Live blogging the WWDC 2008 Steve Jobs Keynote

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Apple, Smartphones, Corporate News, Handhelds, Internet, PC / Laptop

In just about five minutes, Steve Jobs will be taking the stage to give his WWDC 2008 keynote. We are monitoring all the news, and will be bringing you updates on everything going on, live, as it happens on stage. In case you’ve been summering in Antarctica, we are expecting the new 3G iPhone to be launched (and not expecting it to be as radical as others think it will be - no front-facing camera, no iChat video chat - just some 3G and GPS goodness), Snow Leopard should be given out to developers to take home with them in anticipation of the launch of OS X 10.6 at MacWorld 2009, and the new .Mac replacement we’ve all been hearing about, Mobile Me, should be announced and shown off to the masses.

Well, it’s just about time. Let’s get started…

Steve Jobs has taken the stage, and immediately goes into welcoming everyone to WWDC. He gives an overview of what to expect during the conference, noting that Apple has been working on some “great stuff” that they can’t wait to share. Well, now’s the time to do it Steve! He makes note that in the first 95 days of the iPhone SDK being released, it’s been downloaded over 250,000 times.

They start with the Enterprise, a bunch of high-level CTO types talking about how great the iPhone 2.0 software is. WPA / WPA2 Enterprise, 802.1x authentication, EAP, LEAP, PEAPv0 and PEAPv1 are all highlighted. Same with Push email, Push contacts, Auto-discovery, and the oft mentioned Remote Wipe.

We move over to the iPhone SDK, as Scorr Forestell takes the stage to show off the development interface of the iPhone. We get an overview of the APIs. Core Services, Core OS, Cocoa Touch, and Media. Core OS uses the exact same kernel as Mac OS X.

We won’t bore you with the details of the Interface Builder and all the tools, so let’s move on to the apps. First up is Sega, demoing Super Money Ball for iPhone. They say it has over 100 levels. They show off the last level, giving a look at how well the tilt-control works. It will be available when the App Store launches for $9.99. That is fantastic.

Next app showed off is eBay Auctions. Basically, it wraps all of the eBay functionality that you’d find on the eBay website, and makes it completely usable within the iPhone. Doesn’t really bring anything new to the table - think of it as similar to the YouTube app.

We then get a look at Loopt. This one is a location-aware social network. You get a map with pins showing the locations of all your friends. You get user profiles, a log where people have been, photos, etc. This might actually be big since it is going to be free at the launch of the App Store. Very cool stuff.

For all you TypePad users, there will now be a TypePad app that will allow you to blog while on the go. You can add an image to your post using the iPhone camera. Neat, but fairly targeted app.

The Associated Press (AP) shows off their free app for the store. It is called the Mobile News Network, and gathers content the same way that the AP site does - from multiple sources. The cool thing is that you can view photos and even videos directly through the app. You can even submit news reports yourself, including photos from the iPhone and text.

Pangea shows off a couple of games they have been working on. The first is Enigmo, a cool physics game that uses the touchscreen. Their other game, Cro-Mag Rally, is a 3D racing game, where the iPhone becomes the steering wheel.

After a couple more app demos, Steve hits the stage again and starts discussing more new iPhone 2.0 features. Live searching is finally enabled. Full iWork support like Pages, Keynote, etc. By the same token, it also has complete support for MS Office apps like Word, Excel, and Powerpoint. There is also functionality for deleting and moving multiple messages. There is even a new scientific calculator - take the regular calculator app, and turn it to landscape mode. Nice.

One note on the App Store worth mentioning - if an app is under 10MB, you can download it through the cell network. If it is any bigger, you need to be connected to Wifi.

They start showing off MobileMe. It works like ActiveSync - supports Mail, iCal, Address Book, and even Outlook on Windows. Everything is updated in real time. They showed a push email immediately appearing in the web interface as well as the iPhone. Mobile.Me launches in July alongside iPhone 2.0 software.

Now, on to the iPhone 3G. Even thinner, metal buttons, same display, camera, non-recessed headphone jack, and improved audio. It will be available in white and black finishes.

The phone is 2.8x faster than the first, and is approaching Wifi speeds. A download on the old iPhone finished in 59 seconds, on the iPhone 3G it finished in 21. Nice.

Battery life - 300 hours on standby, 10 hours of talk time on 2G, 5 hours on 3G. Doubled from original iPhone. 5 hours of high-speed web browsing, 24 hours of audio playback, and 7 hours of video playback. This is sounding really good. Oh, and look at that, GPS built in as well!

They go into talking about the countries they are going to roll out in. There are 70 countries in all. This is a big push, and the rollout will take place over the next few months.

On to pricing. To make the iPhone even more accessible, they are cutting the price. Current iPhone started at $599, and went down to $399. The iPhone 3G will start at $199 for the 8GB model, $299 for the 16GB version (this is the one available in black or white.) It will launch in 22 counties on July 11th.