WWDC 2008 Recap – Day 2- 6/10/08

11 06 2008

WWDC08 Banner Moscone Center Sidewalk

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…



Savant Systems WWDC 2008 Developer Party (Liveblog and Pictures)

10 06 2008

Savant Systems WWDC 2008 Afterparty Invite

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.”

WHERE: The Great Room, W San Francisco
181 3rd Street, San Francisco, CA
WHEN: Tuesday, June 10, 2008
TIME: 6:30pm to 9:30pm

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…



WWDC 2008 Day 1: Keynote (and Keynote Line) Photo Gallery

10 06 2008

Apple WWDC 2008 Keynote Logo

Here is theiLife.com’s gallery of the first day of WWDC 2008. From Sidney waiting outside on line for 19 hours to Stevenote- it was a quite memorable day. Stay with theiLife.com for continuing coverage of WWDC related events all week. Like they say, “A picture speaks a thousand words”.

Gallery (42 pictures) after the jump! Read more…



WWDC 2008 Recap – Day 1- 6/9/08

10 06 2008

Looking Down the Line at WWDC 2008

Today was quite an exciting day. From being first in line and waiting outside for 19 hours to the actual keynote and proceeding events, it was a great way to kick of WWDC 2008. We saw over 34,000 unique hits slightly before, during and after the Keynote- which makes a total of about 50,000 unique visitors today. Our servers held up fine, the AJAX Liveblog was much improved from Macworld version and the SMS updater/Twitter integration preformed wonderfully (as did Twitter, more or less). 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 this week! If you would like to request anything or meet up, please contact us!

Articles:
First in Line (Mac|Life)
Apple introduces 3G iPhone (theiLife)
Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard Preview (theiLife)
Apple Introduces MobileMe (theiLife)

Videos:
Entering the Keynote
Walking Around After the Keynote
Questions Following the Keynote
iJustine Keynote Sleepover (featuring Sidney in first place)

Pictures:
Sidney’s WWDC Flickr Set



WWDC 2008 Mac OS X State of the Union: Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard

9 06 2008

Mac OS X State of the Union Address 10.6 Developer Preview

What started as a rumor, then revealed at the WWDC Keynote: the next iteration of Mac OS X, version 10.6 will indeed be called Snow Leopard. Snow Leopard will “..build on the incredible success of OS X Leopard..” by “..focusing primarily on new features, Snow Leopard will enhance the performance of OS X”. Rumors say that this means no PowerPC support, and could possibly mark the end of existence for Carbon UI.

Apple says that by optimizing the new OS X for multi-core processors and tapping into the potential of graphic processing units (GPU) OS X become faster and more reliable and allow more vast amounts of RAM. Additionally, Snow Leopard will ship with Microsoft Exchange support out of the box and features QuickTime X, a “new, modern media platform”.

According to Bertrand Serlet, Apple’s senioer vice president of Software Engineering:

“We have delivered more than a thousand new features to OS X in just seven years and Snow Leopard lays the foundation for thousands more”. “In our continued effort to deliver the best user experience, we hit the pause button on new features to focus on perfecting the world’s most advanced operating system.”

Using new technologies, coded named “Grand Central” future developers will be able to take full advantage of multi-core processors. Also, Open Computing Language (OpenCL), based off the C programming language, will allow for applications to ‘tap’ into the power of the GPU- which is typically reserved for graphics applications. Snow Leopard, thanks to 64-bit technology, will be able to support system memory up to a theoretical 16TB of RAM.

According to Apple, QuickTime X optimizes support for ‘modern audio and video formats’ which will result in more efficient media playback. Snow Leopard will include Safari with improved JavaScript implementation, which can be up to 53 percent faster- allowing heavy Web 2.0 applications respond faster. Microsoft Exchange 2007 support will be integrated into upcoming versions of Mail, iCal and Address Book.

The Mac OS X State of the Union address took place today at 2:00 – 3:15 PM at Presidio. You can read more about Mac OS X Snow Leopard here.

Check more the pictures below!

Mac OS X State of the Union Address 10.6 Exchange Support
Mac OS X State of the Union Address 10.6 New Features
10.6 Snow Leopard OS X State of the Union
0 New Features OS X 10.6 State of the Union Address



iPhone – Hallway

9 06 2008

The brand new iPhone commercial, released at the 2008 WWDC Keynote is a teaser for the new iPhone. Touting the new 3G speeds at half the price. It has just been published to The Daily iLife podcast, which you can subscribe to in iTunes or watch here.

The first official advertisement for the 3G iPhone featuring two security guards walking around with the 3G iPhone in a sealed metal box.



Apple to replace .Mac service with MobileMe application suite

9 06 2008

During todays WWDC keynote, Phil Schiller revealed the successor to Apple’s .Mac service, titled MobileMe. Speculation has been rampant in the past weeks concerning Apple’s aging web service, and many reports of trademark filings and software references had been made the term ‘MobileMe’.

Login to the MobileMe webclient

The new service is a three part suite, that is targeted at the mobile OS X platforms for the iPhone and iPod touch, natively coded calender and email clients, and a multi platform capable web based suite that contains an email client, iDisk, and media sharing. Information can be added to the iPhone and automatically synced with your MobileMe account, allowing you to access contacts, pictures and email from anywhere.

The web based client is notable for its extremely slick Ajax based interface, that is highly reminiscent of a native OS X application. The web app allows drag and drop objects, object animations, instantaneous spotlight style searching and photo album managing. Photos are also available onto the Apple TV’s photo viewing application, and can be managed and viewed in iPhoto, selected from a new MobileMe menu. Updates for Mail, Address Book, iPhoto and the Apple TV are likely pending in order to integrate the new features into these applications.

iDisk capacity has been doubled from 10GB to 20GB, and is available for access from within the web based client, OS X’s finder, and is mountable as a network drive in Windows Vista.

MobileMe will be launched in early July with a 60 day free trial, after which there will be a $99 subscription. A guided tour of MobileMe is available at Apple’s website.



Post Keynote 2008 Worldwide Developers Conference Coverage Continues at theiLife

9 06 2008

WWDC 2008 Crowd

With Sidney out of the keynote and currently eating lunch, the coverage of this years Worldwide Developers Conference is far from over. Sidney will be broadcasting occasionally for theDigitalLifestyle.tv from within WWDC. You can still follow our liveblog for the latest information. If you have any questions or requests for him, feel free to leave them in the comments below or contact us.



Apple Sends out Email to Current .Mac Customers regarding Mobile Me

9 06 2008

Apple .Mac Mobile Me Email Upgrade

Apple has just sent out an email to all existing .Mac customers regarding the MobileMe service introduced today at the WWDC 2008 Keynote. The email briefly describes changes with new service and new features. The email contents are as follows:

“Dear .Mac member:

Today Apple announced a new Internet service called MobileMe – taking the best of .Mac and adding a host of new features. As a current .Mac member, your account will be automatically upgraded to MobileMe in July. For a closer look, watch the MobileMe Guided Tour and read below for an overview of your new service.

Mac integration you know and love. With MobileMe, you’ll continue to enjoy features that take advantage of seamless integration with Mac OS X and iLife – Back to My Mac; access to your iDisk in the Finder; Mac-to-Mac syncing of Dock items, preferences, and more; iWeb site publishing; and photo and movie sharing directly from iPhoto ’08 and iMovie ’08.

New web applications for when you’re away from your Mac. MobileMe features a suite of web applications at www.me.com that have the familiar look and feel of the applications on your Mac. Because these web applications stay in sync with your Mac and other devices, you’ll have the same information wherever you go. Here’s what you’ll find at me.com:

Mail, the anchor of the new suite, is even better with a refined interface.

Contacts has a new three-pane interface, contact groups, maps integration, search, and photo support.

Calendar is a brand-new web application that feels just like iCal, featuring multiple calendars, click-and-drag event creation, and more.

Gallery lets you manage your collection of shared photos and movies from anywhere. You can now upload photos, rearrange their order, and set sharing preferences, all from a browser.

iDisk now has the familiar look of the Mac OS X Finder. It features drag-and-drop filing and an easy new way to share large documents, by sending an email with a link for downloading the file.

Account lets you manage settings such as storage allocation.

To use the new web applications, make sure you have one of these browsers: Safari 3, Internet Explorer 7, or Firefox 2 or later.

Push email. Push contacts. Push calendar. In addition to Mac-to-Mac syncing, MobileMe now keeps your iPhone, your iPod touch, and even a PC in sync. MobileMe pushes new contacts, calendar items, and bookmarks to your Mac or PC, and over the air to your iPhone or iPod touch. For example, if you add a calendar event on the web, the change will automatically be pushed to your Mac and iPhone. New email will be pushed to your iPhone in seconds, eliminating the need to check for messages manually.

As a MobileMe subscriber, you can continue to use your mac.com address for email. You will also be issued a me.com address with the same user name that you can use if you prefer. The choice is yours.

Double the online storage. To give you plenty of space for your email, photos, and other files, MobileMe doubles your storage from 10GB to 20GB for an individual subscription.

We’ll be sure to update you when the new service goes live. In the meantime, if you have any questions about the upcoming transition from .Mac to MobileMe, please visit the MobileMe FAQ.

Sincerely,

The MobileMe Team”

More information coming soon. For now, you can check out Apple’s online guided tour here.



New 3G iPhone Revealed: GPS, Thinner, Better Battery Life now shiny plastic Black and White!

9 06 2008

3G iPhone Revealed through Icon

Today Steve Jobs took the wraps off of the new iPhone that features 3G technologies. The iPhone looks almost identical to the image found in the Mac OS X 10.5.3 update late last month. The new iPhones are priced at $199 for the 8GB model, which comes in black plastic and $299 for the 16GB model, which comes in white. More coming shortly.

3G iPhone Product Box Contents
Note the new power adapter.

Apple has posted the following specs for the new iPhone:

Screen size: 3.5 inches (diagonal)
Screen resolution: 480 by 320 pixels (163 ppi)
Input method: Multi-Touch
Storage: 8GB and 16GB
Cellular:
UMTS/HSDPA (850, 1900, 2100 MHz)
GSM/EDGE (850, 900, 1800, 1900 MHz)
Wireless data:
Wi-Fi (802.11b/g)
UMTS/HSDPA (850, 1900, 2100 MHz)
EDGE (850, 900, 1800, 1900 MHz)
Bluetooth 2.0 + EDR
GPS: Assisted-GPS
Camera: 2.0 megapixels
Battery:
Talk time: Up to 5 hours on 3G; up to 10 hours on 2G
Standby time: Up to 300 hours
Internet use: Up to 5 hours on 3G; up to 6 hours on Wi-Fi
Video playback: Up to 7 hours
Audio playback: Up to 24 hours
Dimensions:
4.5 by 2.4 by 0.48 inches
(115.5 by 62.1 by 12.3 mm)
Weight:
4.7 ounces (133 grams)

Post-keynote coverage video after the jump! Read more…