Despite the rumours, the WWDC keynote took place today without Steve Jobs.
First up was an update to the MacBooks and MacBook Pros and the Snow Leopard version of Mac OS X:
- The new 15-inch MacBook Pro supports up to a 3.06GHz Core 2 Duo processor, up to 8GB RAM, up to 500GB HD or 256GB SSD, an improved display, an SD card slot (replacing the Express Card slot) and a new battery (offering up to 7 hours of battery life and supporting up 1,000 charges). Prices start at US$1,699.
- The 17-inch MacBook Pro has been updated with 2.8GHz processor and 500GB HD options (it also retains the Express Card slot). Prices now start at US$2,499.
- A new 13-inch MacBook Pro is replacing the 13-inch MacBook. It comes with backlit keyboard, FireWire 800 port, SD card slot, support for same levels of RAM and HD as the other MacBook Pros, and more. The lowest base configuration starts at US$1,199.
- The base MacBook Air with 1.86GHz Core 2 Duo processor, 2GB RAM, 9400M graphics and 120HD will now sell for US1,499. A second model now starts at US$1,799 with a 2.13GHz processor and 128GB SSD.
- Snow Leopard features refinements to about 90 percent of the core functionality. It promises a 45 percent faster installation and will let you recover about 6GB of hard drive space after an upgrade from Leopard. It promises improved performance, the latest version of Safari (also offering improved performance), a new QuickTime player, Exchange support built into the Mail, iCal and Address Book applications (MS Exchange Server 2007 required), improved support for multi-core processors and more.
- Snow Leopard will be released in September for all Intel-based Macs. Upgrades from Leopard will cost US$29 (Family Pack for US$49). Full updates will cost US$129.
Then it was time to move to the iPhone and its new iPhone 3.0 operating system:
- The iPhone has had an impressive year: 40 million iPhones and iPod touch devices have been sold. Over 1 billion applications and games have been downloaded from the App Store. One million SDKs have also been downloaded.
- The new iPhone OS 3.0 delivers over 100 new features, including cut/copy/paste across all applications, tethering over USB or Bluetooth (with carrier support – AT&T is not among those), an updated Safari browser, HTML 5 support, push notifications, a landscape keyboard in key applications, and more.
- Apple iTunes will also let you rent and buy content, including movies and TV shows, directly from your phone. iTunes U is also supported now.
- MobileMe offers a new Find My iPhone service that shows you where your iPhone is on a Google Map. Stolen or lost phones can be remotely wiped.
- iPhone 3.0 will be available worldwide on June 17th. It will be free for iPhone users but as reported earlier, it will cost US$9.95 for iPod touch users.
- As expected, Apple also announced new iPhones. The iPhone 3G S (S for speed) features the same look and feel as its older siblings but plenty is new under the hood to improve performance. It comes with a faster processor, the iPhone 3.0 OS and supports 7.2Mbps HSPDA. It also comes with a new 3.2MP auto-focus camera capable of shooting video and a tap-to-focus feature where you tap an object on the screen to focus on it. Other new features include a digital compass, voice controls, data encryption, encrypted iTunes backups and improved battery life.
- The iPhone 3G S will come in 32GB and 16GB configurations for US$299 and US$199 respectively (AT&T pricing for new customers). It will be available on June 19th in the U.S., Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Switzerland, UK. More countries will follow in the upcoming weeks (up to 80 by the end of August).
- Apple and its carriers will also continue to offer the current 8GB iPhone 3G model. The price has been reduced to US$99.
All in all, it was an evolutionary rather than revolutionary kind of keynote…