Taking the stage at this year’s Worldwide Developer’s Conference at San Francisco’s Moscone Center, Steve Jobs has just taken the stage, and with an “It’s great to be here,” we’re off to a running start with some WWDC specs.
This year, the WWDC sold out in 8 daysm with over 5,200 attendees from 57 countries. There will be over 120 hands on labs with over 1,000 Apple engineers.
It’s going to be a big one. What will the next two hours reveal?
Image via Ars Technica
According to French blog Mac Generation, we can all expect Safari 5 to be unveiled at WWDC in just a handful of hours.
Rumor? Sure. But they’ve got a convincing looking changelog, boasting a 25% improvement in JavaScript performance, a new Safari RSS Reader which will probably be too simplistic for serious feed junkies, more than twelve new HTML5 features, hardware acceleration in Windows and the option to add Bing as your default Search engine. It also looks like Apple is changing Safari’s address field to function more like Firefox’s Awesome Bar.
With the announcement of the leaked next-generation iPhone coming tomorrow morning at WWDC, the rumor mill is in even higher overdrive than usual. The photo above, from Pursuitist, is an alleged photo taken “inside” the Moscone West center in San Francisco that purports to reveal the all-new iPhone HD. It’s also a transparent fake, as the colored iPhones are an amateur mock-up that 9to5mac posted almost a month ago. I find it hard to believe that Apple would conclude that a fan’s creative would be the ideal way to launch their latest and greatest phone.
Also notable: The word “iPhone” and the 64GB capacity aren’t well-centered on the back of the device, another dead giveaway. You can head over to Pursuitist to see more fake photos if you wish, or wait until about 11 a.m. Pacific tomorrow to see the real thing.
via TUAW
As invites roll in for extracurricular activities for WWDC next week, only one so far offers something besides drinks and the same folks you’ve seen all day: a museum-style look at working Apple technology dating back to 1976 — including an original Apple I.
The aptly-named iNSpired tour is sponsored by BoxTone, Mobile Service Management software provider and you’ll get to ogle 25 years of Apple’s insanely great tech as you hobnob with community members over drinks and food. (They promise a “hands-on” experience but keep your potato-chip grease off the keyboards, thanks.)
Apple employee #16, Wendell Sander, aka father of the Apple III, is coming to the party, he’s bringing the Apple I.
Entrance is free for WWDC attendees, spaces are limited, tell them you’re with us (promo code: CultofMacFan) when you register and you’ll be entered in a drawing to win an iPad and a VIP pass.
See you there?
With the cover blown on a next-generation iPhone, how might we expect Apple to surprise Mac fans at the upcoming Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco? One analyst suggests the Cupertino, Calif. company may use the platform to introduce a cloud-based version of iTunes, as well as updates for the Mac Pro and MacBook Air.
“Other announcements we are picking up that could potentially be made are iTunes.com, a web-based version of [Apple’s] iTunes client, and new Mac refreshes with faster processors and graphics, namely the Mac Pro and MacBook Air,” Kaufman Bros. analyst Shaw Wu told investors Friday. The Mac Pro and MacBook Air were last updated in March and June 2009.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FncILxajmlw
Rats: just as we were hoping for a heart-pumping, fist-waving performance from Steve Ballmer, a la’ Monkeyboy iPod mash-up above, Microsoft has officially denied he will be appearing at Apple’s WWDC via Twitter:
Steve Ballmer not speaking at Apple Dev Conf. Nor appearing on Dancing with the Stars. Nor riding in the Belmont. Just FYI.
There’s hope, though perhaps he will be considering a stint on “So, You Think You Can Dance?” or emceeing a roller derby match.
Via App Zone
UPDATE: Microsoft denied Ballmer would be present with a pithy tweet. Darn.
There may be a few surprises at the upcoming June 7 WWDC keynote after all.
Barron’s reports that a sliver of that day’s agenda (exactly seven minutes) has been allotted to a Microsoft presentation. Speculation is that the microphone would be handed over to none other than that bouncy preacher with the overactive sweat glands himself, Steve Ballmer. He just may be giving that signature rallying cry of “Developers! Developers! Developers!” to a Mac audience:
Trip Chowdhry, an analyst with tiny Global Equities Research, contends that 7 minutes of the June 7 keynote by Apple CEO Steve Jobs has been blocked off for a presentation by Microsoft (MSFT) to talk about Visual Studio 2010, the company’s suite of development tools. Chowdhry says the new version of VS will allow developers to write native applications for the iPhone, iPad and Mac OS. And here’s the kicker: he thinks Microsoft’s presentation could be given by none other than Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer.
Using VS would allow PC folks to make apps without having to switch over to a Mac and employ Xcode, reasonable enough, but the disparity in speaking styles (and clothing styles) make Ballmer’s air time at the Apple event a little hard to imagine.
If the spectacle is anything like the fake video above of his incursion at MacWorld, sign me up.
Yesterday’s release of Google’s Chrome 5 internet browser made it even more viable a Safari replacement than ever (if you can get over the design niggles, that is), but if a rather sly hint from Daring Fireball’s John Gruber is anything to go by, Apple may attempt to match Chrome and Firefox’s most interesting feature — extensions support — with Safari 5.
Quoth Gruber:
The other big thing that’s missing [in Safari] (compared to both Chrome and Firefox) is a proper extension API. If only Apple had an imminent developer conference where they could unveil such a thing.
This is a big weakness of Safari compared to many other modern browsers , and the ability to easily tweak the Safari experience according to user preference would certainly win Apple’s browser some converts.
The question is: are browser extensions anathema to Apple’s own design ethos, which tries to perfect the user experience through tight-fisted control? As great as Firefox and Chrome extensions are — I simply can’t work with a browser that doesn’t support them anymore — things can get quite ugly and confusing, design-wise, with a lot of extensions installed. Apple can’t be too happy about that prospect.
Still, at the end of the day, the option of extensions coming to Safari is a win for everyone. My only hope is that Apple will crib some other ideas from Chrome while they are at it: Chrome’s effortless merging of the search field and address field is so brilliant that it makes any other interpretation seem amateurish in comparison.
Apple’s upcoming 2010 Worldwide Developer Conference, starting June 7 in San Francisco, is a bit like celebrating Christmas Day after already knowing what will be under the tree. Yes, CEO Steve Jobs will deliver a keynote address, but otherwise, there is “little room for surprise,” a prominent Apple analyst said Wednesday.
With talk of the upcoming next-generation iPhone splashed across blogs and television newscasts like some messy Hollywood divorce, all that’s left for Apple to do is fill in the details. The handset will likely have a front-facing camera useful for video conferencing, longer battery life and thinner design, Piper Jaffray’s Gene Munster told investors. Munster calls the WWDC a “non-event” for Apple stock.
Apple CEO Steve Jobs will deliver the keynote address at this year’s Worldwide Developers Conference June 7 in San Francisco. The announcement by the Cupertino, Calif. company unleashed further speculation Jobs will unveil a new version of Apple’s iPhone. At the 2009 WWDC, Apple introduced the iPhone 3GS.
The consumer electronics giant noted the 2010 WWDC sold out just eight days after tickets became available. The conference, running through June 11, will focus on Application Frameworks, Internet & Web, Graphics & Media, Developer Tools and Core OS. But many onlookers instead are looking to a potential dust-up between Jobs and his well-known ire for Google’s Android and Adobe Flash.
“Watch out Android, Apple CEO Steve Jobs is preparing Apple’s response, and we suspect things could get pretty personal,” predicted 9to5Mac.