WOW… what an exciting keynote. There was so much going on, and the demos were amazing. The big news obviously is the new iPhone release.
First off the Major stuff..
• OS 10.6 (Snow Leopard) will be released to developers later today.
• iPhone 2.0 software updates
• MobileME showcased
• iPhone 3G released simultaneously in 70 countries on July 11. ROCK!
A lot of the new apps were demoed at the show, here is a list of them
• Super Monkey Ball - This is a game, apparently very popular on the Playstation platform. There were several games demoed and they all look REALLY robust. Seems like the iPhone could easily rival the PSP for gaming.
• eBay App - allows for full eBay integration as a buyer or seller, and unlike most of the other apps demoed is free. Maybe this will help put some life into the dying online auction site…
• TypePad Blogging tool - This is VERY cool, and seems to have a ton of functionality to it. Unfortunately I didn’t see any mention of WordPress, but I am sure that will be handled by someone soon. hint hint.
• Loopt - This is a location based social networking tool, and this will definitely reshape the social networking world. There will likely be some pretty scary hacks to this as well…
• Modality - a very robust medical application that, as Molly Wood put it, “turns you into a brain surgeon”. Not so much, but I am sure this will be a pretty cool thing to keep handy when you visit the doctor.
• Band - This is an application put together by an independent UK firm, that allows you to make music on the iPhone… awesome.
Games will have a price point of $9.99.
Apple is also providing a push services cloud for all developers to use. This will enable the use of Exchange ‘esq services, as well as instant always on IM, email, and other web enabled apps.
Support was announced for Powerpoint, BUlk Message deletion, a new scientific calculator, Parental Controls, and multi-language support..
The multi-language support looks pretty amazing, and supports both traditional and simplified chinese, and even has character drawing and recognition.
The 2.0 software will be available early July (before the 11th, I assume) and will be free for the current 2G iPhones , but will cost iPod Touch users $9.99.
The MobileMe app looks extremely well put together as well.. Basically it turns your browser into a functional desktop, and will support mail, iDisk, iCal, Address Book, and a wide range of other macapps. The service will stay 99$ a year and will be a free automatic upgrade for the current .mac users
Now.. for the important stuff… LOL
The iPhone 3G will be released on July 11, and will cost 199.99 for the 8GB version.. RoCK!
• GPS
• Subsidized cost
• Thinner
• Flush headphone jack
• 3G is faster then Nokia N95 and Blackberry
• Full Exchange support and Secure VPN
• Available in 70 countries
• 300 hours of stand by time - 10 hours talk time - 5 hours 3G usage - 5 or 6 hours of browsing - 7 hours of video, and 24 hours of audio…
It was an exciting few hours, and my head is still spinning.. but July 11th you can find me at the South Coast Plaza iPhone store in Newport Beach California..
w00t!
People are taking pics on their phones, and posting them to social networks like [ plurk ] and [ twitter ].. As I get them I will update this post.. so keep checking back ..
Thanks to [ LiveCrunch ] on Plurk for these :
Lines forming ..
Banner covered, likely until after the keynote … my guess is that it has 3 iPhones (red, white, and black)
Lots of new apps being being demoes….
Great images of them all at [ EnGadget ]
Today is the day many of us have been waiting eagerly for… The WWDC, and Steve’s Keynote address, is just a little over an hour away and apple fanboys all over the world are tingling right now.
The Moscone center is likely hopping, and we all know that there is a line forming at the 5th Ave Apple store (of course that is a daily occurrence). What is not a daily occurrence though is all the online apple stores through out the world going DOWN!… They are all closed…
So, what would they need to be updating … some sources have spotted a new iPhone tab on some of the stores before they went down.. all fueling the rumors that the phone will be available today for purchase.. w00t!
For thos of us who weren’t able to get to San Francisco this year, catch all the fun live at these sites :
Live Streaming WWDC 2008:
Macrumorslive
TechCrunch
Engadget
MacWorld
Digital Live Style.tv
Possible locales
Qik.com via cell phones. Someone will likely be holding their cell phone high in the air during the Keynote.
Ustream.tv again, someone is likely to stream some of the content
Ustream Channel (audio only)
When the initial rumors that 10.6 would be released at the WWDC, which is tomorrow, they came full of speculation that 10.6 would not support the PowerPC chip set. This made sense since Jobs has been pulling away from that ever since the deal was made with Intel …
Now, though, Gizmodo (and others) are reporting that they have a source, who claimed to get ahold of the 10.6 seed, who indicated that work has been done on PowerPC drivers which indicates to them that support for the architecture is unlikely to be dropped this time around.
While this rumor may inspire a bit of hope to those who have late-model PowerPC Macs, it should be noted that it runs contrary to running consensus that OS 10.6 “Snow Leopard” would only support Intel chips, and the current direction that Apple has been moving for some time.
Apple is expected to introduce 10.6 at WWDC, along with a shiny new red iPhone….
Australian resellers began receiving mysterious packages from Apple on Friday with a warning across the top that breaching the boxes ahead of June 10th would be a violation of their non-disclosure agreements with the company.
June 10th in Australia is actually around the same time of Apple chief executive Steve Jobs’s June 9th WWDC keynote in the US. The boxes likely contain a single demonstration 3G iPhone to be displayed by the resellers immediately following the company’s announcements.
Earlier this year, reports began appearing on Apple rumor sites in Australia that said local resellers had started to receive guidance from the Cupertino-based company regarding a local 3G iPhone launch during the final week of June.
[ TUAW ] is reporting that they’ve gotten some insider information that Apple will unveil OS 10.6 next Monday at the WWDC keynote. There is no reason to believe that this will be the leap that leopard took, but it will leave PPC behind in a sad, but long time in coming farewell.
According to the report, Apple’s upcoming OS will focus solely on “stability and security”, and it will be the first Apple OS that is not PowerPC compatible. The new OS is supposedly slated for a Jan 2009 release, and some rumors are calling it “Lynx” based on trademarks going back as far as 2003, so while Apple may be dropping PPC, they seem to be sticking to the cat naming thing.
Apple has also trademarked “Cougar”, but given the recent popularity of calling older, sexually agressive women cougars, one would hope they would stay from that name…
Personally, I would go with [ Liger ], except it seems that Jobs wants to wait for 10.8 for that one…
Many will likely mourn the passing of Power PCs, but given that many smaller developers are ignoring the intel-based platform, this will likely be the kick in the pants needed to get them moving in the proper directions.
Will you miss the PowerPC, or have you already moved on?
After months and months of rumor, speculation, and rampant guessing, we finally have a launch date for the 3g iPhone.
Gizmodo, and others, are reporting that a June 9th launch date has been confirmed. The new device will be announced at the keynote address at WWDC 2008 in San Francisco. It will also be made available worldwide immediately following the launch, rather then at the end of the year, as was previously assumed.
There is speculation now, that the 3G iPhone will no longer have a fixed price point, at least in some countries, and that there will be new policies surrounding the sale of the iPhone. Some countries will get variable pricing on new iPhones based on enticements to switch carriers. There’s no word on which countries will be subject to this pricing structure.