WWDC 2008: iPhones, 10.6, and a new .Mac?
Workers hang Apple's logo outside Moscone Center, where the Worldwide Developers Conference kicks off Monday.
(Credit: James Martin/CNET News.com)Expect to hear new details about the future of Apple's Mac OS X and Web business next week at the Worldwide Developers Conference--and we think there might be a new iPhone, too.
On Monday, Apple CEO Steve Jobs will take the stage at the Moscone West Convention Center in San Francisco to address a gathering of Apple's developers and the media. This year's WWDC is sold out to the development community, who will be hearing formal presentations by Apple on both Mac and iPhone development during the week's sessions and meetings.
Anyone with even a passing interest in consumer electronics is probably aware that Apple is expected to unveil the next generation of the iPhone in the near future. The older version has been sold out for weeks as we approach the anniversary of the first model's debut, and anticipation of a model that can connect to 3G cellular networks has been building almost since that date last year.
One of the primary drawbacks of the first iteration of the iPhone has been its reliance on the slower EDGE network outside of Wi-Fi hot spots, which can make downloading a Web page an exercise in patience. Upgrading to a faster connection should encourage people to do more Web browsing outside of Wi-Fi connections and could open up a whole new class of applications that need a faster pipe to work effectively.
Apple is also expected to include GPS technology inside the latest version, another development that could pique the software development community's interest in the iPhone. Location-aware services are available on several phones that use GPS technology, and the iPhone developers could soon be ready to join the party.
Will the new iPhone be available immediately following Jobs' keynote? It's not clear. There have been conflicting reports, but Brian Tong of CNET TV is hearing from his sources that Apple Retail employees have not yet been told whether they'll need to report early on Monday for a special training session, which the company has done in the past before major announcements.
Next Monday, Apple CEO Steve Jobs could announce a new iPhone and a new operating system.
(Credit: Apple)While the iPhone gets all the attention as the new kid on the block, WWDC is always, in large part, about the Mac. Apple chose a picture of two Golden Gate bridges branching off in different directions to illustrate its WWDC invitation, and while the iPhone branch might account for the sold-out conference, the Mac branch is the bread and butter of this conference.
The Unofficial Apple Weblog reported on Wednesday that Apple would be providing developers with an early version of Mac OS X 10.6 during the conference. It's unclear whether that means Apple is ready to start demonstrating features from that release, but the report said the new version is expected to focus on "stability and security."
Apple released Leopard, Mac OS X 10.5, last October after a delay needed to make sure the iPhone arrived on time. At the time, Jobs told The New York Times that he wants Apple to stick to an operating-system deployment cycle of 12 to 18 months.
TUAW's report says Apple could be eyeing a Macworld 2009 release for Mac OS X 10.6, which would certainly nestle within that time frame. Microsoft recently said it wants to get the next version of Windows out by the end of 2009.
Another interesting part of that report is the notion that 10.6 will be an Intel-only release. Users of older Macs running PowerPC chips were able to upgrade to Leopard, but the report suggests that Apple will drop PowerPC support with the next release.
Apple will likely spend a healthy portion of Jobs' keynote discussing Mac OS X, but it remains to be seen how much of a peek we'll get at the next version. One question on the minds of many Apple users: after which big cat will Apple choose to name the next release?
Ars Technica's Infinite Loop reported Wednesday that "Snow Leopard" was the name slated for the next version, which sounds like it could be somewhat confusing, given the fact that the current version is called Leopard. In a poll on TUAW's site, "Cougar" was in the lead, trailed by "Lynx" and "LOLcat," the last of which we can probably eliminate.
The third leg of the WWDC presentation could involve Apple's .Mac service. There have been a number of recent signs that Apple is rethinking its presence on the Internet, with new domain names being snapped up by the company and code strings in the iPhone SDK suggesting that a new name is on tap.
One interesting thing to watch for concerning any new version of .Mac is how much of the service Apple keeps in-house, as opposed to bringing a Web-savvy partner like Google into the mix. The .Mac service is a good idea, but it isn't widely used among Mac users due to issues with its stability, feature list, and price tag.
Any or all of those objections could change, if Apple transfers the back end of the service to a huge Internet services provider like Google, and uses the service to bring Macs and iPhones together in interesting ways.
As usual, Apple is very tight-lipped about what may or may not be arriving during this year's WWDC. The latest iPhone may or may not be ready for an actual release on the first day of the show, but expect the topic to be the highlight of the day's announcements.
We'll have a live blog up and running during the keynote, which is expected to run from about 10 a.m. PT on Monday to about 11:30 a.m., so make sure to come back and read about what's actually rolled out, as it happens.
Tom Krazit writes about the ever-expanding world of Internet search, including Google, Yahoo, online advertising, and portals, as well as the evolution of mobile computing. He has written about traditional PC companies, chip manufacturers, and mobile computers, spending the last three years covering Apple. E-mail Tom. 
Wonder how many iPhone 1.0 people will rush out and buy the 3g version?
But i guess it still cant be installed on anything other that MAC hardware.
Now think about it - tell me that that cant be a money spinner for Apple!
Same old!
So yeah, they should make a screaming-fast svelte intel-only Leopard, and number it however they want, so long as 10.5 is there for PPC guys like me to upgrade to if we get tired of Tiger.
And contrary to what previous posters have implied, we Mac users don't leap on every OS update like a bunch of brainless lemmings... I bought Tiger when it got to 10.4.9, and I skipped Panther and Puma. Only the really enthusiastic Mac users who regularly post on forums buy every version.
But even they aren't as bad as the people who shamelessly and angrily shill for vista in spite of people listing specific problems they're having with it.
BTW If Apple calls any version "Cougar" people will make fun of it. Too many people read that as a mature lady on the prowl. Besides, cougar is another word for Panther or Puma, so it's already been used twice.
On a different forum I actually heard a guy grip twice ... first he griped that 10.6 was useless to him. Then he griped that 10.6 didn't support his hardware. Talk about burning the gripe-candle at both ends! LOL. :-)
I have never been so happy with a company as I am with Apple. I can go into store log in online or pick up a phone and get QUALITY service. Rarely do I have to wait for service ever. I remember waiting for MS for hours.
Recently my company (a ms partner) offered me a laptop I said no I'll buy my own mac book pro. They said well we wont spend 3K for a laptop .. No worries I said and I bought it myself. It came a few days later and 20 minutes after that I was up and running with all my software and data. My counterpart took the laptop the company offered, 3 days later he was up and running. With frustration oozing from every pore.
I made more then 3x the cost of my laptop for my company in the time it took him to get up and running.
Who is the lemming...
You also seem to indicate that the cheapest PC's (the ones usually compared to "expensive" Macs) are a poor decision, since they need to be replace every year or so. Interesting.
I disagree that people buy Macs because of Apple's commercials. The commercials may lead them to evaluate a Mac, but certainly not just buy one like some Jobsian zombie.
My iMac collects dust now. It seems more like a novelity. It got heavily used the first 3 or 4 months, but then that new shiny coolness wore off and it became just another machine. Sure it has a pretty package, but it's not like I take my computers out for fashion shows.
I have had no problems out of any of my Windows boxes, no problems out of my iMac. My main box at home is a monster game machine and I absolutely love it. AMD X2 6000 black edition, 8gb ram, Vista 64, two 9800gtx cards in SLI on two 24 inch Samsung monitors. It's not as fancy and pretty looking as my iMac, but it is an ungodly beast and I love it so.
I didn't build my game machine because everyone else is doing it... I built it because I wanted to play games and I don't really care for the consoles... I went with Vista 64 because it would handle the 8gb of ram :) If Apple let me build my own machine and install OS X on it, and there were tons of games out there for OS X... but nope, Apple is has to have that tight control, and very few things run on it. Does that make people lemmings because they use Windows when there is 1000 times more software for Windows than for OS X? Sounds more like people prefer having choices and like having a wide variety of software to run. To me, it seems more like the Apple people are a bunch of sheep who will buy anything Steve Jobs and co. put out on the market. There is a great motivator pic of a college classroom where 90% of the students have MacBooks... caption is THINK DIFFERENT, like everyone else.
It seems likely that 10.6 would be released in 2009, but it's possible that Apple would shift it to 2010. I doubt Apple pays much attention to Microsoft's schedule when they make plans. 10.5 was pushed back by the iPhone so it came out after Vista. In any case, Microsoft is saying Windows 7 won't come out before 2010 last I heard. Given standard delays that means we can look forward to it in 2015 or so.
http://www.multiedit.com/mobileME.php
This company will most likely sue Apple for trademark infringement.
and our Mobile Me:
http://babyasoftwaregroup.googlepages.com/mobileme
I've used Mac OSX, Ubuntu, Mandrake, Red Hat, FedoraCore, Knoppix, Windows (3.1, 95,98,2K,XP,2003 and my new OS of choice the villianous VISTA), DOS, HP-UX. I CHOOSE to use Windows. Where in your 93% do I fall? OH NO, AN EDUCATED CONSUMER!!!!
It is funny to me how you ASSUME that the other 7% that use Mac do so because they've evaluated and chosen. I know at least 10-20 people that have family in design and have grown up with nothing but Macs... no choosing there. I also know people who have purchased a Mac because they have an iPhone or an iPod and saw some commercials that said PCs were only for work. Then got home and realized that most of the best games won't play unless you go buy WINDOWS to run on your Mac PC. Those same people who BASH Windows will turn around and say "And anyways, you can get Boot Camp or Parrallels and run Windows on a GOOD machine"... Where does Microsoft make money? On the machine just like Apple? No, on the software that you bought to put on your Mac.
How about we don't make this a personal attack on either of us or Microsoft or Apple? What I was trying to point out is that not everyone who uses a Mac is smarter and made a better choice. Likewise, everyone that uses Windows isn't just "following the norm" and using it because "everyone else does"... some of us actually do CHOOSE to run what we run. To each his own...
Apple is not a religion, no one is on a crusade for it (even though people who switch are called converts)... What would be amazing is if everyone would get educated on the machine they choose and pick the one that suits them.
and ok I'm another apple "fanboy" I got iPhone iMac two iPod one for the car. I picked another car over the ford i was getting just for the fact there's a Microsoft logo next to the shift.
im glad more ppl use windows, less attention to os x so i'll never have to update stilupid zonealarm every two days and paying for some waco antivirus crap that I just can't find a "Kill Da Virus" bottom to click on, after like 5 hrs of "scanning"... maybe ur not supose to kill the virus and u r just paying for something that only shows that U Got Infected holy crap windows just detected a serious error is gonna blow up runnnm
- by make_or_break June 9, 2008 10:09 AM PDT
- U Got Infected holy crap windows
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(27 Comments)So find me a Vista machine that's actually been infected by a virus in the wild...ANY virus. Right now, you'll be hard pressed to find anything outside of research lab. There is proof-of-concept code out there, but then there's also proof-of-concept code malware for OS X as well. Actual wild malware infecting Vista boxes is considerable tougher to find. I'm no fan of Redmond, but even I have to admit that Vista is a LOT harder to infect than holy old XP or any of the earlier versions of Windoze. Up until now, Vista's big problem is its demands on driver compatibility (or lack thereof), not on malware vulnerability.