...And We're Back!

Woah! It's been nearly a year since anyone posted anything on here! Sorry about that if you're even still reading this. WWDC 2010 is less than a week away already, and WWDC '09 was the last thing I posted about on here. That's about it. Don't be surprised if this drops of the planet again, but I'll try to keep this updated.

WWDC Updates

So far this is what has happened.

Entire notebook line refreshed.
15" MacBook Pro starting at $1,699 with a new 7 hour battery. Also adds SD card slot
17" MacBook Pro starting at $2,229
13" MacBook starting at $1,199
13" MacBook Air starting at $1,499

Safari 4 leave beta stage, goes public.

New features in Snow Leopard:

• Quicktime X
• Rewritten Finder
• Expose built into Finder
• Ability to use more cores and RAM with Grand Central Station
• Support for Microsoft Exchange

Snow Leopard available in September for $29! Can you believe that?!

iPhone time now! Updates soon.

iPhone OS 3.0 Features

• Cut, copy & paste
• MMS
• Landscape keyboard
• Spotlight search across entire phone (notes, email, ect.)
• Parental controls
• Tethering over USB dock cable or over Bluetooth
• Faster javascript engine in safari
• support for HTTP streaming audio and video
• HTML 5 support!
• Support for more languages
• All languages include portrait and landscape keyboard
• Find my iPhone - MobileMe service that will find your iPhone on a map if it is lost.
• Peer-to-peer connectivity over bluetooth
• App connectivity with hardware accessories through the dock connector
• Google maps for developers
• Developers now allowed to make turn by turn directions
• Push notification: text, numerical badges, custom alert sounds.

iPhone OS 3.0 available June 17 as a free update for iPhone owners, $9.95 for iPod touch

New iPhone model named "iPhone 3GS". Same on the outside, new on the inside.

Faster, new camera with video built in. 3.2Megapixels, autofocus
Tap to focus feature. Sweet!
Voice controls for calling and controlling iTunes.
"Hey, iPhone what am I listening to?" It tells you.
"Hey, iPhone play more songs like this one." It will. Amazing.
Built in digital compass and compass app.
Improved battery life. Up to 9 hours of web surfing!
Only $199 for 16GB and $299 for 32GB
Both models available in either black or white.
8GB 3G model will remain for sale at $99

WWDC is one hour away...

...and the Apple store is down. Could this be a sign of something to come? This pretty much means there will be some sort of product announcement. Likely hardware. Maybe a tablet or a new iPhone? Maybe even a netbook? We'll find out shortly. Stay tuned for WWDC updates.

Mac OS 10.6 Snow Leopard to focus on Performance and Quality

After Steve Jobs' keynote to kick off WWDC, Bertrand Serlet gave a preview of OS 10.6 "Snow Leopard to the attendees of WWDC 08. Apple plans to focus on performance rather than new features in the new release.

“We have delivered more than a thousand new features to OS X in just
seven years and Snow Leopard lays the foundation for thousands more,”
said Bertrand Serlet, Apple’s senior vice president of Software
Engineering. “In our continued effort to deliver the best user
experience, we hit the pause button on new features to focus on
perfecting the world’s most advanced operating system.”

The new OS includes the introduction of Open Computing Language (OpenCL). This new technology extends the computing power of the GPU to any app written with OpenCL commands. Snow Leopard will also bring the software limit for RAM to a whopping 16 TB (theoretically).

I'd love to see some performance boosts, but this sounds more like a service pack than a new release of the OS. So far on the Snow Leopard page, it looks just like Leopard on screen, but that could still change as it says it will be released in about a year's time. We'll be sure to keep you updated here at iBlog.

EDIT: Apple has posted a Snow Leopard page on their website.

WWDC Wrap-up

The entire thing was about the iPhone. First off, Steve Jobs talked about the numbers.

52,000 in attendance at WWDC, 250,000 have downloaded the free iPhone SDK, 25,000 have applied to the beta program, and 4,000 have been admitted.

Mac OS X 10.6 will be named "Snow Leopard" and Bertrand Serlet will be doing a demo after lunch on it.

Next Steve Jobs invited up a bunch of developers from pretty big companies such as: Sega, eBay, Loopt, TypePad, and Pangea Software. Some cool apps include Super Monkey Ball, a game including 100 levels and will cost $9.99. MLB.com, an app with real time video, and detailed scoring; I don't know about pricing on this one. One of my favorite apps is the "Band" app; It includes a virtual piano, drums, 12-bar blues "instrument", and a bass; includes recording capabilities. There were some more apps, but those are the ones that stuck out to me.

I'll skip past just a little bit to get ahead to when it was announced that the iPhone 2.0 software will be available in early July. It will be a free software update for iPhone owners, and it will cost $9.99.

The iPhone App Store will be available in 62 countries. If the app is less than 10MB, it can be downloaded through the "cell" network, otherwise it requires iTunes or WiFi.

After talking about the iPhone apps for over an hour, the subject of interest temporarily shifted to the .Mac service, which is now called "Mobile Me" It's a service which works over the air with Mail, iCal, and Address Book on Mac, and works on Outlook on Windows. iDisk is integrated into me.com as well. .Mac subscribers will automatically be updated to the service. It will cost $99 per year for the service.

After Phil finished his brief demo of the Mobile Me service, Steve took the stage to talk about the iPhone again. He talked about the iPhone having it's first birthday on June 29th.

Now to what everyone cares about: the 3G iPhone. It will have GPS, and obviously 3G networking. It will cost $199 for the 8GB model which will only be available with a black plastic back, and it will cost $299 for the 16GB model which will be available with a choice of a black or white plastic back. The rumors of a (Product) RED iPhone were proven false, for now at least.

That's my report on the WWDC 08 keynote, I was kind of let down. I was hoping for an update on the Mac Mini line or possibly the Mac fusion that there were rumors of.

WWDC 08 Coverage

We'll be covering WWDC live as it happens. With every important announcement, we'll make an update. The keynote begins in a little less than an hour. Already, there's a banner covered by a black tarp. I'm guessing it's something about the rumor of a Mac OS 10.6 announcement.

1.) iPhone 2.0 Software: Confirmed
iPhone 2.0 software available as a free update for iPhone owners, $9.95 for iPod Touch owners.

2.) Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard: Confirmed
Bertrand Serlet will be giving a demo of the new OS after lunch. I can't wait.

3.) 3G iPhone: Confirmed
It's about time. I was almost starting to think it wasn't going to happen. 3G networking, plastic backing, GPS, it's just about exactly what the rumor sites predicted it to be. $199 for 8GB, $299 for 16GB. 16GB is available in black or white.

Rumor: Mac Fusion at WWDC

The WWDC keynote begins in about 2 and a half hours, and last night, a rumor surfaced on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) of a new mac aimed at developers called the "Mac Fusion". It would apparently replace the Mac Mini line and be a triple platform system. People have already been shooting it down as fake, but I still think it's a possibility. We'll find out in a couple hours!

Rumor Status: Fake

Mac OS 10.6?

I'm guessing that Steve Jobs will make an announcement of Mac OS 10.6 at WWDC. There are rumors of it being called "Snow Leopard" which I think sounds too much like the current version, "Leopard". There are also rumors that it will drop PowerPC support, and Intel-only. Arstechnica reports that 10.6 will be "Cocoa Only" but that still remains quite vague. References to 10.6 were recently found in the iPhone SDK installer, so it's probably on it's way.

WWDC Predictions

Well, it's been a while since anyone made a post here, and I'm trying to get another writer (LegoShark) added, but I'm having issues with Blogger. Anyway, here's a list of predictions for announcements to be made at WWDC which is coming up (June 9-13).

1.) 3G iPhone - This one's pretty obvious. People have been speculating about it for a long time, and photos have even been leaked. The new 3G iPhone will likely have a built in GPS, have a plastic back in black or white color choices (possibly red too), and prices may drop even more, so the low end 8GB model would be around $200 rather than $400. If the iPhone is updated, I also think there would be an iPod Touch update.

2.) Mac Mini Refresh - It needs to be done. The current generation Mac Mini has outlived it's product cycle. My guess is that it will receive speed enhancements, and maybe an upgrade to the Penryn processors used in the new iMacs.

3.) Mac OS 10.6 - Leopard has been out for almost a year, and I'm expecting Steve Jobs will make the first announcement of it at WWDC. I'll have more about OS 10.6 in another post.

4.) Apple Cinema Displays - I've heard rumors of these including an iSight. As cool as that would be, I don't really expect that to happen. They will probably get a higher resolution or more sizes introduced. I don't really know what to expect for this product.

5.) Multi-Touch Tablet - There have been rumors of Apple releasing a tablet device since 1996 according to my dad. With the technology they've got in the iPod Touch and iPod, they could probably pull it off. Also it looks like Microsoft is going to make Windows 7 a multi-touch platform, so this is the perfect time for Apple to strike.

6.) .Mac Update - There's been speculation of the .mac service being renamed and revamped. The new name will likely be "Mobile Me". As for features to be added, I don't know what Apple will do.