Apple WWDC 2012 Keynote Impression

Well, Apple’s WWDC 2012 Keynote is now online.

Let’s do a recap and impression.
Just like any Apple keynote, it started with Tim Cook talking about stats here and there, how great WWDC is and will be, how great the App store is, etc. Oh, and also the obligatory touchy feely warmy video. Apple really do quite a bit of work to make their devices and OS more accessible imo. Surprisingly, this segment is a bit short this time as Apple had a lot to show.

Phil Schiller started with the new Macbook Air. Ivy bridge, Intel HD graphics 4000, USB3, 720p Facetime camera, all expected. Phil kindly reminded us that all the USB ports are USB3, unlike those Windows laptops. Sure. Okay refresh. Shipping that day. Same price points as before.

Next, a light refresh on the existing Macbook Pro. Same stuff, Ivy Bridge, Intel HD graphics 4000 for the 13″ and nVidia Geforce GT 650M for the 15″, USB3. Nothing much changed though, still has the optical drive, same screen resolution (the 13″ MBP is still lower res than the 13″ MBA). Shipping that day. Same price points as before, but 17″ went bye bye.

Of course, the one more thing. This is what we’re waiting for. The Next Generation Macbook Pro. This is the MBA-styled MBP. Super thin, 15″, Ivy Bridge, GeForce GT 650M, USB3, no optical drive, SSD only, HDMI port (!), but no more Firewire nor ethernet ports. The trade-off, you get 2 thunderbolt ports, and Apple will gladly sell you a Thunderbolt to Firewire 800 and a Thunderbolt to Gigabit ethernet adapter. But the big thing is, retina display. Yes, the 15″ screen has 2880 x 1800 resolution. It’s mind boggling. Editing photos on this is going to be amazing. I mean viewing photos on the iPad 3 is already amazing enough. Just like the MBA, the next gen MBP has most of its inside filled with battery, with 7 hours battery life. Oh, you can put in up to 768GB of SSD, if you have the money that is. Basically, this is THE Macbook Pro you want, not the ones that just got updated. Oh, Johnny Ive wants you to know that it has asymmetrically spaced blades in the fans. Yeah, in case you’re wondering… Priced at $2199 starting. Expensive, yes, but for that screen, it’s probably decently priced. Oh, shipping that day.

See the pattern? Every single products announced are shipping that day. Compare this to the other OEMs that cannot even ship their tablets, phones, ultrabooks, on time or in more than few countries. This is why Apple is winning, the fact that they actually deliver their products so people can buy them. The competitors just talk big during announcement.

Next stop, OS X Mountain Lion. I remembered when a new OS is announced, the features that people are talking about would be the file system, things like Open CL, etc. Well, OS X is so mature now that what Apple is talking about is more like consumer features. All the stuff parodying iOS, like Messages and Documents in the Cloud. Not new concepts, as we’ve seen the basis of these before. In any case, that free 5GB storage on iCloud will soon feel small. I do like the idea of having iOS-style (or Android-style if you want) notification system. It would be more intuitive. Amazingly, it is pretty much a built-in twitter client too as you can post tweets right on it.

Dictation on the Mac. I don’t think this is new, but it’s just more featured. OS X also has quick sharing to Twitter or Flickr. Great way to share stuff on Twitter without having to cut-n-paste URLs and whatnot. New Safari now has an awesome bar, one bar for URLs and search, just like Chrome. It will also sync its tabs through iCloud with iDevices and Macs. So careful when you have that porn site up on one of your tabs. 😛

Power nap, keeping your Mac up to date while it sleeps. Err… is this why my iMac with Lion now refuses to sleep automatically? Looks like it’s only compatible with the 2nd gen MBA and the next gen MBP. System wide Airplay is long overdue, previously only available on iTunes. Game Center is a meh. I never use it. Steam is where gaming is. What is interesting is that Craig was showing Game Center and a game playing over Airplay to Apple TV. Is this a hint of something coming?

Next is the intensive improvements of Chinese language support and integration with various Chinese services like Baidu. This is huge. I bet many US tech blogs and analysts will skim over this, but Apple’s decision to support these Chinese sites shows what Apple thinks about China. Even Craig said “get your apps ready for China.” That is a big hint.

OS X Mountain Lion, next month, $20, for ALL your Macs. Yup, just $20 will upgrade ALL Macs you have, even from Snow Leopard. Take that Microsoft. How much do you have to pay for a single license for Windows? And only Upgrade license? Yeah.

Scott was up next with iOS6. He started with an obvious jab against Android, and how iOS 5 is more prevalent than ICS Android 4.0. Yeah, suck on that Google. I love my Galaxy Nexus though. 🙂
Improvement on Siri, now you can have her launch apps. Oh, she also learned a LOT more languages, including Spanish, Chinese (both mandarin and Cantonese), and Korean. Scott is showing off Siri knowing a bunch of sports info, pulling restaurant info from Yelp and partnering with Open Table for reservation (something that the old Siri could already do, before Apple bought it), and pulling movie information. Cool, but my iPhone 4 doesn’t have Siri, so bah.

An exciting feature is Eyes Free. It’s basically Apple working together with car manufactures to integrate Siri’s voice commands, and those manufactures includes Honda and Toyota (but no Nisan, and clearly absent, Ford). All I want is for car manufactures to have a slot for an iPad as the center console.
Oh, and finally, iOS 6 will enable Siri on the new iPad.

Next, Facebook integration. Considering how sucky the Facebook app is becoming, this is highly welcomed. Sharing photos has been quite a chore as Facebook’s own app is dog slow. Being able to do that straight from the photos app would be great. Contacts integration and birthday integration with calendar is great too. Oh, the app store will have Facebook like button now. Wonder what would happen to Ping.

Other features include call options, including features to text a reply quickly or set up a reminder when somebody is calling. Then there’s a “Do not Disturb” toggle. Hmm, that’s the point of having silent mode, no? The nice thing is it has granular control, eg. allowing certain calls to go trough. Facetime over 3G. Big whoop, all the carriers are already imposing draconian caps that I doubt people would use this. Heck, even Singapore carriers are now axing down their data quota to 2GB, mimicking the US carriers. Video calls over cellular is dead.

Safari on iOS6 allows you to upload pictures on websites. This is huge as before, iOS didn’t allow access to the filesystem via the browser. Photo Stream finally can be shared and selectively. This is the answer to the missing feature in iPhoto that used to be called photocasting. Flagged inbox in mail is nice too.

A new app, pass book. It’s collecting stuff like boarding passes, store cards, movie tickets, etc in 1 app. This is Apple testing the waters on mobile transaction. Guided Access, allowing fine tune control of UIs on apps, even disallowing the home button to exit the app. This is great as it finally allows you to lend your iDevices to your friends, without being afraid they mess with your other stuff (like checking out your porn tab in the new Safari that got synced with your desktop).

Oh and it’s final, Apple ditched Google Maps. New maps app, with local search and Yelp integration (nice), traffic service with incident reports, and the biggie, turn-by-turn navigation complete with Siri integration. So yeah, finally those ads about iOS not having turn-by-turn navigation can be cancelled/taken down. This is great and huge, pitting iOS squarely head to head with Android. Another thing is 3D flyover, another jab at Google’s own Maps and Earth. Cool, especially on an iPad, but it’s just eye candy imo. I can’t wait for the turn-by-turn direction feature, but I wonder if Apple would make it work on the iPhone 4 without Siri.

Couple on the side features, Lost Mode, allowing you to send a call-able phone number on your lost iPhone screen. Also, a new iPad clock app. FYI, the iPad didn’t actually have a clock app before. And another huge hint, the integration with China web services.

iOS 6 shipping this fall (with new iPhone too probably), and it’s for iPhone 3GS and later, iPad 2 and later, and iPod Touch 4th gen. Err…. did you see something’s missing? Yeah, no iPad 1 and no iPod Touch 3rd gen. Thing is, these 2 devices are faster than the iPhone 3GS hardware wise, so it’s interesting that Apple decided to ditch those 2 devices. The iPad 1 is practically useless anyway, it’s so slow that even browsing the net with it is no longer enjoyable. Still, I was hoping for a bit more longevity.

The keynote ended with Tim Cook promoting how great it is working at Apple. It’s a recruitment!

Let’s recap on my prediction:
1. OS X Mountain Lion. I thought it would be free, but $20 is still cheaper than $30.
2. iOS6. Still no shuffle-by-album? The ditching of Google maps is well-known already.
3. Hardware: No updates on the desktops. I did guess right that the new MBA_style MBP was the “one more thing.” Although they did axe the 17″.
4. And yes, no iPhone nor iPod Touch.

Ok, new tasty Apple products, as always. Great keynote despite not having Steve Jobs. I’ll just wait for the new iPhone though.
Enough with WWDC and Apple, time to go back to making another Accel World AMV (and patiently waiting for Accel World Ep 10). 🙂

 

WWDC 2012 final prediction

Well, it’s mere hours till the event, so here are my final prediction (since I’m bored due to the delay of Accel World Ep 10).
1. OS X Mountain Lion
Kinda obvious. The beta is already out. Probably just a bunch more iOS-related enhancements like notification, which could be useful. I can’t think of anything significant since the OS is so mature already. Wonder if Apple would just give it away for free through an update via the app store.

2. iOS 6
Announcement and start of the beta. Again, not sure what Apple would add to the maturing OS. The rumors are that Apple ditching Google Maps and using their own mapping technology. And maybe pimped up SIRI. All I want is shuffle-by-album feature on the music app, something that Apple neglected to do.

3. Refresh Mac lineup
This is where the rumors are hot. Every Macs, including the Macbook Pro and Mac Pro are going to be updated. Question is, how? The rumors are redesigned Mac Pro casing and MBA-style Macbook Pros. Also, rumor is the 17″ MBP is going to be axed. I don’t know. The MBP is Apple’s only “pro” laptop with desktop class processing power. I doubt that they would drop the 17″. I can see the 13″ and 15″ getting a redesign, ditching the optical drive in favor of more battery, possibly dual-HDD/dual-SSD/SSD-HDD combo, and retina display. The resolution update is overdue as the MBA now has higher screen res. Everything will be Ivy Bridge, and maybe USB3 (finally?). iMac with retina screen? Not sure as it will jack up the price too much at that size.

4. New iPhone? New iPod Touch?
Nope. Many rumors are hyped for a new iPhone, but there’s a reason why Apple released the 4S fairly late last year. I mean iOS6 is not even announced yet, so I doubt Apple would release a new iPhone without a new OS right off the gate. This WWDC will be dev-centric, the software development. iPhone will be later this year. Same thing with the new iPod Touch, which imo would be the larger screen device that has been floating around.

Well, there you go. My last minute prediction. I think the new Mac hardware would be enough for Apple to garner attention. I’m also predicting that the MBA-styled Macbook Pros will be the “One More Thing,” in addition to a standard MBPs with optical drive.

For the live blogging of the keynote, I’ll be following TheVerge and gdgt as they usually have great commentaries and pictures.

 

One Touch

A music video that I made. 🙂

 

WWDC 2008

Streaming video is up at apple.com.

OK, here’s my take on the WWDC 08 keynote.
1. iPhone 2.0 firmware.
OK, just bring it out. It’s not coming out till July. My Palm Tungsten E is dying (battery & touch screen screwing up), and with the 2.0 firmware, I can easily use my iPod Touch as a replacement, since 1 app, the only app that I use on my Palm will be available for iPhone (epocrates).

The apps look amazing. You don’t see app development for Windows Mobile nor Symbian being marketed this way and hyped so much. Games are great, and hopefully we’ll see more fresh gaming idea, just like what Nintendo DS brought to the market.

Why apps are so great on the iPhone?
First, high res screen. Other phones from other manufactures usually use (very) low res screen, limiting the image quality and overall experience of the GUI, especially internet browsing. PMPs have high res screen already (Cowon A2/A3), and Apple has the unique position having the experience from iPods.
Second, processor speed. Other manufactures usually cut short in the processor used on their phones, usually using whatever cheapest processor they could find, resulting in slow UI response (like many Windows Mobile devices) to the point that it hampers the regular usage of the device. Even Nokia smartphones suffer from slow response and thus poor experience, even though Symbian has many apps.

The ugly side of this, $10 charge for iPod Touch users. WTF? We already had to pay for the previous firmware upgrade, now we have to pay more? In comparison, Sony adds new features in firmware upgrades for the PSP and PS3 multiple times, for free! MS adds new functionalities to the older Zune for free. Of course, I will bite and pay for this to have epocrates for my Touch. T_T

2. Mobile ME.
I thought the rumor was a joke. The name just doesn’t seem “cool.” It reminds me of Windows ME. What is it? It’s .Mac rebranded, refreshed, and redesigned to work across Mac, iPhones/Touch, and Windows. Windows? Well, most of it will be web based, and there’s support for outlook. So, it’s still $100 per year. It has more uniform interface with Mac OS’ own mail.app and iCal. 10GB storage is upgraded to 20GB. Sounds great? Well, consider that Microsoft offer Live Skydrive for free, and it has 5GB shareable storage space, so if all you want is online storage, nothing beats free. Plus Microsoft will have Live Mesh, which will be Mac compatible too. The upside of .Mac is syncing, and with outlook support, it might entice some people. I already like .Mac’s syncing across my iMac and Macbook, but the cost is just too hard to swallow. IMO Apple needs to offer at least a free Mobile ME with maybe only ~2GB storage space, something like that. When Live Mesh goes final, Apple needs to up the ante.

3. iPhone 3G
Finally, long awaited, the newer Jesus Phone. 3G support so people outside the US can think that iPhone is up-to-par with the various 3G phones already on the market. July 11th is the date.

When Jobs started announcing the features of iPhone 3G, it’s hilarious that the crowd are getting crazy over things like “flushed headphone jack.” LOL. GPS, I never use GPS before, so I don’t know if it matters. Battery life seems to be greatly improved (presumably with better power management).

70 countries. Singapore & Hong Kong, yay. Japan, wow. Ooops, not Indonesia, the place that usually gets the latest cellphones, but rampant with hackers and pirates. Are you afraid Apple? Wonder why.

Apple priced the 8GB iPhone 3G at $199. Plus, Jobs said Apple will set the price not to exceed $199 US in all those countries. WOW! This is BIG! Other manufactures usually have variable open prices outside the US (eg. Nokia latest model sometimes is sold at thousands of dollars at launch, then dropping down in price through time, and the cycle repeats). Now, there’s gotta be a catch for this price. Although we will see what will happen in those countries, Apple is still going to lock the iPhone 3G with AT&T in the US. WRONG MOVE!

I guess Apple has not been to SE Asia. Most phones sold there are unlocked, even phones sold under a contract. People in Asia like to switch phones & providers, especially if they’re traveling. IMO if Apple wants to be successful in Asia, without giving money away to hackers/unlockers, Apple needs to sell the iPhone 3G unlocked. So back to Indonesia, this is a place where they have the latest models from Nokia, etc, being sold, even before other countries like Singapore. The pirates will simply buy/smuggle the iPhone 3G from Singapore/Hong Kong, and unlock it. Nobody would bother buying the phone locked from the cell service provider.

Apple better be selling the iPhone 3G unlocked in Asia, and if they did, expect a flood of Americans/ebayers importing the phone. Moral of the story, just sell the phone unlocked, anywhere, period. Ditch AT&T. Apple has the upper hand anyway, AT&T is getting more business thanks to the iPhone, even from people that don’t like AT&T.

Not unlocked, I’m not buying. Even worse, the rumor is that the iPhone 3G will have to be activated in store, in contrast of the first iPhone where users can activate it at home. Plus, it will have worse and more expensive data plans from AT&T. Yup, US cell providers can only go backwards, charging more for less service. Another reason for Apple to sell the iPhone unlocked if they really want to change the way the cellphone business is done. I guess the $10 upgrade fee for my Touch doesn’t sound too bad.

That’s it. No Fusion, no new Macs, no tablet. But hey, Steve casually mentioned OS X 10.6 called Snow Leopard. But of course they don’t want it to steal the thunder from the iPhone 3G. 10.6 already? And I just upgraded to Leopard… T_T

C’mon Apple, why is it so hard not selling the iPhone unlocked? Even if Apple sold the iPhone 3G unlocked for $100 more ($299 for 8GB), I’ll buy it right away. If Apple want to lock me to AT&T, then they are no better than those freebies locked phones. Asians want unlocked phones (if not, they’ll hack it anyway). Business users want unlocked phones (more economical when traveling by using local GSM providers and not giving AT&T $$$ for roaming charges). I want it unlocked. Apple, you’ve just missed plenty of customers.