OS X users can finally rejoice as Apple has finally released iTunes 11 for download. At the time of writing this post we can confirm it is not yet available for Windows, but OS X users can upgrade to iTunes 11 from the Mac App store. Only a few hours ago we reported that Apple was expected to release the latest version of iTunes today and it has come good on the promise.

Apple has redesigned the user interface of the program by making it cleaner and simpler to use. Apple calls the new UI an edge-to-edge UI, which puts the content first. Expanded view is a new feature that Apple has added in iTunes 11 that allows the user to quickly access all the contents of an album.  The new app also brings forth a revamped Mini-Player, which is actually smaller than the one it replaces but again it actually shows more information than its predecessor.

Up Next is also amongst the new features introduced in iTunes 11. This allows users to select songs they want to play next or create a queued list that spans several songs.

Perhaps the biggest feature of iTunes 11 is its integration with Apple’s cloud service iCloud. So now users can access media stored on iCloud and even continue songs or TV Shows right where they left off from another iDevice.

Apple has also redesigned the storefront, which takes cues from its iPad and iPhone counterparts. Overall the new design is much cleaner and simpler to use. Finally, Apple has also unveiled a new logo for the app. The upgrade to iTunes 11 is not very large at 198MB.

Update: iTunes 11 is now available for Windows as well. Users can download it from here.

A couple of days ago, Rovio teased an image of an Angry Birds game that hinted at a Star Wars collaboration. The hint was a hooded bird draped in a Jedi robe holding something similar to a lightsaber hilt. Well, it turns out that is exactly what the company was hinting at as it has just posted a teaser on YouTube, which reveals that Angry Birds Star Wars is coming on November 8. The game will be available on Android, iOS, Mac and PC, though Rovio does not specifically say whether Windows 8 will be supported.

The teaser shows the same hooded bird holding a lightsaber, but this time around the lightsaber powers up with a blue beam, which in the Star Wars universe is code for a Jedi Knight. The lightsaber beam then takes the shape of a magnet horseshoe, which also represents the slingshot for slinging the birds. The blue lightsaber beam definitely signifies that the protagonist of the next Angry Birds game will have some dueling skills on the scale of a Jedi Knight like Obi-wan-Kenobi from the Star Wars universe. We are betting that the birds will be represented by some Star Wars characters themselves.

Rovio recently released Bad Piggies, where users play as the pigs, the villains of the Angry Birds franchise. As we started to believe that the company was done with its Angry Birds fetish, the company has pulled the mother of all geeky collaborations – Angry Birds Star Wars.

Apple’s AirPlay wireless audio/video streaming technology for iOS and OSX products is perhaps the most widely used wireless streaming solution and also perhaps the best in terms of quality. Today, a report by UK based newspaper The Telegraph, claims that Apple intends to improve the technology further by eliminating the need of connecting the ow devices to a Wi-Fi network. This technology will be called Air Play Direct.

This basically means that instead of creating a stream by connecting to Wi-Fi network, to Apple AirPlay enabled devices will be able to communicate directly with each other minus the third party.  Android devices already boast of this capability as they normally stream music wirelessly using Bluetooth technology.

Apple is said to be announcing this feature at its rumoured September event when it will unveil the next iPhone. Apple had originally introduced AirTunes in 2004 and later with iOS4 it renamed it AirPlay as it added support for video and then with iOS 5 the  company added Airplay mirroring via an Apple TV and more recently the company added this capability to its desktop OS, OS X Mountain Lion.

Remember, Apple has achieved a similar feat with its AirDrop technology on OS X Lion via a Wi-Fi ad-hoc connection that allows users to share files with other Macs running OX Lion and beyond without the need of a USB drive or even a Wi-Fi connection, as the transfer happens peer-to-peer.

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Apple just did something the company hasn’t done very often in recent years — it completely surprised nearly every single person with the announcement of OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion, the next OS for the Mac. Inching a step closer to bridging the gap between iOS and OS X, Mountain Lion brings practically all of iOS’s featured apps to desktop and laptop computers. From Messages, which I’ve been waiting for ever since iMessage was announced, to built-in iCloud support, Notification Center, Game Center, Reminders, Notes, a much-improved Safari browser, AirPlay and more, the two OSes are practically the same now in terms of system apps. This is the first developer preview of OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion, and the OS will only improve before it is released in the summer. If you’re itching for my thoughts, though, you’ll find them after the break.

Messages

Out with iChat, in with Messages. Finally.

I’ve been talking about Apple’s messaging strategy for a while, and it is now coming together as I predicted — iMessage, FaceTime and iChat all had to merge eventually. While you can still use iChat much like you’d use the app before, the real star of the show is the new Messages interface which combines all your open conversations together in one unified window.

The ease of use here is just off the charts — by using your Apple ID, all of your messages will instantly and effortlessly flow from your iPhone to iPad to iPod touch to computers, keeping on-going conversations in sync no matter what device you have with you. This is a huge game-changer for instant communication in my book. Apple has said that over 26 billion iMessages were sent since its introduction in iOS 5. Add in delivery and read receipts, photo and file sending, and the over 100mm people who use iMessage, and you have a major network for instant sharing that just works.

One thing that I’d like Apple to solve on the computer with Messages, though, is checking to see what people in my contacts have an Apple ID or phone number and not showing me the rest of their contact information. Since you can only chat with an iPhone user or Apple ID in iMessage, it doesn’t make much sense to show me a contact’s secondary numbers or email addresses.

FaceTime is integrated into the main Messages window for whomever you’re in a conversation with, which is a clean way to bridge these two services into one. If you’re on OS X 10.7 Lion, you won’t even have to wait until the summer to start using Messages, as Apple has released it as a public beta that’s available for download now.

iCloud

Apple has integrated iCloud into the foundation of OS X 10.8. When you first power on the computer, you’re greeted with a sign-in window for your Apple ID. After you sign in, iCloud downloads your settings and sets up most of your computer for you, automatically. This includes your mail, contacts, calendar, reminders, notes, messages, bookmarks and more.

Opening the iCloud preferences shows you just how much syncing and data Apple is handling so you don’t have to worry about it — Back to my Mac, Find my Mac, Photo Stream and of course, the aforementioned as well. I still don’t see a way to integrate iCloud with Apple’s iWork suite, but this is obviously coming very soon.

Notification Center

This makes me so, so happy. I’ve hated Growl since its inception, mainly because it wasn’t ever executed properly. Notification Center is a wonderful place to see all of your notifications and alerts, including the addition of banner alerts that appear on the right side of your display. You can fine tune these just like you can on iOS by going into the Notifications panel in your settings and choosing whether to badge apps, what kind of alert you want, how many alerts for a specific app to show and more granular controls.

Introduced with Notification Center is a new two-finger gesture to bring up your notifications, and it’s a two-finger swipe from the edge of the trackpad from right to left. This is a bit cumbersome on a Magic Trackpad because you have to start exactly where the surface starts, unlike on a MacBook Air or Pro where there’s a surface next to the trackpad area.

Apple has an API for Mac Apps that want to appear in Notification Center, so expect almost every one of your favorite app to be compatible. For now, Mail, Messages, Contacts, Calendar, Reminders, Mac App Store and Safari will appear in Notification Center.

Game Center

Game Center is something else that feels big to me. The Mac was once a platform that was terrible for gamers. With the introduction, capability, and popularity of iOS, however, Apple’s devices have been the number one place for console-quality games in the past few years. It’s now translating to the Mac. Not only can you use Game Center how you would on iOS — yes, your friends are here, game recommendations are here, and your achievements are here — but you can also play multiplayer and turn-based games from your Mac with someone else on an iPhone or iPad. That’s big.

Contacts / Calendar / Notes / Reminders

Address Book and iCal are gone, replaced with Contacts and Calendar just like on iOS. These apps are mostly identical to the apps they replace aside from their new names, but there is a level of iCloud integration that was missing before. Whatever is on your iOS device will be on your Mac now in Reminders and Notes, and the Notes app also features some awesome capabilities like in-line photos, bulleted lists, hyperlinked URLs, customizable fonts and other enhancements. Reminders also syncs with your iOS devices, though Reminders with locations don’t seem to display properly on the Mac at this point.

AirPlay

 Another huge addition to the Mac is AirPlay. This allows you to send your video and audio content directly from your computer to a TV or projector. Imagine just showing up to a conference room with your MacBook Air and instantly beaming your Keynote presentation wirelessly to a display, or grabbing your laptop while you’re on your sofa and showing off a new home video to friends on your TV. You can push your content from your Mac to a TV, and you can also use AirPlay Mirroring just as you can on your iPad 2 or iPhone 4S, turning the TV into your monitor on your Mac — wirelessly.

Mountain Lion

There’s a lot more to OS X 10.8 then what I covered above. For example, there’s now system-level sharing going on, called Share Sheet. It’s contextual based on the app you are in, and this is most likely a sign of what’s to come in iOS 6 if I had to bet — a system-integrated way of sharing from one app to other services in iOS.

Safari has improved to the point where I’m going to try to make it my default browser. It’s buttery smooth, the ability to type a URL and search from one unified bar is a needed improvement, and I love how it grays out all of the URL noise, just leaving the base URL whole. Reader has moved to a permanent place on the right side of the browser bar, and using Safari just makes browsing the Internet feel like a different experience than just pulling up Web pages. It feels very iOS-like, especially with the Magic Trackpad — something Apple was obviously aiming for.

Another addition in OS X 10.8 is the fact that the Mac App Store now handles all of your system updates. These updates will even appear in Notification Center now. I was able to update three different parts of the system using just the App Store.

Apple has also introduced a way to try and prevent any bad apps from running on the Mac with GateKeeper. This setting lets you choose whether to accept apps downloaded only from the App Store (Apple has to approve every app before it’s available here), apps from the App Store and verified developers (developers will be able to sign apps with a unique identifier, and Apple would be able to revoke this in case of any nefarious happenings), or apps from anywhere and everywhere. This would also be a much-welcome and much-awaited feature for iOS, if that’s ever an option down the road.

All in all, playing with OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion feels more like an experience you have come to expect from Apple — a window into whatever you want, pushing every distraction out of the way so you can work better and play better. Check out high resolution images of OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion in our gallery.

This post originally appeared on BGR: The Three Biggest Letters In Tech.com

The eventual arrival of iMessage on OS X, in some form, is almost a foregone conclusion at this point, but a new report claims to confirm that Apple is indeed working on bringing it to the Mac platform alongside AirPlay Mirroring. Citing multiple anonymous sources, 9to5 Mac says Apple is already hard at work bringing the services to OS X, though it is apparently unclear whether or not the efforts will bear fruit. AirPlay Mirroring will theoretically allow OS X users to mirror their Mac display wirelessly to an Apple TV while iMessage will let users carry on conversations from Mac computers just as they can now with the iPhone, iPod touch or iPad. The report says Apple is also currently debating whether or not iMessage should be integrated into Apple’s iChat app or introduced as a standalone app, and a concept video of how the latter scenario might work follows below.

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This post originally appeared on BGR: The Three Biggest Letters In Tech.com

There is hard evidence that Apple is looking to add iMessage support to iChat, according to a new report from MacRumors. This would further increase the size of the iMessage user base, expanding to the desktop in addition to being available on almost all iPhones, iPads and iPod touch devices. According to the report, a developer found code references to the following in the OS X Lion version of iChat:

@interface IMMessage : NSObject
{
IMHandle *_sender;
IMHandle *_subject;
NSAttributedString *_text;
NSString *_plainBody;
NSDate *_time;
NSDate *_timeDelivered;
NSDate *_timeRead;

With iMessage available on all Mac computers, your conversations will literally follow you and be available wherever you go, and I personally can’t wait. Read on for more.

Instead of having to use my phone when I’m sitting at a computer working, I’ll be able reply and start new messages without leaving whatever I’m working on or doing. With delivery and read notifications — and, presumably, support for multimedia file transfers — this will be a much more intimate experience than traditional IM, and it will also simplify instant messaging on all Apple devices.

Contrast this with Research In Motion, whose BBM service Apple is copying. RIM still doesn’t offer a desktop BlackBerry Messenger feature after years of users begging for one, and you can see how different each company’s strategy and product plans really are.

Apple’s iMessage instant messaging feature was announced only in June and has been available in beta form since then to developers, but starting as soon as the end of this month or the beginning of next, iMessage could be available on all Apple devices. And what was arguably the No. 1 reason consumers bought and used BlackBerry smartphones will quickly become yet another reason people buy Apple devices instead.

This post originally appeared on BGR: The Three Biggest Letters In Tech.com

Microsoft executives took to the stage at the annual BUILD developer conference on Tuesday to give the world its first real look at the future of the Windows operating system. The reception, as you’ve likely read by now, has been overwhelmingly positive. In fact, Apple bloggers were apparently so flustered by the platform that they resorted to bombarding Twitter with jokes about cooling fans and Silverlight instead of stopping for a moment to realize that Microsoft is showing us the future of computing. The PC was the future, and it let people perform functions they never thought possible. Then the tablet was the future, and it let people interact with content in ways they never thought possible. Now, the future means all things to all people. Read on for more.

I’ve mentioned it before on several occasions, but the point is much easier to make now that Microsoft has given the world a better look at its vision of the near-term future of computing. PCs are not going away. They will continue to be the primary means of computing for business and consumers alike. Tablets are not going away, either. They will continue to provide a much more intuitive way to interact with a consumer electronics device. Microsoft’s vision, however, unifies these devices.

One platform to rule them all. The technology exists to enable users to carry a single device that is as portable and usable as a tablet, but also as powerful and capable as a PC. It has a battery that can last all day, but it can also run Photoshop, Excel and Outlook. It can weigh next to nothing and slip into a slim case, but it can also power two monitors and run proprietary enterprise software.

When Windows 8 is finally bestowed upon the masses, each and every user will have Apple to thank. Windows 8 as we’re seeing it today would never have existed if competition from the iPad — and the iPhone before it — had not illuminated a giant light bulb over all of our heads: platforms can be both capable and intuitive. Apple’s iOS is the most fluid, logical, user friendly mass-market platform in the world, and it has forced the competition to look at products in a new light. Companies have been incredibly slow to adapt, however, and that is why Apple is currently the biggest tech company in the world.

But the iPad was only the beginning.

Apple paved the way but Microsoft will get there first with Windows 8. A tablet that can be as fluid and user friendly as the iPad but as capable as a Windows laptop. A tablet that can boot in under 10 seconds and fire up a full-scale version of Adobe Dreamweaver a few moments later. A tablet that can be slipped into a dock to instantly become a fully capable touch-enabled laptop computer. This is Microsoft’s vision with Windows 8, and this is what it will deliver.

People debate it all the time, but the simple fact is that “real work” is significantly more difficult to do on the iPad or on an Android tablet than it is on a Windows or Mac PC. Debate all you want. Android and iOS apps are dumbed down and infinitely less capable, typing is on a tablet is a pain in the ass unless you carry a Bluetooth keyboard, and the experience as a whole is severely limited.

We are not living in a “post-PC” era today any more than we were on January 26th, 2010, the day before Apple unveiled the magical iPad. Apple would love a post-PC era, of course, since personal computers no longer represent the bulk of the company’s revenue, but Microsoft is showing us that there is a better way. And that better way, as it turns out, is a PC.

Down the road, Mac OS and iOS will merge into a single platform or OS X will adopt enough iOS-like characteristics that Apple will finally be comfortable with slapping it on a touch-enabled device. Lion is the beginning of this process, though I sincerely hope future iterations offer less resistance. At that point in time, Apple will be able to offer a computing solution that is infinitely more versatile and capable than the company’s current solutions. A solution like Windows 8.

If the iPad ushered in the post-PC era, then welcome to the post-post-PC era.

This post originally appeared on BGR: The Three Biggest Letters In Tech.com

Apple on Tuesday released OS X Lion 10.7.1 to Mac users with the following changes listed:

The 10.7.1 update is recommended for all users running OS X Lion and includes general operating system fixes that enhance the stability and compatibility of your Mac, including fixes that:

• Address an issue that may cause the system to become unresponsive when playing a video in Safari
• Resolve an issue that may cause system audio to stop working when using HDMI or optical audio out
• Improve the reliability of Wi-Fi connections
• Resolve an issue that prevents transfer of your data, settings, and compatible applications to a new Mac running OS X Lion

For detailed information on this update, please visit this website: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4764.

The new update is available immediately via OS X’s software update utility. Hopefully there are also a few more changes hidden under the hood so we can start unchecking a few boxes in Lion Tweaks.

This post originally appeared on BGR: The Three Biggest Letters In Tech.com

Apple is in the late stages of testing a new ultra-thin 15-inch notebook computer that may or may not be an upcoming new addition to the MacBook Air family. MacRumors on Tuesday reports that the new ultra-thin laptop could either be a MacBook Air, which is currently offered in 11 and 13-inch sizes, or a MacBook Pro, which is currently offered in 13, 15 and 17-inch sizes. No pricing or release timing is being reported at this point, though a launch in the near term is unlikely. Apple refreshed its MacBook Pro lineup this past February and new MacBookAir models launched just this past week.

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Apple’s OS X Lion was downloaded more than 1 million times during its first day of availability, Apple said on Thursday. The Cupertino-based company made the announcement just as Microsoft announced its earnings results for the fiscal fourth quarter — merely a coincidence, we’re sure. Presuming these were paid OS X purchases and upgrades, Apple grossed more than $30 million from Lion in just one day. “Lion is off to a great start, user reviews and industry reaction have been fantastic,” said Phil Schiller, Apple’s SVP of Worldwide Product Marketing, in a statement. “Lion is a huge step forward, it’s not only packed with innovative features but it’s incredibly easy for users to update their Macs to the best OS we’ve ever made.” OS X 10.7 Lion is available now in the Mac App Store for $29.99. Apple’s full press release follows below.

Lion Downloads Top One Million in First Day

CUPERTINO, California—July 21, 2011—Apple® today announced that in just one day, over one million users bought and downloaded Mac OS® X Lion, the eighth major release of the world’s most advanced operating system. Available through the Mac® App Store™ for $29.99 (US), users are buying Lion faster than any other OS release in Apple’s history.

“Lion is off to a great start, user reviews and industry reaction have been fantastic,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing. “Lion is a huge step forward, it’s not only packed with innovative features but it’s incredibly easy for users to update their Macs to the best OS we’ve ever made.”

Lion introduces more than 250 new features to the Mac, including Multi-Touch® gestures; system-wide support for full screen apps; Mission Control, an innovative view of everything running on your Mac; the Mac App Store, the best place to find and explore great software; Launchpad, a new home for all your apps; and a completely redesigned Mail app.

Available in 123 countries, the Mac App Store brings the revolutionary App Store experience to the Mac so you can find great new apps, buy them using your iTunes® account, download and install them in just one step. The Mac App Store offers apps in Education, Games, Graphics & Design, Lifestyle, Productivity, Utilities and other categories. Users can browse new and noteworthy apps, find out what’s hot, see staff favorites, search categories and look up top charts for paid and free apps, as well as user ratings and reviews. The Mac App Store is built right into Lion and available for Snow Leopard® users through Software Update as part of Mac OS X version 10.6.8.

This post originally appeared on BGR: The Three Biggest Letters In Tech.com

Apple has reportedly scheduled overnights for Tuesday night in preparation for the OS X Lion launch. According to 9to5 Mac, Apple Store outlets are already equipped with hard drives to quickly install Lion on the show floor computers, and the stores have been sent new posters to outfit the walls with advertisements for the new operating system. Apple is also expected to refresh the MacBook Air in the imminent future. We’re expecting the new notebooks to pack the Thunderbolt I/O port in place of DisplayPort, Intel’s new Sandy Bridge processors, and a backlit keyboard.

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This post originally appeared on BGR: The Three Biggest Letters In Tech.com

Apple on Thursday released the latest public build of its Mac OS X operating system, version 10.6.8. Release notes are as follows:

The 10.6.8 update is recommended for all users running Mac OS X Snow Leopard and includes general operating system fixes that enhance the stability, compatibility, and security of your Mac, including fixes that:

- Enhance the Mac App Store to get your Mac ready to upgrade to Mac OS X Lion
- Resolve an issue that may cause Preview to unexpectedly quit
- Improve support for IPv6
- Improve VPN reliability
- Identify and remove known variants of Mac Defender

For detailed information on this update, please visit this website:http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4561.
For information on the security content of this update, please visit:http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1222.

The new Snow Leopard build is available for all modern Apple PCs, and the highlight is clearly the first bullet item listed above: “Enhance the Mac App Store to get your Mac ready to upgrade to Mac OS X Lion.” Apple is expected to release OS X Lion next month.

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Today is the day that Apple CEO Steve Jobs and other executives will unveil the next advancements out of the industry’s leading innovator at WWDC 2011. While Apple has already announced that the company will be talking about three different main products — iOS 5, iCloud, and Mac OS X Lion — the fact is, Apple once again could possibly change (and influence) the entire way we use computers and mobile devices. Let’s look at iCloud, for example: if Apple is able to transition the device-centric approach to how we work with information and apps to a task-centric approach where the PowerPoint presentation you’re working on is what matters, and not what computer or tablet or smartphone you’re editing it from, that in itself a huge move forward in computing. Other companies have been trying to accomplish this for years, but we having a feeling that Apple is about to show us the beginnings of something so seamless, it really could find mass adoption, unlike most current solutions. Add in music, photos, videos, and your documents, and you should be able to pick up any computer or device and have access to all of your information and data from wherever you are. Coupled with a rumored Airport Extreme and TimeCapsule refresh in which the devices will run iOS and a feature an A4 or A5 processor, and all of your data could sit on one of your own devices and it would use your own internet connection to serve up your files directly to you. Lastly, what if iCloud allowed you to just walk up to any iOS or Mac computer and let you sign in, sit down, and practically act as if though it was your device or computer? What if Apple then implements this using NFC in the next iPhone — just place your iDevice next to a Mac computer, and it will instantly be transformed into your computer. Hit the break for more!

In iOS 5, Apple is rumored to have drastically redone a major pain-point for users: notifications. Though I’m sure Apple will show off redone notifications in iOS 5, I think it will be much, much more that that — iOS 5 will be the biggest change since the introduction of iOS in 2007. While Mac OS X Lion is all about simplifying and taking advantage of all the innovative things Apple has done to get rid of the frustrating experience of using a computer, I think iOS 5 will be about making iOS even more powerful, and a platform that will be capable of one day being a standalone computer operating system. Also, what if Apple decides that they’ve had enough with 3rd parties making messaging systems? They never introduced a real version of iChat, what if they created their own messaging network, not unlike BlackBerry Messenger? They have to see how valuable and useful all of these messaging services are. Additionally, iOS 5 should eliminate the need to sync your device — it’s all tied to your iCloud account. Your device is backed up and synced wirelessly, applications update in the background, OS updates are delivered wirelessly, and if you ever lose or replace a device, just sign in, and all your data is populated and everything is back.

With Mac OS X Lion, Apple will introduce features that make the Mac even more enjoyable to use. It will make people look back on the fact we had to save files — really, if you think about it, it’s insane that we’re forced to manage the data on a computer and make sure it’s saved and backed up — and make them feel like we were all living in the stone age. The entire philosophy of Apple is to offer the user a window and let everything else melt away and get out of the way. OS X Lion does that more so than any other OS X release, and it makes computing easier and more enjoyable for everybody.

I know Apple set expectations that we won’t be seeing any major hardware announcements, but a part of me does think it’s possible we’ll see an iPhone announcement of some sort. A guy can dream, right?

This post originally appeared on BGR.com

According to a new report form The Wallstreet Journal, Apple’s iCloud storage locker service — set to be unveiled next Monday during the WWDC 2011 conference — will launch with more partners than both Google and Amazon have for their competing services. Reportedly, Apple has inked deals with EMI Group, Sony Music Entertainment, and Warner Music Group. A fourth deal with Universal Music Group could be signed as early as this week, The Wall Street Journal said. In a more interesting twist, Apple’s music locker may not require users to upload songs, as Google and Amazon’s services do. Instead, it could “scan and match” user’s libraries and simply provide access to songs that have already been downloaded. What’s more, Apple may be working on separate deals with movie studios that would allow a similar service for streaming movies and TV shows. We’ll be reporting live from San Francisco on Monday, where Apple has also confirmed that it will discuss iOS 5 and its new OS X Lion operating systems.

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Apple confirmed on Tuesday that CEO Steve Jobs will be on hand at the company’s Worldwide Developer Conference next week to unveil Apple’s next-generation software. Jobs and other Apple executives will finally take the wraps off iOS 5, the highly anticipated software update iPhone, iPad and iPod touch users around the world have been clamoring for. Among the enhancements expected to be revealed are widgets and a completely revamped notification system. Apple will also detail its new iCloud offering, and while the company did not elaborate on the offering, it is expected to be a suite of cloud-based services that will include a streaming music service backed by major record labels in the U.S. Finally, Apple said it will provide new details surrounding Lion, the eighth major release of the Mac OS X operating system. Hit the break for Apple’s full press release.

Apple to Unveil Next Generation Software at Keynote Address on Monday, June 6

CUPERTINO, California—May 31, 2011—Apple® CEO Steve Jobs and a team of Apple executives will kick off the company’s annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) with a keynote address on Monday, June 6 at 10:00 a.m. At the keynote, Apple will unveil its next generation software – Lion, the eighth major release of Mac OS® X; iOS 5, the next version of Apple’s advanced mobile operating system which powers the iPad®, iPhone® and iPod touch®; and iCloud®, Apple’s upcoming cloud services offering.

WWDC will feature more than 100 technical sessions presented by Apple engineers. Mac® developers will see and learn how to develop world-class Mac OS X Lion applications using its latest technologies and capabilities. Mobile developers will be able to explore the latest innovations and capabilities of iOS and learn how to greatly enhance the functionality, performance and design of their apps. All developers can bring their code to the labs and work with Apple engineers.

For more details, visit the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference 2011 website at developer.apple.com/wwdc.

This post originally appeared on BGR.com