Truemors
is reporting from
Member
NP Rank:
NP Rank:
iPhone 3GS, Macbook Pro, Snow Leopard: WWDC 2009 Live Keynote
Share:
by Jordan Yerman | June 8, 2009 at 06:19 am
3973 views | 11 Recommendations | 8 comments
Photos
Videos
WWDC 2009 kicked off today at Moscone Center in San Francisco with the Keynote Address. Confirmed: iPhone 3GS, iPhone 3.0 software, Macbook upgrade, Macboook Pro upgrade, Snow Leopard release. No Steve Jobs Appearance or Macbook tablet.
Traditionally, Apple uses the Worldwide Developers Conference to announce its biggest new toys (remember that iPhone announcement?), and this year should be no different. Aside from the persistent rumor that Steve Jobs may end his medical leave a bit early and put in a surprise appearance, the frontrunning rumors are a low-end iPhone, a 32GB iPhone with expanded firmware, a beefed-up unibody Macbook, and, although less likely, a Macbook tablet.
The announcements:
- New 15" Macbook Pro, with claimed 7-hour battery life, with up to 1,000 charges for a 5-year lifespan (my old-school iBook is on year # 4 1/2 and still gets over 2hrs) and a SD card slot. The new beast can support up to 8GB RAM, and sports up to a 3.06Ghz dual-core processor. solid-dtate HD option available. This, along with other laptop announcements ships today. 3rd-party retailers will be most displeased, as their current stock is now oh-so-24-hours-ago.
- Updated 17" Macbook Pro with larger HD.
- Updated Macbook, with SD slot and better screen, plus extended battery life. Supports up to 8GB RAM, and a Firewire 800 port. The only difference now between Macbook and Macbook Pro: integrated graphics card in Macbook (we called this one!) Oh, and it's now called "Macbook Pro" as well, so all the unibody machines are Macbook Pro, with white entry-level Macbook retaining the original name.
- White Macbook upgrade (as we've seen)
- Macbook Air gets a processor upgrade, and a price hike!
- All of the new laptops meet EP Gold and Energy Star v5 standards.
- Snow Leopard: Microsoft Exchange (MS Server 2007) support and Cocoa-based search. Faster install time, and smaller footprint: 6GB smaller than Leopard. You can use the trackpad to draw CHinese characters. If you speake Chinese, presumably.
- "Faster" is the name of the game with Snow Leopard's stable of core apps: Safari, Mail, and faster Javascript. Also, new user interface for Quicktime Player (good!). Expanded functionality of Stacks and Exposé. Demo is really, really fast: I wonder how much RAM in the testing machine?
- Quicktime X got some of iMovie's DNA, it seems.
- This new software, conveniently enough, works best with... the new hardware.
- OpenCL: over 1 teraflop in processing power. "teraflop" is a great word.
- MS Exchange support of Mail, iCal, and Address Book. Cool. Now I'll actually get meeting requests. Wait... no, not cool!
- Looks like Mail and Address Book talk to each other a bit better now. Sort of like Facebook event invites. Or so I'm told.
- Snow Leopard will run on all Intel-based Macs. pgrade price will be US$29 from Leopard.
- iPhone 3.0: cutting-edge features like cut/copy/paste, and undo! MMS functionality, like every other phone on the face of the Earth! Also, enhanced iTunes: movie/audiobook rentals/sales. Parental controls (your kids have iPhones?!). Also, Internet tethering- use your iPhone as a mobile modem, if your carrier suppors it. (Carrier support requirements are the albatross around the neck of mobile tech development)
- Also on iPhone 3.0: 3x faster Javascript in Safari! Sexy! Expanded language support to include Hebrew, Arabic, Greek, Korean, and Thai. Also, find your own missing iPhone via MobileMe, and remote wipe the phone's hard drive if it's stolen.
- Peer-to-peer Bluetooth connectivity for gaming. Google map embeds for apps, and push alert notifications.
- Some pretty high-end game demos, including expandable racing game with in-game Wifi chat. looks both fast and furious. Airstrip and Critical Care: apps for medical professionals (several of my med friends already use iPhones). Push notification for patient status change is great for those who are rounding or on call.
- In-app purchases, and expanded roster of books, newspapers and magazines, as well as university textbooks.
- TomTom navigation software (plus car-dashboard attachment kit): iPhone as GPS. ngmoco:) demonstrating a 3D game called Tower Defense, and multiplayer add-on app. Pasco is (unsuccessfully) demonstrating hardware add-ons for science experiments. Zipcar demonstrates a car-reservation app, streamlined from their website. Line6 and Planet Waves are trying to demonstrate guitar/amp controls, but it's borked at the moment. Great concept, though. Interesting to see Apple share the keynote stage with other developers.
- Dirk Diggler demonstrates iPorn, an "adult content" app. No, not really. Just checking to see if you were paying attention. Sorry.
- iPhone 3.0 software will drop on June 17, and will be free for iPhone users/ US$10 for iPod Touch users (iTouchers?) Developers, re-test your apps against the new GM!!!
- New iPhone: iPhone 3GS. OpenGL support, 3MP camera. Tap-to-Focus: touch-based manual focus (OK, that's pretty cool. Auto-macro and better light sensitivity. Video capture! Finally! Only a few years after everyone else! In-camera video editing, as well as video API for 3rd-party developers.
- Additional iPhone 3GS features: voice control for dialing and music playback; digital compass with map intergration and dev APIs; support for Nike+ (remember that thing?); data encryption; remote wipe (as per softare update); iTunes backup; longer battery life: claimed up to 5 hours of 3g talk time.
- 16GB for US$199, 32GB for $299; both ship with iPhone 3.0 software on June 19.
- 8GB iPhone to sell for $99, effective immediately. I hope you didn't buy yours last week.
- ... and that's it.
Phil Schiller, VP of Product Marketing, delivered this year's keynote address at 10am PST. He had a little help from his friends: Bertrand Serlet (senior VP, Engineering) and Scott Forstall (senior VP, iPhone software), as well as reps from several third-party development houses.
Engadget has a live webcast here. Macrumors is also rocking the live updates.
Though the new iPhone sounds very cool, I'm still not feeing compelled to buy one: I'm online enough as it is, and prefer to keep the Internet at a bit of a distance when I'm out and about.
Searches for "#WWDC" have actually broken Twitter's search functionality, so there may be blackout periods in the widget below. We've all been there.
What is NowPublic?
NowPublic lets people work together to cover news events around the world.
Most Recommended Comment
Zehavy (not verified)
Crowd Power
Jordan Yerman
Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
shashib
Potomac, Maryland, United Stateslferreira
Portugal
Blaine Metzgar
Vancouver, British Columbia, Canadamuhku
Finland
Most RecentMost Recommended Comments (8)
at 06:58 on June 8th, 2009
I though they wanted to give this up?
Well, I really what to see what they come up with this year. How about lowering the price and making it a 100% environment friendly? Just an idea that crosses my mind.
at 14:09 on June 8th, 2009
The planned obsolescence of gadgetry guarantees e-waste... I tend to use phones until they fall apart, not because I'm super-green: I'm just not motivated to learn new menus.
at 14:19 on June 8th, 2009
Yes, I can second that one Jordan. I do not like to have to learn every thing over every time and I do wish some of that stuff would be standardized by now, Like a drill or a Car, the function and operation stays the same, only the quality and details keep getting better.
I see my Phone and Computer as tools and use then as such, not has games to figure out anew every time you have to replace an old one.
I would like them to last longer as well, since once I get used to them I like to keep on using them and not having to change soft or hard wear so often.
That would be for practical as well as for ecological reasons. And it would be more convenient and cost effective as well.
at 02:21 on August 23rd, 2009
It is cool, I read a hebrew articles about it, so if you into Apple and know Hebrew, you better check it.
at 11:10 on June 8th, 2009
... Whew! Keynote live-blog is done. I always feel like a bit of a whore covering these things, but it is newsworthy in terms of development. Now Palm and Blackberry have to step up yet again.
at 11:31 on June 8th, 2009
Pretty epic stuff coming from Apple--RIM better step up their game.
at 18:02 on June 9th, 2009
You realize the MBA had a price DROP not a price HIKE?
at 07:28 on August 28th, 2009
This was a great read, really interesting, i think i might have to go out and buy an iphone now!