Apples Worldwide Developers Conference 2009 Preview

Apple will kick off its annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) with a keynote address on Monday, June 8 at 10:00 a.m. A team of Apple executives, led by Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing, will deliver the keynote. WWDC will offer in-depth sessions on both iPhone OS 3.0, the world’s most advanced mobile operating system, and Mac OS® X Snow Leopard, an even more powerful and refined version of the world’s best desktop operating system and the foundation for future Mac innovation.

All of my readers are spread throughout the world, but being based in the UK, 6pm GMT will be the focus of my coverage. Normally Steve Jobs would take to the stage at Moscone West, San Francisco. This year will be Phil Schiller again, as Steve is not due to return to his active role at Apple until the end of the month. As things unfold at the Keynote, I will be putting together a video of the announcements, which should be online by around 7:30pm. This will also be followed by a series of videos looking in-depth at what Apple has delivered.

Expectations
We will see a massive concentration on giving us the full details of iPhone OS 3.0. This will deliver a raft of new features that we already know about, including MMS and that all important copy and paste. We should also see the introduction of background processes, so running more than one application at a time will be possible.
Snow Leopard will also be detailed, with a shipping date. This new streamlined version of the OS for Mac desktops and laptops will not offer many new features, but will certainly take up less system storage and resources to get the same job done.

I personally also expect to see a revamp of the iPhone range. The much rumored iPhone Video should make an appearance. With four models in the line-up, ranging from 4GB to 32GB in capacity. This should also include a front facing camera, so iChat video conferencing is bought to the handset. The rear facing camera will be boosted to somewhere in the region of 3.2 to 5 megapixels, with that all important video recording functionality. From the various rumors and photos floating around, the fingerprint magnet should be gone and a nice rubberised matte black finish will be applied to the back of the device. The silver trim around the front bezel will also disappear, in favour of a black powder coated bezel. Sizing and the overall form factor will remain exactly the same.

One more thing...
Will we get that 'one more thing'. Well, we all know that Apple is working on some sort of touch enabled netbook or tablet device. I doubt that this will be announced today. Steve Jobs is going to return at the end of the month of June. I think it is more likely we will see a hardware announcement to coincide with his return. Again, this may be too early for the netbook/tablet launch, so we may have to wait until January 2010 for this new eagerly anticipated device.

Apple launch new iPod Shuffle

How small can Apple get these little wonders, with the newly launched iPod Shuffle is tiny in comparison to the previous generation. In the photo here you can see the new Shuffle in the back of the image to your left, then older version (front) is massive in comparison. So, just how did they do it. Well, they moved the controls onto the earphone cable, with cool touchy feely buttons that perform different functions if your single click, double click, or click and hold. You get voice feedback, with track details and the ability to change playlists at the voice prompts. Curiously, Mac owners get a male voice, whilst our PC counterparts get a female voice.

These little wonders are available online to order now, with 5 business days shipping. One capacity (4GB) and a choice of white or black. Your pocket will be £59 lighter, but you will have one of the smallest MP3 players in the world.

New Mac Pros from Apple


Wow, those guys (and gals) at Apple HQ have been busy today, with new Mac Pros launched, offering very very fast speeds indeed. I won't rattle on about my thoughts, but check out the detals below (don't miss the 18x superdrive... interesting).

The new quad-core Mac Pro, with a suggested retail price of £1,899, includes:

  • one 2.66 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon 3500 series processor with 8MB of L3 cache;
  • 3GB of 1066 MHz DDR3 ECC SDRAM memory, expandable up to 8GB;
  • NVIDIA GeForce GT 120 graphics with 512MB of GDDR3 memory;
  • 640GB Serial ATA 3Gb/s hard drive running at 7200 rpm;
  • 18x SuperDrive with double-layer support (DVD±R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW);
  • Mini DisplayPort and DVI (dual-link) for video output (adapters sold separately);
  • four PCI Express 2.0 slots;
  • five USB 2.0 ports and four FireWire® 800 ports;
  • Bluetooth 2.1+EDR; and
  • ships with Apple Keyboard with numerical keypad and Mighty Mouse.

The new 8-core Mac Pro, with a suggested retail price of £2,499 (US), includes:

  • two 2.26 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon 5500 series processors with 8MB of shared L3 cache;
  • 6GB of 1066 MHz DDR3 ECC SDRAM memory, expandable up to 32GB;
  • NVIDIA GeForce GT 120 graphics with 512MB of GDDR3 memory;
  • 640GB Serial ATA 3Gb/s hard drive running at 7200 rpm;
  • 18x SuperDrive with double-layer support (DVD±R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW);
  • Mini DisplayPort and DVI (dual-link) for video output (adapters sold separately);
  • four PCI Express 2.0 slots;
  • five USB 2.0 ports and four FireWire 800 ports;
  • Bluetooth 2.1+EDR; and
  • ships with Apple Keyboard with numerical keypad and Mighty Mouse

 

Apple refresh their iMac line


Today, Apple refreshed their iMac line with new graphics card offerings and a host of performance improvements. Ranging from a 20-inch 2.66GHz model for £949 through to a top-of-the-range 24-inch 3.06GHz model for £1,799.
The base model gets 2GB of RAM, whilst all the other offerings get 4GB as standard. You can upgrade that memory too, with 4GB to 8GB upgrades weighing in at a hefty £800... what on earth are they thinking? On the graphics front, the two lowest price models get NVidia 9400M, whilst the 24-inch 2.93GHz and 3.06GHz models gain NVidia GT120 and GT130 cards respectively. Those tops models can even be upgraded to an ATI Radeon HD 4850 card should you wish.

The same aluminum frame, but with a thinner pedestal stand. The stand can also be removed and the iMac has a standard vesa mount, so you can hang it on your wall. This is a nice design change... well done Apple.

I like the upgrades, especially the improved graphics performance. What I don't like is the prices and the ridiculous costs involved with 'custom build' options. As a sidenote (and correct me if I am wrong) the AppleCare pricing seems to have dropped. The keyboard has also lost its numerical keypad (like the previous wireless version), but you can opt for the full-size keyboard at no extra cost.

Apple announces new Mac Minis


Amongst the updates iMacs and Mac Pros today, Apple also announced a refresh to the Mac Mini. I know there is a lot more beside just the upgraded 9400M graphics, but where the heck did the cheap Mac Mini go. Now the base model is £499, but the next one up is £649 for a larger hard drive and 2GB of RAM (as opposed to 1GB). Before the update we had prices of £391 and £488, so a price hike of over £100 for the base model and £161 for the top end model. C'mon Apple, there is a recession going on.

Apple Store down - new iMacs and Mac Minis

The Apple Store has gone down, likely for the rumored updates to the iMac, Mac Mini and Mac Pro lines. This is very exciting for me, as a new purchase was imminent in the form of a MacBook or Mac Mini, so I will be watching with interest. Details will be posted as soon as they happen, but for now the rumors are below.

Rumored iMacs
MB417LL/A - IMAC 20" 2.66/2GB/320GB/SD/MSE/KB-USA
MB418LL/A - IMAC 24" 2.66/4GB/640/SD/MSE/KB-USA
MB419LL/A - IMAC 24" 2.93/4GB/640/256/SD/MSE/KB-USA
MB420LL/A - IMAC 24" 3.06/4GB/1TB/512/SD/MSE/KB-USA

Rumored Mac Minis
MB463LL/A - MAC MINI 2.0/1X1G/120/SD/AP/BT-USA
MB464LL/A - MAC MINI 2.0/2X1G/320/SD/AP/BT-USA

Rumored Mac Pros
MAC PRO 2.26_8CX/6X1G/640/GT120/SD-USA
MAC PRO 2.66QCX/3X1GB/640/GT120/SD-USA

My thoughts on Macworld 2009 - Apple goodies

Yesterday's keynote was for me a mix of missing Steve and really wanting that 'One More Thing' to be a Mac Mini Tower. Everyone comes away from Macworld or from watching the keynote with some sort of complaint, but on reflection it was pretty sound.

Steve Jobs not being there was a big shame. All I really want to say on the matter is that my thoughts go out to you Steve. I hope you are fighting fit real soon and carry on as CEO at Apple for a long time to come.

iLife 09 was really nice to see. Expected, yes, but the content was very good. Face recognition and Places in iPhoto is worth the upgrade alone. Add to this the added functionality in iMovie, where we get better editing modes for more accurate clips, plus lots of nice candy thrown in too. The new version of iMovie keeps it simplicity and adds back some of the timeline features that we missed in iMovie HD without Apple admitting they were wrong making such radical changes to the app last year.

iWork 09 is another nice upgrade. I like the idea of Keynote being controllable with such style from the iPhone. The iWork.com announcement is also very very cool. When it comes out as a full version I hope that Apple add the ability to give editing writes to certain people. Yes, I know they could download the Pages document (for example), make changes and then re-upload a new version. But making online edits or local edits, with true version tracking would be a really powerful combination. Although not of great interest to me personally, the new Numbers and Keynote features are also very good too.

The new 17-inc MacBook Pro had some things to like and others to question. The questionable inclusion is the lack of user replaceable battery or hard drive. Yes, the reasons were explained and eight hours battery life is awesome. Power users will no doubt complain that they need to carry a spare battery with them. Much more positive is the anti-glare screen option. It seems like Apple listened that not everyone likes gloss. Whilst I don't expect this to filter down to the MacBook, I would be very surprised if we did not see this as a CTO option on the 15.4-inch pro version pretty soon. Apple would sell a lot more if they added this to the 15.4-inch MacBook Pro sooner rather than later.

The final iTunes announcements were a nice round-off to the whole event. At last DRM has been kicked into touch and we can now enjoy moving our music downloads around as and where we wish. Well done Apple.

In closing, it really saddens me that there will be no Apple next year at Macworld. No Apple Expo Paris and certainly no appearance by the company at MacLiveExpo London. I just hope that they more than make up for this by holding at least one special event for new products every year... on their own schedule of course.

Letter from Apple CEO Steve Jobs - Re Macworld keynote

Today, Apple released a letter from Steve Jobs detailing exactly why he will not be giving his usual keynote speech at Macworld 2009. This is very nice to hear and reassuring that Steve is going to be OK. It reads as follows...

Dear Apple Community,

For the first time in a decade, I’m getting to spend the holiday season with my family, rather than intensely preparing for a Macworld keynote.

Unfortunately, my decision to have Phil deliver the Macworld keynote set off another flurry of rumors about my health, with some even publishing stories of me on my deathbed.

I’ve decided to share something very personal with the Apple community so that we can all relax and enjoy the show tomorrow.

As many of you know, I have been losing weight throughout 2008. The reason has been a mystery to me and my doctors. A few weeks ago, I decided that getting to the root cause of this and reversing it needed to become my #1 priority.

Fortunately, after further testing, my doctors think they have found the cause—a hormone imbalance that has been “robbing” me of the proteins my body needs to be healthy. Sophisticated blood tests have confirmed this diagnosis.

The remedy for this nutritional problem is relatively simple and straightforward, and I’ve already begun treatment. But, just like I didn’t lose this much weight and body mass in a week or a month, my doctors expect it will take me until late this Spring to regain it. I will continue as Apple’s CEO during my recovery.

I have given more than my all to Apple for the past 11 years now. I will be the first one to step up and tell our Board of Directors if I can no longer continue to fulfill my duties as Apple’s CEO. I hope the Apple community will support me in my recovery and know that I will always put what is best for Apple first.

So now I’ve said more than I wanted to say, and all that I am going to say, about this.

Steve

Apple's Board of Director's added;

It is widely recognized both inside and outside of Apple that Steve Jobs is one of the most talented and effective CEOs in the world. As we have said before, if there ever comes a day when Steve wants to retire or for other reasons cannot continue to fulfill his duties as Apple’s CEO, you will know it. Apple is very lucky to have Steve as its leader and CEO, and he deserves our complete and unwavering support during his recuperation. He most certainly has that from Apple and its Board.

I am sure you will all join me in wishing Steve well and hoping to see him gain that healthy weight back during 2009.

Geekanoids News #009 - 15th October 2008

Apple announced all those lovely new products yesterday... here is my video update (1 of 2) on the details and my further thoughts on the new MacBook and MacBook Pro. The second video covering the MacBook Air and new Cinema Display should be online shortly.

My thoughts - New Apple Products 14th October 2008

No doubt you have learnt about the slew of new notebook products launched by Apple tonight. We have a revised MacBook Air for starters. Then there is a complete redesign of the MacBook and MacBook Pro. Thrown in for good measure, a new Cinema Display that matches the current iMac, almost a mirror image.

Exactly what I think of these announcements echoes itself in the last two words from my introductory paragraph above "mirror image". I have a 24-inch iMac, a lovely machine. Superb design, wonderful feel to it, brilliant power. The display is fantastic too, but it does annoy me when I can see my face in it. Maybe because I am not an adonis, but more likely I want to only see what I happen to be working on at the time.
When the MacBook was originally introduced, I got one. No sooner had I got the MacBook, I had the opportunity to get a matte screen MacBook Pro. Happy days again, with a professional display. Never have I looked back and yearned for a glossy MacBook display, nor trading my Pro in for the mirrored screen version.

What worries me about these new product announcements is centred solely around the screen. It is acceptable for the MacBook, but for the MacBook Pro it is insane. Users need to quickly snap up remaining stock or purchase the 17-inch version, which is the only one to remain matte.
The new Cinema Display looks superb too. Being an iMac owner, I may well get one, as it would match perfectly. Thousands of design studios though, will not be at all happy. The new display is a consumer or prosumer product, it does not serve the professional market at all.

That said, all of the new products are stunning. Greatly enhanced, superb graphic abilities, nice trackpad, more rigid, lots of positives. I just feel the pro market is being left behind for mass market appeal.