My take on WWDC
Well, WWDC ‘09 has come and gone. Here is my take on the most significant news from Apple.
The news
Other sites will do a much better job summing up the news than I will, so instead of bothering to try, I will simply link you to all the news as told by Gizmodo. (Updated to point to Gizmodo’s summary post.) Read on for my take on everything…
Mac hardware updates and price cuts
I’m frankly shocked at how much Apple has slashed prices on their notebooks. We’re looking at $200-$700 price cuts across the board, which I think is great, but it still managed to surprise me. The new hardware looks fantastic as well. Kind of strange to have the 13” MacBook rebranded as a MacBook Pro, but I can deal with that, especially now that they’ve returned FireWire to it. Also, I find the SD card addition unexpected as well. But I’m sure people will like it, so it’s cool with me. I’m glad it was SD cards, too, as they’re the only type of card I use (however infrequently).
Snow Leopard
Snow Leopard is going to be awesome. I knew it would be, but it doesn’t hurt to have it reinforced. There are so many things I’m looking forward to, yet very few of them are worth naming. It’s just going to be a giant leap ahead from Leopard in terms of aesthetics, usability, and functionality, and Leopard is already pretty good in those areas. And then of course there’s the raw speed and processing power aspects. I’m very excited.
iPhone OS 3.0
Frankly, iPhone OS 3.0 is no longer new or exciting to me, as I watched the media event in March and I’ve been using it as my sole iPhone OS since it was first made available to developers. Everything in the keynote was either a retread of things they’d shown off before, or just plain boring. The developer demos went on way too long. I had to stop paying attention to the keynote for a bit and do something else. Hate to say it, but there it is. That said, finally being able to see Find My iPhone and the Remote Wipe functionality was pretty nice.
iPhone 3GS
If the S stands for Speed, then the G must stand for GIVE NOW. Definitely want. It’s like a Snow Leopard iPhone… except with hardware changes instead of software. So perhaps not the best analogy. But I still want one. New 3MP video camera with auto-focus, support for OpenGL ES 2.0 graphics (nice gaming benefits), voice control, 32 GB of storage, and a significantly improved battery? Yeah, I’m definitely going to be upgrading as soon as I have the chance. Though I must say, I am rather disappointed that it’ll look exactly the same. I guess it means I get to keep my case, but still. I would have gladly shunned the case for it to look and feel different in my hand.
Closing thoughts
All in all, it was a good keynote. I find myself coming away more excited for the future of Mac than for the future of iPhone, but then again I’ve been living with iPhone OS 3.0 for a while now, so I’m sure it’s just the newness wearing off for me. Either way, I’ll definitely be getting both Snow Leopard and the iPhone 3GS as soon as they’re available. As far as the new notebooks, well… a new MacBook Pro would be nice, and I’m sure someone around me would be very appreciative, but we’ll see how my financial situation is before even thinking about that.