The much anticipated keynote speech has now come and gone at the 2009 Apple Worldwide Developers’ Conference. The highlights focused around exactly what MacPoker.com has been reporting for the last few weeks: Snow Leopard, new iPhone 3.0 OS features, and, of course, the new iPhone, dubbed the 3GS. Let’s get down to a wrap-up of all the announcements.
MacBooks Updated
The smaller and sleeker MacBooks have been updated and given a dramatic drop in price. The new line features a battery that boasts up to a seven hour life and 1,000 charges. The 15″ model has a new display and SD memory card slot. On top of that, they now have a 3.06 Dual Core CPU, up to 8 GB of RAM, and up to a 500 GB hard drive. The price for these new laptops starts at $1,699. The 17″ MacBook Pro has been updated with a faster CPU and the 13″ version has a new display, an SD card slot, and the new battery. The 13″ MacBook is now called the MacBook Pro and will start at $1,199, which is cheaper than the MacBook it’s replacing. All of these new models are available to ship starting today.
Snow Leopard Details
The details for Apple’s latest Mac operating system, Snow Leopard, were finally released. Over 90% of the core OS pieces in Snow Leopard have been refined with plenty of updated features to make it an exciting upgrade. Installation of the OS is 45% faster than before and there is an expected recovery of 6GB of hard drive space after the OS has installed. Preview is now twice as fast, Mail is 2.3x faster, and a final version of Safari 4 will be included. Safari 4 ranks as 7.8 times faster than IE 8 and passed the Acid3 test, which IE 8 failed.
QuickTime has a whole new build coming with “QuickTime X” and features the ability to trim and share video on a visual timeline. The edited clip can be automatically exported to YouTube, MobileMe, or iTunes. Snow Leopard will fully enable 64 bit processing and introduced OpenCL, which shows a new way for programs to develop better performing software applications. Snow Leopard will fully support Exchange, meaning that Mail, iCal, and Address Book can all connect to an Exchange server, which is what most businesses use.
Snow Leopard will be available for all Intel Macs and its price is extremely low. The cost of Snow Leopard will be $29 per license; a “Family Pack” will be available for $49 for homes with multiple Macs. The new operating system will be released in September.
Rumor Recap:
Snow Leopard will be mainly a backend performance upgrade. RESULT: TRUE
Snow Leopard will be released in September. RESULT: TRUE
Snow Leopard will cost $129, the same as OS X Leopard. RESULT: FALSE
iPhone 3.0 Operating System
The new iPhone OS 3.0 will be a major upgrade for all iPhone users. First, cut/copy/paste/undo was officially unveiled at the conference along with landscape mode for Mail/Notes/Messages. In addition, MMS support for photos, contacts, audio files, and locations will be supported. There will be enhancements made to iTunes to allow a user to rent or purchase television shows, music, and audio books right from their phone.
Tethering, the ability to connect the iPhone to a laptop and use its 3G connection to access the internet, will be supported without the need for additional software. This feature requires carrier support; 22 companies will be supporting this feature at launch. However, AT&T was not one of the carriers included.
Safari on the iPhone has been beefed up and supports HTML 5. There are also new features such as in-app purchases, peer-to-peer connectivity via Bluetooth (mainly for gaming), and support for hardware accessories for the iPhone. Also there have been advancements with the GPS to allow for turn-by-turn directions.
The new iPhone OS 3.0 will be free for all existing users and $9.99 for iTouch owners. The official release of the OS will be on June 17th.
Rumor Recap:
iPhone OS 3.0 will be free for all iPhone users. RESULT: TRUE
iPhone OS 3.0 will not have tethering for internet. RESULT: FALSE
iPhone OS 3.0 will allow limited Flash within Safari. RESULT: FALSE
Finally – The New iPhone 3GS Announced!
The new version of the iPhone was officially announced and named the 3 GS. The “S” stands for speed, according to keynote speaker Scott Forstall. The camera has the same outside with entirely new insides. Faster processor and memory speeds mean that applications will launch twice as fast as before. The phone will also support OpenGL|ES 2.0, which is good news for gamers. The phone will support the new 7.2 MB per second HSPDA internet speed (meaning it’s faster than most people’s cable internet connection at home).
Attached is a new 3 mega pixel camera (up from 1.2) that features an auto-focus program and better low-light sensitivity as well as a auto-macro mode. As widely speculated, the new camera can also capture video at 30 frames per second. Other features include auto-focus, auto-white balance, and auto-exposure. Videos will live within the “photo” space and you can even scrub and edit on the phone itself. From there, the new iPhone 3 GS can share the video to YouTube, MobileMe, MMS, and even e-mail.
Security is a big feature with the iPhone. Data encryption support and instant remote wipe are at your fingertips should the iPhone be stolen or lost. There’s a new battery that sports up to nine hours of internet surfing, 10 hours of video, 30 hours of audio, and five hours of 3G talk-time.
Price of the new iPhone (which ships with the new iPhone 3.0 OS) will be $199 for the 16 GB version and $299 for the 32 GB version. The “old” iPhone 3G phone (8GB version) will be just $99 starting today. The new iPhone 3 GS will go on sale on June 19th.
Rumor Recap:
There will be a new iPhone announced at WWDC. RESULT: TRUE
The new iPhone will support the new HSPDA speeds. RESULT: TRUE
The new iPhone will have a 16 GB and 32 GB versions for $199 and $299. RESULT: TRUE
The new iPhone will have video capture and exporting abilities. RESULT: TRUE
The new iPhone will have a beefier CPU and memory hardware. RESULT: TRUE
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