At Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference today, Steve Jobs announced just about everything that was predicted, but that didn’t detract from the news. Arriving July 11th, the new iPhone 3G will sport increased 3G cellular bandwidth, built-in GPS, and the iPhone 2.0 software – priced at $199 for the 8 GB version and $299 for the 16 GB version (in black or white). We’ve been crunching hard all day to bring you the details from today’s event, including more information on the App Store, the .Mac replacement MobileMe, and a limited sighting of Snow Leopard, the next version of Mac OS X due sometime in the middle of 2009. For those less interested in iPhone news, Adam debunks David Pogue’s recent claims about ebook piracy, and in the TidBITS Watchlist, we note the releases of Canon Print Driver 1.1, Brother Print Driver 1.1, the Typinator HTML Snippet Set, Default Folder X 4.0.6, DragThing 5.9.3, and Differencia 1.1, as well as Leopard boot DVDs for Data Rescue II and Drive Genius 2.
Although most of what was discussed during the WWDC keynote revolved around the iPhone, Apple did let slip a few details about the next version of Mac OS X - code-named Snow Leopard. Don't start looking for new features, though, since Snow Leopard is instead aimed at being one fast cat.
After months of speculation, Apple has announced the iPhone 3G with 3G cellular data networking and GPS capabilities, along with all sorts of software features. But don't head down to your local Apple Store just yet, since the iPhone 3G won't be available for sale until early July.
All those iPhone apps? You'll be buying them from the new App Store, and although Apple answered some questions about it at WWDC, other questions remain.
Apple has all but ignored the enterprise market for year, with Steve Jobs famously declaring that if Apple made great products the enterprise would come to Apple. With the iPhone 2.0 software, Apple has changed its tune and implemented the kind of enterprise-specific features that large organizations expect in mobile devices.
As rumored, Apple has renamed the .Mac online service to "MobileMe," in the process adding push synchronization features that will, in the words of Phil Schiller, turn it into "Exchange for the rest of us."
David Pogue recently wrote a widely read blog post in which he explains that piracy is the reason he doesn't make his books available in PDF format. But we disagree strongly with this sentiment - easy, inexpensive online distribution may be the best way of avoiding illicit sharing, as we've seen with Take Control. Read on for Adam's analysis of the business scenarios.
Notable software releases this week include the Leopard Boot DVDs for Data Rescue II and Drive Genius 2, Differencia 1.1, DragThing 5.9.3, Default Folder X 4.0.6, the HTML Snippet Set for Typinator, and updated Canon and Brother printer drivers.
This week's TidBITS Talk discussion topics are refreshingly disparate, covering Apple TV download speeds, illicit ebook copying, swapping cable modem hardware to improve performance, Windows software under virtualization or Boot Camp, and sharing files among family members in different locations.