Yesterday Apple presented their Keynote at the annual World Wide Developers Conference or WWDC for short. With much anticipation leading up to the event, Apple generally pleased by announcing the new iPhone software which will be available June 17, a little more about that in a bit.
A breif overview of how the Keynote went down: First Apple announces that their new operating system ‘Snow Leopard’ will be available in September this year, the best part of their announcement here is that this new release will be priced at an amazing $29 US which is about $36 Aussie dollars for a single installation, or $49 US or about $60 Aussie dollars for a Family pack (up to 5 computers) More info here TechCrunch: Snow Leopard Should Purr Along With a Smaller Footprint. There are a whole host of other things but overall we should see a vast improvement in speed with this installed and the other exciting news is that the installation itself takes up half the space of Leopard so you should find yourself with about 6GB of space that you didn’t have before.
They also announced a refreshed notebook lineup, the basic gist here is that the only model in the Macbook family is the white polycarbonate Macbook, they have promoted the Aluminum Macbook, bumped up a few specs and renamed it a Macbook Pro. So there is now the ability to get a 13, 15, 17″ screens in the power of a Macbook Pro. For full specs visit http://www.apple.com/au/macbookpro/.
And now onto the fun stuff! The new iPhone software. As I mentioned in my video post previously a few things that I was hoping for in the next software update included:
- Better Battery life
- Tethering
- Video & Video Editing
Now as far as the software update increasing battery life…there was no mention…but I am hopeful that it is something that will just come with the update as in the previous ones. Tethering however is now supported!!! Provided that your mobile carrier will support it (Optus in Australia will be supporting from the get go) you will now be able to tether your iPhone to your computer be it Mac or PC, it can be tethered either with the standard USB cable or by bluetooth and no extra software is required. This will be great for people on the go who don’t want the extra expense of a USB wireless broadband modem (myself included here).
A few other features that they mentioned are things that we have known about since the 3.0 software was announced earlier this year. That includes MMS, revised App store and iTunes store, Spotlight search function across the whole phone as well as a whole host of other things.
The one that I was hoping would come via a software update – Video – unfortunately did not arise….however….Apple did release a new iPhone!!! This will be badged the iPhone 3G S, S for speed. With faster internal chips for better graphics and just a faster phone in general. It looks exactly the same and will be available in Black or White like before. The biggest improvement is a 3.0 megapixel camera with Autofocus, designed for better low light performance and the ability to tap to focus on a specific item in the frame. This new camera also supports video, with the function of trimming and editing the footage as well as being able to easily share via Mobile Me, YouTube etc. The iPhone 3g S will be available in either 16GB or 32GB versions which is just huge.
So while I didn’t get all my wishes with the upgraded software, there is a new phone coming out. And the great news is that they are still keeping the 8gb 3g that is available now, but reducing the price! So if your in the market for a new phone or have been hanging out for the price to drop now is your time to buy. The new models remain at the prices that the 3G has been at for the last 12 months. If you would like a good wrap up of what happened at the WWDC keynote yesterday check out this video from Cali Lewis of Geekbrief TV
I don’t know about you, but I would love one of the new handsets. But given that I’m locked into a two year contract on my current iPhone, the new features just aren’t a compelling enough reason to break contract for a new phone? How about you, what are your thoughts about the new phone and software and will you be buying one? Leave a comment below!!
