPad. Handoff feature lets you swap a project from one device to another nearby one.
- Yosemite will be free, and available in a public beta program this summer and to everyone in the fall.
- As expected, Apple also showed off a new mobile operating system, iOS 8, with interactive notifications and new messaging tools.
- An improved iOS keyboard called QuickType offers predictive typing suggestions, a la Swype or SwiftKey.
- A new Health app will aggregate metrics from multiple devices and third-party health apps.
- New tools for app developers include the ability to sell bundles of apps, show video previews and invite beta users.
- Apps will be able to talk to one another via an extension framework, including the ability to use Apple’s fingerprint scanner and create a home automation network.
- iOS 8 will be available to the public in the fall.
Apple didn’t introduce a single new piece of hardware at its developers conference on Monday, as expected. But it laid the foundation for the next generation of iPhones, iPads and Macs, and perhaps those new categories the company promises to enter this year.
The maker of the iPhone and iPad introduced a broad array of software upgrades and new features, including a new version of its computer and mobile operating systems and new services that will collect health information and control your home with your phone.
Developers will get an early release of Mac OS X Yosemite and iOS 8 this week, while consumers will have to wait until the fall. (Though in a slight departure, Apple will make a public beta of Yosemite available to some testers this summer.)
With iOS 8, Apple is at long last allowing customers to install third-party keyboards. Apps will also be able to more directly talk to one another, and new HomeKit and HealthKit features will offer a central place for home automation, and health data, respectively.
Whether all this adds up to a good year or a bad year remains to be seen. On the surface there wasn’t a ton of big-ticket features for customers, but if it keeps the best developers and helps Apple create better hardware, it could nonetheless turn out that WWDC 2014 was a big deal.
For developers — who are, after all, Apple’s main audience at this event — they got deeper access to the inner workings of iOS, which is always something they are looking for. The ability to access Touch ID fingerprint recognition is a big deal, as is having the ability for apps to talk to one another.
For more, here’s a recap of our liveblog.
This article originally appeared on Recode.net.
