Join Chad and Rene for… what else? iPhone 3.0 and 3rd generation iPhone, WWDC 2009, and the ’splosion of news and rumors. Full show notes to follow a bit later, we wanted to push this out to ya!
All Articles Tagged wwdc 2009
Will we see next generation iPhone handware? Will Apple release iPhone 3.0 or just more features for iPhone 3.0? Will MobileMe 2.0 be good to go? Will we have to sit through 8 excruciatingly long app previews like the last 3 iPhone keynotes? Will Scott Forstall say “blow us away”? And Will Steve Jobs show up in some way, shape, or Mobile iChat form to give that perfect “Boom!” or “One more–” accent to the show?
Everything before has been rumor, speculation, and question. Monday at 1pm EDT/10am PDT we get answers.
Join TiPb for a live meta-blog of of the WWDC 2009 Keynote as it unfolds. We’ll have analysis, color commentary, and a chat room going so you can tell us what you think.
We’re heading into the home stretch folks. It’s two-years later, let’s go see those light-years ahead!
Adam Jackson (via MacRumors) caught the first shot of WWDC 2009’s first banner and it’s one near and dear to TiPb’s heart. Check out the hero shot above, and Adam’s Flickr page for more Moscone center goodness.
Obviously, the App Store, with 45,000+ apps and over 1 billion downloads, was the mobile success story of 2008 — if not one of the great software platform success stories of all time. That Apple is keeping it front and center might also just mean we ain’t seen nothing yet.
We won’t quibble about the date (App Store launched July 11, 2008 while WWDC 2009 launches June 8 with Phil Schiller at the helm), and we won’t bring up those still stupefying rejections — this time.
There’s less than a week to go, after all…
There was some great news this week on the Steve Jobs front. According to the WSJ his Apple co-founder, Steve Wozniak said Jobs sounded “healthy and energetic” while admitting he’d never asked directly about Jobs’ health.
SetteB.it ran a story saying Jobs had gone into Apple HQ for a meeting.
So, despite Apple consistently stating that Steve Jobs’ leave of absence would run through the “end of June“, despite WWDC running June 8-12, despite Apple announcing Phil Schiller would Keynote this year, rumors, speculation, and simple hope remains for a surprise appearance or cameo of any kind.
Obviously, that’s a tribute to the presence of Steve Jobs.
Could it happen? Never is never an answer. Could Phil Schiller pull out a next-generation iPhone to take a call or play a voice-mail from Jobs, the way Jobs has called Schiller at previous WWDCs? It would certainly give the audience — on location and on the internet — a huge thrill.
But all we know for certain at this point is Steve Jobs is still scheduled to return to Apple at the end of June and given his historical desire for privacy, that might be all we’re going to know.
UPDATE: Full super-rumored specs list, via Engadget after the break!
ORIGINAL: Palm Pre announces a release date and all of a sudden iPhone and Apple blogs have to rumor up a next generation iPhone release date? Yep, that’s how we roll… right over the news cycles.
So when’s the rumor? July 17, 2009. And no, no idea if that’s an international roll-out like last year. Speaking of which, Apple introduced the iPhone 3G at WWDC 2008 and had it on sale July 11, so a similar pattern this year makes the kind of sense that does, even if July 17 just also happens to be the default date on every iCal instance in the world…
As to specs, pretty much what we’ve seen rumored already, 32GB, 3.5mp camera, video recording, digital compass, OLED screen, and here’s a kicker — illuminated Apple logo like the MacBooks.
How does that sound to you? Perfect timing? To soon? Too late? Too many crazy rumors, bring on WWDC already?!
[TUAW via AppleiPhoneApps]
Friday we linked to Business Insider and Daring Fireball both quoting sources that claimed Apple was considering allowing some form of limited background multi-tasking on the iPhone at some point in the future. Now TechCrunch is weighing in, having heard a similar rumor from its sources:
while this is in no way a done deal yet, Apple is definitely trying to come up with a way to offer background support for third-party apps. They went on to note that while Apple may have something to say about it at WWDC, it’s very unlikely that any solution would be ready at that time, and could be a situation similar to how Apple announced Push Notification at WWDC last year but said it was coming in a few months (which it later was delayed until iPhone 3.0).
TechCrunch cites processor power, user experience, and battery life as factors currently concerning Apple. They also suggest the soon-to-be released Palm Pre, with its webOS multi-tasking as a driving force behind all chatter we’ve been hearing about it all of a sudden.
PhoneArena (via Engagdget) was sent a tip that Best Buy has 3 mysterious new product SKU’s listed in their system as “PROJECT CHARLIE”. Why is this important and what does it have to do with iPhones?
ZOMG! We’re 3 weeks before WWDC here people! Everything is iPhone!
Okay, in all fairness, Best Buy is one of the very few big iPhone retailers (aside from Apple, AT&T, and Walmart) and even if they have no direct info from Apple, they could be prepping themselves for a similar launch as last year (iPhone 3G in 8GB, 16GB Black, and 16GB white).
But for the Lost fans among us — 3 SKUs, for the 3rd gen iPhone, 3 weeks before WWDC and iPhone OS 3.0? Cue creepy music
UPDATE: Our friend Phil over at WMExperts, throws in a plot twist: what if they’re new Windows Phones?!
Business Insider is quoting Piper analyst Gene Munster as saying:
No New iPhones [at Apple's World Wide Developers Conference]. As indicated in today’s press release, we believe Apple will focus on the new version of Mac OS X, Snow Leopard at WWDC. While some investors may be expecting Apple to launch redesigned iPhones at WWDC, we do not anticipate the launch in early June. Rather, we expect Apple to host a special event in late June or early July to launch a family of iPhones. We continue to expect multiple models, possibly a high-end iPhone with improved specs from the current version and a low-end version with lower capacity and fewer features along with a reduced pricing plan. Such a model could also be used in Apple’s launch of the iPhone into China as soon as the end of summer ‘09.
Analysts are about as accurate as weathermen when it comes to predictions one month out, so take this with the usual Mac Pro sized grain of salt. Apple has used the last two WWDC events to showcase the iPhone, and introduced the iPhone 3G and MobileMe at WWDC 2008. If they stick to pattern, we should see an update on iPhone 3.0, the next generation iPhone, and perhaps a MobileMe refresh at WWDC 2009.
However, WWDC being an developer-focused event, it’s not impossible Apple will focus on their Mac OS 10.6 Snow Leopard and iPhone OS 3.0 exclusively, leaving the hardware for a sexier consumer event later in the month.
As to a family of iPhones, we still don’t see Apple breaking the software platform, which means a low end iPhone could only be a low-storage iPhone 3G (8GB?) at $99?, with the next generation unit (at 16GB and 32GB, along with other new features) taking the established $199 and $299 positions.
As TiPb anticipated, Apple today announced that the World Wide Developers Conference (WWDC) Keynote will be given by their Senior Vice President of Worldwide Product Marketing and other executives. In other words:
You. Get. Schiller. If Aaron Sorkin wrote the cliffhanger leading up to this year’s WWDC keynote, that’s the dialog a still-on-leave Steve Jobs would have just spit at the heavens from deep within the empty Times Square Apple Flagship “cathedral”.
Phil Schiller did an affable job of keynoting Apple’s final Macworld appearance back in January, but with everyone and their rumor blogs pretty much convinced we’ll see the next-generation iPhone again take center stage, will expectations be impossibly high?
How badly do we want to see Phil Schiller pull something from his jean pocket?
The other iPhone-related executives, we guess, would include Scott Forstall for iPhone software, perhaps alongside Greg Joswiak from marketing. No doubt Bertrand Serlet, no stranger to WWDC, will be there for the Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard portion.
(Steve Jobs is still said to be returning from his leave of absence at the end of June)
