Preparing for the Apple WWDC Keynote
Steve Jobs will be taking the stage at San Francisco's Moscone Center at 10am PDT (1pm EDT, 6pm GMT) and will be unleashing some new toys for all the good Apple fanboys and fangirls. Tops amongst the expected crop will be the 3G iPhone, which will have a global launch this time around, as well as the new iPhone 2.0 software with native applications from the new iPhone App Store (with Sling Player coming soon). We'll also be looking for revisions to the .Mac service, hopefully longer movie rental time periods (Canada just got movie rentals with a 48-hour rental period, compared to the 24 hours here in the US), and perhaps a mysterious "one more thing." I'll be sitting at my desk in Seattle following liveblogging feeds from a variety of sources, including:
Later this afternoon, we'll bring you a comprehensive look at what got announced. In the meantime, enjoy this little ditty (which is a bit NSFW) from Boing Boing Gadgets, "Apple Store Is Down."
[UPDATE 10:25am PDT] The WWDC is definitely geared more for the propellerheads as we're nearly a half-hour into the keynote and the main topics have included how to create user interfaces for the new iPhone 2.0 software using Cocoa Touch and other Core Services. No iPhone hardware announcement yet, but we have gotten confirmation from Mr. Jobs that Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard will be covered today.
[UPDATE 10:59am PDT] The last half hour has been devoted to some of the applications that will be ready for the iPhone App Store, including an app for medical students to learn about the parts of the body, a Major League Baseball app that shows live scoring as well as real-time video highlights, Cow Music with virtual instruments, a location-aware social network called Loopt, and Sega's Super Monkey Ball.
[UPDATE 11:15am PDT] We're getting to the consumer-level stuff for the iPhone. The iPhone 2.0 software will be available in July for free for all iPhone users, and for $10 for iPod touch users (image via Gizmodo's live feed).
[UPDATE 11:33am PDT] Steve's back after the introduction of the Mobile Me service (which replaces .Mac), and here comes the news we've been waiting for... iPhone 3G with glossy plastic back, flush headphone jack (the audience erupts in applause), solid metal buttons... developing...
[UPDATE 11:38am PDT] One word: GPS.
[UPDATE 11:43am PDT] The 3G iPhone still has great battery life:
[UPDATE 11:47am PDT] Happy birthday to me -- the 3G iPhone gets released on July 11 (day after my birthday, actually). The 8 GB model will sell for $199, and the 16 GB will sell for $299. There will be white and black models (image via Engadget).
[UPDATE 11:51am PDT] And that's all from Mr. Jobs and company. No MacBooks, nothing about iTunes movie rentals, and curiously nothing about the 10.6 Snow Leopard release in the keynote. Again, we'll have more in-depth reports throughout the afternoon.
--Agen G.N. Schmitz
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