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Apple's WWDC Unveils iPhone 3.0, OpenCL, Laptop Updates, and More
Lots of big news from WWDC today including updates to almost all of Apple's laptops. They added a 13-inch version to the MacBook Pro line, updated the MacBook Air, and added a few new ports to some of the machines including an SD slot and firewire 800 port. Software updates saw Safari 4 launched, OS X updates including threading changes, Exchange support to mail, calendar, and address book, and OpenCL a new open graphics standard. The iPhone got quite a bit of love in 3.0, much of it just confirming older news. Cut, copy, and paste, shake to undo, developer APIs, Cocoa Touch support for text, landscape mode updates, spotlight, and MMS all made the bullet list. You will now also be able to rent and purchase movies directly from your iPhone. Other new features in 3.0 include the much debated tethering ability, allowing you to use your iPhone as a cellular modem (unfortunately there was no mention of AT&T actually supporting this feature, a wonder there wasn't a riot), integrated TomTom GPS navigation, and game features galore. New functionality also allows you to locate your iPhone via MobileMe, play a sound to help you locate it (regardless if it is set to silent), and even wipe your data remotely. The New iPhone hardware updates, "3GS", adds a 3 megapixel auto-focus camera, voice interfaces, twice the processing power, and hardware encryption. The 3GS comes in 16GB ($199) and 32GB ($299), pushing the 3G (which they are keeping on the market) to $99. Lots of other small updates amidst the bustle, looks like another successful WWDC.
"Get Some" which Apple execs were rumored to have yelled at rival Palm execs while squeezing their junk.
Gained sd card reader...lost the express card slot. I want the express card slot back.
I'm going to fire my stock broker. The fucker never realized that the companies making KY Jelly and AstroGlide have huge sales increases around the time of a WWDC.
I jest, I jest. Go Apple!
Come on. Not just for video chat, but for ordinary photos. For those of you who have ever tried to take a picture of yourself with friends using an iPhone, you know my pain.
Posting these minute-by-minute conference updates and them appearing on the page backwards?
It seems like I just read some E3 updates laid out in the same manner last week and now I wonder if that article was from Endgadget as well or if this is becoming a common practice.
Has Apple been this abrasive to their competitors during the keynotes before? It was a little tacky IMO
they're still married to AT&T....
So, no iPod Touch refresh?
Just a software update?
Very disappointing for those of use unwilling to cozy up to AT&T.
Too expensive. No real coverage in my area.
HAHAHAHAHAH! You FAIL. Second place is first loser!
Now you will be modded redundant or overrated for NOTHING! Kick yourself immediately. Self-flagellate for imagining such a dirty thought such as the coveted frist psot, which you hamhandedly failed to grasp! It slipped through your entangled fingers like the wayward semen you try to hold so that it won't dribble down your nuts and onto the towel laid across your office chair!
You fail. Now the entire collective consciousness of Slashdot will remember you as a chump, a sham. You will be ostracised and blacklisted with the negative karma as doled out, ladled onto you, by hordes of angry homosexuals. How dare you deface an Apple discussion with your vile excrement. See that pile above boy? Huh? I shove your face into it so that you will not poop on my forum again.
You, sir, are banished forever. Go to Digg with your tale between your legs lest you soil this proud carpet again!
FTA: and OpenCL a new open graphics standard
Not quite.
...a framework for writing programs that execute across heterogeneous platforms consisting of CPUs, GPUs, and other processors.
OpenCL is like CUDA, but supposed to be more open along the lines of OpenGL, hence the name. The same guys who manage OpenGL (Khronos) manage OpenCL as well. You could probably use it to do graphics, but that would be stupid.
You are still innocent until proven guilty. What's changed is what they do to innocent people. - notnAP, #26891325
Software updates saw Safari 4 launched, OS X updates including threading changes, Exchange support to mail, calendar, and address book, and OpenCL a new open graphics standard.
To be clear, the updates to OS X referred to are features of OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard) which will ship in September and cost $29. It is not an update to 10.5 and is not yet available outside of developer previews.
Bets on when nullriver sues over their tethering software's reasonless removal from the app store now that Apple is offering tethering.
I took a bunch of pictures at WWDC and made a panorama of the Moscone center http://msca.me/1J . Click around it's pretty neat. I think brian lam from gizmodo might be in there on the right. The WWDC'09 has been great so far, but what is up with the matte case that was floating around previously, was that a hoax or what? I could have sworn it was for the $100 one (which ran out in all the stores I've checked).
Push alerts to the iPhone. Here comes the pin the tail on the donkey pop up adds on the iPhone.
I hope there's good security on the auto-locate feature. Aside from the obvious "prank" of remotely wiping someone's iphone, I can also see this being abused for such things as spying on people's locations, or perhaps less invasive but more annoying... a "loved one" forcing your phone to ring when you already set it to silent for a meeting or movie.
Not great but good. The $99 phone is the big news the rest of it is just nice. I like the voice controls, compass, and video but nothing is earth shattering. I do think Palm will provide some much needed competition for the iPhone. The difference in a two year contract runs a few hundred dollars and the Pre offers a keyboard which some people really want. If you can not tether on AT&T then it is just a big slap in the face for US customers. I hope Palm/Sprint will enable that feature on the Pre when they see how bent people are at AT&T over it. Now we need Android on some networks besides T-Mobile and we can start seeing a real three way fight.
See my blog http://ilovecookes.blogspot.com/ for light hearted technical information.
This whole conference was crap. All Apple did was bash Windows, introduce a service pack for Leopard priced at 29USD, and introduce a phone which, well, is only evolutionary, and tell everyone in the US that tethering via AT&T isn't an option for god-knows-what-reason.
They also took out an ExpressCard slot from their MacBook Pros, worsened the battery situation on said laptops, and generally just ripped everyone off. What a waste of time.
What was with the Windows-bashing? They didn't even give a reason. All they said was that it's built on top of Vista... well, duh? Snow Leopard is built on top of Leopard. That's supposed to mean something? Apple is spending a good amount of effort trying to become the biggest troll on the planet... for what? What's the benefit? Too many of my friends were turned off by the unnecessary Windows-bashing; I guess if Apple was trying to win over the enterprise crowd, they did a good job of alienating them right from the start.
Viable Slashdot alternatives: https://pipedot.org/ and http://soylentnews.org/
Am I the only one who hates the shake interface for any action at all? Half the time I don't shake it hard enough, so I have to do it again. And for something like undo, it takes your eyes off what you're trying to do... or undo. I realize there are limited inputs on a device with few hard buttons, but hope there's an alternate way.
Can't Apple produce 15" or 13" laptops without that damn glossy display? These mirrors mounted on laptops get really annoying, and I'm not the only one who thinks that non-glossy displays are superior to their allegedly cheaper glossy displays.
One more guy who's looking for a used MBP on ebay.
Any iphone devs have any idea how the new graphics chipset might affect things? Are there going to be GS-specific graphics API calls?
Also I wonder if we'll see 3gs-only games? Obviously it would unwise to do so from a sales perspective, but I wonder if apple will even allow such a thing.
Umm, encryption of...what, exactly?
Are we talking about the flash drive being encrypted? Are we talking about the iPhone finally supporting PGP?
Yeah, we love developer APIs, and I'm sure there's a geek who's mouth is watering for cut and paste, but this announcement just isn't as shiny as past Apple announcements. I'm guessing many will disagree, but personally, I think Apple's innovation has been on a decline, and these smaller innovations (while still involving significant technical effort) will not resonate as well as the video ipod or iphone did, for example.
If you can read this... 01110101 01110010 00100000 01100001 00100000 01100111 01100101 01100101 01101011
Requires new two-year AT&T wireless service contract, sold separately to qualified customers; credit check required; must be 18 or older. For non-qualified customers, including existing AT&T customers who want to upgrade from another phone or replace an iPhone 3G, the price with a new two-year agreement is $499 (8GB), $599 (16GB), or $699 (32GB). (from http://www.apple.com/iphone/buy/) Kudos for the new corporate aftertaste and giant spanking to current customers!
Um am I missing something? I'm not seeing any posts above mine and as I said I have Karma to burn. Go to Digg ouch, I wonder if you'll be modded funny
Check out the fine print from the Apple Store:
"For non-qualified customers, including existing AT&T customers who want to upgrade from another phone or replace an iPhone 3G, the price with a new two-year agreement is $499 (8GB), $599 (16GB), or $699 (32GB)."
Ouch for upgraders.
I found it a bit surprising that the Touch was not updated. Technically I would think it is a non-issue, but I suppose they want to give the more lucrative iPhone the bump before the Touch gets the same thing. Its a shame -- I had been waiting a month to buy the Touch hoping it would get the same bump. Oh well.
Considering that the iPhone itself is really a small form-factor computer with communication abilities built in, the line has already been so blurred between phone and computer that I can't see how that fact that another computer can also access the Internet through the connection is all that different. Especially since you, the customer are paying to have the ability to transfer a given number of bits per month. Why should it even matter -- except to anal companies like AT&T who what to sell you capacity and then prevent you from actually using it -- the eventual destination of those bits? How it tethering even different from storing the downloaded data in an iPhone and transferring it later to another device?
Answer: It isn't!
The same for VoIP. It's all just bits being sent and received. Now create a business model that acknowledges this axiom.
"It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."
Yeah, I think you are missing the first post - the one before your post.
Only a 3 megapixel camera? Decent lens? Light source for indoor? 480/320 screen?
Deleted
There's always been a bit of a gap between the $100 (low cost) and the $200 (high cost) smartphones, the Pearl vs the 8820 in blackberry land, for example. With a $99 pricetag the 3G (hardware, at least, the data contract is still damned expensive)is now in line with all of the low-end smartphones currently on the market. With Apple taking a 30% cut on app sales plus a share of the AT&T contract price, it makes sense to push the cost of last generation's hardware down. As much as I and probably a lot of others would love to see a more open platform (Android or Linux, for example) gain ground in the mobile space, this will make it a lot harder to establish a sizable marketshare for the platforms that are more recently emerging into the market.
Still, Android has a shot to build (and surpass) the app library of the iPhone by moving bottom up in terms of price-point. A large number of low to midrange phones running Android could give the platform the customer base it needs to support a large development community which would in turn help build the platform's maturity eventually leading to advanced smartphones with a large and diverse assortment of apps available. This would be almost the reverse of how the iPhone platform grew: starting out as a premium hardware and service, now working down to cheaper hardware to leverage growing revenue streams from a large app library and contracts from the installed (and growing) base. Philosophically and practically (monoculture is typically a bad thing) I would love to see Android succeed on a large scale in the marketplace but as much as I often disagree with Apple's stylistic choices and UI design I have to give kudos for how well they've executed the iPhone and app store as a business.
If there's a $99 iPhone, can a $79 iPod Touch be far behind? All Apple is doing for sure is ensuring that a Touch of similar capacity cannot exceed $99 any longer since an iPhone w/o a contract will otherwise be a better deal.
"It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."
Mod the unbeliever straight down to hell!
Whoa. Did they finally FTFF? Wow, cool, I hope Apple posts a video of the keynote or the changes in the finder on their site. For those who don't use OS X, having the Finder rewritten in Cocoa is potentially huge because it gives them a chance to address a number of long-standing issues as well take advantage of a lot of cocoa built-in stuff, but it also may also give the user a lot of customizability because the interface becomes customizable. E.g., I've edited safari to remove the brushed metal look, I've added shortcuts to some menu options, and removed others all together, etc.
Gentlemen! You can't fight in here, this is the war room!
AT&T runs a standard GSM/3G network and allows unlocked phones. There are plenty of phones that support tethering, including all Symbian phones. If you buy an iPhone with restrictions, that's really your problem.
Because they can't control how you use a tethered computer. Try torrenting something on an un-jailbroken iPhone, then tell me how much it is like "another computer".
Everyone thought it would happen last year. Is it going to happen this year? I will seriously buy a Quad-Core, FW800-equipped MBP, especially if I can get it in a 15". (The 17" form factor has turned out to be slightly cumbersome to transport... not that I have a MBP. My laptop is not TOO much bigger though.) Q9000 dissipates only like 27W TDP, it should be at least doable.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
Since most higher-level dSLRs use Compact Flash, I'm a bit surprised they didn't include a CF slot on their "pro" line of laptops instead of an SD slot - especially since a CF slot could've served both CF and SD card users.
#DeleteChrome
Ouch, that's a costly upgrade, when the same thing in an SD card is roughly $20.
There is always something better just over the horizon. If you are a big Jobs devotee then you should have known better than to buy something just before WWDC. That is a MASSIVE NERD FAIL.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
http://www.apple.com/server/macosx/technology/file-system.html :(
There's no OpenGL ES 2.0 support in the iPhone 3GS, which makes me rather disseminated. I had been hoping for an upgrade, but it looks like it won't happen. The Palm Pre, on the other hand, has a GPU capable of OpenGL ES 2.0 and shaders.
I'm easily willing to pay $199 for the new one (i got my 3g 3 months ago) because I'm sure I'll be able to sell my 3g. The real question is will AT&T sell you one for $199 if you are only a few months into your contract or will you have to pay like $400.
Wow! MMS! Cut and Paste! Apple is really pushing the boundaries of computing these days.
Everyone that bought an iPhone got sold down the river if the best Apple can do is release 5+ year old cell phone features as something new.
Slashdot: Failed Car Analogies. Amateur Lawyering. Anecdote Battles.
The reason behind having a smudgy touch keyboard, to support different language keyboards of course, that's a good move.
-- It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it. -- Aristotle
Two fails in one thread. That should count for something.
Seeing Apple jump on board with HTML 5 and especially the video/audio tags is huge. If Apple is right that they own 65% of mobile browsing; having them stay up to date with standards is huge and ought to set the tone for others.
two fails do not make a win
You're seriously complaining that the tech toy you bought went down in price and was replaced by a newer, better model? Have you never bought a computer before? Some might think I'm being a troll, but seriously, this is nothing new to tech products across the board - tech toy is released, sells, goes down in price and is replaced by better model, rinse and repeat until the model is phased out. Nothing new.
OS 3.0 features : no surprise as per the beta, ie = where are the Java support ? the Flash support ? Tethering is fine but is not allowed yet on major operator :(
3GS features : where are the SD port ? the front camera for 3G visual call ? the standard plug port like miniUSB or microUSB ?
This is still a brillant product, but with new Android phones coming soon (next week ?), I am not sure it will keep contenders far away from the apple's tree.
The brilliant idea of the keynote : zipcar, just a cool way to rent a car, like the one we have in europe to borrow a public bike (velib, velov http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Velib ). But we don't have remote horn on our iphone app :)
Let's wait for iPhone 4.
Dude, Does the phone you bought at whatever contract you signed still meet your needs?
If not go get anew phone, Doesn't matter when you buy something there will
allways be something shiny and new around the corner.
Upgrade itus is so f'n stupid
it would be different if they said, "in 1 year, there will be this blah blah blah phone for $199" because that would have given the consumers a chance to decide if they want to go ahead with the massive $199 purchase or wait to get something that is better for the same price.
Yeah, so people like you would hold off on buying a phone for 5 months? Why would Apple do that to themselves? They much rather have you buy a phone in Feb and then the newer one a year later.
Hollow words will burn and hollow men will burn.
New to buying Apple products? Consult: http://buyersguide.macrumors.com/
Old Apple consumer getting ready to buy a new Apple product? Consult: http://buyersguide.macrumors.com/
Analyst/Gypsy Fortune Teller (their almost the same thing) guessing what products Apple is likely to release soon? Consult: http://buyersguide.macrumors.com/
Excuse me?
1) Apple spent maybe a minute bashing Windows. Since OS X is a competitor to Windows, this makes sense.
2) Snow Leopard is not a service pack. It has new features, some of which are revolutionary such as a 64-bit kernel, exchange support, OpenCL, Grand Central and dramatic performance improvements. http://www.apple.com/macosx/
3) Perhaps they took out the express slot because not enough of their customers wanted it. I have a MacBook Pro and never saw the use for it.
4) The batteries now have way more battery life, which isn't "worsening" the battery situation in my book. Perhaps you're referring to the fact that the battery is not removable? I don't see that as a major issue. How often does a MacBook Pro user replace their battery?
5) How did Apple "rip everyone off"? Apple is pricing their notebooks more aggressive *and* improving the hardware.
6) Vista was badly received and Microsoft built Windows 7 on top of it. That was their point. I can't say whether or not Vista sucks, since I haven't used it that much.
7) How is Apple "the biggest troll on the planet" for making fun of Microsoft for less than a minute? Other companies do the same things to their competitors.
8) How does less than a minute of making fun of one of their competitors "turn off the enterprise crowd"? Oh, I forgot. All of your friends must comprise 100% of the "enterprise crowd". Maybe features like Grand Central Station, OpenCL, 64-bitness and Exchange Support, not to mention remote wipe and encryption will win the enterprise crowd. After all, you don't get enterprise accounts by selling vapourware. Apple knows this.
This space left intentionally blank.
There is no way I'm paying £900 for a 13 inch laptop. I'll likely get a Mac Book Pro in the near future and I'm ok with the larger ones being priced high but the 13 inch ones just don't feel priced right for what you're getting.
it really peeves me that apple dropped the price to $99 AND introduced a new phone that has twice the capacity for the same price as the phone that I bought. it would be different if they said, "in 1 year, there will be this blah blah blah phone for $199" because that would have given the consumers a chance to decide if they want to go ahead with the massive $199 purchase or wait to get something that is better for the same price.
On one hand, it makes sense for them from 2 standpoints. If in February they announced "Umm guys, FYI we're probably releasing a new iPhone on June 19th" they run into 2 main problems.
1 - Only 1 model means massive sales dip
Potential customers would wait until June, unless they NEEDED a replacement due to a broken Sony/Nokia/etc. Sales would drop, they couldn't get rid of their old models, etc.
It's not like they're Nokia and have several models with different feature sets, where users would still focus on those instead of the new iPhone. They just have the 1 unit. At least Nokia's flip phones will be selling like hot-cakes while the rest the SmartPhone users await the new shiney.
2 - No public deadline means no public failure.
Face it, if they announce it back in February and then run into a major issue like fabrication, bug, etc then they get egg on their face and their stock price goes down. Keep it secret, and maybe that June announcement can pushed back to their next big show in the Fall/Winter/etc.
you didn't pay $199 for the iphone... you paid $199 + 24*$69 = $1855 ( you now, the monthly fees )
The new price is $99 + 24*$69 = $1755 or a 6.5% price drop. ( Assuming AT&T's pricing doesn't change )
For a little bit there was a new page:
http://www.apple.com/macosx/snowleopard/
It was pretty light on details and basically had all the same info that was on this PR page that now 404s:
http://www.apple.com/ca/press/2008_06/snow_leopard.html
Here is the original that I gleaned from ars:
http://episteme.arstechnica.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/8300945231/m/102001262931/p/9
"SAN FRANCISCO--June 9, 2008--Apple® today previewed Mac OS® X Snow Leopard, which builds on the incredible success of OS X Leopard and is the next major version of the world's most advanced operating system. Rather than focusing primarily on new features, Snow Leopard will enhance the performance of OS X, set a new standard for quality and lay the foundation for future OS X innovation. Snow Leopard is optimized for multi-core processors, taps into the vast computing power of graphic processing units (GPUs), enables breakthrough amounts of RAM and features a new, modern media platform with QuickTime® X. Snow Leopard includes out-of-the-box support for Microsoft Exchange 2007 and is scheduled to ship in about a year.
"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," said Bertrand Serlet, Apple's senior vice president of Software Engineering. "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."
Snow Leopard delivers unrivaled support for multi-core processors with a new technology code-named "Grand Central," making it easy for developers to create programs that take full advantage of the power of multi-core Macs. Snow Leopard further extends support for modern hardware with Open Computing Language (OpenCL), which lets any application tap into the vast gigaflops of GPU computing power previously available only to graphics applications. OpenCL is based on the C programming language and has been proposed as an open standard. Furthering OS X's lead in 64-bit technology, Snow Leopard raises the software limit on system memory up to a theoretical 16TB of RAM.
Using media technology pioneered in OS X iPhone(TM), Snow Leopard introduces QuickTime X, which optimizes support for modern audio and video formats resulting in extremely efficient media playback. Snow Leopard also includes Safari® with the fastest implementation of JavaScript ever, increasing performance by 53 percent, making Web 2.0 applications feel more responsive.*
For the first time, OS X includes native support for Microsoft Exchange 2007 in OS X applications Mail, iCal® and Address Book, making it even easier to integrate Macs into organizations of any size."
Looks like they silently removed the low end aluminium macbook!
If you want aluminium now you will need a pro!
Don't cry assclown, no one is going to take your precious Apple products away from you.
Does any of the iPhone features transfer over to the iTouch? I'm getting closer to replacing my first generation shuffle and want to get the newest generation iTouch possible.
Here's a hint, don't buy a 3GS this coming February. Super-secret, inside sources tell me that there will be an update to the iPhone in June of 2010 sometime near or in conjunction with WWDC. The 3GS will also drop in price at the same time.
The iPhone 3.0 software release date has been given as June 17th although apparently paid developers can get the GM copy now.
You'd think a detail like that could have found its way into the summary somewhere...
Is that unlocked 99 or are you still 'tethered' to the service provider for a few years?
---- Booth was a patriot ----
Go ahead and mod me troll, but... oh wow a Slashdot news story on the same day as the news?!
-- I was raised on the command line, bitch
He purchased the phone in February! That's 4-5 months ago. He didn't get "screwed" out of a better phone, he's just bitching that his phone is now last years model. But hey, unreasonable bitching never stopped slashdotters, so while we're wishing for an upgrade discount, why stop at 4-5 months, why not more? Shit, I bought my mac desktop 5 years ago and they've upgraded it since then 3-4 times including changing processors AND operating systems on me, why shouldn't I get an upgrade discount on that? By the GP's logic, Apple should never update their products because people keep buying their existing products. Sorry dude, welcome to the world of electronics, they get upgraded on a yearly or bi-yearly basis and the very minute you buy your product, there is a finite probability you will wake up tomorrow and it will be out of date.
Gentlemen! You can't fight in here, this is the war room!
A nicel news item was that Snow Leopard will cost only $29 as upgrade. A non-typical low price for Apple.
Not everybody does.
It's one of the things that has kept me from buying an iPhone so far, but really, it's a nicety. It was *particularly* nice to be able to tether through an old Nokia 6820 while I was on a four month road trip across the US a few years ago, and under those particular circumstance, convenient tethering might remain enough of a compelling feature by itself to outweigh anything else.
But the funny thing is... for most of what I use tethering for *now* (quick email checks, occasional directions, priceline purchases on short trips, spur-of-the-moment amazon purchases)... I can and would pretty much use a well-designed smart phone for anyway. In other words, the phones themselves (not the least of which is the iPhone) are getting good enough that they do what most people would likely use a tethered computer for most of the time.
This isn't to say another device might not be a better fit for you... personally, I'm still weighing the merits of an iPhone vs a Pre vs an E70 for my next phone. Tethering's a factor, but not a dealbreaker, at least unless I start living a completely mobile life again.
Tweet, tweet.
I'd be pissed off to man. I started looking for my first computer when Intel released the 486/DX33. I'm STILL looking and waiting. Then came the DX/2 models, then PCI, then x4, then the Pentium. I came really close around the time of the FDIV bug. Things were looking good, the P75 and 90 were pigs, MMX did not have application support and it was going to be a while for the P2 and Cyrix had gone under. AMD screwed it up with the 686 and my wait started all over again. As soon as they stop getting faster and the price stops going down, I will eventually get a computer.
Though your dig against Apple for their slow to come Java updates is not unfounded
It took way too long for Java 6 to be available for Macs, and it requires Leopard. Apple also made it hard to find the download.
Falcon
Should there be a Law?
Taking a picture of yourself with the iPhone is easy. When you can see yourself in the reflection of the Apple logo, take your picture. Works just fine and dandy.
Haven't people learned by now that this is total BS? 64-bit addressing is independent of instructions per cycle, bus width, or anything like that. (Of course, newer 64-bit systems may be happen to be faster for other, unrelated reasons.) The old "64-bit is twice as fast as 32-bit" is a line of hooey that has been sold to the public for years now (I recall it gaining prominence when Intel started promoting its Itanium plans), but I thought it was finally dying out.
If a thing is not diminished by being shared, it is not rightly owned if it is only owned & not shared. S. Augustine
So now that there is a $200 16GB 3GS, what do with a recently cracked (but completely functional) 16GB 3G? Repairs are $200+ .. throw it out a window?
Another Apple tradition gone by the wayside: Apple has long supported their older hardware better than most PC makers. (I still visit classrooms quite happily running Mac OS 8 on old PowerPC hardware, for example.) But the new Mac OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard) will be the first that will not run on PowerPC Macs. That makes my barely-out-of warranty PowerBook G4 end of line as far as Apple is concerned. I'm not alone in this--I don't know how many million PPC Macs are still running, but Apple was selling them new three years ago. I'm more than a little annoyed. No doubt soon I won't be able to get Apple OS security patches, updates to iLife and iTunes, etc. It's almost like running Windows XP. Fortunately, it's still Mach *nix based, and as long as FOSS developers check their code against the PPC compilers, I can still get current versions of Firefox, Thunderbird, etc.
What? This is a technology item. Every year, there'll be an upgrade. Its going to be a cool upgrade. It'll cost you money. You may or may not do it.
Sorry if any of that came as a surprise...
Besides, if the iPhone was worth $199 to you, it was worth $199 to you. Enjoy it. Nothing that they do now (or even 6 months from now) should change that...
You're special forces then? That's great! I just love your olympics!
5 minutes on the internet in February would have shown you that Apple usually updates the iPhones around this time every year.
Also, technology in general drops in price over time. I have some news for you. That computer you bought today is going to be cheaper 1 month from now. It might not even be for sale 9-12 months from now.
looks like another successful WWDC.
Well, that really depends on how you define success. If you think that they succeeded because they made it through mostly unscathed and that it ended and everyone went home, then you're probably right. Their share price even managed to recover to nearly the same value by closing.
However, most people expect more from Apple than a few minor tweaks and "refreshes", especially regarding the iPhone. Their presentation basically restated, bullet by bullet, everything that had been leaked to date. Nothing new or inspiring, and some things that weren't so inspiring (thanks, AT&T, for nothing). There wasn't even a "One More Thing".
No visions for the future. Nothing innovative, inspiring, or even interesting. In all, it was an ordinary, if not downright boring, conference that promised nothing but More of the Same.
Good enough at the time for you to buy.
You get the new software with new features for free.
You signed up for a 2 year contract.
You were happy at the time. This new product doesn't diminish what you were prevously happy with, indeed it actually enhances it with new features, for free.
Quit yer bitchin'
He is seriously bitching that his $2000+ investment (including contract) has gone down by $100 (5%) since February.
Newer DLSR's are pretty much moving in bulk to SD cards already. CF is already on the way out for pro gear.
A CF card adaptor on the laptop would be far larger as well...
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
One of the slides in the keynote mentioned Open GL ES 2.0 specifically.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
I mean... "Apple execs"... "squeezing their [Palm execs] junk"?
Unless the squeezers and junk holders are of different sex. Doesn't sound like they are to me, though...
Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
The $99 phone is the big news the rest of it is just nice. I like the voice controls, compass, and video but nothing is earth shattering.
I thought that upgrading the 13" MacBook to a MacBook Pro, and dropping the price, was great news. MacBook Pros are now as low as $1200. One article also said the price for the 17" MacBook Pro was dropped from $2800 to $2500 as well as being upgraded also. However I looked in the Apple store and the 17" isn't even there, just the 13" and 15" are listed. I even searched the store and didn't find it.
Falcon
Should there be a Law?
MMS, Copy&Paste, Video, Tomtom YEAh!
Next year it will get a front facing camera!
The year after that it will get a VGA screen.
Then it will have the same specs as my phone from last year.
Yup +5 funny
Welcome AT&T and iPhone to the year 2002.
OK, OK... not fair...
I didn't get MMS until 2005 on my K700i. See... it's got an "i" in it, just like the iPhone.
Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
WWRXSD?
(What Would Rufus Xavier Sarsparilla Do?)
No rubbery backing? (Would have helped with dropping and sliding)
No illuminated apple logo? (Would have helped with night pictures, dark bars(pubs), etc.)
802.11n - Is this there, just not mentioned
Enhanced graphics processor - again, there, but not mentioned?
FM Transmitter - or was this the Nike+ thing? So no tuning to your iPhone? Bummer.
Slashdot's rate-of-post filter: Preventing you from posting too many great ideas at once.
An iPhone is a poor investment. Here's a tip; they'll release a better phone next year, and the 3GS will be worth less.
Attention deficit disorder is a complicated issue, spanning several major... HEY LET'S GO RIDE BIKES!
I'm sure it cost apple a considerable amount to develop and have a manufacturing line for the second version of the iPhone, and I'm willing to bet that the vast bulk of iPhones sold will be the 16gb model. Therefore, they have to amortize the development costs over a smaller market for the larger memory size. It's not really about the cost of the memory, it's about the additional R&D and the cost of having a second assembly line.
"He who would learn astronomy, and other recondite arts, let him go elsewhere. " -- John Calvin, commenting on Genesis 1
Property is an investment. Commodities are investments. Stocks and bonds are investments. iPhones are tech toys.
Screen shots don't look OLED to me.
Slashdot's rate-of-post filter: Preventing you from posting too many great ideas at once.
Wow, I can get a 3G for $99? I'll take one! Oh wait, I have to pay how much on the contract?
I do wish the media would stop parroting these utterly irrelevant "costs" for mobile devices straight from the press release, as if it was true or something.
I love Apple, but must agree that the new OS X update really does not have any new incredible features I am dying for.
Though I had the Leopard disk I waited almost a year and a half before upgrading to it from Tiger. And the only reason I did was because I wanted to install Java 6, whereas Leopard supports it Tiger doesn't.
The place I think Apple is still blowing it is in the "netbook" space. I will not spend over $1,000 for an Air to just do email and surf the net.
I agree but Apple dropped the price of the 13" MacBook to $1000. They also upgraded one 13" model to MacBook Pro status and are selling it for $1200. It surprised me when Apple dropped $300 from the 17" MacBook Pro price.
Falcon
Should there be a Law?
I don't imagine Apple's in a hurry to relive WWDC 2003 again:
"â¦So that was the the G5, it's 2 GHz now and will be over 3GHz this time next year."
Macs finally hit 3GHz 6 years later on chips used in their competitors computers.
It's evil, don't buy it!
IIRC, you have always been able to wipe the iphone remotely using the enterprise iphone configuration tool. Basically group policy for iphones.
Although I haven't used it.
How about "no"? That'd be Chrome.
They didn't really remove it. They just rebranded it as the Macbook Pro 13".
Are you adequate?
For all those laptop hunter commercials. They may actually be working.
Did Apple mention which respective countries and carriers will support tethering?
Let me share with you a special URL:
http://buyersguide.macrumors.com/
Before you buy anything from Apple, check this URL. It will save you much heartache.
And I'm not talking about a camera flash either! Its been two years and there still is no flash support? I know it must be ATT holding things back, but come on, at least let us have flash enabled over Wi-Fi.
When did Apple ever release "me too!" products to jump into temporarily hot markets?
iPods and iPhones. However Apple does things differently than others, it takes a basic idea others came out with then adds enough extras to it for people to pay a higher price for it.
Falcon
Should there be a Law?
This is a quote from the AT&T site when upgrading from the original IPhone non3G
"As a valued AT&T customer, we can offer you a discounted iPhone upgrade at a higher price, along with a 2-year commitment and an $18 upgrade fee. Please proceed with the online upgrade process for pricing details. You may qualify for a full discount on a standard iPhone upgrade on 07/23/2009
I then try to select the single line to upgrade and the site tells me only select a single line. They seem to not want to sell to existing customers till 7/23.
Tethering is the big thing with the new iPhone software was going to be tethering. As expected, AT&T won't likely be supporting it, and they should. I'm appalled at what the cell phone industry is getting away with in our country in limitations and charges. It'd be nice if for once a company got behind the fact that another corporation is abusing their customers and that is the reason why our products are crippled by the time they get to the consumers' hands.
You mean a company that gives a good customer experience on a 3" inch can't on a 8" or 10" inch screen? You know that the real reason is margins and bottomline. Not to mention cannibalizing the sales of higher margin Macbooks by people who want the Mac experience.
ComputerWorld has an article that goes over this:
"Apple can make money on $599 netbook, says analyst".
Falcon
Should there be a Law?
3) Perhaps they took out the express slot because not enough of their customers wanted it. I have a MacBook Pro and never saw the use for it.
While I don't use the slot in my MBP if I find a card that will drive a high resolution, more than 1920 X 1200, monitor I'd think about getting it. I've been looking for one but the only ones I've found use USB.
How often does a MacBook Pro user replace their battery?
I switch mine every couple of weeks, but perhaps that's because I got two.
Falcon
Should there be a Law?
no video card updates at all? a $1700 latop with on board video?? removeing the exprees card slot? no blue ray? nice job apple!
I will just keep my $1600 laptop with 17" mate screen, ati 4850 512, blue ray, 320gb 7200 hd, 3 usb , 1 usb / e-sata , firewire , sd slot , 4gb of ram, HDMI. It also has mini pci-e slots on the in side as well.
Really, welcome to the world of technology as governed by Moore's Law.
On the other hand...
However many years ago, I'd saved up for a new 10GB iPod. I ordered it, decided what I wanted to have engraved on the back, and settled in for a week or two of excited waiting. A few days later, Apple announced a refresh of the iPod product line -- which included a 15GB 3rd-gen iPod at the price-point I'd just bought a 10GB. I spent a few minutes kicking myself before realizing that I had no way of knowing, them's the breaks, etc., and resigned myself to enjoying my outdated-before-I-even-received-it iPod.
The next day, I received an email from Apple letting me know that they were sending me the new 15GB model, not the 10GB I'd ordered.
I don't know if this was a lucky one-off or if this was their policy at the time, or if it's their policy now, but it did earn Apple a lot of respect in my book.
0) Tech products get faster, better, cheaper over time. Where have you been the last few decades.
1) Apple has released a new iPhone every summer for 3 years now.
2) Apple has released new iPods every year since 2001.
3) There is no way Apple will give a 6 month grace period to people who purchased iPhone 3G. The product has only been on the market for ~1 year.
The only thing I've ever seen used in the MBP expresscard slot is an expresscard SD reader.
iPhone Users: "Sweet! Tethering & MMS!"
AT&T: "No fun for you, US!" *pats Japan on the head*
Jason-Palmer.com
They just didn't have an announcement ready.
See the engadget article, while brief confirms its availability http://www.engadget.com/2009/06/08/atandt-well-offer-tethering-on-the-iphone/
* Winners compare their achievements to their goals, losers compare theirs to that of others.
"We would like to announce that in 3 months time we will be charging half the price you are currently paying. We are telling you this now because we don't need any sales over the next 3 months while everyone holds off for a $100 saving."
Why do you think they announce the product 10 days before it is going to be released? It doesn't give consumers the option of waiting 3 months to pay $100 less. (Assuming that most people don't have a clue about WWDC and wont put the purchase off just in case)
Excellent. Oh, hang on, I thought you said it had mince pie slots.
#exclude <ms/windows.h>
I assumed the junk being squeezed belonged to the Apple execs. However I was puzzled as to whether each was squeezing his own on an individual basis, or they were all mutually squeezing each other's.
Then it all became clear; I remembered it was Apple.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
Good lord this is a massive fail. Where do I start? First off Apple owes you nothing because they chose to upgrade their HW. On top of that you chose not to stay informed about the iPhone annual product cycle. This also applies to the "missing" features. Those were clearly documented when you bought your phone. Again not Apple's fault. Now you want Apple to give you a discount if you bought one within 6 months of a new model? Do you think LG, RIM, or Palm would do that, or anybody? Heck most companies would already have an update or two in that time. Listen I know the feeling of buying something just to have a better one come out a bit later. Thats life, you had a lot of ways you could have learned more and decided to delay your purchase but you didn't. Also have had your phone for quite a long time. I would have far more sympathy if you had bought it in the last month or 2. You've had yours for almost half the product cycle.
so you're part of the 3% that doesn't have an existing cell phone? assuming you didn't break your contract, you're price is 99 + 24x(difference between current and new plan), which could be $99
Seeing technology as an investment is the first problem with your attitude. I know that historical performance doesn't dictate the future, but technology has never increased in value over time so it would be foolish in the extreme to expect it.
While you are certainly energetic, I find it a sad day when a post like yours gets modded troll. We all feel this guy's pain, but his post is absurd.
I liked the summary of the article. You don't need to read the whole thing if you just wanted a brief idea of what happened.
You're seriously complaining that the tech toy you bought went down in price and was replaced by a newer, better model?
I know, right? Try getting married! At least if you trash your iphone for a newer better model you're only out a few hundred bucks.
That's because they just took a MacBook and slapped a "Pro" sticker on it. It "only" costs $1200 because that's about how much it cost previously.
They did more than just that. There are now two 13" model lines. The regular one is the same as the old but it's price was dropped to $1000. The new 13" MacBook Pro line has a backlit keyboard and Firewire 800. And there are two different ones, one is 2.26GHz, 2GB RAM, 9400M graphics, 160GB hard drive, for $1,119; and the other is 2.53GHz, 4GB, 250GB hard drive model for $1,499.
Both lines were upgraded but the Pro line had more added.
And by "latest beefed up hardware", you mean a somewhat above-average PC
Yea, just like all those PCs that were billed as "Vista Ready" when they weren't, unless you wanted no access to some features. A number of lawsuits were filed over that and at least one gained class action status.
Leopard ran fine on old Macs though, it will run on a PowerPC G4.
With a definition of "run" like that, you have no authority whatsoever to be crticising Vista's performance.
Apple was not slapped with a class action lawsuit, so who has the authority to be criticizing, I certainly wouldn't say it's you.
Falcon
Should there be a Law?
I am sure you have seen this - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xgZKjJt-TkU
BTW, what is common between Starbucks, BMW and Apple?
Maybe this should be submitted to failblog.org?
Is that you Giampaolo, from the MS ad?
No major updates to Finder's functionality. Ugh!
Compared to Vista/Win 7's explorer, Finder is one of the areas I really find lacking, that and horrid mouse acceleration. In Windows 7 the folder tree navigator with a detail view is exactly what I need. I don't want to have to toggle between tree and details view just to get a decent look at my documents. I have reservations about Windows address bar's IE styling, but its functionality is spot on. Navigating back out of directories is a breeze and I always know where my folders are located on my drives. In contrast, breadcrumbs in osX are buried in text menus and the "Path" drop down menu is hidden by default.
Thankfully the $30 upgrade fee is very reasonable and I'm looking forward to having my bootcamp partition recognize my mac partition.
Oh, get over yourself, all three of you bitching about the word "investment" instead of the fact that we're talking about a 2-year cost reduction of 6.5% over what he paid 4 months ago, i.e., it's not half the price. That was the point, it was fucking clear, I forgot I was writing in a forum full of autistics.
SOOOOO SORRRRRRRY (Father Jack Voice) that I used that word.
Please see my reply above.
If you can't buy it over the counter sans service contract for $99, then it's NOT a $99 iPhone. It's a lie!
"It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."
Apple was clearly not pleased with AT&T regarding MMS and tethering. If AT&T had a good reason, Apple would have held these features back until AT&T could be ready. In fact, it might well be the case that Apple already *did* hold these features back, as much as a year, and AT&T still isn't ready. Apple is inviting their audience to complain to AT&T. I recommend that AT&T receive a call from all of you iPhone customers who are annoyed by this.
If you mod me down, I shall become more powerful than you could possibly imagine.
Every other phone on the AT&T network does *not* support 30 fps + audio vga resolution video messages. It's very likely that AT&T believes that their infrastructure would collapse under the load. They are probably right in that assessment. You, however, are correct that AT&T still doesn't "get it" on the whole. They have a lot of ground to cover before they can be a phone company that I don't want to flee, first chance I get to take iPhone elsewhere.
If you mod me down, I shall become more powerful than you could possibly imagine.
i am there as soon as tethering and calling circle happen on at&t
in lieu of the "circle", there used to be a gadget or service that would "live" on a cellular network (had a dial-in number on that network) and could forward calls out thru another line, resulting in unlimited calling thru this "in-network" relay but these devices seem to have disappeared - they were available for the various networks but i fear they have been squashed.. ... does anyone know if they still exist?
Has Apple been this abrasive to their competitors during the keynotes before?
Have they taken digs before? Yes, but just like this year it was a very small part of the presentation... mostly they were talking about new things with little mention of other companies.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
I bought my mac desktop 5 years ago and they've upgraded it since then 3-4 times including changing processors AND operating systems on me, why shouldn't I get an upgrade discount on that?
I've had my MacBook Pro almost 2 years and when I can I'll order a new one. Then after I migrate my data I'll go ahead and list the old MBP on eBay. Right now there's one listed with a 2.33GHz CPU with the last bid at $1400, mine is 2.4GHz.
Falcon
Should there be a Law?
This is a rather unexpected, albeit very interesting marketing move. It will be interesting to see how well it plays out. I don't think Windows 7, in any incarnation, will be even remotely as affordable as the next version of OS X, due out in September.
If what you say about MS and holes is true, why don't they just eliminate software sales to the general public and just limit it to a few official blessed vendors, so they can maintain strict integrated quality control? Say they picked six different computer makers, and only did the OEM installs with them, and it was only intended for what they sold and their official peripherals. They could do this, so why aren't they if they are concerned about their OS and apps being used on cheaper stuff?
I guess my point is, I don't agree with your assessment that they would want to dig themselves out of this theoretical hole. Because they aren't doing that. Even if they see it as a marginal problem (if at all), they must have figured they could deal with it OK, else *they wouldn't be* selling to all comers. I think they like having their software on every possible machine they can, even if it only kinda sorta works with Cheapbox brand.
The next day, I received an email from Apple letting me know that they were sending me the new 15GB model, not the 10GB I'd ordered.
Something like this happened to a friend a long, long tyme ago. Back then someone I knew bought a new PC from Zenith, yes they used to make PCs but then sold the devision to Group Bull in France. After he bought the PC Zenith dropped their prices and a couple of weeks later Zenith sent him a refund for the difference between what he paid and the new price.
Falcon
Should there be a Law?
The 17" form factor has turned out to be slightly cumbersome to transport... not that I have a MBP. My laptop is not TOO much bigger though.
I have a 17" MBP yet I want a bigger one. Before I got it I saw a laptop in a Best Buy with a 21" LCD and almost started drooling. If Apple released a 21" MBP I'd be in line waiting to get one. And yes I take the one I have with me. I like hiking and if I can't carry the weight of my MBP then I'm in bad shape. The one thing that concerns me is the possibility of damaging it while carrying it. With padding though the possibility is reduced. Now I want to get a new backpack that's big enough to carry my laptop and my camera equipment, instead of carrying two bags.
Falcon
Should there be a Law?
Most people are going to respond to you saying "an iPhone isn't an investment." However, even if you consider it an investment, dropping 5% in 4 months isn't so bad when you think about it. If you put the same $2k in the stock market back in September, and after 4 months your investment had only dropped 5%, you'd be considered incredibly lucky.
Newer DLSR's are pretty much moving in bulk to SD cards already.
Canon's EOS 5D Mark II, which most certainly is a pro model, uses CF but not SD cards. Now the EOS-1Ds Mark III uses both as does the EOS-1D Mark III.
Falcon
Should there be a Law?
I have no clue why that posted anonymously. I didn't check the box...
Fact: Everything I say is fiction.
He is seriously bitching that his $2000+ investment (including contract) has gone down by $100 (5%) since February.
your math is a little off there, bud. that $2000 number that everyone throws around is BS. for 1 phone, you are only paying $30 more per month to include a dataplan, which is what you would have to purchase for any smartphone... in fact, an att blackberry/pda data plan is $35 for personal and $65 for business. so take the iphone data plan of $30 per month * 24 months = $720 + $200 for the phone. the only difference between the iphone purchase price and any other phone with a data plan is the upfront cost involved.
Some Nokia's DO have video call support. They include two cameras, one on the front and one on the back. The video is based on the H.323M standard. If the carrier supports it, it will even connect the call over ISDN BRI or PRI lines to video conferencing equipment.
Palm will also release a lower end, lower cost WebOS phone soon that should compete with the $99 price point of the low end iPhone.
So far, I'm really liking WebOS. Especially the "card" multitasking interface and the cloud sync. I just wish that Palm would get the SDK out to everyone! Programming WebOS appears to be really, really easy. It is the most powerful feature of the phone, but only programmers get to see it.
Maybe they knocked 6GB of space off, because here come the netbooks with small SSD drives...or tablet thingy.
"I don't think it's selfish, to eat defenseless shellfish." -NOFX
Even tech toys are investments* if you get more out of having one than doing without+money saved.
*Obviously, you can also make "investments" which are just pissing money down a hole.
And you'll damage it after the warranty expires, and the 3GS with be worthless.
09F91102 no, 455FE104 nope, F190A1E8 uh-uh, 7A5F8A09 that's not it, C87294CE no. Ah! 452F6E403CDF10714E41DFAA257D313F.
Thank you, I really appreciate your comment. It's true that I wrote that comment a lot more aggressively that I should have, but when I wrote it I was a little annoyed that here Apple had what seemed like a nice hardware refresh, an update to their mobile OS, and some important updates to their computer OS to make sure it stays current and all the slashdot people can think of, or what gets modded up, is what they did wrong or what they didn't include. It's a little weird.
Gentlemen! You can't fight in here, this is the war room!
I was looking forward to a bigger pricedrop on the SSDs in the MBP (the computer formerly known as the MacBook, reintroducing the old white is a bit weird to be honest. it went iBook / Powerbook > MacBook / MacBook Pro > iBookesque / MacBookesque 'Pro'. Just saying, bringing back the old case and relabeling it seems a bit unapple), is it worth adopting SSD now? Will the speed be noticeable? And what about the 187$ (Danish prices) MacBook 13" price difference for 0.27GHz, does that really matter if you're running on SSD, 4GB Ram and decent gfx cards?
Perform a thought experiment: measure the quantity of data that a hundred iPhone users go through in a month at present. You'll find it's X, mainly composed of some light web browsing, a bit of email, some youtube, etc.
Fast forward to a brave new world of tethering, just after Joe Sixpack has realised he doesn't need a USB 3G modem for his laptop, or even home broadband - he can just tether and use his iPhone. Measure the quantity of data a hundred users go through in a month. Be surprised that it's several multiples of X.
I bought a new phone in April. I wanted to wait, but my old phone died and my wife was pregnant. Oh well. Such is life. I'll just get a super-duper iPhone 2 years+3 months from now.
Except for ending slavery, the Nazis, communism, & securing American independence, war has never solved anything.
I absolutely hate flash. It crashes, causes pages to hang, and is a rampant memory hog. HTML5 killing flash video will make me very happy.
Make sure everyone's vote counts: Verified Voting
Wanna bet the next phone will do HD video and probably have an SD slot?
Find a job you like and you will never work a day in your life.
Property is an investment. Commodities are investments. Stocks and bonds are investments. iPhones are tech toys.
I bought my iPhone 3G for $299 with Rogers.
I get my new 3GS for $299.
I sell my old phone on Craigslist for $450 (one year old 3G white 16 gb)
Profit on my iPhone investment = $151.
Same contract terms, same contract, length extended 1 year but who cares. I have to have a phone or I am out of business.
next year, same deal.