WWDC 2009 Keynote Wrap Up
Today was an exciting step for Apple, nothing revolutionary but more evolutionary. Apple took the award-winning iPhone 3G and took it to the next level, and also offered a preview of the next version of Mac OS X, Snow Leopard. The MacBook lineup also got a slight update. Want to find out more? Read the entire rundown after the break.
MacBook Pros
Phil took the stage and took the opportunity to start off the show with something small. The 13-inch MacBook now supports up to 8GB of RAM, and brings back the FireWire 800 port to the smaller system. The 13-inch is also called a MacBook Pro now, since it features the new unibody enclosure. The white plastic 13-inch MacBook however, still contains the MacBook name. Built-in to all MacBook Pros is an SD card slot, replacing the ExpressCard 34 slot on the 15- and 17-inch models. The three different sizes start at $1199, $1699, and $2499 respectively. These notebooks are available today at the Apple Store.
Snow Leopard
The next version of Mac OS X, Snow Leopard was previewed by the Senior Vice President of Software Engineering, Bertrand Serlet. He joked about Windows 7 and Windows Vista, something he also did in 2007, ranting about it's DLLs, the Registry, and of course, the infamous User Access Control, which he says became more complicated in 7. Snow Leopard doesn't contain too many new features, but more new underlying technologies.
Finally the Finder has been rewritten in Cocoa, making it much snappier and as far as I can tell from the demos, Snow Leopard is a must-have for all Intel Macs. Exposé is onw built-in to to the Dock, and a completely new QuickTime Player was written specifically for Snow Leopard. One of my favorite new enhancements is faster Time Machine backups, something that has been bugging me since day one with 10.5. Leopard users, grab it this September for $29.
iPhone
Last but not least, the iPhone got to steal the stage for part of the presentation. Scott Forstall, SVP of iPhone Software was brought up onto stage to show features we previously saw in iPhone OS 3.0 at the event in March earlier this year. He then brought up app developers to showcase their new applications utilizing APIs built into the new operating system. One of the best moments was when Scott came out in a labcoat to participate in a science experiment for one of the applications from a company called Pasco. In the demo, the company wanted to showcase how the application could track an increase in air pressure on a balloon. Turns out in didn't work - "That's the last time I'm dressing up for an experiment," Forstall said. iPhone OS 3.0 is free for iPhone customers, and $9.95 for iPod touch users, and will be available on June 17th.
Phil then built up the excitement, and introduced the iPhone 3G S. The "S" in the name stands for speed, and supports the new 7.2 Mbps HSDPA network that carriers will be rolling out soon. The new iPhone 3G S looks the same on the outside but now contains a new 3 megapixel camera with autofocus and video recording capabilities and a compass. Voice Control is a new feature that allows you to place calls and play songs through the power of your own voice. Plus, all of the features of the 3.0 software are included (Copy / Paste, Tethering, etc). The 3G S will be available on June 19th in 16GB and 32GB capacities for $199 and $299 respectively.
Update: It will cost $399 (16GB) and $499 (32GB) for existing AT&T and iPhone 3G customers plus the normal $18 upgrade fee to upgrade to the iPhone 3G S. On the other hand, it costs $175 to cancel your current iPhone 3G line.
Safari 4
Safari 4 has been available as a public beta for quite a while, and now is finally going gamma, er... non-beta. The new release is up to 8 times faster at executing JavaScript, and 4 times faster than the latest version of Firefox in both iBench and SunSpider benchmarking tools.
If you've used the Safari 4 Beta, it includes the same great Cover Flow-style History panel, as well as the Top Sites display which tracks all of the websites you visit and compiles the most visited ones in a grid-like fashion. You can also do a search within your history, not only within the URL and metadata, but within the page as well. This is great because when I remember a web page mentally, I always remember what it looked like and I can now scan the pages I've visited quickly and easily.
Not a whole lot of new stuff, but this moves Apple towards becoming an even bigger player in the smartphone market, and building up their Mac market share.
Our live blog from earlier today is also available as a replay with pictures from the keynote address.
Updated 10:04PM PST Added iPhone 3G S upgrade and Safari 4 release information.
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