WWDC 2009

Somehow, I totally missed the fact that the WWDC keynote was happening today. For some odd reason, I naturally assumed all the news would happen tomorrow. At any rate, Apple announced some new things today, and I’m here to faithfully write about them.

iPhone 3G S

image from Apple.com

It’s a strange moniker, but the iPhone 3G S adds some nice features to Apple’s cellular effort. Some of these features come with the OS update (detailed below), but there are some hardware improvements to the product as well.

• The new iPhone sports a faster processor (and Ars Technica speculates it has faster memory as well) that results in faster web page rendering and better app performance in general.
• The iPhone 3G S will shoot video at a resolution of 640 x 480 at 30 fps with audio. You will also be able to edit the video footage directly on the iPhone.
• Voice controls have been added for placing calls and playing music.
• The new iPhone has a built-in compass, and it will orient a Google map to face the same direction you are.

The improvements to iPhone are primarily refinements to an already elegant device. New AT&T customers will be able to pick up a 16 GB model for $199 or a 32 GB model for $299. They will also continue selling an 8 GB version of the iPhone 3G for $99. The bad news is that existing customers wishing to purchase one of the new iPhones will be asked to pay a $200 premium over new customers. This is not the best way to inspire customer loyalty, AT&T.

iPhone OS 3.0

The next version of the mobile iteration of OS X will be available June 17 as a free download or a $9.95 upgrade for iPod touch users. New features include (but are not limited to):

• Cut, Copy, Paste. This shouldn’t be news, but it is.
• Landscape Keyboard. Those of us with bigger hands can now type more easily.
• MMS. This includes the ability to snap pictures or shoot video for immediate inclusion in the messages. The downside? AT&T will not be supporting this feature until later in the summer.
• Online iTunes Purchases. iPhone users will now be able to purchase all iTunes content directly from their phones. This was previously restricted to music purchases.
• Internet Tethering. This is another one of those long-desired features which will make many iPhone users very happy – except those on AT&T. Again, AT&T is saying they will support this feature at some point down the road.

Earlier tonight on Twitter, Gedeon Maheux opined:

It must rub Steve’s rhubarb that Apple can’t deliver the kind of product it wants to thanks to the red tape & greed of AT&T.

I can’t help but agree. AT&T is the weak link in the iPhone realizing its true potential as a device. I am left wondering if Apple is starting to regret its exclusivity agreement with the telecommunications giant.

MacBook Pro

image from Apple.com

Apple has shuffled their laptop lineup a little bit and reduced prices across the board. The 13″ aluminum MacBook has now joined the MacBook Pro family – returning the MacBook brand to plastic enclosures. While the rebranding makes sense, I think the MacBook Pro line is now needlessly complicated. Here’s a short version of their new offerings.

• 13-inch. 2.26 GHz/160 GB at $1199 or 2.53 GHz/250 GB at $1499. 2-4 GB of memory shared with the NVIDIA graphics processor. Where the aluminum MacBooks did not have a FireWire port, these have a FireWire 800 port on them.
• 15-inch. 2.53 GHz/250 GB/ 3 MB L2 cache at $1699, 2.66 GHz/320 GB/ 3 MB L2 cache at $1999, or 2.80 GHz/500 GB/ 6 MB L2 cache at $2299.You can upgrade the $2299 model to have a 3.06 GHz processor if you want. All models have an NVIDIA graphics processor with shared memory, but the 2.66 GHz model and the 2.8 GHz model have an addition discreet NVIDIA graphics card with 256 MB or 512 MB of dedicated memory. All have 4 GB of memory upgradable to 8 GB.
• 17-inch. The 17-inch model comes in one configuration of 2.8 GHz with 500 GB. It has the same shared/discreet graphics system as the top 15-inch model and comes with 4 GB of memory (again upgradable to 8 GB).

All models can also be upgraded to 7200rpm 500 GB drives, 128 GB solid-state, or 256 GB solid-state drives. Also, the MacBook Air saw updates today, and Apple cut $300 off its price. It remains, as ever, a very beautiful but slightly impractical machine.

I find the new MacBook Pro lineup to be confounding. If there is going to be so many different options at different screen-sizes, why not finally go the Dell route and allow users to upgrade all models with the same options? Still, I’m happy to know that I won’t be spending as much next time I buy a new MacBook Pro.

Snow Leopard

There wasn’t much new news on Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard. The Finder has been rewritten to be snappier; Exposé and Stacks are gaining some welcome functionality; QuickTime is getting overhauled, and numerous other refinements and enhancements are being touted.

The real news here is that Snow Leopard will be available in September, and it will be a $29 upgrade for people running Mac OS 10.5 Leopard.

Safari 4

The new version is out of beta and available to the masses. I already wrote about my impressions of the Safari 4 beta, and many of my observations hold true (except the copy & paste bug in Blogger has been fixed). You might also remember some consternation regarding the placement of tabs in Safari 4. Well, it seems Apple has listened to criticism, for tabs are back where they used to be in the final version.

no more toppy tabs in Safari 4

Conclusions

While traditionally a developer-centered event, the WWDC keynote speeches have recently been including more and more information of interest to consumers. Today’s announcements were basically focused on refinements – whether to software or hardware. I think the new iPhone and iPhone OS will only serve to strengthen Apple’s place in the market, and the pricing of Snow Leopard will go a long way in paving consumer acceptance of an under-the-hood upgrade. As for Safari and the MacBook Pro, these are already products that I have a deep affection for, and the improvements seen today only make them better. (I just wish the MacBook lineup was not so convoluted now.) Today contained no truly exciting announcements, but it is good to see Apple still improving and refining their current products.