Apple unveils new software to allow smart control of the home

Technology giant Apple has introduced new software that will allow users to control their homes directly from mobile devices.

The iPhone maker also introduced a health app that will enable users to store health and fitness data from different apps in one place.

Speaking about the software updates at its annual developer’s conference, WWDC, in San Francisco, CEO Tim Cook said: “This is a milestone year for this conference. It’s our 25th year.”

Apple introduced a new piece of software called HomeKit, which will allow developers to create apps that enable users to control different appliances and features around their home directly from an iPhone or iPad.

The new health system, called HealthKit, comes with a supporting app, named Health, where users can view all of their various fitness statistics such as heart rate and distance covered.

Apple has been under pressure to move into the health sector following rival Samsung’s introduction of a dedicated wristband, the Gear Fit that syncs with an app on the owner’s smartphone.

The company’s desktop software, known as OS X and updated annually, has been given another overhaul and renamed OS X Yosemite, following the trend of being named after areas of California, where the company is based.

The design of the desktop software has been tweaked, including a new search bar that appears at the centre of the screen and uses sources on and offline to find documents as well as make internet searches.

There had been talk in the run-up to the conference of rapper Dr Dre making some sort of appearance, following the purchase of his headphone manufacturer Beats Electronics last week, and the crowd was not disappointed. The rapper took a call from Apple’s Craig Federighi, who was showing off a new feature that enables users to make phone calls from their desktop computer.

Mr Federighi welcomed him to Apple following the acquisition of Beats for $3bn (€2.2bn).

“I can’t wait to work with the team at Apple,” said Dre, before joking about attempting to beat Mr Cook to the office in the morning.

The software that runs on iPhone, known as iOS, was also updated and moved onto it’s 8th version with some tweaks. One of the key introductions in iOS 8 will be better acknowledgement of SMS text messages, following criticism that users struggled to switch from Apple’s own iMessage service to SMS. While it is not yet clear whether the new features remove that problem, SMS messages are now recognised on Mac desktops for the first time.