Apple

Updated, June 17: The sandboxing of plug-ins, such as Flash, in Safari 4 will be limited to users running Mac OS X 10.6, which will be available this fall. The feature is currently not available, nor will it be available to Windows users. Windows users should also note that changing the default search provider is limited to either Google or Yahoo.

The public version of Safari 4 was released Monday amid all the iPhone noise at WWDC, and Apple confirmed what those who played around with the beta version already knew: Safari is now a serious browser for serious Windows users, and its position on Macs has been bolstered.

You can download Safari 4 for Windows and Mac from CNET Download.com.

If you're unfamiliar with Safari 4, I strongly recommend checking out Stephen Shankland's analysis of the Safari beta version that was released in January. The biggest overall changes are the graphics improvements, including the new interface and the new JavaScript engine called Nitro, but since the beta little else is dramatically different.

Users of Safari 3 will be hard-pressed to not notice that the interface is completely new, with a look and feel much more in line with the other major Webkit-based browser, Google Chrome. The browser launches with the menu bar, tab bar, and status bar all hidden, presenting you with the location bar, bookmark bar, and the slick Top Sites interface. Top Sites is essentially Opera's Speed Dial feature, presenting your most commonly visited Web sites, with a Cover Flow-style skin. The black background, curvature, and reflective window bottom make this the most professional-looking Web browser around. A blue star and an upturned corner indicate that a site has been updated since your last visit to it. Tap the Edit button in the bottom left corner to remove a site or pin a site permanently to Top Sites.

One major change to the interface from the beta involves tabs. In the beta, Apple experimented with a Chrome-style "tabs-on-top" that it has abandoned in the public release. The font for the tabs was often hard to read, and made Safari look excessively like Chrome. The new tab style now looks much like the old tab style.

Safari's visual speed dial is one of the new browser's best features--if your system is new enough.

(Credit: Screenshot by Seth Rosenblatt/CNET)

Cover Flow is now available as a graphic way to browse your bookmarks and history, however, if you've got a somewhat older computer you still won't be able to use any of these graphics improvements.

Another new change for Mac users in Snow Leopard will be the sandboxing of browser crashes caused by plug-ins such as Flash and Shockwave. The page that they're on will continue to function, and you can reactivate the plug-in by reloading the page.

Safari 4 is also the first nonbeta browser to fully complete the Acid3 Web standards compliance test.

The URL bar does feature "smart" surfing, but only for including your history and bookmarks--much like Internet Explorer. Chrome and Firefox remain the only browsers to default to Google's "feeling lucky" style of searching from the location bar.

Cover Flow in Safari gives your Bookmarks and History a graphics lesson.

(Credit: Screenshot by Seth Rosenblatt/CNET)

Apple's big claim with Safari is that it's the fastest browser on the market, and Apple just might be right on that count. On an Intel Core Duo T400 ThinkPad, with 3GB of RAM and a 2.53GHz processor, I ran both Webkit's SunSpider JavaScript test and Mozilla's Dromaeo test on Firefox 3.5 Preview, Google Chrome 2, and Safari 4. Safari came out on top in Dromaeo by a long shot, but Chrome eked by in SunSpider.

For the SunSpider test, Chrome hit 597.0 milliseconds, while Safari scored 620.4 ms and Firefox comparatively chugged along at 952.2 ms. On Dromaeo, Safari reached 175.06 runs per second, Chrome managed 67.92 runs/s, and Firefox came in last again at 48.48 runs/s. However, Chrome only led in two categories, and it tied both with Safari. Safari definitively led in 36 tests, and Firefox led in 12.

Keeping in mind that although these tests are affected by background computer processes, your hardware, and other factors, Safari is definitely one of the fastest browsers out there. However, it still lacks extensions, and for many Firefox users that's enough to keep them from switching. Even Internet Explorer supports some form of extensibility with its Web Slices and Accelerators.

Like many other browsers, Safari's location bar offers suggested sites.

(Credit: Screenshot by Seth Rosenblatt/CNET)

Safari is still a RAM-devouring beast, too. With two tabs open, one to Dromaeo and one to SunSpider, it was using a shocking amount of RAM--more than 500MB after running both tests. Google Chrome consumed about 75MB of RAM across the same two sites under the same circumstances, while Firefox required 120MB.

With about 8.5 percent of the browser market, it's clear that Apple is positioning Safari as more than a developer's tool on Windows, and that its successes at building a faster JavaScript engine should be taken seriously even with its other drawbacks.

Apple got aggressive on pricing at WWDC 2009.

(Credit: James Martin/CNET)

SAN FRANCISCO--The big knock on Apple--whether or not it's always been accurate--is that its products are more expensive than most of its competitors.

But in the keynote speech Monday that opened Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference, it became clear the company is tackling the price question head on.

The best example of this new attitude is the decision to keep the 8GB iPhone 3G, but sell it at $99. That was the most aggressive price move it made Monday. But Apple was price conscious in other ways, too: It upgraded its 13-inch unibody MacBook to specs worthy of its more high-end MacBook Pro line, while also reducing the price. The MacBook Pro 15-inch and MacBook Air also received price cuts. And Apple didn't stop there. The new Mac OS X 10.6, known as Snow Leopard, will cost current Mac OS X 10.5 owners just $29 to upgrade when it becomes available in October.

The price cuts on the MacBook lineup and the iPhone 3G are clearly intended to bring more "switchers" over to the Mac and iPhone platforms. And it shows that Apple is acutely aware of the financial problems facing potential new customers. But will it work?

There are two things that lowering the price of the iPhone to $99 does: It broadens the potential base of people who can now afford the iPhone. It also kneecaps Palm. The $199 8GB Palm Pre has been touted as a potential "iPhone killer," or at least a very nice alternative to Apple's device. But the Pre is now $100 more than the comparable device from Apple. That could make the decision very easy for people who are on the fence.

But this isn't just about Palm. It's about all the other phones that are currently sub-$100 right now, too. As of the beginning of the year, Apple owns just under 11 percent of the smartphone market, and that could increase exponentially now. In order to figure out just how much a price cut from $199 to $99 on the 8GB version will affect consumers, the best example is what happened when Apple cut the iPhone from $399 to $199 last year. That was also a 50 percent price reduction.

Apple watcher and Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster notes that the price cut last year tripled the sales of the device, from 4.7 million iPhones sold in the three quarters before the price cut, to 15 million iPhones sold after the release of the $199 iPhone 3G. There are other factors of course: greater visibility for the iPhone after a year of being on the market, people who had been holding out for a 3G version of the phone, and more availability in international markets. But Munster says demand in the U.S. alone increased 100 percent with that price cut.

Whether Apple can repeat this is going to be determined by a number of factors. Of course, the economic environment isn't the same as it was a year ago, plus far more people have iPhones already, and there are more smartphones on the market now.

In any case, the decision on price shows Apple is being aggressive, and it makes a statement about the kinds of customers it is courting.

The same is true of its pricing approach to the Snow Leopard upgrade. While there are plenty of flashy new tweaks to the operating system, they're just that: tweaks. The updated OS is not a monumental change from Leopard, which is why Apple likely went with the easier-to-stomach and surprisingly low upgrade fee for current Leopard users of $29. (When Leopard was introduced, it cost $129).

Jab at Redmond
The move also clearly puts pressure on Microsoft vis a vis Windows 7, which will start shipping in October. Microsoft executive Bill Veghte told CNET News last week that Microsoft is considering whether to offer a lower-cost Windows 7 upgrade for Vista users--and hinted as much in a speech earlier on Monday. A leaked Best Buy memo says the retailer plans to pre-sell Windows 7 upgrades for $50. However, it is unclear if that is a promotional price; Microsoft has yet to publicly detail its plans.

That wasn't the only jab at Redmond during the presentation. Some were more subtle than others (Like Bertrand Serlet's remark about "Windows 7 is just another version of Vista.") Microsoft has worked hard to make the choice of buying a Mac or a PC about the price--just witness its series of I'm a PC ads that send moms, kids, aspiring actresses, and college students searching for inexpensive laptops at retail stores. Apple, however, has never really engaged on the issue of pricing--the company's messaging on Macs has always been to position it as "the best computer" period. But the aggressive pricing on Mac laptops revealed at WWDC today shows that Microsoft (and Hewlett-Packard, and Dell, and Sony, etc.) has Cupertino's attention.

Prices were cut across the board, from the newly introduced 13-inch MacBook Pro to the MacBook Air. The 13-inch now starts at $1,199 and 15-inch at $1,699, though both received upgrades to battery life, the screen technology, and a new SD card slot. The MacBook Air price was the biggest change: It now costs $1,499 for the low-end Air and $1,799, down from $2,499, for the high-end version packed with a 128GB solid-state drive.

Apple is obviously hoping to rejuvenate its Mac sales. While the overall market for computers has dropped steeply, Apple's sales have fallen but not as drastically. Its market share stands at about 7.5 percent, but sales for February and April this year were both trending at about a 4 percent to 16 percent declines in unit growth from the same time a year prior. Price cuts across the board could definitely get people to shop again.

Perhaps even Laptop Huntresses "Lauren and Sue" will want to reconsider that 15-inch MacBook.

On Monday, Apple announced at its Worldwide Developer Conferences in San Francisco that it plans to finally add data tethering to the iPhone, which will turn the device into a wireless modem to connect laptops to 3G networks.

(Credit: James Martin/CNET)

Updated at 4:09 p.m. PDT with a link to a Boy Genius report and a clarification on when AT&T expects MMS and tethering service to be ready.

iPhone users across the U.S. were disappointed Monday to learn that AT&T, the only operator in the country offering the iPhone, won't immediately support a couple of key new features in Apple's new 3.0 operating system that will be available starting next week. But AT&T says these features are coming.

On Monday, Apple announced at its Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco that it plans to finally add data tethering to the iPhone, which will turn the device into a wireless modem to connect laptops to 3G networks. It also announced that the new 3.0 version of the iPhone operating system will support multimedia messaging messaging.

These features have topped iPhone users' wish lists since the phone was launched two years ago. But millions of iPhone users in the U.S. will have to wait a little bit longer. That said, AT&T says the features are coming soon.

At Apple's annual Worldwide Developer's Conference on Monday, the company announced refreshes to its flagship hardware and software. Included was a new version of the iPhone called the iPhone 3G S, which will be in stores later this month. This version sports a faster processor, longer battery life, video recording, and a digital compass. It also comes with higher memory capacity than previous models.

In addition, Apple unveiled refreshed versions of its notebooks, which are headed to store shelves starting today. Along with the usual speed increases, the newer 13-inch and 15-inch models cost less and include SD card slots. The entire line is also using the same non-removable battery technology found in the MacBook AIR and the 17-inch model of the MacBook Pro.

Along with the new hardware, the company demoed features from the next version of Mac OS X, code-named "Snow Leopard." It will available later this year as a $29 upgrade to current Mac users. Apple also announced that the next version of the iPhone OS software (version 3.0) would be available in less than two weeks.

Here's a quick (but detailed) recap of everything that was announced:

New iPhone hardware

(Credit: Apple)

Apple announced a new version of the iPhone, called the iPhone 3G S. It's got the same design and pricing as the current iPhone 3G model, but sports a faster processor that Apple says will load most apps somewhere between 3 to 5 times faster. It also comes in improved capacities, all the way up to 32GB up from 16GB.

The 3G S has an updated 3-megapixel camera (up from 2 megapixels) that has autofocus and autoexposure. It can also shoot video that can be edited right on the device in a similar fashion to iMovie. The video it takes is 30 frames per second at 640x480 VGA resolution, bringing it to spec with most point-and-shoot digital cameras.

The 3G S hardware also gets a magnetometer, which will allow the device to tell what direction it's pointed in. To go along with this, there's a new compass app that will act just like a normal compass. Users with the 3G S will get additional features in the Google Maps application that show which direction they're facing.

Apple also added built-in voice control that can start calls, find songs, and other information on the phone. The iPhone has long been criticized for not having voice support.

New iPhone software

Apple announced that iPhone OS 3.0 will be available worldwide June 17 as a free update to iPhone customers, and as a $9.95 update for iPod Touch owners. For an overview of what the software does, see our previous news roundup from the mid-March developer event.

Newly announced was data tethering over USB and Bluetooth is coming as part of the software update; however it will require carrier support, which means some carriers may not allow it. There was no mention of whether AT&T will be offering as part of its iPhone service, or as a paid add-on, which it has done for some of its other devices.

Users can now rent and purchase movies from the phone. This also works for TV shows. Previously you had to do this on iTunes proper, then sync.

There's a new feature called "Find My iPhone" that will be available only for... Read more

The camera in Apple's upcoming iPhone 3G S sports not just video, but also some new features besides the usual not-so-useful bump in megapixels.

The phone, available next week in the United States and some other countries, comes with a 3-megapixel camera compared to the current iPhone 3G's 2 megapixels. It can shoot video at 30 frames per second at VGA (640x480) resolution, matching competing phones and addressing a shortcoming of the current phones.

Videos can be edited on the iPhone 3G S by trimming the sequence of still images taken from the video.

(Credit: Apple)

But the iPhone 3G S can do more than just shoot video, said Phil Schiller, Apple's senior vice president of worldwide marketing, at the company's Apple Worldwide Developer Conference here. People can share videos through e-mail, MMS, Apple's MobileMe service, and YouTube.

And taking advantage of the iPhone's relatively powerful hardware, people can "scrub" through a video--that is, click and drag to fast-forward and rewind--as they watch to jump to the spot they want. Likewise, they can trim videos to pare back to the desired portion. The scrubbing and trimming uses an interface that displays the video as a filmstrip sequence of still frames.

The iPhone 3G S also includes still camera upgrades for the photography crowd--and it should be noted that the iPhone rivals SLRs for activity on Yahoo's Flickr photo-sharing site, outpacing all mobile phones and all but one actual camera.

First is autofocus. Mobile phones' tiny image sensors often mean everything is in focus whether you want it to be or not, but the iPhone 3G S will let come with autofocus to try to ensure that the right part of the image is sharp. A feature called "tap to focus" lets people tap on the screen image to focus the camera on a particular part of the image--foreground or background, for example.

Yahoo's Flickr site puts the iPhone head and shoulders above other mobile phones for popularity on the photo-sharing site.

(Credit: Screenshot by Stephen Shankland/CNET)

Coming along with autofocus is an automacro mode, too, for close-up shots, Schiller said.

Apple also said the new phone has better low-light performance--a common bugaboo not merely for mobile phone cameras but for regular point-and-shoot models as well.

The iPhone 3G S will cost $199 for a 16GB model and $299 for a 32GB model, Apple said. Other features include better battery life and faster performance.

The new iPhone 3G S (the S stands for speed) has the same design as iPhone 3G, but what's inside is entirely new.

(Credit: James Martin/CNET)

Messaging apps, games, and attachments all are set to load faster in the iPhone 3G S, which will have a built-in camera with autofocus and video-editing capability.

(Credit: James Martin/CNET)

At 10 a.m. PDT, we'll be live-blogging Phil Schiller's keynote speech that will open Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference. Bookmark this page, and come back then for up-to-the-minute updates on what Apple is announcing.

9:52 a.m.: Welcome to CNET's WWDC live blog. I'm here in Moscone West with Kent German, CNET Reviews' cell phone editor. We're seated and ready to go, just waiting for the event to get started.

10 a.m.: Kent: Things I'm hoping for today: release date for iPhone 3.0, more features for 3.0 than what were announced in March, announcement and release date of third-generation iPhone.

OK, lights are dimmed. Here we go. John Hodgman of the "I'm a Mac" ads is onscreen. He's wishing WWDC attendees a week with "some innovation, but not too much please." Justin Long then wishes us "a great conference," to wild applause.

Phil Schiller, Apple's senior vice president of worldwide product marketing, gets things started.

(Credit: James Martin/CNET)

10:02 a.m.: Phil Schiller, Apple's senior vice president of worldwide product marketing, takes the stage in an all-denim outfit. There is more applause. He says an incredible week is planned for the 5,200 developers here, from 52 countries around the world. He says Apple is seeing the most anticipation for its developer conference yet, and he shows a chart with Mac OS X active users from 2002 to now.

10:03 a.m.: Over last two years, OS X users have grown from 25 million to 75 million, Schiller says. "No wonder everyone is trying to race behind us," he says. He will talk about Mac, iPhone, and iPod Touch.

10:05 a.m.: Bertrand Serlet, senior vice president of OS X software, and Scott Forstall, senior vice president of iPhone software, are going to speak today too. But first, Schiller is going to talk about the Mac: "I'm really happy to show you a brand-new version of the 15-inch MacBook Pro."

10:07 a.m.: The MacBook Pro has unibody architecture and a built-in lithium polymer battery like the 17-inch MacBook Pro. It has better battery life, he says, and should get 1,000 recharges. That should be about five years of life for the notebook now, according to Schiller. Customers shouldn't need to change the battery in a notebook at all in five years. It has "the nicest display we've ever put in a notebook."

New version of the 15-inch Macbook Pro.

(Credit: James Martin/CNET)

10:08 a.m.: Schiller shows the ports on the side. Instead of an ExpressCard slot, there is a new SD card slot. Why? Most MacBook Pro customers have digital cameras today. They prefer popping out SD cards and putting them right into a laptop.

10:10 a.m.: It's the fastest notebook Apple's ever made, he says, with up to a 3.06GHz processor from Intel. Expandable memory up to 8GB--that brings lots of applause. It can fit up to 500GB inside and starts at $1,699.

The 15-inch MacBook Pro now starts at $1,699.

(Credit: James Martin/CNET)

10:11 a.m.: That's a $300 price cut for the low-end configuration. It also comes in $1,999 and $2,299 configurations. Apple is also updating the 17-inch MacBook, which has 2.8GHz of processing power and a 500GB hard drive but keeps the ExpressCard slot. Its price is cut to $2,499. Both the new 15-incher and the updated 17-incher are shipping Monday. The 13-inch MacBook is also getting an update.

10:11 a.m.: The 13-incher will have seven-hour battery life now, and it will also get a new high-color display, as well as the SD card slot now. So how is this not a MacBook Pro, Schiller asks. It can now expand with up to 8GB of memory and a 500GB hard drive, and it has the LED-backlit keyboard.

New 15-inch MacBook configurations.

(Credit: James Martin/CNET)

10:14 a.m.: Plus, it gets a FireWire 800 port. The 13-incher is now considered a MacBook Pro as well, Schiller says, and it starts at $1,199. Cheaper than the 13-inch aluminum MacBook it replaces, he notes. That one will also be available today.

10:15 a.m.: Apple is also updating the MacBook Air. It starts at $1,499 with a 1,86GHz processor. With 128GB SSD, it will now start at $1,799, representing another price cut.

10:16 a.m.: Now Schiller's talking up the environmental aspects of the notebooks. He says they'll all meet the Energy Star 5.0 ratings that will arrive sometime this summer.

'World's greenest' notebooks.

(Credit: James Martin/CNET)

10:17 a.m.: "Great hardware deserves great software," Schiller says. He brings Serlet up on stage. Serlet runs through the features of Leopard, comparing it with Vista. "They're trying to get out of it with Windows 7," he says, referring to unfavorable reviews of Vista. He points out features of Windows that users should never have to deal with: user account control, disk defragmentation.

10:19 a.m.: "Windows 7 is just another version of Vista," Serlet says. We have a different approach. We're "proud of Leopard." Now he's going to discuss Snow Leopard, which will have Exchange support. Says Kent: "We've had the obligatory Microsoft comparisons. I wonder if Forstall will mention the Palm Pre?"

10:20 a.m.: Serlet says Expose is now built into the dock. Click and hold on a tile, and it selects the window you want. It's 45 percent faster to install Snow Leopard, Serlet says, and it will recover 5GB of disk space after you install the OS.

Bertrand Serlet

(Credit: James Martin/CNET)

10:22 a.m.: You can now draw Chinese characters with your fingers on the trackpad. The mail program is now faster, he says. The new Safari 4 will ship today for Leopard, Tiger, and Windows. Safari 4 is faster for HTML and JavaScript than Chrome 2, Firefox 3, and Internet Explorer 8, he says.

10:24 a.m.: In Snow Leopard, you get a few extra features. He says it's "crash resistant." He says the No. 1 cause of crashes in OS X is the browser plug-in. These get closed, but your browser windows stay open.

Safari 4 ships on Monday.

(Credit: James Martin/CNET)

10:26 a.m.: QuickTime has a new logo. QuickTime 10 is now "super efficient" and has HTTP streaming. It will work with any Web server. With such a change, Apple decided to change the interface of the player as well. The onscreen controls disappear when you play content in QuickTime now.

10:27 a.m.: Now we're getting a demo of Snow Leopard, led by Craig Federighi, vice president of Mac OS engineering.

The new QuickTime media player includes HTTP streaming and a new interface.

(Credit: James Martin/CNET)

10:28 a.m.: You can magnify thumbnails and click through documents as thumbnails, and also play videos as thumbnails. Federighi shows a very cluttered desktop with lots of open windows. Click Expose, and it lines up all open windows. With Dock Expose, you click and hold, and can see all open windows in each application.

10:28 a.m.: You can also drag thumbnails into an e-mail message in Mail.

10:30 a.m.: Now onto Safari 4. Federighi shows Google Maps loading very quickly. It can also track your top sites. Get a grid of all the sites you visit the most. Safari 4's full-history search gives a Cover Flow view across all the sites you've visited.

Full-history search in Safari 4.

(Credit: James Martin/CNET)

10:32 a.m.: It also integrates spotlight search of browser history.

10:33 a.m.: Now, a QuickTime player demo. You can edit video inside QuickTime using a video timeline ribbon that appears along the bottom of the screen.

10:35 a.m.: Serlet returns to talk new technologies in Snow Leopard that take advantage of more memory and GPU power. All major Snow Leopard applications run in 64-bit. (CNET News' Ina Fried has a look at how Apple's comments on Snow Leopard stack up to what Microsoft is doing with Windows 7.

10:39 a.m.: Serlet is now running through developer tools like Grand Central Dispatch and OpenCL. OpenCL is an open standard, he says to lots of applause from developers.

New power inside new MacBooks.

(Credit: James Martin/CNET)

10:41 a.m.: Now Serlet's going to talk Exchange. He says Macs can run Windows apps fine, but Exchange was missing. It will be into Mail, iCal, and Address Book in Snow Leopard. Federighi is back up to demonstrate hooking up a Mac to Exchange for your work mail.

10:43 a.m.: Exchange to-dos, folders, and e-mails appear within Mail. You can also preview docs or spreadsheets using MS Office inside Mail, even if you don't have MS Office installed.

10:44 a.m.: iCal and Address Book show integrated persona and Exchange calendars and contacts. The most requested feature was the ability to schedule using availability information, Federighi says. You can now do that by searching address lists and calendars.

New built-in Exchange support.

(Credit: James Martin/CNET)

10:45 a.m.: Serlet notes that Apple is not charging extra for Exchange support in Snow Leopard. However, he did note that it requires that a company be running Exchange Server 2007--the latest version of the software.

10:46 a.m.: Now we're talking price. Snow Leopard will be $29 to upgrade to, for Leopard users. There's wild applause from the crowd. The Family Pack upgrade will be $49. It will be available in September, but the near-final developer preview will be available today.

Snow Leopard will cost $29, an announcement that prompts the audience to applaud wildly.

10:47 a.m.: Scott Forstall comes up to talk iPhone. Less than a year ago, we released OS 2.0 and the SDK, he says. There are currently more than 50,000 apps in the App Store.

10:49 a.m.: Apple has sold 40 million iPhones and iPod Touches, Forstall says. He also brings up the familiar 1 billion app download mark, which was reached in April. Forstall thanks everyone, customers and developers. Now we're seeing a video of developers talking about building iPhone apps.

iPhone OS

(Credit: James Martin/CNET)

10:51 a.m.: Various developers of games, medical apps, and sports-tracking apps talk about how they created their programs and how much their lives have changed since their apps got accepted to the App Store. It's standard product-marketing video fare.

10:53 a.m.: The video ends, and Forstall is back up front. He's going to talk about iPhone OS 3.0. There are more than 100 new features, he says. He starts with cut, copy, and paste.

10:56 a.m.: A bubble appears with cut, copy, or paste options wherever you select. There are also undo commands. Kent: "All right, the good stuff--100 new features, though we still don't know all 100." Now onto landscape mode. The keyboard will be in landscape for all key apps, like mail, notes, and messages.

Yay!!! Cut and paste.

(Credit: James Martin/CNET)

10:57 a.m.: Multimedia messaging requires carrier support--29 carriers will support it on launch. AT&T plans to support it "later this summer."

10:28 a.m.: (Kent: In beta form, MMS was not able to actually send a message. We still need carrier support from AT&T.) Spotlight will be its own app on the phone. In iTunes, you can rent and purchase movies right from the phone.

11 a.m.: You can watch TV shows, and purchase videos and audiobooks. There's also support for iTunes U, Apple's educational service that offers podcasts of university classes. Parental controls will be expanded to include movies, TV shows, and apps in the App Store. It can limit kids to rent G-rated movies, for instance, or only buy age-appropriate apps.

Tethering between computer and iPhone.

(Credit: James Martin/CNET)

11:01 a.m.: Apple also announced that iPhone 3.0 supports tethering--using the phone's Internet connection to add Web access for your Mac or PC. Tethering will work over USB cord or Bluetooth, and won't require any special software on the computer. The big news, though, is that although Apple has a number of carriers committed to supporting tethering, and AT&T isn't one of them.

You can search across music, e-mail, notes, etc.

(Credit: James Martin/CNET)

11:02 a.m.: Forstall now runs through JavaScript support in OS 3.0 and HTTP streaming. The OS also has autofill for remembering your usernames and passwords.

11:04 a.m.: There will be a button that will allow autoswitching to use a different language on the keyboard. It is now adding Hebrew, Arabic, Greek, Korean, and Thai. Now more than 30 languages are supported. All have a portrait or landscape keyboard options.

In iTunes, you can rent and purchase movies and TV shows straight from your iPhone.

(Credit: James Martin/CNET)

11:06 a.m.: There's a new feature called Find My iPhone. We're seeing a quick example of a lost iPhone demonstrated by the episode in which Liz Lemon of "30 Rock" loses her iPhone. Find My iPhone is available only to MobileMe customers, but it will allow you to see on a map where your phone is. There are huge cheers from the crowd. You can send an alert tone to your phone that will play, announcing that it's lost. It will play even if you left your phone in silent mode.

Find My iPhone lets you erase data remotely.

(Credit: James Martin/CNET)

11:08 a.m.: If your phone is really lost, there's a remote kill switch to wipe your phone of all your data. Kent says, "Find My iPhone is pretty cool. I also like that the sound plays even in silent mode. It would be really cool if it played the sound when the phone is off."

Find My iPhone lets you track your lost device.

(Credit: James Martin/CNET)

11:09 a.m.: Now onto the in-app purchase feature. People can renew magazine subscriptions within the app or buy additional levels in games. The same terms apply for in-app purchase. Free apps must remain free--free app makers can't sell upgrades within that app. P2P support will find people playing the same game as you via Bluetooth and will autoconnect the two players. This works for any application.

11:10 a.m.: Accessory developers can now build companion software applications. The app can talk to the hardware over the dock connector, or wirelessly over Bluetooth.

11:11 a.m.: Google Maps can be embedded right into applications. You can pan and zoom, add custom annotations, and geocoding. Developers can build turn-by-turn directions into apps.

When you're racing in the car in Asphalt 5, you can get into your iTunes playlist and play that music directly in the game.

(Credit: James Martin/CNET)

11:13 a.m.: Now onto push notifications. Will have generic push notification service. Users can push text alerts, numerical badges, and custom alert sounds. Forstall demos the familiar ESPN Sports Center sound as an example.

11:14 a.m.: Developers have had access to this feature in beta for a bit. Gameloft is one of them. Gameloft's Mark Hickey comes up to talk about a game called Asphalt 5, a 3D-racing game. He shows how, when you're racing in the car in the game, you can get into your iTunes playlist and play that music directly in the game.

11:17 a.m.: Notes Kent: "In-app purchase will be convenient, but talk about impulse buying."

11:19 a.m.: Now up is Airstrip Technologies, which makes medical software that monitors patient data on mobile devices. Dr. Cameron Powell takes the stage and shows how he can monitor patients' vital signs directly on his phone in real time.

11:20 a.m.: Digital-book maker ScrollMotion's Josh Koppel is now up. His bookstore app takes advantage of in-app purchases.

11:22 a.m.: Textbooks will now be available on the App Store, via the Iceberg Reader. GPS maker TomTom gets its turn onstage.

TomTom's navigation app combines map data with turn-by-turn navigation.

(Credit: James Martin/CNET)

11:23 a.m.: Peter-Frans Pauwels, CTO of TomTom, shows how the company's navigation app works on the iPhone. It combines TomTom's map data with turn-by-turn navigation. "Nice move roping in TomTom to supply navigation. Big question is, how much?" Kent asks.

11:25 a.m.: The TomTom maps and car kit for the iPhone will be available this summer, but we're not getting price talk at all.

11:27 a.m.: Ngmoco's Neil Young, another game maker, is up. He's talking up StarDefense, a new 3D game. Ngmoco is also taking advantage of buying new expansion packs of levels within the game.

11:29 a.m.: The app maker parade continues. Educational science equipment maker Pasco is now up.

11:30 a.m.: Oops, first demo fail by Pasco. It was trying to blow up a balloon and show how the pressure increases, but the balloon refused to inflate. Oh well; the company moves on.

11:34 a.m.: Kent says what everyone here is thinking: "One and a half hours in, and time is beginning to get short. New iPhone, please?"

Zipcar's app lets you unlock the car through the iPhone.

(Credit: James Martin/CNET)

11:35 a.m.: Zipcar gets its turn onstage to demo its app. Using geocoding, Zipcar users get a map readout of the location of available cars to rent. They can see what type of car it is, plus price and spec. Reservations can also be made via the app. When searching for the car you've reserved, you can cause the car's horn to make an alert sound. When you find the car, you can unlock it via the app.

11:37 a.m.: Forstall promises just one more demo. It's two companies: Line 6 and Planet Waves. Their app lets users control a guitar and an amp right from an iPhone.

11:38 a.m.: Uh oh, second demo fail. The guitar is supposed to be switched to sound like an acoustic instrument via the app, but it still sounds electric. Oops.

11:41 a.m.: Forstall reappears. He says the Line 6 app is cool and assures us that it totally worked before, even though it didn't work that well just now.

iPhone OS 3.0 will be available June 17.

(Credit: James Martin/CNET)

11:43 a.m.: iPhone OS 3.0 is free for iPhone customers, but $9.95 for first- and second-gen iPod Touch owners. It will be available worldwide June 17. And developers in the developer program get the near-final version today.

11:44 a.m.: Forstall is done. Schiller reappears onstage. Let's see how they end this. He's talking about the iPhone 3G, saying it changed how people think about their phones. Phones used to be "crappy devices," he says.

11:45 a.m.: Schiller shows a graph indicating that 65 percent of mobile browsing is done on an iPhone or iPod Touch. That stat might be a bit dubious, given Opera Software's claims of having more mobile usage than Apple.

Speeds on the new iPhone 3G S.

(Credit: James Martin/CNET)

11:46 a.m.: Meet the new iPhone 3G S (the S stands for speed). It has the same design as iPhone 3G from last summer, but what's inside is entirely new. Messaging apps, games, and attachments all load faster, Schiller says.

11:48 a.m.: They've gauged the speeds measured on the iPhone 3G S using OS 3.0 software.

11:49 a.m.: The 3G S is ready for AT&T's faster 3G network, Apple says. As expected, there's a better built-in camera too--a 3-megapixel autofocus camera.

11:50 a.m.: There's a feature called "Tap to Focus," with which users can tap an item in a photo, and it focuses immediately. There's better light sensitivity, so you can take indoor photos better. There's also auto macro focus. And it captures video, he says. The crowd loves it.

11:51 a.m.: A new switch in the bottom of the camera app enables you to choose still or video mode. There's auto focus, auto white balance, and auto exposure for both still and video.

11:53 a.m.: You can edit the videos by tapping with your finger. Also, you can send videos via e-mail or text--if your carrier supports it, Schiller says. Developers can also build video cameras right into their applications.

11:54 a.m.: Now he's talking voice control. Wave form shows voice amplitude directly onscreen. "It took two years to get native voice dialing? Ridiculous," Kent says.

11:55 a.m.: Clever: You can ask your phone, "What song is playing?" and it will tell you. You can also tell the phone, "Use Genius playlist to play more songs like this." Digital compass, as widely rumored, is indeed in the new iPhone.

The iPhone 3G S has a built-in digital compass.

(Credit: James Martin/CNET)

11:56 a.m.: There's a compass app. With it, you can tap the screen, and it will orient the map you are looking at to face north. Kent says, "Compass looks pretty cool. Speaking of location, will we get geotagging of photos?"

11:57 a.m.: Schiller says NikePlus will have built-in support. You can track your runs and choose songs. In addition, to cater to businesses that want hardware encrypted, the iPhone 3G S will have it. This is back to the remote-wipe feature. Battery life is also extended. "Hallelujah," says Kent.

11:58 a.m.: The phone has between zero and 50 percent better battery life on video, Wi-Fi usage, and talk time than the previous version.

11:59 a.m.: Price: $199 for 16GB and $299 for 32GB, which is what we expected.

There will indeed be a $99 iPhone. It's 8GB.

(Credit: James Martin/CNET)

12 p.m.: There are more affordable phones now. There will indeed be a $99 iPhone. It's 8GB. This will allow more people to get an iPhone now, Schiller says. The $99 version is available today; the iPhone 3G S will be available June 19, in just a week and a half.

There will be rolling launches of the phone every couple of weeks, until the phone reaches 80 countries by August. The United States is obviously getting it on the first day, June 19. "A short wait this time. Nice indeed," Kent says.

12:02 p.m.: They're showing us the new TV ad for the new iPhone.

12:04 p.m.: Schiller wraps up and reviews what we've gone over so far today: the MacBook Pro lineup, Snow Leopard, iPhone OS 3.0, and iPhone 3G S.

12:05 p.m.: He thanks everyone at Apple and then developers. "Keep making great applications. Thank you."

12:06 p.m.: OK, that's it. No Steve Jobs appearance. Thanks for joining us today. The entire CNET team will have ongoing coverage for the rest of the day, so be sure to stay tuned. Thanks!

The iPhone 3G S will be available June 19. There will be rolling launches every couple of weeks, until the phone reaches 80 countries by August.

(Credit: James Martin/CNET)

This story was corrected. See below for details.

SAN FRANCISCO--Apple wants Mac OS X to do a better job dealing with the new directions that Moore's Law has taken computer chips.

At its Apple Worldwide Developer Conference here, Bertrand Serlet, senior vice president of software engineering, shed light on technology called Grand Central Dispatch that's designed to make Mac OS X 10.6, called Snow Leopard, take better advantage of multicore processors and graphics processors.

Power play at Apple's WWDC 2009.

(Credit: James Martin/CNET)

Computer chips for years improved in performance through faster clock speeds, but processor engineers ran into problems with chips consuming inordinate amounts of power and producing inordinate amounts of heat. In addition, the faster clock speeds sometimes meant chips just idled faster because memory access speeds couldn't keep up.

The new direction: multicore processors that put multiple processing engines on the same chip. The problem with the approach, though, is that PC software typically had been written to run with one thread of instructions at a time. Multicore processors work best when software does many things at the same time, which is much harder to program.

Grand Central Dispatch is designed to address that problem for software developers, making it easier to program multithreaded software, use operating system services, and tune program executions.

It also improves how Mac manages those threads, Serlet said. For example, when running Apple's Mail app, today's Leopard OS uses about the number of threads when busy as when idle.

"When it's busy, it uses more threads to take advantage of multicores. When idle, all those threads go away, giving back resources to the system," Serlet said. "When you apply that to every application, you get a big win in performance and responsiveness."

Graphics chip power
The new Mac OS X also is designed to support a programming technology called GPGPU--general-purpose graphics processing unit--which lets a graphics chip run some computing jobs in addition to its ordinary job displaying graphics.

To make its GPGPU technology work, Apple uses OpenCL, a C-like programming technology that has the support of graphics chipmakers Nvidia, AMD's ATI, Intel, and others.

Graphics chips aren't good for every sort of computing task, but they are good for mathematical calculations--including they physics calculations often needed in video games that simulate flowing fabrics, bouncing balls, and other real-world actions.

Mac OS X will be available in September with an upgrade price of $29, a big notch less expensive than the $129 price of earlier upgrades.

Apple also is working to support 64-bit x86 processors, now the prevailing standard. One big advantage of 64-bit processors is support for more than 4GB of memory; Serlet also touted faster mathematical processing such as the doubled speed of fast Fourier transforms.

Apple has been gradually making its operating system fully 64-bit. "Snow Leopard is final stage where all the major system applications are written in 64-bit mode," Serlet said.

Correction 6:13 a.m. PDT Tuesday: This story misidentified the speaker. It was Bertrand Serlet, senior vice president of software engineering.

Correction: QuickTime 10 is likely to be released with Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard in the fall, and won't be updated Monday.

At WWDC Monday morning, Apple's Bertrand Serlet came out with guns blazing, not just in support of Snow Leopard, but of Safari and QuickTime, too. Announcing that Safari 4 would leave beta later Monday and that QuickTime would receive a massive overhaul, Serlet introduced new features while taking swipes at both Microsoft and Mozilla.

Safari 4 can be downloaded from CNET Download.com for Windows and Mac.

Safari 4 shipping today.

(Credit: (Credit: James Martin/CNET))

The senior vice president of OS X software said that QuickTime 10 is now "super efficient" and will support HTTP streaming based on h.264 and AAC, a feature that many competing programs have long offered. The new QuickTime will automatically adjust the playback bit rate, and it will be able to stream through firewalls.

In addition to receiving a major version jump from v7 to v10, the interface has also received a complete refresh. Onscreen controls will disappear when playing back video. The QuickTime "Q" logo will also see a slight redo, changing from its familiar blue to a silver and purple.

Safari 4's Nitro will be the fastest JavaScript engine of any browser on the market, Serlet said. Without describing what kind of benchmarks he was using, he showed a chart indicating that Chrome 2 is 5.3 times faster than Internet Explorer 8, but that Safari 4 is 7.8 times faster. Safari 4 also loads JavaScript three times faster than Safari on the iPhone, Serlet said. HTML 5 audio and video tags will be support in Safari 4, too.

Microsoft was not the only target for Serlet. "The number one cause of crashes," he said, "is browser plug-ins." Mozilla Firefox is the best-known extensible browser, and one new feature in Safari 4 is designed to address the instability that some plug-ins can bring to browsers. Crashes in Safari 4 that are caused by a plug-in will cause only the plug-in to fail. Refresh the page, Serlet said, and the plug-in will reload. "All you need to do is reload that page and that's it. You haven't missed a beat."

I'll be running hands-on tests on Safari and QuickTime later today when they're made available to the public. The update to QuickTime in particular is somewhat surprising, given that Apple had been resistant for years to make any dramatic overhauls to its movie player. If the company can improve its performance, then we may be looking at a heated battle in the video playback market in addition to Web browsers.

Updated 10:50 a.m. PDT: Added pricing information.

SAN FRANCISCO--While Microsoft is trying to position Windows 7 as an exciting new version of the operating system, Apple on Monday tried to characterize it as the same old Windows.

In a keynote speech at the Worldwide Developer Conference here, Apple's Bertrand Serlet said the underpinnings of Windows 7 include the same complexities that have been in the past versions of the operating system.

"That's Windows 7," he said. "Fundamentally, it's just another version of Windows Vista."

Bertrand Serlet speaking at Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference.

(Credit: James Martin/CNET)

Serlet tried to draw a contrast between Windows and what Apple is doing with Snow Leopard, the next version of its own operating system. "We've come at it from such a different place."

But while his rhetoric suggested a fundamental difference, Serlet actually characterized Snow Leopard in some of the same ways--as a better version of the existing Leopard operating system.

"We love Leopard," he said. "We are proud of Leopard."

The goal of Snow Leopard, he said, was really "to build a better Leopard."

There are other similarities between what Apple's and Microsoft's efforts. Among the new features in Snow Leopard is a feature that adds the Expose window--previewing feature to the Dock--not unlike the Aero Peek feature that Windows 7 has as part of its new task bar.

In fairness, there are some key differences between what Apple is doing with Snow Leopard compared to what Microsoft is doing with Windows 7.

Windows 7 is largely focused on improving the look and performance of the core Vista engine, while Snow Leopard goes more under the hood, aiming to better handle 64-bit processing and multicore capabilities.

Apple is also trying to boost its Windows compatibility story by adding Exchange server capability to Snow Leopard. According to Apple, all the user has to do is fill in an e-mail address and password, and the software will "auto-detect" the Exchange Server and make the user's calendar and mail available in Mac OS X's iCal and Mail programs.

The biggest pressure from Apple, though came on the pricing front. Serlet said that Apple will ship Snow Leopard in September and charge just $29 for Leopard owners to upgrade.

Microsoft has hinted that it will offer a cheaper upgrade for Vista users to move to Windows 7, but has not announced details.