Apple Unveils iOS 7

Completely Redesigned With Stunning User Interface & Great New Features

  SAN FRANCISCO―June 10, 2013―Apple® today unveiled iOS 7, the most significant iOS update since the original iPhone®, featuring a stunning new user interface. iOS 7 is completely redesigned with subtle motion, an elegant color palette and distinct, functional layers that make it feel more alive. The typography has been refined for a cleaner, simpler look, and the use of translucency and motion makes even simple tasks more engaging. iOS 7 has hundreds of great new features, including Control Center, Notification Center, improved Multitasking, AirDrop®, enhanced Photos, Safari®, Siri® and introduces iTunes Radio™, a free Internet radio service based on the music you listen to on iTunes®.

“iOS 7 is the most significant iOS update since the original iPhone,” said Craig Federighi, Apple’s senior vice president of Software Engineering. “To create it, we brought together a team with a broad range of expertise from design to engineering. With what we’ve been able to achieve together, we see iOS 7 as an exciting new beginning.”

“There is a profound and enduring beauty in simplicity, in clarity, in efficiency. True simplicity is derived from so much more than just the absence of clutter and ornamentation—it’s about bringing order to complexity,” said Jony Ive, Apple’s senior vice president of Design. “iOS 7 is a clear representation of these goals. It has a whole new structure that is coherent and applied across the entire system.”
 

 iOS 7 is completely redesigned with an entirely new user interface, but will be instantly familiar to the hundreds of millions of iPhone, iPad® and iPod touch® users around the world. The new interface actually makes your phone appear bigger because everything is designed to take advantage of the entire screen. The redesigned fonts look amazing on the Retina® display, creating even sharper text.

iOS 7 introduces Control Center. Now the controls you want to access quickly are all in one convenient place. With just one swipe from the bottom of your screen, you have access to controls for Airplane Mode, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth or Do Not Disturb, and the ability to adjust screen brightness, pause or play a song, jump to the next track and stream your music with AirPlay®. Control Center also gives you instant access to apps such as Clock, Camera, Calculator and the Flashlight.

With iOS 7, Notification Center is now available from the Lock screen so you can see all your notifications with a simple swipe, and the new Today feature in Notification Center gives you an at-a-glance view of your day with a summary of the important details such as weather, traffic, meetings and events.

With improved Multitasking in iOS 7, developers have the ability to enable any app to multitask in the background with a new API. Users have the ability to switch between their apps in a more visual and intuitive way, and iOS 7 pays attention to which apps you use most and automatically keeps your content up to date in the background.

AirDrop is an entirely new way to quickly and easily share content with people nearby. When you’ve got something you want to share, AirDrop shows you your contacts close by. Just select who you want to share with and AirDrop does the rest. AirDrop transfers are peer-to-peer so you can use it anywhere, without any network or set up required, and transfers are fully encrypted so your content is protected and private.

iPhones are used to take more photos around the world every day than any other camera, and with iOS 7 the new Camera app features filters so you can add real-time photo effects. The Camera app now includes a square camera option, and you can quickly and easily switch between your four cameras—video, photo, square and panorama—with just a swipe.

iOS 7 includes a redesigned Photos app that introduces Moments, a new way to automatically organize your photos and videos based on time and location. You can zoom out to see all your photos organized by Moments, Collections of Moments and Years. iOS 7 includes iCloud Photo Sharing, the easiest way to share just the photos you want with just the people you want. With iCloud® Photo Sharing, family and friends can contribute their own photos and videos to your shared photo streams, and the new Activity view displays updates from your shared streams all in one place.

Safari’s redesigned user interface lets you see more of your content—starting with full-screen browsing. The new smart search field helps simplify searching, and there’s a new view for your bookmarks and your Safari tabs. With iCloud Keychain®, your passwords and credit card information are securely stored and available on all your devices, so navigating password protected sites or autofilling during transactions is simple and secure. Enhanced Parental Controls allow you to automatically block access to adult websites or only allow access to a specific set of permitted websites.

Siri sounds better than ever with new male and female voices and includes Twitter search integration, so you can ask Siri what people are saying on Twitter*. Siri also now has Wikipedia integration, providing access to the world’s most popular Internet reference site. Siri offers Bing web search within the app and the ability to change device settings and play back voicemail.

The Music app has a beautiful new design and includes the new iTunes Radio, a free Internet radio service featuring over 200 stations and an incredible catalog of music from the iTunes Store®, combined with features only iTunes can deliver. iTunes Radio is the best way to discover new music. When you tune into iTunes Radio on your iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, Mac®, PC or Apple TV®, you’ll have access to stations inspired by the music you already listen to, Featured Stations curated by Apple and genre-focused stations that are personalized just for you. iTunes Radio evolves based on the music you play and download. The more you use iTunes Radio and iTunes, the more it knows what you like to listen to and the more personalized your experience becomes. iTunes Radio also gives you access to exclusive “first listen” premieres from top selling artists, Siri integration plus the ability to buy anything you hear with just one tap.

With over 900,000 apps, the App Store℠ is the world’s largest app marketplace. iOS 7 now features Popular Apps Near Me, a new way to find apps based on your current location, and iOS 7 will automatically keep your apps up to date. The App Store also comes with a new Kids category, allowing teachers and parents to easily discover apps for children by age.

Additional new iOS 7 features include:

• a new Find My iPhone Activation Lock feature that requires your Apple ID and password before you can turn off Find My iPhone, erase data or re-activate a device after it’s been remotely erased;
• Night Mode in Maps that responds to ambient light when you use it in the dark;
• FaceTime® audio for high quality calls over a data network;
• Notification sync, so when you dismiss a notification on one device it is dismissed on all of your devices;
• Phone, FaceTime and Messages blocking to prevent specific people from being able to contact you;
• Tencent Weibo support for users in China, a Chinese-English bilingual dictionary, and improved Chinese input including handwriting recognition for multiple Chinese characters;
• the ability for businesses to more efficiently deploy and manage iPhones and iPads; and
• enhanced in-car integration, bringing an Apple designed experience into the car for the first time.

The iOS 7 beta software and SDK are available immediately for iOS Developer Program members at developer.apple.com. iOS 7 will be available as a free software update for iPhone 4 and later, iPad 2 and later, iPad mini and iPod touch (fifth generation) this fall. Some features may not be available on all products.

*US English, French and German will be available with the launch of iOS 7. Additional languages will be added over time.

Apple designs Macs, the best personal computers in the world, along with OS X, iLife, iWork and professional software. Apple leads the digital music revolution with its iPods and iTunes online store. Apple has reinvented the mobile phone with its revolutionary iPhone and App Store, and is defining the future of mobile media and computing devices with iPad.

Source: Apple

Businesses choose Microsoft Office 365 over Google Apps

REDMOND, Wash. — May 13, 2013 — Microsoft Corp. today announced new organizations have selected Microsoft Office 365 for improved communication and collaboration after having deployed or piloted Google Apps. The organizations include Sensia Hälsovård AB, SEPCOIII, and Arysta LifeScience.

These companies join other recently announced customers, such as Caltex Australia, FHI 360, and Santa Clara County, which chose Office 365 for its enterprise-class capabilities, compliance, security and privacy features, all delivered in a cloud service with a 99.9 percent financially backed uptime guarantee from Microsoft.

“Businesses use technology to be competitive and meet the needs of their customers, which is why they can’t afford to compromise on a service that was retrofitted for the enterprise,” said Michael Atalla, director of product marketing for Microsoft Office 365. “With Office 365, Microsoft has combined the familiarity of Office with the capabilities businesses need, delivered as a cloud service they can trust.”

Arysta LifeScience is one of the largest privately owned agrochemical companies in the world, with sales and services in more than 125 countries. In attempting to connect 34 different email environments, Arysta initially opted for Google Apps but quickly found employees were unhappy with the experience — they couldn’t share calendars and had limited offline capabilities — so Arysta switched to Office 365. With Office 365, employees can now integrate email and shared calendars and use IM and webconferencing to connect with colleagues around the world while they are on the road or working from home.

“Google Apps was difficult to use and lacked the capabilities our employees had grown accustomed to in Office,” said Dustin Collins, global head of IT infrastructure, Arysta LifeScience. “With Office 365 we’re able to interact and engage with each other more, allowing us to efficiently and quickly respond to new opportunities. As a result, we’re a more agile, competitive organization.”

Robust certification and standards

Office 365 offers the most robust set of certifications and standards options of any major cloud-based productivity service, and it is the first and only major cloud productivity service to address the rigors of the federal government’s HIPAA requirements. Office 365 is compliant with world-class industry standards, including ISO 27001, EU model clauses and Federal Information Security Management Act. Microsoft is committed to working with its customers to meet their unique security, compliance and privacy needs, including those that must meet Criminal Justice Information Security.

Based in Durham, N.C., FHI 360 is a global nonprofit human development organization dedicated to improving lives by advancing integrated, locally driven solutions. It also switched from Google Apps to Office 365 because it met the organization’s security and privacy requirements.

“As a nonprofit organization, we work on educational and public health issues and must comply with privacy regulations related to the U.S. federal government,” said Douglas Wilkins, director of IT infrastructure at FHI 360. “Not only did Office 365 have privacy features in line with our requirements, but we know where our data is stored — it’s essential for us to have control and set parameters on who views it. That was not possible with Google.”

Freedom of choice

In today’s business environment, many organizations require the flexibility to enable employees to work anytime, anywhere across devices and platforms. With Office 365, employees can sign in from virtually any device, and their documents and personalized settings roam with them, allowing them to quickly pick up right where they left off. With more than 4,000 employees spread across multiple countries, FHI 360 can easily connect and share best practices and improve services with Office 365 while being more strategic with spending. The organization expects to save approximately US$20,000 annually by utilizing IM and webconferencing capabilities in Office 365. Unlike Google Apps, Office 365 enabled FHI 360 to move to the cloud on its own terms by supporting both on-premises and cloud deployments in its environment.

“Our global work environment sometimes requires us to work in countries where cloud services aren’t yet available or feasible because broadband connections are limited,” Wilkins said. “With Google, we had to be all in or nothing at all. Having the flexibility to make the deployment choices that were right for our business means we can consolidate systems onto the same platform regardless of whether we’re using the cloud or an in-house server.”

Additional new Microsoft Office 365 customers

• Arysta LifeScience. Arysta LifeScience is an agrochemical company spread across more than 125 countries and employing 3,400 people. Arysta LifeScience wanted to standardize its email platforms on a cloud-based email service and initially chose Google Apps for Business. However, Google Apps was difficult to use and lacked the capabilities its employees had grown accustomed to in Office. Arysta LifeScience introduced Office 365 to its employees and found immediate value — the company is no longer a collection of disparate entities in different countries. It is a globally connected organization where employees can instantly find and communicate with one another.

• SEPCOIII. Based in Qingdao, China, SEPCOIII employs 5,800 people and designs and builds power plants around the world. The company wanted a single solution that employees could use to communicate and collaborate with other employees, partners and customers around the world. Staff had used Gmail but found it unreliable, while most found the calendar feature cumbersome and were not even using it. Because Gmail provided only limited offline functionality, it was difficult for employees to work remotely. With Office 365, SEPCOIII has a dependable and robust cloud-based solution that significantly reduces costs and boosts employee productivity.

• Sensia Hälsovård AB. Healthcare provider Sensia Hälsovård AB needed a single communication and collaboration platform to accommodate its rapid growth. Approximately 30 percent of its employees had been using Gmail, but found it cumbersome, unintuitive and when employees needed support, it was difficult for them to obtain it. The company eventually chose Office 365 and found it was a more professional service as built-in scalability is crucial to a rapidly growing company.

More information about how organizations are turning to Microsoft technology is available in the Microsoft Customer Spotlight newsroom. More information on Office Web Apps is available here, and more information about Office 365 is here and here.

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.

Source: Microsoft