MacMost Now 651: 2011 Apple Year In Review

Review the year in Apple news: Mac App Store, iPad 2, iOS 5, Lion, iPhone 4S, iCloud, Steve Jobs and more.

You can also watch this video at YouTube (but with ads).

Video Transcript: Hi, this is Gary with 'MacMost Now.' In today's episode let's take a look back at 2011. 
So a lot of Apple news in 2011. Just about every Apple product was somehow changed or updated. And mostly in software as we have new operating systems for both iOS devices and the Mac.
Let's take a look at the entire year. 
So in January we got the Mac App Store. It's hard to believe this is only a year old now. This is now the standard way for you to get applications onto your Mac. 
And it underwent a big stress test in the middle of the year when Apple released Lion, the entire operating system, four gigs for most people over the Mac App Store. And it worked out pretty well. 
And now all applications from Apple including things like the new Final Cut Pro, all the iLife apps, all the stuff you could have bought before on DVDs in the store, now you get it through the Mac App Store. 
And a lot of other developers have switched to using the Mac App Store as well. 
Also early in the year, we saw a big shift in how the iPhone works in the U.S. Previous to 2011, AT&T was the only network where you could have the iPhone. But early in the year we got Verizon. And also throughout the year we got other networks as well including Sprint.
So now the iPhone in the U.S. can be used on a whole variety of different networks. 
In March we got a new iPad, the iPad 2. It had a thinner design and front and back cameras. Throughout the year the iPad dominated the new tablet market. 
As a matter of fact none of the Android tablets could touch it until late in the year Amazon came out with a $200 seven-inch tablet that sold a few million copies. But going into 2012, the iPad is still the dominant tablet device. 
In the middle of the year Apple updated the operating system for both Mac and for iPhones and iPads. We got Lion for Macs, Mac os x 10.7 and for iOS devices we got iOS 5. 
Now the reason that these two were released so close to each other is for iCloud. iCloud is the online system where you can sync things between your Macs, between your iOS devices and between your Macs and iOS devices. Things like calendars, contacts and email.
And a lot of other things like being able to sync music through iTunes Match, have photos uploaded to the Cloud through Photo Stream and a whole bunch of other little bits and pieces. And we'll probably see more of that in the next year. 
Now we also got a new iPhone, the iPhone 4S which looks like the iPhone 4 but with a faster processor and better camera. In addition it also has Siri which is the voice-activated assistant. So now you can talk to your iPhone and also listen to it as it speaks back to you.
And Siri actually became a big hit in the advertising and people talking about it in blogs and so forth. 
Also this year we saw how Apple would deal with malware for the Mac. We didn't have any viruses but we did have a couple of trojans and Apple sprung into action updating Lion and Snow Leopard with some protections against these. 
But the most dominant piece of Apple news this year was of course the passing of co-founder and Apple CEO, Steve Jobs. He gave up the reins at Apple and passed the CEO job to Tim Cook earlier in the year. And then later in the year he lost his battle with cancer. 
Shortly thereafter a official biography of Steve Jobs came out and we learned more about him than we ever knew before including a lot of what went on behind closed doors at Apple, decisions that had been made and really interesting things. 
If you haven't checked out the biography, you may want to take a look at it. 
So that's a look back at Apple news in 2011. Have a Happy New Year. Until next time this is Gary with, 'MacMost Now.'

Comments: 4 Responses to “MacMost Now 651: 2011 Apple Year In Review”

Jordan

13 years ago

RIP Steve

Daniel Gartin

Do you think the next iPhone will hsve 4G support

Gary Rosenzweig

Maybe. But there are big downsides for Apple: larger phone thickness, less battery life, dealing with the fact that it would be a 4G phone but most people are not in range of a 4G network on their carrier of choice. Plus disappointment that some 4G networks are not really much faster than some 3G networks.

Mr Anthony Cotton

I accept that some things have got to change,but not everything. When i had a PC i was using Window`s 98,but when it changed to Window`s Vista. It was terrible,and most PC user`s agreed. Thats when i bought the Mac mini, and found it very user friendly. I then bought the iMac Snow Leopard,and i thought this was much harder to grasp. The killer for me it hadn`t been out long when they brought out Lion. To me this was a bridge too far.

Comments Closed.

MacMost Now 651: 2011 Apple Year In Review

Comments: 4 Responses to “MacMost Now 651: 2011 Apple Year In Review”

Welcome to MacMost

Free Weekly Newsletter

MacMost Online Courses

Keyboard Shortcuts PDF

Connect with MacMost

MacMost Sections

Popular Tutorials

Information