AllThingsD » WWDC

Apple Preparing Upgrade to iCloud

Jessica E. Vascellaro — Mon, 14 May 2012 17:20:40 +0000

Apple Inc. is preparing an upgrade of its online service iCloud that includes new photo-sharing features, according to people familiar with the matter.

The new features, expected to be announced at Apple’s world-wide developer conference beginning June 11, will allow iCloud users to share sets of photos with other iCloud users and to comment on them, these people said. Currently, users can only store one set of photos in iCloud through a feature called Photo Stream, which is designed to sync those photos to other Apple devices, not share them.

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Apple's Coming Map App Will "Blow Your Head Off"

John Paczkowski — Fri, 11 May 2012 17:16:07 +0000

A 3-D view of San Francisco from C3 Technologies

Between 2009 and 2011, Apple acquired three mapping companies in quick succession: Placebase, in 2009; 3-D mapping outfit Poly9 in 2010; and in 2011, C3 Technologies, a second 3-D mapping company. Three mapping-company acquisitions in as many years. But for good reason: Apple has been hard at work developing its own in-house mapping solution for iOS, and now it’s finally ready to debut it.

Sources tell 9to5Mac that Apple will abandon Google’s mapping back-end in the next major iteration of iOS, replacing it with a brand-new mapping application powered by Apple technology. We’ve independently confirmed that this is indeed the case. Sources describe the new Maps app as a forthcoming tentpole feature of iOS that will, in the words of one, “blow your head off.” I’m not quite sure what that means, and the source in question declined to elaborate, but it’s likely a reference to the photorealistic 3-D mapping tech Apple acquired when it purchased C3 Technologies. C3 did use missile-targeting technology to develop its gorgeous 3-D models of major cities, so …

In any event, we’re almost certain to find out for sure at Apple’s WWDC conference, which runs June 11-15 in San Francisco. Sources say the current plan is to debut the new Maps app during the keynote. Caveat: Keynote plans often change, especially at Apple.

(Image courtesy of MacRumors)

Microsoft Slips Mobile Developer Conference Between Apple and Google Events

Ina Fried — Thu, 03 May 2012 17:12:44 +0000

Any mobile developers not from the Bay Area might just want to rent a place in San Francisco for the month of June.

Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference is set for the week of June 11, while Google’s I/O event runs June 27 to 29. Now, as noted by ZDNet, Microsoft has started sending invitations for a mobile developer event for June 20 and 21.

Of course, that assumes developers can get into these events. Both Google I/O and WWDC sold out quickly.

A Microsoft representative confirmed its event, but declined to offer any details on what would be on the agenda or who would be able to go, beyond those who were invited. Redmond has been extra quiet about its plans beyond the current “Mango” version of Windows Phone 7.

The rest of the industry hasn’t been so quiet, with various partners talking — occasionally publicly — about the next version, dubbed “Apollo,” shipping later this year. Several reports have suggested the next version will shift from the current Windows CE core to one based on the desktop version of Windows.

Microsoft has said that current Windows Phone apps should run on the next version of the operating system, but has not committed that the operating system will run on existing hardware.

iSpaceship: Steve Jobs Pitches Apple's New HQ

Peter Kafka — Wed, 08 Jun 2011 12:33:18 +0000

When’s the last time Steve Jobs oversaw two product launches on consecutive days? Here he is, the day after his WWDC appearance, telling the Cupertino City Council about his next project: A new Apple campus, with a circular building big enough to hold 12,000 people, which he wants up and running by 2015. “It’s a pretty amazing building…it’s a little like a spaceship landed.”

The presentation isn’t quite as flashy as the one Jobs oversaw on Monday, but the audience is equally rapt. Well worth the 21 minutes.

Apple Delivers Another Slap to RIM's Face With iMessage

Ina Fried — Tue, 07 Jun 2011 12:00:25 +0000

Although it got only a fairly brief mention on Monday, the iMessage service that Apple showed on Monday no doubt struck a chord at the offices of Research In Motion.

The iMessage service, which sits alongside existing communications mechanisms like text messaging and e-mail, offers many of the same features that have made BlackBerry Messenger popular, including things like delivery confirmation and the ability to tell when a message has been read or when someone is typing a reply.

According to Apple, iMessage will allow messages to be sent to all one’s iOS devices–iPhone, iPad and iPod touch–provided they are running iOS 5. Messages, which can consist of text, photos, videos or contact information, can be sent over either Wi-Fi or 3G and arrive in the Messages application. The messages are also encrypted, Apple said.

Once a mainstay among corporate users, RIM has been losing ground in North America as users have flocked to iPhone and Android devices. BlackBerry Messenger had been among the features that have kept those loyal to RIM in the fold.

A RIM representative did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Brian Blair, an analyst at Wedge Partners, said the impact to RIM won’t be immediate, given that iMessage won’t arrive until the fall and will take some time to attract a critical mass. But, by next year, it could be yet another factor working against the company.

“Assuming it is widely adopted by iOS users broadly, it will become one more reason for users to defect from BlackBerry in 2012 and beyond since BBM, for many users, has become the primary reason to use a BlackBerry,” Blair said.

Although known for its keyboard and enterprise messaging strength, Blair noted that the appeal of BlackBerry Messenger has helped RIM with young people and college students.

“There are regions around the world and college campuses and other social circles where you see high rates of BlackBerry adoption and BBM is the main reason,” Blair said. “If all your friends are on a BlackBerry and using BBM, you need one too. So will iMessage make them switch? We’ll see.”

Blair said that at first blush, it appears that Apple has matched a lot of BlackBerry Messenger’s features. The key, though, is whether it catches on with iPhone and iPad owners. “BBM took years to gain ground and really become a standard tool among BlackBerry users,” Blair said. “It didn’t happen overnight. But Apple has the user base to replicate BBM’s success and iMessage’s cross-device interoperability gives the application high odds of doing well.”

Complete coverage:

25 Million iPads, 14 Billion Apps: WWDC 2011 by the Numbers

John Paczkowski — Tue, 07 Jun 2011 07:04:43 +0000

There were lots of numbers showcased in Apple’s WWDC keynote Monday morning–big, big numbers. Over the course of the 118-minute presentation, executives trotted out metric after metric with which to chart the company’s achievements. Below, a list of the more memorable ones.

5200 developers are attending WWDC this year.

The Mac App Store is now the #1 retail channel for PC software over Best Buy and Wal-mart.

Mac sales rose 28 percent year over year during Apple’s last quarter, while PC sales declined 1 percent.

There are now 54 million active Mac users around the world.

Mac sales have outpaced the broader PC market for 5 years, 22 straight quarters.

Apple has sold 200 million iOS devices to date…

…which accounts for more than 44 percent of the mobile market.

25 million iPads were sold in the device’s 14 months of availability.

15 billion songs have been sold from the iTunes store…

…making Apple the #1 music retailer in the world.

130 million books have been downloaded from iBooks.

There are 425,000 apps in the app store.

90,000 of them are designed specifically for the iPad.

14 billion apps have been downloaded from the App Store in less than 3 years.

Apple has paid some $2.5 billion to developers building apps for the app store.

There are 225 million iTunes Store accounts, all of them with associated credit cards and 1-click purchasing.

There are 50 million Game Center users. XBox Live, which has been around for a lot longer, only has about 30 million.

~~IOS users send more than 1 billion Tweets a week.~~ (Looks like this is a general Twitter number, not specific to iOS)

To date, about 100 billion push notifications have been sent to iOS devices.

The iPhone 4′s camera is the second most used camera on Flickr.

OS X Lion boasts 250+ new features and 3,000 APIs.

IOS 5 has 200+ new features and 1,500 APIs.

Complete coverage:

Apple's Invisible iCloud: The Promise of Simple, Seamless Sync

John Paczkowski — Tue, 07 Jun 2011 00:10:19 +0000

Apple’s new iCloud service has a number of compelling features–personal content syncing across Apple’s range of connected devices, music streaming. But its most important feature is likely the one we’re most apt to overlook as we jaw away about storage caps and acceptable iTunes Match file formats: Simplicity.

If it works the way Apple intends, iCloud will be so easy to use, you won’t know you’re using it at all.

And if you don’t think that’s important, think again. Ease of use was a talking point Apple CEO Steve Jobs came back to again and again Monday morning as he described Apple’s vision of the post-PC era, one in which the cloud, not the desktop, is the center of our digital lives.

“Keeping our devices in sync is driving us crazy,” he said Monday. “ICloud keeps your important information and content up to date across all your devices–automatically and wirelessly. And because it’s integrated into our apps you don’t even need to think about it. It just works.”

And then later, “Everything happens automatically and there is nothing new to learn.”

You don’t even need to think about it….It just works….There is nothing new to learn.

In other words, Apple is bringing cloud computing to the masses, and the masses don’t even need to know how to use it to take advantage of it. No new operating systems, no “Cloud Connect” add-ons to mess around with. Your Mac and iOS devices will just work better.

For Apple, “the cloud” isn’t a vague cliché, it’s not utility-style infrastructure and computing. For Apple, it’s something we never see. Which is a very different proposition from its rivals.

That document you began editing on your Mac will be ready for you to tweak on your iPhone when you’re in line at the grocery store, and later you can finalize it and send it off from your iPad.

Your personal and work information, seamlessly accessible across all of your devices. All without any real intervention on your part. For free.

That’s a very compelling proposition.

It remains to be seen whether Apple will live up to those promises, but that’s a brilliant way of bringing what is clearly a massive shift in computing to consumers who may not be aware it’s headed their way or even care that it’s coming. And it’s another massive selling point for Apple’s hardware: A platform that gives us exactly the content we need, when we need it, and on the device we’d most like to use at any given moment.

Complete coverage:

Three Things to Take Away From Apple's WWDC Announcements (Video)

Ina Fried — Mon, 06 Jun 2011 23:43:31 +0000

Just after Steve Jobs wrapped up his Worldwide Developer Conference Keynote, I had a chance to chat with The Wall Street Journal Digital Network’s Lauren Goode about what to take away from the big event. That video appears below, followed by a second post-event video with additional reflections.

Here are a few things that struck me.

1. Clearly, Apple is learning from the mobile competition.

Although Apple has had the lead in a lot of mobile areas, the new iOS 5 software picks up on a few things where the competition was ahead. The new operating system will offer improved notifications in a manner quite reminiscent of Android. Meanwhile, the new software will also be able to go straight to the camera app from the lock screen, a favorite feature of Windows Phone 7. The company is also taking over some ground previously handled by third-party applications, such as Instapaper.

2. Apple just might get sync right.

Microsoft has been trying to allow users to sync their data for a while via Windows Live Mesh and other services, but nothing they have proposed is as elegant as the iCloud service that Steve Jobs outlined on Monday. Google, meanwhile, has proposed a cloud-only approach.

But Apple’s approach seems to give users what they really want–their photos, documents and other data on all their devices, synchronized automatically while also stored locally on the device. Of course, the devil is in the details and we won’t be able to see just how effortlessly it all works until the service launches with iOS 5 this fall.

3. Apple’s Lion is interesting not just for its features, but also for how it is being distributed.

The features of Lion are interesting, particularly when compared with the also-mobile-influenced Windows 8. However, what struck me even more is the fact that Apple is distributing it in an entirely new way. Rather than sell it on discs through retailers, the new Mac OS X will come via the Mac App Store for just under $30.

[ See post to watch video ]

Complete coverage:

Apple's Lion and Microsoft's Windows 8 Both Show Mobile's Influence

Ina Fried — Mon, 06 Jun 2011 22:12:50 +0000

In the past week, both Apple and Microsoft have laid out their next computer operating systems. In both cases, the features and design of the software are influenced heavily by what is going on in the phone and tablet markets.

Although both Windows 8 and Mac OS X Lion aim to bring a more phone-like operating system to notebooks and laptops, each has centered on different aspects of the mobile operating system.

With the Windows 8 design shown at the D9 conference last week, Microsoft has focused heavily on the way programs are organized and launched on phones, using a start screen that closely resembles Windows Phone 7.

Microsoft didn’t go into great detail on Windows 8, but among the features it did show was a lock screen that appeared to have notifications similar to those found on a phone. It also showed the ability from within newly redesigned Windows apps to access documents like photos without having to hunt through the traditional Windows file system.

Apple, meanwhile, previewed Lion on Monday, showing a number of elements that are migrating to the Mac from iOS, including the automatic saving of documents, push notifications and greater multitouch gesture control. Apple had talked about bringing the best of iOS to the Mac when it first talked about Lion at a “Back to the Mac” event last October.

Both Apple and Microsoft have noted immersive, full-screen apps as one compelling feature from mobile operating systems that has a place on the desktop as well. Both also have built-in app stores, a notion popularized by Apple on the phone.

There are other mobile influences in both products. Windows 8, for example, will be the first version of Windows to run on ARM-based processors, common on mobile devices. As for Lion, it is the first Mac OS X release that won’t come on disk, instead being offered for download via the Mac App Store.

Although Apple would clearly like to capitalize on the popularity of the iPad and iPhone, for Microsoft the need to add mobile features is perhaps even greater, as the company is counting on Windows 8 not only to take on the Mac, but also to regain ground lost to both the iPad and Android in the tablet space.

Lion is, of course, much further along, with developers getting a new release this week and general availability slated for next month. Microsoft has only showed a glimpse of Windows 8, with a wide release not expected until next year and the first beta unlikely to come before a September developer conference.

For a look at what Windows 8 has in store, here’s the video of the demo from D9 last week:

[ See post to watch video ]

Complete coverage:

Today in Hyperbole (or Possibly Reality): What Did Apple Just Kill?

Liz Gannes — Mon, 06 Jun 2011 19:46:44 +0000

Many of Apple’s software and Web updates announced today come quite close to products already offered by other companies. Here’s the rundown of affected apps:

Apps like Dropbox could be less relevant for Mac users, whose Pages, Numbers and Keynote documents will automatically be synced across devices.

Flickr, SmugMug and mobile photo apps like Instagram could be impacted by Photostream, which automatically sends all photos taken on an Apple device to all your other Apple devices, including the Apple TV, and backs them up there for 30 days.

Many of the Camera+ photo-improving features such as its grid and zoom are now part of the iOS camera itself.

Instapaper and other article-saving apps such as Readability appear to have a direct competitor in Reading List, which formats and syncs pages in Safari. (Instapaper one-man developer Marco Arment’s reaction on Twitter? “Shit.”)

And to-do lists like Remember the Milk now have to compete with a built-in option called Reminders, which even uses the new iOS geo-fencing feature, so you can set it up to get a notification if you attempt to leave a particular location without completing a certain task.

Group messaging apps like GroupMe and textPlus have a challenger in iMessage. But not really, because it’s only for iOS devices.

However, folks who use BlackBerries just for BBM may find themselves with more reason to go iPhone.

Apple also probably didn’t make people happy at Google by mimicking the Android notification pull-down menu at the top of the screen–and the consolidated notifications experience looks like it replaces that of the independent app shop Boxcar. And Steve Jobs–who has tussled with Facebook over past integrations–certainly fired a missile toward Palo Alto by deeply integrating users’ Twitter accounts into its built-in software.

All in a day’s work!

Complete coverage:

The Unlikely Breakout Stars of WWDC: Two Podcasters From the U.K.

Liz Gannes — Mon, 06 Jun 2011 18:45:16 +0000

Two energetic young video podcasters from the U.K. filled in the gaps when Apple didn’t provide a live video stream of its WWDC keynote today, where it debuted updated software for Mac and iOS and a new cloud storage service.

Broadcasting on Ustream under the channel “AppleLiveKeynotes,” John Coles and Joe de Max served as keynote DJs, switching between blurry video feeds that were often shut down mid-stream, audio feeds, and even desktop screencasts of the Engadget liveblog when they had to. Coles and de Max interjected their own comments–mostly oohs and ahs–with ongoing we’re-all-fanboys-in-this-together repartee with their commenters (a.k.a. “Don’t tell me to hurry up!”).

The two hosts even somehow had time to answer questions from AllThingsD while the keynote was still running. The channel had more than 30,000 simultaneous viewers for most of the keynote (which has currently been going for more than an hour and a half).

AllThingsD: Where did you get the idea to do this, and have you done it before?

John Coles: This was an idea that me and Joe (my co-host) had a few years ago and did separately. Now we work together to get the video feeds and audio feeds. The first time I did this was covering the iOS 4 announcement which received a 20,000 peak in viewers.

How did you promote your Ustream page?

The Ustream is a featured channel so when we go live on this channel it is auto-featured on the Tech page of Ustream but we usually start streaming a countdown around 5 hours before to allow viewers to know that we are going live.

Where are you finding feeds?

I would love to tell you but that is a trade secret. :) That is what helps us do what we do. Most of the time the chat room and the Twittersphere come in very handy so I guess you would call it crowd sourcing.

What are you using to patrol Twitter so quickly?

I use an iOS app called Boxcar (http://boxcar.io I believe). This sends me push notifications for new followers and @mentions. Other than that I just have the web client open on my MacBook.

Do you know what your peak viewership has been?

I saw it at around 40,000 but we will know tomorrow when Ustream releases the figures to us.

Has anyone tried to shut your feed down that you know of?

Not that we know of but last time we did it we did crash Ustream. They stayed down for around 10 minutes. This year they managed to keep up with us. We did have to cut the quality though; originally we were sending them a 700 Kb/s stream, now we are sending them around 500 Kb/s. Both me and Joe are sure that Apple are watching us very closely though.

Does your podcast have a name? Or should I refer to you by your day jobs?

We don’t really have a day job but our new site is going to be http://techreboot.com/.

Complete coverage:

Apple Flatters Instapaper. Did It Kill It?

Peter Kafka — Mon, 06 Jun 2011 18:07:48 +0000

“Shit”

Instapaper developer Marco Arment, via Twitter, shortly after Apple announced “Reading List”, a new iOS 5 feature that appears to closely mirror the features in Arment’s popular iOS app. The silver lining, per Arment: “At least they’re hitting a lot of other apps too. Could be worse.” And then this: “Glad I’ve invested in social and editorial features. Not dead yet!”

Apple: IOS 5 to Offer Improved Browsing, Notifications, Twitter Integration, 197 Other Features

Ina Fried — Mon, 06 Jun 2011 17:45:15 +0000

After showing off Lion, the next version of Mac OS X, Apple detailed iOS 5, the next version of the software that powers the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch, among other devices. It is due out this fall.

Apple’s Scott Forstall promised that “iOS 5 is a major release” with 1,500 new interfaces for developers and 200 new features for consumers. Forstall said he would highlight 10 of those features, starting with improved notifications. A new “Notification Center” can be reached by swiping down from the top of an iOS screen, Forstall said. The notifications will no longer interrupt an active app, he said.

Developers will get a build of the new operating system this week; it will be made available to the public this fall for the iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, all iPads and the two most recent iPod Touch versions.

Twitter will also be integrated deeper into iOS, including into the camera and other programs. Users can also tweet from within Safari, YouTube and other built-in apps. Safari itself has also been enhanced to make for easier reading, with a single scrolling story option for long articles and a “reading list” option that syncs with other iOS devices and Safari on a Mac.

A new iMessage service will also allow users to send messages from iPhones, iPads and iPod Touch. (While the iPhone supports text messages, the other two devices don’t.) The iMessage app will also support features popular on BlackBerry message and other chatting programs such as delivery receipt and even the ability to find out if a message has been read or when a user is typing a reply. The encrypted iMessages can be sent over Wi-Fi or 3G, Apple said.

With iOS 5, Apple also won’t require a user to have a PC or Mac, allowing users to set up a new iPhone or iPad directly from the device and get over-the-air updates.

The new version of iOS will also include a digital newsstand, offering a new hub for newspapers and periodicals. News apps can download and update in the background and show up in a special place for offline reading. Newsstand draws on the subscription features Apple recently added for publications.

Publishers had been looking for the additional shelf space so they wouldn’t have to fight for attention with Angry Birds and other apps, while background downloading will make it easier for users to get the latest content.

One firm unlikely to be happy with the new reading list features is Instapaper, which has a popular app that offers such capabilities.

Another feature is location-based reminders that let you send a note or get a reminder when you reach a certain pre-specified location.

The company is also upgrading the camera app with a feature that lets you get to the camera straight from the lock screen and use the volume button to take a picture. (Windows Phone 7 did a nice job integrating this feature into all of their devices.)

“We’re making it way faster to just get in and take photos,” Forstall said. There are also new controls for editing and controlling photo-taking features, including one-tap enhance, cropping and rotating, as well as the ability to lock auto-exposure for a part of a picture.

On the mail front, Apple is adding new search capabilities as well as some new enterprise features, including encrypted mail for certain contacts.

Apple is also adding a split keyboard to make for easier thumb typing on a tablet. Microsoft showed a similar feature in its Windows 8 demo last week.

The company is also improving its Game Center to allow for turn-based apps integration as well as other features.

Forstall announced that Apple has sold 200 million iOS devices including 25 million iPads. The company has also sold 15 billion songs and 130 million books for those devices. Also, 14 billion apps have been downloaded, with Apple paying out more than $2.5 billlion to developers.

As it did with the Lion preview, Apple also threw up a slide listing dozens of other features. For iOS 5, the additional features include new gestures, Wi-Fi syncing, and a personal dictionary.

Later in the keynote, Apple is slated to introduce the company’s iCloud service.

Apple’s iOS 5 demo is still ongoing. I’ll update this post as more details are announced. For all the latest from WWDC, check out our ongoing live blog of Monday’s keynote.

Complete coverage:

Apple: Mac OS X Lion Coming in July Via Mac App Store

Ina Fried — Mon, 06 Jun 2011 17:14:46 +0000

Apple said Monday that Lion, the next version of Mac OS X, will be a major release with over 250 new features and go on sale in July for $29.99.

Instead of shipping on a disk, though, the 4GB upgrade will come via the Mac App Store and work on all the Macs that one owns.

“That allows us to make it the easiest upgrade you have ever seen,” Apple Senior VP Phil Schiller said.

Steve Jobs kicked off Monday’s Worldwide Developer Conference, but gave way to Schiller and Mac OS X VP Craig Federighi to show off Lion.

“The Mac is doing incredibly well,” Schiller said, noting that the Mac has outpaced overall PC growth every quarter for the last five years. Since he didn’t have time to show off all the new features, Schiller said he would focus on 10 new features, starting with improved multitouch gestures and full-screen applications.

“There is so much more,” Schiller said, showing a list of other features, including new tools to migrate from a Windows machine, FaceTime video chat, FileVault 2 encryption and 3,000 new programming interfaces.

Safari and Mail, as well as Apple’ iLife and iWork apps have all been tailored to run in full-screen mode, Schiller said. Among the new features in Safari is a reading list for pages one wants to get to later.

A trio of features are aimed at making the Mac as resilient as a tablet or phone. Lion will now allow users to resume a Mac OS X session after restarting with all of the same windows and programs open. The software will also auto-save documents and allow users to choose from earlier saved versions. It works similar to the “time machine” backup feature for file backup and recovery.

“You have the power of all of this right from the title bar of your window,” Schiller said. “It’s very efficient. We only store the difference.”

Also, unlike with Word, Lion doesn’t share all the changes with users when a document is shared.

AirDrop is designed to allow for easy file sharing using peer-to-peer networking with another Mac user running AirDrop. With a simple confirmation on both ends, the file is sent wirelessly.

“That’s it,” Schiller said. Until now, Schiller said the easiest way has been to use a flash drive.

Mission Control is a Lion feature that unites Apple’s multiple means of bringing together widgets and open windows.

“For many people this will be the best feature of Lion,” Schiller said.

Lion will also include a Mac App Store built in, though Snow Leopard users have been enjoying this as an add-on to their OS for a while. Schiller noted that the Mac App Store is now the largest channel for buying software.

“It’s built right in,” Schiller said, noting that the Mac App Store will also allow in-app purchases, incremental updates as well as the ability to have applications run in their own “sandbox,” where they are secured from other apps.

Finally, Schiller showed a rewritten Mail app that he billed as enterprise-class. Among its features are a new conversation view as well as search suggestions that aim to make it easier to find things from within a large mail store.

The company first previewed Lion and a few of its features at a “Back to the Mac” event last October.

For all the latest from WWDC, check out our ongoing live blog of Monday’s keynote.

Complete coverage:

WWDC 2011: Apple CEO Steve Jobs Takes the Stage

Ina Fried — Mon, 06 Jun 2011 17:02:36 +0000

Apple began its Worldwide Developer Conference with perhaps the most important introduction of all: CEO Steve Jobs.

Jobs, who has been on medical leave since January, announced last week that he would be on hand to kick off the developer conference, at which Apple is expected to detail Lion, the next version of Mac OS X, as well as iOS 5, the next release of the iPhone and iPad operating system.

Jobs received a standing ovation as he took to the stage promptly at 10 a.m. PT.

“I love you,” shouted one attendee.

“It always helps,” Jobs said. “I appreciate it,” he said, before promising an “awesome morning.”

If hardware is the brain and sinew of Apple’s products, “the software in them is their soul,” he said. “Today we are going to talk about software.”

For all the latest from WWDC, check out our ongoing live blog of Monday’s keynote.

Complete coverage:

Apple Heads for the Cloud, for Real: Here's What's Coming From Lion, iOS5 and iCloud

John Paczkowski — Mon, 06 Jun 2011 15:41:10 +0000

This morning at Apple’s annual World Wide Developers Conference, CEO Steve Jobs and several other executives kicked off the event with a keynote that focused on iOS 5, OS X Lion and iCloud, the company’s “upcoming cloud services offering.”

Here’s the liveblog, photos and analysis.

8:43 am: AllThingsD is here at WWDC.

8:46 am: Among the signage here at Moscone are two massive banners, both of them hidden by blackout cloth.

9:44 am: Inside and situated after a Monsters of Rock-style stampede for choice press seats. If you’re a tech company about to announce an earnings shortfall or scandal, now would be the ideal time.

9:52 am: No Beatles or Dylan blaring from the speakers today. The soundtrack for this morning’s event seems to be late-60s soul, Eddie Floyd, etc.

9:58 am: We’re just a few minutes from kick-off, I think. Now playing, James Brown’s “I Feel Good.” Opening screech draws chuckles from the crowd.

10:01 am: Looks like that was Steve Jobs’s intro music. The lights dim and he takes the stage. Standing ovation.

10:02 am: From the crowd: “We love you, Steve.”

Jobs: “Thanks, that always helps.”

10:02 am: Jobs begins with some WWDC metrics: 5,200 attendees, over 1,000 Apple engineers on site.

10:03 am: “If the hardware is the brain and the sinew of our products, the software is their soul. Today we’re going to talk about software: Lion, iOS 5 and some interesting cloud stuff.

10:04 am: First up: Lion. Jobs hands off to Phil Schiller who begins with some metrics. Ha! I was just name-checked in an onstage slide–a quote about “the Mac kicking ass” from one of my posts.

10:05 am: Schiller says the Mac has outgrown the PC every quarter for the past 5 years. “There are now 54 million active Mac users around the world.”

Now, a quick historical overview of the Mac OS, including some screenshots of the first iteration of OS X and its evolution.

10:07 am: Schiller says Lion is a major refresh of OS X and has some 250 new features. He’s going to focus on 10 today. The first: multitouch gestures: scrolling, tap to zoom, swipe, pinch motions…

“These things have implications across the system,” Schiller says. “The scrollbar, for example,” he says. You don’t really need it anymore. Or as much, anyway. In Lion, the scrollbar disappears when you don’t need it and reappears when you do.

10:09 am: Moving on now to full screen apps. In Lion, you can run a number of full-screen apps at the same time and switch easily between them. Shows off Safari, iCal, Calendar, all running in full screen.

10:10 am: Up next: Mission Control.
Schiller: “Mission control gives you a birds-eye view of everything going on in your system,” Schiller says, adding that you can have multiple desktops and apps running and use Mission Control to get to any of them easily.

10:11 am: “You don’t need the scrollbar anymore because you can simple push through things with your finger,” says Federighi, who has picked up the demo from Schiller.

10:12 am: Slick feature: Swipe through Safari’s browsing history.

10:13 am: You can also swipe through full-screen apps going from Safari to iPhoto with a simple gesture. Transition is fluid, seamless.

10:14 am: Demo of Photobooth running in full-screen mode. New enhancements allow you to put Looney Tunes-style cuckoo birds around your head, etc.

10:15 am: Three-finger swipe puts you in Mission Control from full-screen apps. Spacebar gives users a “quick look” at a specific window by enlarging it.

10:16 am: Schiller talks a bit about the Mac App Store. “In the last six months, the Mac App Store has become the number one PC channel for buying software, surpassing Best Buy and Office Depot.”

10:18 am: So what’s new for the App Store in Lion? First off, it’s built right in. It also offers in-app purchases, push notifications, sand boxing and delta updates.

10:19 am: Moving on to Launchpad, which brings an iOS-like app schema to the Mac desktop. Multiple screens of icons, scroll between them.

10:20 am: Another new feature: “Resume.” “Resume works system wide to remember what app you were using and what you were doing with it.”

10:24 am: Demos of the features we’ve just heard about. Federighi takes the stage to show off the Mac App Store. He downloads Twitter from the App Store and it “magically flies” to the desktop.

Moving on to document editing now….He messes around in Pages for a bit and then quits. Notably, there is no “Do you want to save?” dialogue.

He fires up Pages again and the app takes him to exactly what he was working on when he closed it moments ago without saving.

10:27 am: Federighi adds that Lion saved not only the last version of his doc, but a few earlier versions as well–all without his intervention.

10:28 am: Another new feature: Airdrop. “This is a peer-to-peer Wi-Fi-based network,” says Schiller.

Airdrop creates a sort of subnetwork among Lion users that allows dragging and dropping of files via the finder. Looks elegant and easy.

10:30 am: Moving on to Mail. “Lion has a completely new version of Mail,” says Schiller. There’s a favorites bar, a message skimmer and, thankfully, a better search. “You can create boolean searches if you want,” says Schiller.

10:31 am: Another new Mail feature: conversation view. This shows messages from a single thread in a single view, complete with attachments.

10:33 am: Search in the new Mail appears far more granular. Multiple search terms allow far more focused and effective searches.

10:34 am: A nice addition. Conversations hides the redundant text you often get in CCs, but allows you to expand if needed.

10:35 am: Schiller now running through a smorgasboard of new features in Lion. 3000 new APIs for devs.

10:36 am: When it’s released, Lion will be available only from the Mac App Store. No more DVDs.

10:36 am: It will be about 4 GB in size and will install in place. It can also be installed on all authorized Macs.

So what will it cost? $29. Lots of applause for that.

10:38 am: New developer preview available today. Official release will follow in July.

10:38 am: Scott Forstall takes the stage to talk about iOS 5.

10:38 am: 200 million iOS devices sold to date, says Forstall. “That makes iOS the number one mobile operating system with more than 44 percent of the market.”

10:39 am: Here’s our full rundown on Mac OS X Lion.

10:39 am: “In 14 months, we”re sold more than 25 million iPads,” says Forstall.

More metrics:
- 15 billion songs sold via iTunes
- 130 million books downloads from iBooks
- 425,000 apps in the app store, 90,000 specifically for the iPad
- 14 billion apps downloaded from the App Store in less than 3 years
- $2.5 billion paid to developers building apps for the app store

10:42 am: Quick overview of some high-profile apps. HBO Go, WebEx, etc.

10:43 am: More metrics: 225 million iTunes store accounts all with credit cards and 1-click purchasing.

10:43 am: And now, iOS 5….

Forstall: “This is a major release for our devleopers and our customers….More than 200 new features.”

10:44 am: Forstall will walk us through 10 of that 200. The first: Notifications.

10:44 am: Apple’s already pushed 100 billion push notifications, but it’s been hearing that folks would like a better UI. People don’t want to deal with modal alerts, etc.

Notification Center will fix this. It’s a single screen that lists your various notifications–missed calls, Facebook updates–all accessible with a top down finger swipe.

10:46 am: Notifications are now less intrusive. They appear at the top of the screen without interrupting the app currently in use and then auto-dismiss after a few moments.

10:48 am: Tap on a notification and it takes you to the app that generated it. Tap again and it takes you back to Notification Center.

10:48 am: Number two: Newsstand. Forstall talks for a moment about the breadth of magazine and newspaper content available for iPad. “We’ve now created a single place for all these publications in the App Store. When you purchase them, they’re all downloaded to Newsstand via background downloads.”

Newsstand has an iBooks-esque UI.

10:50 am: Next up: Twitter.

10:51 am: “IOS users send more than 1 billion Tweets a week,” says Forstall. “We know Twitter is an important app for our users, so we want to make it easier to use.”

How?

A few ways: single sign-on, photo-integration, location integration.

“In addition to this, you can Tweet articles from Safari and videos from YouTube.”

10:53 am: Moving on to Safari. More than two thirds of mobile Web browsing is done on Safari, says Forstall, before running through some new features Apple is adding to it.

10:54 am: First, an improved version of Safari Reader that, frankly, looks like it’s going to kill Instapaper. Second, “Reading List,” an easy way to save stories to read later. Reading List syncs across iOS devices, so if you save something on iPhone, you can read it later on iPad. Third: tabbed browsing.

10:55 am Moving on now to a new feature called “Reminders,” which seems to be a Remember The Milk-style app.

10:58 am: Create lists of to-dos, associate a time with them and even a location with a geofence so that if you attempt to leave a particular location without completing a certain task, iOS will remind you to do it when you move out of a certain area.

11:00 am: Another nice new feature: A lock-screen shortcut for the camera. No need to worry if you have a passcode set, either. Camera evidently ignores it, but still keeps the device locked until the passcode is entered.

11:01 am: Also new in camera: optional gridlines, in-camera pinch-to-zoom, and in-camera editing with crop and rotate, red-eye removal and one-click enhance.

11:02 am: Now, iOS Mail. A bevvy of new features: rich text formatting, indentation control, draggable addresses, message flagging, search entire message (not just from and to), swipe to inbox.

11:06 am: Ah, here’s a slick new feature. A split keyboard for iPad that makes it easier to type.

11:07 am: Next up: PC Free. The mere mention of the phrase is met by so much cheering and applause, Forstall has to pause for a moment until it dies down.

11:07 am: “We know we’re selling into a lot of households that don’t have computers, but want iOS devices. So we’re making that possible.” How? You can now set up iOS devices on the devices themselves and software updates are available over the air.

11:09 am: “If you want to cut the cord, now you can.” Forstall concludes the PC Free demo and moves quickly to GameCenter.

Game Center currently has 50 million users, says Forstall, adding that XBox Live, which has been around for a lot longer, only has about 30 million.

New in Game Center, game discovery and game downloads from within Game Center. Also support for turn-based games right out of the box in iOS 5.

11:12 am: Next: Messaging. IPod touch and iPad users have been asking for a messaging service, so we’re giving them one. It’s called iMessage and it runs on all iOS devices–iPhone, iPod touch and iPad.

IMessage includes delivery receipts and read receipts, and is supported over 3G and Wi-Fi. IMessages are pushed to iOS devices. They’re also encrypted.

11:14 am: In a nod to iOS’s new notifications system, iMessages are non-intrusive. They don’t interrupt game play, for example.

11:16 am: “We’re building this on our new push notification system so we know how to scale this,” says Forstall.

11:17 am: Forstall runs through some other new iOS features: AirPlay mirroring and Wi-Fi backup to iTunes are two of the big ones. Also new features for devs: Core Image, Customize UI…

11:18 am: All sounds great, but when will it arrive at market? A developer seed will be released today. iOS 5 itself will ship this fall. It will support everything from the iPhone 3Gs and up.

11:19 am: Forstall hands off to Jobs who returns to the stage to talk about iCloud. “We’ve been working on this for some time and we’re really excited about it….About 10 years ago, we realized that the PC was going to become the center of our digital lives, the place where we stored out photos and our music….And it did become that and it worked well for a while, but recently it’s broken down.”

11:21 am: Jobs continues noting how difficult it’s become to sync our media between various devices. “Keeping our devices in sync is driving us crazy,” he says. “But we have a great solution for this problem. We are going to demote the PC to just be a device. We are going to move the digital hub, the center of your digital life, into the cloud.Now everything is in sync without even having to think about it.”

11:23 am: “ICloud stores your content in the cloud and automatically pushes it to all your devices. But it’s also completely integrated with your apps, so there’s nothing new to learn. It just all works. … Everything happens automatically and there is nothing new to learn.”

“Now I know what you’re thinking: why should we trust Apple,” Jobs says. “They’re the ones who brought us MobileMe. It wasn’t our finest hour–let me just say that–but we learned a lot from it.”

11:29 am: Three apps will be free–mail, contacts and calendar. Previously, they were part of $99 a year MobileMe service.

11:29 am: App Store and iBookstore will also allow access to previously purchased titles from the cloud.

There will also be a backup app with automatic backup of iOS devices to the cloud.

Daily backups of iCloud done automatically over Wi-Fi with camera roll, music, device settings and app data.

11:31 am: “We couldn’t stop there,” he said, noting there are three other apps.

“The first one is documents in the cloud,” Jobs said.

11:31 am: If you create a Pages document, on, say, an iPad, it automatically gets stored in the cloud and is automatically sent to other devices with Pages. It’s on all the iWork apps–Pages, Numbers and Keynote (including iPhone versions last week).

Demo from Roger Rosner, VP of iWork.

11:34 am: Jobs returns to the stage. “Today it is a real hassle to keep all your information and content up-to-date across all your devices,” he says. “And that’s partly because of the file system. We’ve been working for 10 years to get rid of the file system,” said Jobs. “When you try and teach someone to use a Mac, everything is fine, until you show them the file system. On iOS, you don’t have to think about it. But how do you move those documents around? Now you can.”

“iCloud keeps your important information and content up to date across all your devices. All of this happens automatically and wirelessly, and because it’s integrated into our apps. You don’t even need to think about it. It just works. ….Documents in the cloud really completes our document storage story. We can finally get rid of the file system. On iOS devices, you no longer have to worry about the file system. Documents in the cloud solves that problem for us.”

And it works not only across all iOS devices, but Macs and PCs too.

Apple plans to release iCloud storage APIs so developers can leverage iCloud in their own apps.

11:37 am: Another new cloud-based app: Photostream. “This may be my favorite iCloud app.”

“You take photos on any device and they will be automatically uploaded to the cloud where they will be stored and then automatically downloaded to all my other devices….You can also import photos and do the same thing…and we’ve built this right into the apps, so there’s nothing new to learn. You push a button and it’s right there.”

11:39 am: “On the Mac we built it right into iPhoto and on the PC, since they don’t have a photo app, we use the pictures folder….And we even built it into Apple TV. Apple TV talks directly to the PhotoStream service.”

11:40 am: Interesting. How’s Apple handling the no doubt significant memory issues around something like this?

On iOS devices, it’s storing the last 1000 photos, on Macs it’s storing them all. And it stores them for 30 days.

11:42 am: Eddy Cue takes the stage for a quick demo of Photostream. Using his iPhone, he snaps a few pictures of a toy Lightning McQueen car from Pixar’s “Cars” and bang they show up on his iPad and his Mac.

11:43 am: Jobs returns to the stage…

“So, photos you take or import/upload to iCloud, iCloud pushes them to all your devices, it stores them for 30 days, which is plenty of time….”

11:44 am: Moving on to iTunes.

“You know, it’s the same old story. I buy something on my iPhone and it’s not on my other devices. But I want it on my other devices.”

The first portion of Apple’s solution for that: from now on anything you’ve purchased from iTunes on one device can be re-downloaded to other devices.

11:46 am: Jobs: “And in the future, you can flip a switch in iTunes that will send any song you purchase on iTunes to all your devices.”

Interesting. There’s a new purchase tab in iTunes that lists all your iTunes purchases, tap the iCloud button and it sends the song to whatever device you’re viewing it on at no additional charge.

11:48 am: Buy a new song on iTunes and it automatically downloads to all your iOS devices. Eddy Cue demonstrates during an onstage demo, buying a song via iPhone that automatically appears on his iPAd as well.

11:49 am: iTunes in the cloud supports up to 10 devices.

11:50 am: Jobs: “We’ve added wireless backup to the cloud. Once daily, we’re gonna back up a lot of your important content to the cloud. If you ever get a new phone, everything will be loaded onto that phone automatically.”

Nice. All these new iCloud-based apps are free. “We want people to really see what this software can do, so we’re making it free,” says Jobs.

11:50 am: More from Jobs …

“So how do you get iCloud? When you buy an iOS device, you navigate to the iCloud screen, enter your ID and flick the switch.”

iCloud comes with 5GB storage–that doesn’t include photos or books.

When is it available? Today, says Jobs.

11:52 am: iTunes in the cloud is available today as an iTunes 4.3 beta.

11:52 am: “But there’s one more thing …”

11:53 am: “It’s a small thing and it pertains to iTunes in the cloud,” says Jobs. He continues, talking briefly about music that you may have purchased from non-iTunes sources.

Turns out there’s a way to get non-Itunes music into the iTunes cloud. It’s called iTunes Match. Apple scans and matches your library to its library of 18 million songs. And it upgrades it to 256 kbps AAC. Scanning should take a matter of minutes. Any music Apple doesn’t have in its library, it uploads from you. Cost: $24.99 a year.

11:56 am: Jobs notes that a comparative service from Amazon costs around $50 and requires an upload time of “weeks.”

11:57 am: “Now if you don’t think we’re serious about this, you’re wrong,” Jobs says, referring to a picture of the Maiden facility. This is our third data center and, as you can see, it’s rather large. Just to give you a feel for it’s size, see the dots on the roof? Those are people. And it’s full of stuff. Full of expensive stuff. … We are ready for our customers to start using iCloud and we are ready to put it into their hands.”

11:59 am: And that’s it. Thanks for joining us today.

Complete coverage:

Apple Preview: New Looks for the Mac, the iPhone and for iTunes

Ina Fried — Mon, 06 Jun 2011 14:42:02 +0000

Although the full details on Lion aren’t due to be spilled for another couple of hours, it is worth remembering that Apple has already given a preview of some of what to expect from the next version of Mac OS X.

Lion got its first mention at a “Back to the Mac” event last October. With Lion, due to arrive later this summer, Apple is trying to bring to the Mac several of the things popularized on the iPad, including full-screen apps, easy switching among programs and greater support for multi-touch gestures. It will also feature the Mac App Store built in, though Apple has already released this as an add-on. Other features, including auto-save and easier access to old versions of documents are detailed on Apple’s Web site.

Of course, the cat isn’t completely out of the bag. We still don’t know the full feature list, nor when to expect the software to arrive.

Less is known about iOS 5, the next version of the operating system that powers the iPad and iPhone, though that is also due to get a preview later this morning when CEO Steve Jobs takes the stage to kick off Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference. Popular rumors include improved notifications and perhaps greater Twitter integration.

Finally, Apple has also promised to talk about its iCloud service, which is expected to offer cloud-based music storage, among other features.

Of course, AllThingsD will have live coverage starting in just a bit, so keep it here for all the latest from WWDC.

Steve Jobs Says He'll Show Off Apple's "iCloud" June 6

Peter Kafka — Tue, 31 May 2011 12:58:58 +0000

Apple just packed a lot of information into a four-paragraph press release:

Steve Jobs, who is still on medical leave, will be appearing at the company’s developers conference next week.
Apple will use the Worldwide Developers Conference keynote to show off Lion, its new desktop operating system.
It will also show off iOS 5, its new mobile operating system.
And it will also show off “iCloud,” which it describes as “Apple’s upcoming cloud services offering.”

None of that is shocking news, because much of it syncs up with the annual pre-WWDC speculation. Then again, most Apple pre-event speculation is wrong, so it’s nice of Apple to give us some guidance this time around.

I’m not terribly comfortable with Apple Kremlinology, but that said: It’s worth noting that Apple doesn’t say that Jobs will deliver the keynote, only that the CEO and a “team of Apple executives” will “kick off” the conference. So that could mean all sorts of things, presentation-wise.

I also need to eat some crow. Last month I predicted that Apple would avoid using the word “cloud” to describe its cloud service, because the term “doesn’t mean squat to regular humans.”

And if Twitter allowed for longer messages, I’d have argued that since companies like Microsoft were using “cloud” in their marketing campaigns, Apple would have even less interest in using the word. Whoops.

And as for iCloud itself: We know that Apple intends to offer a cloud-based music locker service, which will offer more capabilities than the ones that Amazon and Google have launched. And that earlier this month it had signed up most, but not all, of the rights holders it would need to make that service work.

But that doesn’t mean Apple will roll out the service on Monday–it could simply announce it. Or it could wait until it has all its paperwork signed before it announces it at all.

In any case, it’s very unlikely that iCloud will only be about music. Apple has spent a lot of time and money building out an infrastructure that will be able to handle much more than an MP3 streaming service. My hunch is that the company will roll out whatever it has planned in stages. And that next week will just be a first glimpse.

Full text:

Apple to Unveil Next Generation Software at Keynote Address on Monday, June 6

CUPERTINO, California—May 31, 2011—Apple® CEO Steve Jobs and a team of Apple executives will kick off the company’s annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) with a keynote address on Monday, June 6 at 10:00 a.m. At the keynote, Apple will unveil its next generation software–Lion, the eighth major release of Mac OS® X; iOS 5, the next version of Apple’s advanced mobile operating system which powers the iPad®, iPhone® and iPod touch®; and iCloud®, Apple’s upcoming cloud services offering.

WWDC will feature more than 100 technical sessions presented by Apple engineers. Mac® developers will see and learn how to develop world-class Mac OS X Lion applications using its latest technologies and capabilities. Mobile developers will be able to explore the latest innovations and capabilities of iOS and learn how to greatly enhance the functionality, performance and design of their apps. All developers can bring their code to the labs and work with Apple engineers.

For more details, visit the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference 2011 website at developer.apple.com/wwdc.

Apple designs Macs, the best personal computers in the world, along with OS X, iLife, iWork and professional software. Apple leads the digital music revolution with its iPods and iTunes online store. Apple has reinvented the mobile phone with its revolutionary iPhone and App Store, and has recently introduced iPad 2 which is defining the future of mobile media and computing devices.

IPhone 5 to Headline Apple's Fall Music Event?

John Paczkowski — Tue, 12 Apr 2011 10:35:45 +0000

It’s looking more and more like Apple’s fifth-generation iPhone won’t debut until the company’s 2012 fiscal year, which begins in late September. That’s the latest intelligence from Avian Securities, which says the supply chain chatter it’s been hearing suggests Apple plans to launch its newest iPhone quite a bit later than it’s launched others in the past.

“Conversations with yet another key component supplier indicates that production for iPhone 5 will begin in September,” Avian’s analysts said in a note. “This is consistent with Avian findings in the supply chain in recent months and we believe the consensus view is moving towards this scenario.”

Certainly seems that way. As I’ve reported here before, Apple doesn’t plan to unveil a new iPhone at its Worldwide Developers Conference, which this year will be largely software-focused. And increasingly, I’m hearing speculation about the company possibly commandeering its annual September media event to launch the device instead. Which seems plausible. Buzz-wise, the iPod has been subsumed by the iPhone. And the continuing evolution of the iPod line isn’t nearly as exciting as it once was; just look over the hardware announced at last year’s fall music event: A new Shuffle that looked a lot like its second generation predecessor, a smaller multi-touch nano, a thinner iPod touch and a smaller Apple TV. Pretty staid stuff for Apple.

And we’re likely to see more of the same at this year’s event. Let’s face it, once you’ve perfected the iPod the way Apple has, there’s only so much you can do to refine it, and we’re at the point now where “thinner” and “smaller” aren’t the impressive achievements they were a few years back.

So why not spice things up by throwing the iPhone into the mix? Doing so would not only give Apple a few more months to prep the device and the services rumored to launch alongside it, it would re-energize one of the company’s most important annual events and introduce the iPhone 5 right as we head into the busy holiday shopping season.

IPhone Product Cycle Now More of a Platform Cycle

John Paczkowski — Fri, 08 Apr 2011 17:50:39 +0000

If Apple’s not unveiling the iPhone 5 at its 2011 Worldwide Developers Conference, when can we expect to see the device? Autumn, perhaps? Certainly that seems the most logical option if Apple is moving away from its traditional June/July timeframe.

As I’ve noted here before, a fall launch dovetails nicely with the expected launch of AT&T’s LTE network and the debut of an updated Qualcomm LTE chip. And, more importantly, it gives Apple a few more months to align the device with some significant upgrades to the iOS platform, which, as Caris analyst Robert Cihra observes, is increasingly becoming the real “what’s next?” for Apple.

“Products last maybe a year, ‘platforms’ last decades,” Cihra wrote in a recent research bulletin. “We believe the single biggest change in Apple over the past few years is that it has moved from being something of a ‘hit product’ company (e.g., like a movie studio dependent on each new release) back to being a better-than-ever ‘platform’ company, where its OS+hardware+apps ecosystem and closed-loop customer relationship are what truly matters and drive longevity….Want to know what the next iPhone or iPad’s going to look like? Just picture a thinner, lighter rectangle. It’s not the hardware that matters, it’s the software–well actually, it’s the software+hardware+services in a fully-integrated vertical platform.”

In other words, the iPhone product cycle has evolved into a platform cycle.

A fair point and one that makes you wonder what Apple has planned for its big iPhone 5 reveal–whenever it happens. I’ve already discussed that at length here, but Cihra has a few ideas as well.

“If Apple ever deviated from typical timing this might be the year, since it just added a CDMA/Verizon version of the iPhone 4 in February,” he writes. “This could also set up a bigger launch of iOS 5, expected to bring breakout additions to the platform, from cloud-based sync, apps and streaming services to NFC (e.g., combining its massive new datacenter build-out with closed-loop customer ownership and thin-client focus, we think it’s a slam-dunk Apple at least improves the ability to sync content across multiple devices).

PREVIOUSLY:

IPhone 5: LTE? NFC? Natural Language Voice Interface?

Apple’s Area 51: The Truth Is Out There

Apple’s N.C. Data Center Intended for iTunes, MobileMe

Apple Owns Another 70 Acres Near NC Data Center

Was Apple Planning on Doubling Its North Carolina Data Center All Along?

Apple Reaching for the Cloud With MacBook Air and N.C. Data Center

That’s Apple’s New Data Center? Where’s the Giant Glass Cube?

What About Oakland Coliseum For WWDC 2012?

John Paczkowski — Tue, 29 Mar 2011 14:00:56 +0000

Ten hours. That’s all it took for this year’s Apple Worldwide Developers Conference to sell out.

Tickets went on sale at 8:30 AM ET Monday and by 6:30 PM there were none left. In 2010, the conference (which hosts about 5,200 attendees) sold out in eight days, so this is a significant spike in demand and a good indicator of just how high developer interest in iOS and Mac OS is running these days. Already, tickets are being scalped on eBay, some for nearly double their face value.

No iPhone at WWDC 2011

John Paczkowski — Mon, 28 Mar 2011 14:00:43 +0000

If you’d been hoping to see some new hardware at Apple’s 2011 Worldwide Developers Conference, you might want to recalibrate your expectations. The company announced dates for the event this morning–Monday, June 6 through Friday, June 10–and the design and wording of the announcement all suggest this year’s WWDC is largely focused on software, not hardware.

Consider this quote from Apple’s SVP of Worldwide Product Marketing Phil Schiller. “At this year’s conference we are going to unveil the future of iOS and Mac OS. If you are an iOS or Mac OS X software developer, this is the event that you do not want to miss.”

But if you’re a consumer hoping to get a peek at the next iteration of the iPhone, well…you may not want to get your hopes up too much–even if Apple has used WWDC to unveil updates to the device in years past. I’m hearing explicitly that this year it’s a software event (Over at The Loop, Jim Dalrymple’s hearing the same thing) Said one source, “If you go looking for iPhone 5, you’re probably going to be disappointed.”

Which makes you wonder what Apple’s planning for iPhone 5. I’m just guessing here, but I think postponing the unveiling and release of the device could be an indication that its next iteration will run on 4G LTE networks. Remember, AT&T is expected to launch its LTE network by the middle of the year and Verizon’s is already up and running. And what was it China Mobile Chairman Wang Jianzhou said earlier this month? “[Steve] Jobs has expressed his interest in an LTE iPhone and is willing to start the development at an early date” …

Netflix Premieres on the iPhone

John Paczkowski — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 15:00:37 +0000

It’s been nearly three months since Netflix CEO Reed Hastings debuted the company’s iPhone app at Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference, and this morning it finally shipped (iTunes link). Beginning today, paying Netflix (NFLX) subscribers can view the company’s “Watch Instantly” library on their iPhones and iPod touches, as well as on their iPads. Like its larger sibling, it’s a slick little app that extends a respectable and growing video-on-demand service to Apple’s (AAPL) smaller iOS devices.

Meet the Two Grad Students Who Freaked Out the NYT–The Pulse iPad App Creators Speak!

Kara Swisher — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 01:17:03 +0000

The first thing to strike you about the pair of Stanford University graduate students (pictured here) who made the banned and then unbanned news-reading iPad app, Pulse News Reader, is how they look like an advertisement for all that is good about entrepreneurship.

Sweet-natured, slightly naive, energetic and very product focused, they are the last techies you’d choose to be the ones who got the New York Times (NYT) in enough of a tizzy to force Apple to pull the aggregator from its App Store.

BoomTown met Akshay Kothari, 23, and 22-year-old Ankit Gupta this afternoon at a hotel near the Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco, where Pulse was called out yesterday by name by Apple (AAPL) CEO Steve Jobs for excellence only hours before the company had to stop offering it to users.

At first, the shy pair said they did not want to call attention to themselves or rail on Apple or the Times. After much convincing by me, they agreed to talk about their unusual situation in the video below, focusing on the product and its origins.

It started out simple enough, creating Pulse for the Launch Pad class at Stanford, which requires students to develop and put out a product. Both students are at Stanford’s Institute of Design and created a company called Alphonso Labs when Pulse was done.

It took them only four weeks to develop and, within weeks after it was approved for sale in the App Store, Pulse became a red-hot paid seller for the fast-growing tablet device–putting Pulse at No. 1 at times on the list of paid apps on iTunes.

In fact, the app was so well regarded that the Times wrote a rave about it last week.

The high culminated for Kothari and Gupta when Jobs named Pulse first in a list of the most-promising apps for the iPad in his keynote speech at the WWDC yesterday.

Unfortunately, that was the last hurrah for them, since the business side of the New York Times–after seeing the article about Pulse in the Times–had already fired off a letter to Apple demanding that the app be taken down.

“The Pulse News Reader app, makes commercial use of the NYTimes.com and Boston.com RSS feeds, in violation of their Terms of Use,” wrote Times lawyer Richard Samson to Apple on June 3. “Thus, the use of our content is unlicensed. The app also frames the NYTimes.com and Boston.com websites in violation of their respective Terms of Use.”

Sources at the Times said that while there are many other similar readers for online news that do exactly the same thing, Pulse’s combined framing and use of the paper’s RSS feed for commercial gain–as well as, let’s be frank, its popularity–caused execs to make what looks like a pretty boneheaded move.

(Could they have called the pair first? Of course they could have, but they did not.)

So, after the Times lawyer wrote Apple, Apple wrote Kothari and Gupta, telling them of the removal of Pulse from the App Store: “The New York Times Company believes your application named ‘Pulse News Reader’ infringes The New York Times Company’s rights.”

Today, though, the app was suddenly back up with no comment from Apple.

A Times spokesperson said this might be a mistake and that the media giant did not know what had happened.

Neither did Gupta and Kothari, who said the app on sale now is the same as the old one, although they had submitted a new version without the Times as a default earlier today.

“It’s a mystery,” said Gupta. “Although it is sad that we were off the App Store right when people might have heard about us.”

The next step? Who knows?

UPDATE: Sources close to the situation said that the Pulse iPad app was reposted because the new version submitted earlier today does not automatically include the Times properties and that older versions sold will soon be updated.

Other sources also noted that the Times has had issues with many other third-party news readers in the past, though not one as visible as Pulse.

And it remains to be seen if Pulse’s creators face other irked content owners or not.

In any case, one thing is still certain: Like its creators, the innovative Pulse is sweet, and it is on sale for $3.99 at iTunes.

For now, that is.

Until the next twisty development, here’s the video interview of Kothari and Gupta:

[ See post to watch video ]

[Photo by All Things Digital intern Drake Martinet--taken before the recent controversy.]

Walt & Kara Get Some FaceTime

Kara Swisher — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 11:06:48 +0000

BoomTown attended the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco yesterday with my partner in (tech) crime, Walt Mossberg.

After the keynote speech by Apple (AAPL) CEO Steve Jobs–in which he unveiled a major upgrade to the company’s popular smartphone, now called iPhone 4–Walt and I went to check out what all the fuss was about at WWDC demo tables outside the giant hall at Moscone Center West.

While we tried out a bunch of the new features, our intrepid Web kingpin, Adam Tow, took this movie of us using the new FaceTime video-calling service, which allows picture-in-picture chat on the iPhone 4 via Wi-Fi.

Yes, we are unusually ridonkulous, especially since we are mere inches away from each other.

Still, we persevere–so here’s the video:

[ See post to watch video ]