Live blog: WWDC 2009 keynote

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)