For those that don’t know, Apple’s WWDC (Worldwide Developers Conference) 2009 was this past Monday morning at Moscone West, San Francisco. It’s primarily for those developing for Apple’s products (OS X, iPhone apps, etc.) but it’s also for the Apple fans out there as the Keynote usually addresses new product releases, etc.
I was tuned in, listening to Ustream’s live stream of the Keynote. ((The recorded stream can be seen here. Apple’s official recorded video here.)) Pretty cool as you can multitask versus having to read every new updates on a blog. Though you have to give it up though as the photos on the blog updates are more eye candy.
Anyways, the Keynote didn’t disappoint. I’m digging the following updates:
- iPhone OS 3.0 release date on June 17th. I can’t wait to update with the following features:
- Cut, copy & paste!
- Landscape keyboard.
- Improved Calendar w/ CalDAV support
- MMS (AT&T will support it later this Summer)
- Internet Tethering—though AT&T doesn’t support it yet!
- Snow Leopard release this September.
- $29 to upgrade from Leopard.
- Only $49 for a Family Pack! That’s about $10 each for 5 users.
- New 13″ and 15″ Macbook Pros.
- 15″ starts only at $1699. ((Pricing chart available here.))
- The 13″ Macbook Unibody is now a Macbook Pro, and contains all the bells & whistles of the 15″/17″. That, and it starts only at $1199.
- New battery-life of 7hrs. Over 1,000 recharge cycles; about 5-years of notebook life before diminished battery charge.
- ExpressCard slots in 15″ have been replaced with SD-card slot. I’m 50/50 on this one as you can use an ExpressCard-to-eSATA card to utilize eSATA transfers for things like transferring files between an external storage drive. That’s about 3.0Gbps > 480Mbps. But if you don’t find yourself backing up/transferring files that much between an external, the I guess it’s a plus for that change.
- FireWire 800 has been added.
- $99 only for an iPhone 3G 8GB model. I think this will open up the market for Apple. That’s really cheap for a smart phone with tons of feature, not to mention an iPhone.
Meanwhile, updates that weren’t too hot in my book, but were still good:
- Safari 4 live today.
- iPhone 3Gs ((The “s” stands for “speed”? Really? Seriously?)) release date on June 19th. As a iPhone 3G owner, I didn’t see much of a value to upgrade. The following features are what I would consider if I were to upgrade to the 3Gs: ((You may compare the 3G vs. 3Gs more in detail over here.))
- 3MP & autofocus camera vs. 2MP.
- Compass. ((Lear more about Compass here.))
I didn’t mind the video camera as you can just do a jailbreak. In terms of the Voice Control, I ain’t that lazy. Now, if they added voice-to-text, then that’s a different deal.
Not too shabby I must say. Can’t wait to upgrade to iPhone OS 3.0.