Keychain for iCloud allows users to sync all their passwords across all their devices – and also incorporates a generator that provides secure, long-form passwords on the basis that you won’t have to remember it or type it in manually any more. So the era of naming your password after your cat may well be over – a welcome step from a security point of view. Bye bye, kitty02 or mittens99; hello sf89!sl-djf?!!!-3.
Whether people start naming their cats after these passwords remains to be seen.
It’s the beginning of the end for bulky Macbooks
Power users are now served with the ultra-tiny Mac Pro, a six-inch cylindrical device that provides more computing power than even the most hardened motion graphics editor could ever require. Casual users, meanwhile, are served by the expanding and increasingly powerful Macbook Air range. The gap in the middle – where the Macbook and Macbook Pro currently reside – was not even mentioned during yesterday’s speech. The age of the bulky laptop could be nearing its end.
Apple are moving forward again
After this speech last year, we were left scratching our heads and wondering if a Jobs-less Apple could ever deliver the same excitement as they once did. Yesterday proved that it definitely can.
iOS 7 is perhaps the most exciting thing that Apple have revealed since the iPad – and it shows an ability to move away from linear thinking, and make products continuously new, innovative, attractive and exciting. This keynote puts Apple back in the tech driving seat, and its competitors face a tough year playing catch-up once again – provided, of course, that this iOS delivers upon its initial promise.
“It looks fantastic, but I think the proof will be when we get it in our hands,” says Philip Joyce. “As Jony Ive said yesterday, quoting Steve Jobs: ‘Design is not how it looks, but how it works’.”