Future Technologies

STORY HIGHLIGHTS Feature can show users current weather, traffic alerts and the like Tab appears in Notifications Apple did  a lot of borrowing  for the  latest release  of its mobile operating system, and  MacRumors found something in iOS 7  that will seem awfully familiar to Google Now users. It's a series of notifications that appear under a tab called Today — the feature can show users the current weather for places they may be going, alert them to traffic before their regular commute, and, like a personal assistant, tell them what their schedule looks like for the morning. Alerts appear under a Today tab in the Notifications Center, which you can turn on in the Settings app. The data, according to some info that MacRumors found, comes from different sources within iOS. Traffic information about frequently visited locations is gathered if the user turns on the Frequent Locations feature under Location Services. Today, at least in its cu...

STORY HIGHLIGHTS Apple's new operating system for mobile devices includes app for cars It is designed to make sure drivers are not distracted Look for it in 2014 in up to a dozen car brands The new operating system will come to cars where it can controlled by voice Apple's new operating system for its popular mobile devices goes well beyond iPhone and iPad. It will be showing up in new cars. It's called iOS 7 and will be available to download this fall. The new operating system features a number of design changes to the devices' interface. It also adds a new application that will let an iPhone5 display a few essential functions through a car's multimedia system. It's called "iOS in the Car." It "seamlessly integrates your iOS device — and the iOS experience — with your in-dash system. If your vehicle is equipped with iOS in the Car, you can connect your iPhone 5 and interact with it using the car's b...

SAN FRANCISCO —Think Apple's critics struck a raw nerve with the company? "Can't innovate anymore, my ass." That's from Phil Schiller, Apple senior vice president for worldwide marketing, speaking on stage at the company's annual Worldwide Developers Conference. Schiller was essentially talking about Apple's new tubular-designed Mac Pro, the kind of powerful computer used by developers who make up much of the WWDC audience. But he might as well have been addressing Apple's most vocal detractors, those who say that Samsung is now the company that Apple used to be, and that Tim Cook isn't Steve Jobs. These are the fickle what-have-you-done-for-me-lately types who wonder whether the company that forever altered the tech landscape with the Mac, iPod and iTunes, iPhone and iPad has somehow lost its mojo. As if pumping out game-changing hardware is some sort of divine obligation. There were no true game-changers introduced at WWDC, though thi...