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[OT] WWDC Predictions

James Xuan [PersonRank 10]

Monday, June 7, 2010
14 years ago9,864 views

Apple's WorldWide Developers Conference starts in around an hour and a half where Steve Jobs will take to the stage and announce, among other things, the new iPhone which the company will launch soon to replace the current iPhone 3GS.

The next iPhone has already been shown by Gizmodo as they came into possession of it, a story which is now infamous and I shan't dwell on. However I don't believe that now that it's exterior aesthetic has been prematurely revealed that Steve's WWDC Keynote Address won't be exciting.

What makes an iPhone great is the software, not the hardware, and although the hardware of the leaked iPhone may have changed slightly since Gizmodo's model was produced there are still some unanswered questions about it: What is the back made of? Glass? Ceramic? What are the seams? Why the change from the curved back?

Also concerning the new iPhone is the software, iPhone OS 4.0. Since it was previewed earlier in the year there has been a beta released every two weeks until lately, leading me to believe that there will be some new features which will be demo'd on stage to go along with the new iPhone. What these are I can't say but one I'm hoping for is a new notifications system which keeps notifications stored somewhere when they are dismissed until they are addressed by the user somewhat similarly to Android and webOS. I still believe the blue pop-ups will come up for system alerts such as "iPhone is running low on battery" if such a system is coming. Don't forget that new software will have to be shown for the new features of the next iPhone such as the software for the front-facing camera, the flash etc. and anything else.

I also think iPhone OS 4.0 for iPad may be shown. In fact, iPhone OS 4.0 may be given a new name although I'm giving these two things lower odds of happening.

As a final note on iPhone, I think the name will be iPhone HD. Of course the back of the iPhone will still just say "iPhone" just like on the iPhone 3GS but I think that will be the distinguishing mon iker of the iPhone. This fits because with a better camera one would presume it can record HD video (in fact the iPhone 3GS can do this using current hardware according to a report I read) and for other potential reasons: Higher resolution screen, iChat HD, HD Radio?

I don't think it will simply be iPhone as that is the name given to the original iPhone:

iPhone
iPhone 3G
iPhone 3GS
iPhone HD

Now, Steve has said that we "won't be disappointed" by WWDC 10 so this obviously leaves a lot of speculating as to what else will come.

Earlier this morning an Apple Touchpad stand-alone device was leaked which had been rumored a while back but hadn't been spoken of recently, I'm guessing that it's fairly likely this will turn up at the event and will be something with the prefix "Magic-" to go along with the Magic Mouse; Magic Slate is a name which has been thrown around although I'm dubious of this.

Another rumor is that MobileMe, Apple's cloud-based service suite for it's deviled will go free. There isn't a lot of evidence for this apart from rumors but one thing that has happened lately is that a beta version of MobileMe Mail was shown. I'm guessing that the suite will be given a bit of a polish up and maybe a few new features and most of it will go free, I'm guessing that users will still have to pay for a few "Premium Features" like Find My iPhone although I desperately hope this isn't the case. If they're giving most of it away free and they don't have a ton of new premium features the price is going to have to drop from the €80 per year price it's currently at.

Apple TV update? I don't think this is going to happen but I'd say it's more likely than iTunes.com. Prove me wrong though. I'd kill for iTunes.com. Well maybe not kill. But I'd like it.

Cloud-based iTunes.com stemming from Apple's Lala.com acquisition? No. September Music Event.

Safari 5? A certainty. Maybe not on stage, or maybe just at the end. It certainly won't be much of a focus but it's extremely likely although I'm not too keen on extensions being shown. I'd love it but once again I'm reserved about whether Apple would do this.

Mac OS X 10.7? No. I think they were going to show it like the rumor suggests but then were too far behind because of a focus on iPad or something and didn't have time to put something together. I also think this is why the Apple Design Awards are only for iPhone OS this year, so they could pass it off as just being focused on iPhone OS this year.

XCode 4.0 Update/Replacement? If the next iPhone is to have higher resolution screen does this mean resolution independence is coming? I have no idea what I'm talking about! I'm not a developer and I don't know anything about coding but I'm guessing that with a new resolution for the same apps and other things will warrant an update at least to the suite and perhaps redesign the entire thing.

That's all I have to say on the matter and I can't wait to see how right or wrong I am in a few hours, please leave a little comment or ping me on twitter to let me know what you think! I'll just leave recap of the possibilities in the order of how likely I believe they are to happen.

Bash Adobe/Google
iPhone HD
Safari 5
MobileMe Updates
Magic-Something Pad
XCode Update
AppleTV Update
iTunes.com
Mac OS X 10.7

que [PersonRank 10]

14 years ago #

iLife or iWork updates? With all the new iPad development, I guess they're skipping v.10.

ianf [PersonRank 10]

14 years ago #

James Xuan, it's a fairly comprehensive preview of rumors and gossip. I also think the iPhone OS is slated to be renamed something less-phone'y, but am not too enamored by your suggestions. In fact, i wouldn't mind it becoming an OS of two flavors: one for cellular-phone/ pocket use; and one for predominantly-WiFi-tablets/ everything else. Ergo two distinct-but-not-disjoined names.

In any case, for those able to read in agooglsynchronous fashion at 19:00 [GMT +0100], the iPad Blog's metablog is here, with this added notice:

http://www.tipb.com/2010/06/07/wwdc-2010-live-metablog/

"NOTE: Apple keynotes typically bring down the internet. We’ve got two widgets after the break because both have failed in the past. If one fails this time, we’ll switch to the other. You shouldn’t have to refresh the page."

ADDITION: Parroting PatrickJ of http://justanotheriphoneblog.com/wordpress/iphone-news/three-good-places-to-follow-the-wwdc-keynote-today here are three more "Good Places To Follow the WWDC Keynote Today"

gdgt – Ryan Block’s razor sharp instant analysis.
http://live.gdgt.com/2010/06/07/live-wwdc-2010-keynote-coverage/

Engadget – coverage with plenty of great photos.
http://www.engadget.com/2010/06/07/steve-jobs-live-from-wwdc-2010/

MacRumors – More excellent live coverage.
http://www.macrumorslive.com/

James Xuan [PersonRank 10]

14 years ago #

Sorry ianf, I didn't give any suggestions for the new name for iPhone os 4.0? Or am I missing something?

I also thought about them splitting it but they have in the past criticized Microsoft having many versions of windows and one day I can see iPhone OSreplacing Mac OS. In face perhaps there will never be a Mac OS 11 and once they finish with 10.x iPhone OS will have matured into a desktop, mobile and tablet touch OS?

ianf [PersonRank 10]

14 years ago #

Off coverage at http://www.macrumorslive.com/

10:08 am Audience laughs.

10:08 am Developer of iPad app The Elements earned more on first day than 5 years of google ads on periodictable.com

10:07 am Mentions "tremendous interest from publishers of all kinds" when showing newspaper apps.

[put at-character here]James, I misread your list of "names given to the original iPhone" as potential suggestions for new iPhone OS name; my bad.

James Xuan [PersonRank 10]

14 years ago #

So far my "most likely" suggestion came true :P

ianf [PersonRank 10]

14 years ago #

iOS 4 (or is it "iOS4"? – methinks the first spelling.)
http://c1798852.cdn.cloudfiles.rackspacecloud.com/apple-wwdc10_612.jpg

100 new functions; 1500 new developer APIs incl. multitasking.
http://c1798852.cdn.cloudfiles.rackspacecloud.com/apple-wwdc10_613.jpg

ianf [PersonRank 10]

14 years ago #

Wow. Apple projects to grab 48% of the US$250M/year mobile ad market in second half of 2010, after mere 8 weeks of selling iAds (=in-app iOS 4 ads: tap on it, a short video loads and plays, or you can dismiss it by a second tap in a corner. At no time does the viewer leave the app underneath, nor is required to fire up a browser. Apple hosts and streams the iAds for 40% of the take).

Also, Bing is made the 3rd search engine choice after default Google and Yahoo!

ianf [PersonRank 10]

14 years ago #

For the record: 2 hours worth of well-illustrated WWDC 2010 keynote coverage in ascending chronological order: http://live.gdgt.com/2010/06/07/live-wwdc-2010-keynote-coverage/#sort=asc

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