Well, I’m sure you’ve already heard plenty about the announcements made today by Apple during the keynote address at Apple‘s Worldwide Developer’s Conference, but I thought I would provide a recap and add my opinion to the announcements.
What was announced:
- New MacBook Lineup – now all MacBook Pro’s. Sealed Batteries. Improved Battery Life. Better pricing. All shipping now.
- Safari 4.0 – Faster and better, available now for both Mac and Windows
- Snow Leopard – To be released in September at an upgrade price of only $29 – lots of refinements and improvements. 3 Major points – 1) now all 64 bit system apps, 2) Grand Central Dispatch, making it easier for developers to leverage multi-core units, and 3) Exchange support – IMPORTANT for further penetration into the Business Marketplace.
- New/Enhanced QuickTime
iPhone 3.0 Software
- Copy/Cut/Paste
- Landscape in more applications
- MMS Support (not on AT&T yet!)
- Better Search – Spotlight Universal
- Purchase & Rent Movies from iTunes without computer
- New Parental Controls
- Tether Capability – USB and Bluetooth – Not yet supported by AT&T
- Safari Performance Improvement
- Find My iPhone capability – GPS through MobileMe
- Remote Secure Wipe Capability
- New Apps and App Capabilities
- Availeble June 17
- Free for all iPhone Users
- $9.95 for all iPod Touch
iPhone 3GS
- S = Speed
- Messaging 2.1 TIMES Faster
- Viewing 3.6 TIMES Faster
- New 3 Megapixel Camera
- Autofocus
- Auto White Balance
- Auto Macro
- Touch screen to focus on point
- Video Recording
- Clip control
- MobileMe and YouTube uploads
- MMS share
- Voice Control
- Dialing
- iPod
- More
- Build in Compass
- Enhanced Battery Life
- 16GB and 32GB ($199 and $299)
- Available June 19
iPhone 3G
- 8GB now available for only $99
All in all, it was a busy morning of announcements for Apple. The keynote ran over two hours, with lots of product demonstrations in the middle. Unfortunately, in uncommon Apple style, a couple of the demos failed.
What was surprising to me was that most all of this was rumored, and clearly the rumors were very accurate. There was, though, a lot of speculation also about things like Steve Jobs showing up, and other announcements. But those did not materialize.
There was no tablet. There was no new iPod announcement. This is a developer’s conference, and the focus was on software, in addition to the new iPhone. But it is now common for Apple to announce new phones in the month of June – they have done it now for each of the last three years.
So no real new surprises. Only announcements that had been leaked over the past several weeks. But exciting none the less.
Apple continues to push the envelope and bring new features and capabilities to the marketplace. The iPhone is becoming more and more like a handheld computer – able to do things that used to require a large and heavy personal computer to accomplish. And tightly integrated into the entire Macintosh experience.
Now with the ability to rent and purchase video content right on the iPhone, it adds to the completeness of the ecosystem. But this will also increase the amount of storage that you will need in the home, as all that downloaded content needs to be replicated somewhere for protection from loss. With the other new announcements of late that Apple will begin charging for additional downloads of the same app, backup storage becomes more and more important. Of course, the best way to do that is with Seagate FreeAgent storage products for the Mac!
There is no doubt in my mind that Apple will continue to push the bounds in usability. And I am sure there will be more products in the future. But perhaps the days of large, unexpected surprises are behind us. It is harder and harder for Apple to hold close the secrets they were once able to.
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