We’ve got some firm dates on upcoming Apple events. The Worldwide Developers Conference is scheduled for June 8 to June 12. The 2010 MacWorld Expo will go from February 9 to February 14, a break from its traditional January dates.
The WWDC is significant this year as it is bound to be either the announcement of a release date for Mac OS X Snow Leopard or perhaps even the release date itself. MacWord Expo in 2010 will be without any Apple involvement.
Late last week there were some updates to iLife, including some small new features in iMovie 09 like the ability to add a map location not on the list, and the addition of HD (1280×720) to the default export options.
Thsi week, Skype released an official iPhone app that allows you to make Skype calls from your iPhone as long as you are on a WiFi network. And DirecTV now has an app that lets you set your DVR to record a program while away from the house. Both apps are free.
Not much in news this week, so lets focus on rumors. We must be getting closer to the release of Snow Leopard (Mac OS X 10.6) because rumor sites are beginning to speculate on release dates. In this article at AppleInsider there is talk of a new interface look, getting closer to glass black as seen in the iPhone. Makes sense to me.
As for a release date, speculations point to an Apple Worldwide Developers Conference in mid-June, which would be a good time to show off Snow Leopard to developers and then release it sometime later in the summer to the public. That’s a lot of ifs, though.
With iPhone 3.0 a fact, not a rumor, the iPhone rumors turn to new hardware. A strong and realistic rumor is that a new model later this year would feature a better camera, capable of taking video. Having an iPhone that can compete with the Flip cameras would be a killer app for many people.
Dominating Apple news this week was the announcement of the third major revision of the iPhone operating system. Users will see it this summer, but developers can get their hands on it now.
There is a lot of buzz over new standard features, like copy and paste, MMS, landscape typing in Mail and a few improved standard apps. But the real news may be in what Apple will let developers do in the new OS. There will be push notification to allow apps to get messages even when not running, in-app purchases, and communication with external devices via bluetooth or the dock.
You can see a full report of what is new and what it might mean to you in episode 217 of the video podcast.
In other news, Apple has finally appeared on Twitter with an account that highlights new feed that tells you what new trailers have been posted in iTunes. @itunestrailers is thought by many to be Apple’s test of using Twitter, so we might see more eventually.
Apple followed up last week’s Mac announcements with a new iPod model this week. The iPod Shuffle is now smaller and bigger — smaller size, but 4GB of storage. It also works with VoiceOver, technology that will read out song and playlist names. This allows you to select playlists on the screenless Shuffle. But the new model is already receiving criticism since it places the critical controls on the earbud wires, requiring the use of earbuds and ruling out using your own headphones or plugging it into a car. You can check out this episode of MacMost Now for more details.
Apple also released an update to iTunes this week, presumably to support the new Shuffle. But it also adds “iTunes Plus” as an import option so you can have your CD imports at the same quality level as iTunes purchases.
Rumors are getting stronger that a Mac NetBook might be on the way. Latest reports claim that 10 inch touch screens have been ordered by Apple. If this is true, then not only will a new product fill the NetBook niche, but also be the first touch screen Mac.
This was a huge week for the Mac. Every Mac desktop machine, all three product lines, received significant updates. There are new iMacs, a new MacPro and a new Mac mini. All feature upgraded processors and video chips with the new Apple DisplayPort plug. You can watch episode 211 to find out more.
In addition, new versions of the Airport Extreme base station and the Time Capsule base station were released. The first supports multiple bands thanks to a second antenna. So now you can have 802.11g for your iPhone and 802.11n for your MacBook going at the same time. Time Capsule has the ability to share files through the MobileMe service, which could be very handy for a lot of people. It is now an Internet file server too.
Apple also introduced a new version of its standard USB keyboard that matches the smaller wireless keyboard without the numeric keypad. It will come standard with all the new desktops, though you can upgrade to the numeric keypad version.
Almost lost in the news this week was the release of a free iPhone app that will have a significant impact on the ebook world. Amazon released Kindle For iPhone. Now you can purchase ebooks on Amazon and get them delivered to your iPhone in a nice ebook reader. It will instantly become the dominant ebook reader on the iPhone, and open up Amazon’s ebook business to a whole new set of customers.
