WWDC - page 16

When Apple reveals iCloud at WWDC on Monday, it’ll have the kind of impact the iPod has had, predicts Kevin Fox, a Silicon Valley software veteran who’s worked at Apple, Yahoo and Google.

“The rumblings are huge,” says Fox, lead designer at Mozilla. Fox worked on Newton software before designing Yahoo’s chat service and then software for Google (including Gmail 1.0, Google Calendar 1.0, and Google Reader 2.0). He continues:

… given the complete failure of MobileMe over the last decade there’s no way Apple would introduce [iCloud] on such a pedestal unless it’s incredible. My guess is that iCloud is to MobileMe as iPhone was to Newton: a complete, deep, polished solution after an underwhelming market failure.

In just three days, Steve Jobs will take the stage at San Francisco Moscone Center and kick off this year’s Worldwide Developer Conference, or WWDC. In so doing, he’ll announce new software, new products and end months of speculation about the new iPhone, iOS 5, iCloud music streaming and OS X Lion.

Here’s Cult of Mac’s complete overview of what we’re expecting to hear about at this year’s WWDC.

With another WWDC looming on the horizon and Apple taking the unusual step of pre-announcing things like Lion, iOS 5 and iCloud, speculation turns towards what we haven’t been told. At many Apple events the most exciting announcement is often that feigned afterthought… just One More Thing.

This year, the One More Thing is rumored to be the iPhone 4S, despite the fact that Apple has set the expectation that WWDC will be all about software, not hardware.

We’re skeptical, but to keep you busy speculating over the weekend, we’ve updated Cult of Mac’s “Just One More Thing” interactive timeline to relive the excitement of the last thirteen years of Apple annoucements.

This year’s WWDC is now just a weekend away, and with announcements for iCloud, iOS 5 and Mac OS X Lion already confirmed, I can barely contain my excitement. I’m not too bothered that there (probably) won’t be a new iPhone this summer – for me, it’s all about iCloud and iOS 5.

What are you most excited for?

If you’ve been keeping up with the iPhone 4S/5 speculation recently, any hopes you had that the device would be announced at Steve’s WWDC keynote on Monday will be well and truly crushed by now. But if a new device isn’t right around the corner, why is AT&T running out of the iPhone 4?

With the last remaining label having just inked a deal with Apple to launch iCloud, music industry insiders are now talking to the press about what they know about Cupertino’s upcoming music streaming service. Specifically, they’re answering the question everyone’s been asking all along: how much will iCloud’s music streaming cost?

The last major music label has finally been wooed by Apple, just in time for Steve Jobs to present iCloud at Monday’s WWDC.

We don’t know about you, but personally we are more excited about the next version of iOS than we are the next version of  the iPhone. The iPhone 4 is fairly adequate and meets most of our needs, but iOS has a lot of room for improvement. WWDC 2011 is just around the corner and we know that Apple will be announcing iOS 5 there so here is a round-up of the current rumors surrounding the next version of iOS.

Just like last year, Apple’s kicking off WWDC a little earlier than its June 6th start date with an official WWDC 2011 app, which is now available for download on the App Store.

Apple last update for iwork.com was released in January this year. Users were notified via e-mail, that enhancements to iWork.com Apple’s public beta online service for iWork ’09 users had been released.

This announcement came out of the blue at the time regarding a service that has definitely been off the radar for a long time and in beta for longer than I can remember. It’s future isn’t clear considering the pace at which Apple is deploying features on it. Perhaps that will change this year with the rumored release of iWork ’11 and the imminent release of Apple’s iCloud services at WWDC 2011 next week.

As Apple retail stores begin to clear their inventories of the AirPort and Time Capsule wireless networking devices, could Apple be planning a refresh for these devices during WWDC next week?

With just 4 days to go until this year’s Worldwide Developers Conference and the unveiling of Apple’s new iCloud service, the company decided now would be a good time to take control of its $4.5 million purchase for the domain.

Next week, Apple will finally confirm years of rumors of taking iTunes to the cloud and unveil iCloud, their media locker service that will automatically scan and match your existing iTunes library for streaming to any iOS device.

In some ways, though, iCloud’s taken too long to get here. The era of unlimited bandwidth is over. In the last year we’ve seen both mobile carriers and ISP broadband providers impose severe data caps on their users. The vast majority of iPhone and iPad customers only have 2GB of data per month to play with. How much media can you really stream with a 2GB data cap?

Let’s find out!

If you weren’t already excited about Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference – which kicks off on Monday – these images of the Apple logo going up on Moscone West in San Francisco are guaranteed to get you in the mood.

Apple’s iCloud music locker will not require users to laboriously upload all the music in their iTunes libraries, but will instead rely on “scan and match.”

This morning’s press release from Apple clearly outlining the topics Steve Jobs would be covering in next week’s WWDC keynote make it crystal clear that the next iPhone is not officially on the conference’s agenda for the first time in three years. Instead, WWDC will focus on software: iOS, Lion and iCloud.

But could there be a “one more thing?” And could it be the iPhone 4S? That’s what a new rumor is suggesting… but take it with a grain of salt.

You know the drill. Every year, Apple gives students a special incentive to buy a new Mac in the form of a cheap iPod.

This year, though, the deal might be a lot spicier: students might get a couple bills off a new iPad instead of an entry-level iPod Touch. And Cupertino might just be so excited about this that Back to School will prominently be mentioned at next week’s WWDC.

While there’s no question that Mac OS X Lion will be one of the main talking points at this year’s Worldwide Developers Conference in June, we weren’t quite expecting it to launch during the event. However, one report believes Apple is currently prepping Lion for a WWDC release.

2011’s World Wide Developer’s Conference is fast approaching, but for the first time in four years, there is no expectation that Apple will reveal a new iPhone there. That might be a very good thing for investors looking to capitalize on low expectations.

(Update: Looks like we were right to be skeptical. GigaOm has since corrected their post to say they mistakenly published an old press release.)

In what we hope is a return from his medical leave of absence, Apple has apparently just confirmed that Steve Jobs will be the official keynote speaker at this year’s Worldwide Developer’s Conference.

Apple’s plans to bring music streaming to the upcoming iCloud service are coming together swiftly this week as the company signs up a third major record label.

As this year’s Worldwide Developers Conference approaches, it seems Apple’s plan to bring us a magical cloud filled with a never-ending collection of music called ‘iCloud’ is getting its final touches. Sources say a licensing deal with music label EMI is now in place, but what about the other labels?

We’ve been speculating on Apple’s partnership with Nuance for some weeks now, and confirmation the two companies are working together comes with the new speech technology discovered in the Mac OS X Lion beta.

As WWDC and the unveiling of iOS 5 approaches, we’re all wondering what Apple may or may not bring to its devices with the next major iOS release. One thing that could be introduced is speech recognition, courtesy of Nuance Communications – the company behind the Dragon Dictation applications for the iPhone and iPad.

According to a TechCrunch report that cites “multiple sources,” Apple has been negotiating a deal with Nuance which could see them integrate the company’s speech recognition technology into the iOS platform. While negotiations could have potentially been about an Apple takeover of Nuance, TechCrunch believes that at this point that’s unlikely.

Apple has officially informed AT&T that there will be no new iPhone this June or July, according to a customer care representative for the carrier. One AT&T customer noticed his eligibility date for a subsidized upgrade had been pushed back by over five months; when he contacted the carrier for an explanation, a rep gave him the following statement:

Apple has informed us that they do not plan to release the iPhone in the June to July timeframe, though there will be a newer version in the future. Unfortunately, we have not been given a release time for the new phone. We will release this information on our website when it is available to us.

It’s unusual that this kind of information would be passed down to employees ahead of an official Apple announcement, however, you can’t help but feel this particular AT&T rep is right. As June gets closer, the number of reports that suggests a later-than-usual iPhone release are increasing, and any hope of a new iPhone before September is quickly being quashed.

Apple is now expected to announce a new iPhone at its yearly iPod event traditionally held every September.

[via MacRumors]