Palm and Sprint have finally announced the official release date and pricing for the upcoming Palm Pre. The Pre will be release on June 6th (2 weeks!) for $199 with a two-year service agreement and after a $100mail-in rebate. It will also require a Everything Data plan, which will run at $69.99 a month with450 minutes. This is on par with the cheapest iPhone plan, but it comes with a big advantage, namely unlimited texting. You can also get Sprint’s Simply Everything plan for $99.99 a month, which includes unlimited voice, text, and data.

So, overall the Pre is going to be running on par with the iPhone in terms of pricing, but it will be interesting how the release will pay out with it’s release being so close to Apple’s WWDC (Which is June 8-12), where Apple is expected to release iPhone 3.0, and possibly a new iPhone.

Say tuned during the next two weeks, this is going to be interesting.

UPDATE: Forgot to include this earlier, The Pre will be available at Sprint stores, Best Buy, Radio Shack, select Wal-Mart stores and online at Sprint.com.  You can also read the full Sprint Press Release here.

Also, it was posted at Endgadget that the Pre will be $549 with out a contract acording to Sprint customer service.

Apple today has officially announced the dates and opened registration for its 2009 Worldwide Developers Conference.

Thursday afternoon, Apple has announced that its annual developer conference will kick off on Monday June 8th at Moscone West in San Francisco and end Friday, June 12th. Tickets for the event are currently $1295 until April 24th, when Apple plans to increase the price by $300. Last years event did sell out in May, with over 5,000 attendees.

This year, Apple is expected to show off a close to finished build of Snow Leopard along with a new iPhone hardware revision as well as a completed (or close to complete) iPhone OS 3.0. More information will be coming soon.

The iLife accurately predicted the dates for this years WWDC and will be providing coverage on the latest builds of Snow Leopard and iPhone OS 3.0.

Updated: Apple has sent out a mass emailing announcing WWDC 2009 and stating:

“Turn your ideas into groundbreaking apps at WWDC 2009. Don’t miss your chance to join over 1000 Apple engineers and 5000 of your peers for an exciting five days of hands-on learning, in-depth technical presentations, and one-to-one code-level assistance. Whether you’re developing, deploying, or integrating with Apple technologies, WWDC 2009 will provide the insight and inspiration you need to take your work to the next level.”

With the end of March rapidly approaching, speculation is beginning to build up for WWDC 2009. Mark your calendars- June 6th to 12th Apple will be occupying Moscone West.

The front of Moscone West, WWDC 2008

Apple Worldwide Developer Conference, often abbreviated as WWDC, is an annual conference held in San Francisco for Apple Developers. In recent years, thousands of developers have gathered at the Moscone Center and notably in 2008, Apple sold out of tickets- which can be attributed to the success of the iPhone SDK. This year shouldn’t be very different, as the recent iPhone OS 3.0 preview and SDK update will keep new developers attracted to the already huge platform. Along with the iPhone OS 3.0, Mac OS X Snow Leopard which was announced at WWDC 2008, is expected to be near or ready release.

WWDC typically kicks off with a Keynote from CEO Steve Jobs, who is currently on a medical leave until June. It is still unclear whether Steve Jobs will present at this years keynote, which usually kicks off the conference. Usually WWDC is held in the second week of May or June, but was rescheduled to August in 2006. Curiously the Moscone Center schedule shows only one week long date reserved with the title of “Corporate Meeting” in between events such as Sun’s Java One, Cisco Live!, Linux World, Oracle OpenWorld- June 6-12. In past years, Apple has used the “Corporate Meeting” as a mask for their own events, keeping the dates secret until an official announcement is made. Interestingly however, there is another event from May 27th to 28th with the same “Corporate Meeting” title.

The June 6th to 12th dates fall on the same week as WWDC 2008. Above, a chart of WWDC dates going back until 2004.

Aside from the Snow Leopard and iPhone OS 3.0 releases, Apple is also expected to release the iPhone 2,1 that has been spotted in sever logs. If Apple intends on holding the conference in early June this year, we should hear of an announcement sometime very soon. Stay tuned to The iLife for the latest news!

Today was yet another great day. The WWDC Bash at Yerba Buena Gardens was lots of fun! With the fourth day now over, here is a summary of Thursday at WWDC 2008, some in pictures, some in videos and some in text. Tomorrow is your last chance- if you would like to meet up with us, please contact us!!

Articles:
Live from the 2008 WWDC Bash at Yerba Buena Gardens (theiLife)

More Pictures:
Sidney’s WWDC Flickr Set

Gallery after the jump! Read more…

For the second year in a row, Apple will be hosting the 2008 WWDC Bash at Yerba Buena Gardens in San Francisco. Beginning at 6:30 PST, the event will have live music and food to celebrate a hard week of work and draw closure to WWDC 2008. The party is currently scheduled to end at 9:30 PST and it is unknown who the live music will be provided by. As always, stick with theiLife.com for the latest coverage, as Sidney San Martin will be in attendance of the WWDC Bash tonight. Photos and text updates to follow!

From Apple:
Below are important details for tonight’s WWDC Bash at Yerba Buena Gardens.

Entrance to the Bash at Yerba Buena Gardens—Please enter Yerba Buena Gardens on Mission Street, between Third and Fourth Streets (Fourth Street runs between Moscone West and the Sony Metreon). You must be wearing your conference badge to be admitted to the Bash.

1:59PM PST: Just after Lunch here at WWDC, more sessions are beginning and I have obtained not obtained my wristband to get into tonight’s party (that’s only for 21+ attendees)! More content coming soon.

7:38PM PST: Arriving at WWDC bash, new photos posted! Check the liveblog at live.theilife.com!!

Gallery after the jump! Read more…

Stump the Experts is one of the highlights of a WWDC experience. Stump the Experts is the most popular session at WWDC- by far. TheiLife.com is bringing coverage from this years event in the form of transcribed text and photos. In the meantime, for those who aren’t familiar with how the game is played (via Wikipedia):

Stump the Experts is structured as a game show in which the audience acts as one team, and the experts on stage are another. The audience may ask the experts any question related to Apple in an attempt to “stump” them, hoping to earn a point for their team. Conversely, experts may ask the audience questions that any audience member may try to answer. Any and all resources are allowed including source code, the Internet (e.g., Wikipedia & Google) and cell phones. Host Fred Huxham describes it as an “open book test”.
Stump the Experts is chaotically hosted by Fred Huxham and Mark “The Red” Harlan.

There are three types of questions (via Wikipedia):

Songs – The 7-8 songs played before Stump the Experts begins are chosen by Fred, the leader of the show for the past 15 years. Audience members may come up to the microphones and guess the artist and name of the songs to win prizes and get points for their team.
Images – The experts create cryptic images that represent Apple-related phrases or information. The audience must decipher the image’s meaning. This innovation was introduced by Craig Marciniak in 2006.
Standard – Questions about arcane Apple knowledge.

Sidney San Martin from theiLife.com is attending the 2008 Stump the Experts and will be transcribing some of the questions as well as bringing back photos. Check back soon.

Today was another very laid back day. Ending the day with Stump the Experts and the Apple Design Awards was fun- check out the related posts below! Now that we are more than halfway through our week at WWDC, here is a summary of Wednesday, some in pictures, some in videos and some in text. Remember to stick with theiLife.com for continuing coverage of WWDC 2008 via our Liveblog and Twitter throughout the rest of this week! If you would like to request anything or to meet up, please contact us!

Gallery after the jump! Read more…

Since 1996, every year at its annual Worldwide Developers Conference, Apple has awarded the most innovative Macintosh software and related hardware produced by independent developers with a Design Award. Apple Design Awards are given away on a number of categories that vary from year to year. The physical awards have an Apple logo that glows when touched. This years Award Ceremony begins at 7:30 PST (10:30 EST). We will be bringing you live coverage with photos throughout the awards below.

The winners, in order of presentation:

Best Leopard Student Product Runner Up:
Flow 1.0.1 by Brian Amerige
Best Leopard Student Product Winner:
Squirrel by Axel Peju
Best Mac OS X Leopard Graphics and Media Application Runner Up:
FotoMagico by Boinx Software Ltd.
Best Mac OS X Leopard Graphics and Media Application Winner:
ScreenFlow by Vara Software Limited
Best Mac OS X Leopard User Experience Runner Up:
Checkout by Werk BV
Best Mac OS X Leopard User Experience Winner:
Macnification by Orbicule
Best Mac OS X Leopard Game Runner Up:
Command & Conquer 3 Tiberium Wars by Electronic Arts Inc.
Best Mac OS X Leopard Game Winner:
Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock by Aspyr Media, Inc.
Best Mac OS X Leopard Application Runner Up:
Bee Docs’ Timeline 3D Edition by Bee Documents
Best Mac OS X Leopard Application Winner:
ScreenFlow by Vara Software Limited
Best iPhone Web App Runner Up:
AP Mobile News Network by The Associated Press
Best iPhone Web App Winner:
Remember the Milk by Remember the Milk
Best iPhone Game Winner:
Enigmo by Pangea Software, Inc.
Best iPhone Entertainment Application Winner:
AOL Radio by AOL LLC
Best iPhone Social Networking Application Winner:
Twitterrific by The Iconfactory
Best iPhone Productivity Application Winner:
OmniFocus by The Omni Group
Best iPhone Healthcare & Fitness Application Winner:
MIM by MIMVista, Corp.

(If you want to see second by second updates, save our servers: please visit the liveblog!)

3:17 PM (PST) [Matt]: The Apple Design Awards post is live and Sidney will be lining up about an hour and a half in advance (about 6 o’clock PST).

4:56 PM (PST) [Sidney]: I’m in Presidio for another session. I might score a top seat while I’m here and just hold onto it.

4:56 PM (PST): I’ve taken my seat, this time slightly farther right, next to the left presenter display to better see acceptances. In my opinion it’s the best in the house.

7:49 PM (PST): Liveblog is up and running at live.theilife.com- check it out. Pictures to follow, on this post. Transcript of the event will be added later.

8:30 PM (PST): Event is over, everything from the liveblog has been transfered to this post, more pictures coming very soon (~15 minutes)!

9:18 PM (PST): All photos from the ADA are live, gallery is just after the jump!

Photos after the jump! Read more…

Today was a very relaxing day. After being up for more than 40 hours, sleep was appreciated. This morning things got started late as a result of lack of sleep from the previous two days. Unfortunately because of the NDA agreement of WWDC, we are unable to report very much information back to you guys, but we are doing our best. This evening, Sidney went around to various afterpartys- one from Savant Systems, not being allowed into the Ars/Gizmodo party (21 and over) as well as a local Apple user meeting. Before we call it a night, here is a summary of today, some in pictures, some in videos and some in text. Remember to stick with theiLife.com for continuing coverage of WWDC 2008 via our Liveblog and Twitter throughout the rest of this week! If you would like to request anything or meet up, please contact us!

Gallery and more after the jump! Read more…

Tonight, Savant Systems is throwing a party for WWDC developers. The iLife is glad to be in attendance and will be bringing you text updates and photos from the party. A more complete account of the event and the company will follow after WWDC. For those of you who not familiar with Savant Systems:

“Savant Systems is an exciting, new home automation platform, leveraging Mac OS X technologies throughout the house. Savant is throwing a party to introduce themselves to the Mac developer community and to demonstrate the Savant platform.”

4:55 PM (PST) Still at Moscone West — leaving soon.
6:39 PM (PST) I’ve entered the event. Maybe 40-50 people here. There are music, drinks, and projectors showing digital art along with demo computers and equipment and a couple of touchscreen coffee tables.
7:21 PM (PST) Listened to the CEO present how he started the company: when he retired from the telecom industry, he wanted to install a few large TVs and automation, but found that a software engineer, after two years of custom work, hadn’t gotten beyond a primitive system. He started a new company which used Macs and code-free automation to, perhaps, solve the home automation “problem” once and for all. Savant is currently looking for developers to add modules to their system. For example, an application that set up the house for evening when the user arrived home. In other news, at least half the attendees appear to be Apple employees!
7:45 PM (PST) Heading out to check out other after parties. Pictures will be uploaded when I get back to the hotel.

Pictures after the jump! Read more…