Highlights from Apple WWDC '09

People were lined up at  Moscone Center West eagerly awaiting the inevitable joyousand a few unanticipated,announcements  from Steve Jobs .

Computers

The conference opened up at 10:02 with Phil Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of worldwide product marketing. He spoke about the new 15 inch MacBook Pro, the main features of which are he says, with up to a 3.06GHz Intel Processor,expandable memory up to 8GB , with up to 500GB HD, unibody architecture,a built-in lithium polymer batterywith better battery life(up to 1,000 charges and 5 years)and it starts at $1,699.It replaces the Express card slot with an SD slot.-shipping this Monday.

The 13-inch MacBook is also getting an update. The 13-incher will have seven-hour battery life now, a new high-color display, the SD card slot, expandable  up to 8GB of memory and a 500GB hard drive, and it has an LED-backlit keyboard,a FireWire 800 port,starting  at $1,199, cheaperthan the present 13-inch aluminum MacBook .

Apple is also updating the MacBook Air starting at $1,499 with a 1,86GHz processor. Equipped with a 128GB SSD, it will  start at $1,799. This is another significant price cut for Apple.

Snow Leopard

Enter Bertrand Serlet, senior vice president of OS X software. He talks about Snow Leopard.Expose is now built into the dock. With Dock Expose, you click and hold and can see all open windows in each application. Clicking and holding  on a tile selects the window you want, installation. Snow Leopard  is 45% faster, and it will recover 5GB of disk space after you install the OS. Serlet called Snow Leopard “crash resistant”. QuickTime has a new interface and now includes HTML Streaming for any web server.You can magnify thumbnails and click through documents as thumbnails, and also play videos as thumbnails. All major Snow Leopard applications run in 64-bit.Another bonus is Exchange. Serlet says Macs can run Windows apps fine, but Exchange was missing. It will be into Mail, iCal, and Address Book in Snow Leopard

Snow Leopard will be $29 to upgrade for Leopard users and  Family Pack upgrade will be $49, available in September.An  almost-final developer preview will be available today.

Finally— iPhone

iPhone 3.0-—100 New Features!
We will touch on a few major ones.

1.Landscape mode. The keyboard will be in landscape for all key apps, like mail, notes, and messages.
2.Multimedia messaging which requires carrier support–29 carriers will support it on launch. AT&T will be one that will support it “later this summer.”
3.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 App Store. Can limit kids to rent G-rated movies, for instance, or only buy age-appropriate apps.
4.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, AT&T isn’t one of them.
5. JavaScript support in OS 3.0, and HTTP streaming-The OS also has auto-fill now for remembering your username and password
6.Now more than 30 languages supported with a button to choose languages on the keyboard.
7.Find My iPhone-Find My iPhone is only available to MobileMe customers, but it will allow you to see on a map where your phone is.If your phone is really lost, there’s a remote kill switch to wipe your phone of all your data.
8. In-app purchase feature-People can renew magazine subscriptions within the app, or buy additional levels in games. Free apps must remain free–free app makers can’t sell ugrades within that app though. P2P support will find people playing the same game as you via Bluetooth and will auto connect the two players. Works for any application.
9. Companion software applications. Accessory developers can now build companion software applications. The app can talk to the hardware over the dock connector, or wirelessly over Bluetooth.The app can talk to the hardware over the dock connector, or wirelessly over Bluetooth.
10.Google Maps Integration-Maps can be embedded right into applications. Pan, zoom, add custom annotations, and geocoding. Developers can build turn-by-turn directions into apps
11.Generic Push notifications- Can push text alerts, numerical badges, and custom alert sounds.
12. iPhone OS 3.0 -Free for iPhone customers, but $9.95 for first- and second-gen iPod Touch owners. Will be available worldwide June 17. And developers in the developer program get the near-final version today.

Meet the new iPhone 3GS

(S is for Speed) Same design as iPhone 3G from last summer, but what’s inside is entirely new. Messaging apps, games, attachments all load faster.

1.Better built-in camera (hallelujah!) a 3-megapixel autofocus camera. “Tap to Focus”( tap an item in a photo, and it focuses immediately), better light sensitivity, so you can take indoor photos better, and auto macro focus. And it captures video! Cheers from the crowd!
2. battery life is extended. The phone has between zero and 50 percent better battery life on video, Wi-Fi usage, and talk time.
3. Price: $99 for 8GB $199 for 16GB and $299 for 32GB.
4. Availability? The $99 version starts today; the iPhone 3GS will be available June 19. Just a week and a half away!!!

There will be rolling launches every couple of weeks until the phone reaches 80 countries by August.

So  there you have it!

Thanks to the live blogs from CNet, engadget, techcrunch and gizmodo for keeping me posted.