6/9/08: Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference 2008 (WWDC) runs June 9-13, and marks the first time this event has sold out, great news for software development on the Mac & iPhone platforms. Apple demonstrated new iPhone applications from 3rd party developers, a push notification service allowing developers' applications to get updates in the background (when they're not running), contact search, iWork document support, full Microsoft Office support (Word, Excel, and PowerPoint), ability to save pictures you receive, Asian language support & character recognition, a scientific calculator, and a variety of other features. iPhone 2.0 software will be free for iPhone owners, $9.95 for iPod Touch owners when released in July. 3rd party developer iPhone software will be sold through the App Store, a section of the iTunes Store that users already know & use. Free applications distributed by Apple at no cost to developer; paid software has 70% go to developer, 30% go to Apple which pays for credit card, bandwidth, hosting (no additional fee for developers). Wireless downloads direct to iPhone or iPod Touch available (10MB or less over cellular network, >10MB over WiFi or thru iTunes), as well as automatic updates. Enterprise business applications can be distributed over their intranet, only to their employees' authorized iPhones. MobileMe, $99/year, replaces .mac service: over the air instantaneous sync technology keeps contacts, calendars, mail, photos in sync across iPhone, Mac and/or PC (Mail, Address Book, iCal on Mac, Outlook on Windows), uses me.com domain to show same data thru Web interface when you're away from your computer. 3G iPhone announced: 2-3x faster HSDPA (High-Speed Downlink Packet Access) speeds over UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunications System) cellular network; simultaneous data & voice over 3G network; black plastic back; flush headphone connector; thinner; metal buttons; 300 hours standby, 10 hours 2G talk time, 5 hours 3G talk time, 5-6 hours high speed browsing, 7 hours video, 24 hours audio playback; location data for Google Maps uses cell towers, WiFi base stations, and now GPS, can track position while driving; 8GB iPhone 3G $199 black, 16GB in black or white back for $299, available July 11.
5/1/08: Major movie studios will release their latest movies on DVD & the iTunes Store simultaneously.
4/28/08: Apple updated the iMac with Intel's latest 45nm process Core 2 Duo CPUs up to 3.06GHz and 1066MHz frontside bus supporting up to 4GB RAM.
