Apple will reportedly focus on OS X v10.10 and its radical interface overhaul at this year’s World Wide Developer Conference, with iOS taking somewhat of a backseat. This would contrast sharply with previous years, when iOS has been given increasing prominence at Apple’s developer-centric event.
News website 9to5Mac reports that OSX v10.10 will introduce a complete redesign, bringing it in line with iOS 7’s aesthetic. The change is said to incorporate sharper corners, fewer shadows and 3D effects, and an updated colour palette. Many interface elements will be unified between Apple’s two operating systems. The company had allocated massive resources to a ground-up redesign of iOS last year, but has retained much of its older style in OS X so far.
9to5Mac adds that the overhaul will mostly be visual, and the two operating systems will continue to be separate entities with different design goals, keeping their different users and usage scenarios in mind. Features will continue to be introduced across both, but OS X will not take on iOS’s mostly closed nature.
As a result, development of iOS 8 could be delayed, with some features pushed back to a mid-life update called 8.1 early next year. Previously leaked or speculated features for iOS 8 include a standalone iTunes Radio app, a Healthbook app for tracking multiple fitness and exercise-related parameters, a music search function, improvements to Apple Maps, and minor interface changes. It is not clear which of these might be pushed back, or whether Apple will still introduce them at WWDC.
9to5Mac also reports speculation that Apple’s A8 processor, which will succeed the A7 in the next iPhone, iPad and Apple TV models, will not have any major architectural changes, but will instead be far more power efficient. The next iPhone is widely expected to come with a larger screen, so increased battery drain will need to be compensated for.
Apple is expected to release an updated Apple TV which will run a derivative of iOS and be based on the new in-house processor as well.
