A New Home For Apps

During Steve Jobs’ Keynote at WWDC ‘07, he announced a lot of new things. The biggest surprise though, was when going to Apple’s website after the Keynote was finished. Not only was there a plethora of application updates that Steve didn’t mention, but also a complete re-design!

Almost all of Apple’s major pages saw a face-lift. This goes along with the design of it’s Support page, which saw its update a few weeks ago. Lucky for all us software fans, this includes the Downloads section. I use this area regularly to check up on what’s new, what’s updated, and also discover some apps that aren’t always in the ’spotlight’.

The Downloads section now sits prominently on the main header bar, instead of tucked away in the ‘Mac OS X’ section. You don’t have to jump through as many hoops to get to the page, which is a welcome change. This is great; however, I’m sure some .Mac users aren’t so happy, as ‘Downloads’ seems to have come at the expense of .Mac on the main bar.

At first glance, very little has changed on the Downloads page. The sections still remain on the left, and the page keeps it’s same basic “shape.” Having said that, there has been a brilliant addition to the site.

When you enter a category (Apple, Drivers, Games etc.) you now have much more control over what apps are displayed. Shown in the screenshot below, you can now choose to view them by Most recent, Most popular, Alphabetical and as Staff picks. The icing on the cake though, is being able to subscribe to each different section using RSS.

To make it a little more clear as to what this new Downloads page can do, here is a little example: Say I want to find the latest photo apps. I go to Imaging and 3D, to find that there are 6 pages of apps (we love that really). By clicking on ‘Most Popular,’ I see a re-arranged list with the most downloaded apps right there at the top.

This is a very nice feature, as it makes it very quick to find new things. Now you know the things that other people are liking, and the apps that the Apple Staff have picked out as being great. Also new to the Downloads page, is the Web 2.0 style ‘drawers’ with the ‘Essentials’. These drawers display the apps that Apple deems essential, like iTunes 7.2, the new Safari beta, Boot Camp, Quicktime and Widgets. The design is really nice and clean, and is quick to use. Yet another nice, new touch.

Changes have been made throughout the site, so it is definitely worth checking out, especially the new section on Leopard with many more of the ‘300+’ new features we’ll be seeing in October (we hope).

The Apple website re-design is up right now at Apple, so go and have a look around for yourself. The Downloads section hasn’t moved, so there is no need to update your bookmarks. Check it out here.