Welcome to this week’s edition of “Trending Topic Tuesday,” where we share our take on what’s going on in the world and what promotional products would appropriately (or inappropriately) market the subject matter.
Steve Jobs addressed a crowd of 5,200 developers at the 2011 Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco yesterday, and while he didn’t announce the release of the iPhone 5 (which members of the tech world had already guessed), he did speak about a number of updates to the company’s software that will improve functionality – and, likely, sales – of Apple’s already easy-to-use products such as the MacBook, iPad, and iPhone. And if you’ve always wanted to be a pilot or an astronaut, I’m sure that some of these new products and services will catch your ear.
Indeed, some of the features of Mac OS X 10.7 Lion sound like they were developed by NASA: we’ve got Mission Control, which makes it easy for Mac users to quickly navigate among apps and spaces; Launchpad, which allows users to find and launch apps from where they left off the last time they were closed; and iCloud, Apple’s own cloud-based file storage system that gives users the ability to access music, videos, images and more from any Apple device without having to upload them from their Mac to their iPod to their iPad (and so on).
iOS 5, the operating system used by mobile devices (the iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad), also features a number of significant changes that make things both easier and more efficient for users. The camera is accessible via a shortcut from the lock screen, and all devices will be equipped with iMessenger, a conversation platform that allows individuals to carry on a single conversation (free of charge) between various iOS devices. Much like Blackberry’s BBM platform, iMessenger facilitates communication between iOS users via Wi-Fi or 3G to cut back on text messages.
