Live coverage notes from Apple's WWDC 2008 Keynote

Posted:
in iPhone edited January 2014
Apple on Monday held its opening keynote at its Worldwide Developers Conference where it talked all things iPhone and unveiled its new-generation 3G handset. Rough and dirty live coverage notes are included below.



2:50pm: That's it. Folks. iPhone team is congratulated. It's over. Mac OS X State of the Union with Bertrand Serlet after lunch.

2:49pm: The commercial shows the plot we wrote about on AppleInsider with two high tech security guards carrying a metal case that they open to reveal the iPhone.

2:48pm: 3G iPhone available July 11th in 22 countries at a maximum price of $199. Showing ad...

2:46pm: More Affordable: Original iPhone started at $599. 3G iPhone starts at $199 for 8GB model $299 for 16GB, which will also be available in white.

2:42pm: More Countries: 3G iPhone coming to 70 countries in coming months: 15 in Central and South America, 3 in North America, 29 in Europe, 8 in Asia and Australia.

2:40pm: Enterprise features: Exchagne support + cisco VPN; tremendous feeback from Fortune 500; SDK, tools, best way to distribute.

2:35pm: Pageload shootout: 21 secons on 3G , 59 sec Edge'; 2.8x faster; 17 sec with WiFi; 3G speeds approach WiFi speeds; 33 sec on N95, 34 sec on Treo 750; 3G downloads in 5 sec, EDGE takes 18 sec to download and view 3.6x faster; great battery life; standby = 300 hours; 2G talk time now 10 hours (up from 8); 5 hours 3G talk time (most other 3G phones have only 3-3.5 hours); 5-6 hours battery while browsing the net; 7 hours video playback; 24 hours audio playback; GPS built in; location services now works with cell towers, WiFi, and GPS; Demo shows dot moving on screen, going down lombard street;

















2:30pm: New 3G iPhone. Looks similar. More rounded edges. Black plastic back. Same face. Flush headphone jack. Dramatically improved audio. Feels even better in your hand. 3G for faster downloads.

2:30pm: New Challenges: 3G networking, enterprise support, 3rd party apps, sell in more countries. So far, sold in 6 countires "believe me they're in use in many more countries." more affordable. No. 1 reason people haven't bought an iPhone: Can't afford it.

2:29pm: Jobs: 90 % customer satisfaction with first-gen iPhoe. 98% using mobile browsing, 94% using email, 90% use text messaging, 80% using 10 or more features.

2:29pm: Jobs is back on stage. Hopefully he'll get to the hardware now....

2:27pm: MobileMe: Free Trial, $99 per year. Available early July. Replaces .Mac. 20GB of space. .Mac users will be automatically upgraded and can switch namespaces whenever they want.

2:25pm: MobileMe: Online interface for iDisk, web calendar drag and drop event creation, looks like it's based on Leopard iCal Server, immediately pushes calendar items entered on web to iPhone, add photos to Web Gallery from anywhere. Syncs data in the time it takes you to switch from using your Mac to your iPhone -- your data is already there.

2:22pm: MobileMe is the new .Mac

2:19pm: MobileMe: New Web 2.0 apps on the internet to work with the new Mobile Me service. Rich email, contacts, calendar, photo web gallery. File Upload browser. Drag and Drop email sorting. Upload images from iPhone.2:14pm: MobileMe: Phil Schiller on stage to talk about MobileMe, the Exchange for the rest of us. For those of us who don't work in the enterprise, we can still get push email, contacts, calendars directly to our devices. Macs, iPhones and PCs synced over the air. Currently works in Mail, iCal, and Address book on the Mac; Outlook for Windows.

2:12pm: Enterprises wanted self distribution of their apps, apps that only run on their phones, and distribution on their own intranet using whatever security they would like. That's what Apple has provided. Enterprise users can download apps on PC and sync via iTunes. The third way to distribute apps is AdHoc -- distributed in any way up to 100 users.

2:10pm: App Store: Apple has enlarged scope of Apps Store from 22 to 62 countries; Apps 10 MB or less can be downloaded over cellular service, WiFi or iTunes. Apps greater than 10MB will be accessible via WiFi or iTunes only.

2:05pm: Steve back on stage talking about iPhone Software v2.0: contact search; iWork , pages nubmers, and keynote document support; MS Office support also completed (Word, Excel, PowerPoint); can now download attachments; bulk delete and move features added to iPhone email; save images from email to photo library; scientific calculator in landscape mode; parental controls (explicit content, no youtube, no purchases from itunes or apps store); tremendous language support (Asian language: two Japanese entry, 2 chinese entry: simple traditional); draw character with finger on touch-screen; "advantage of not having a bunch of plastic keys for your keyboard"; "raises to whole new level"; iPhone Software 2.0 coming out JULY. Free for iPhone owners, $9.95 for iPod touch owners.

2:01pm: Developers want their applications to be able to perform notification while not running in the foreground. Background processing is the wrong solution, Apple says. Shows task manager in winCE (bad example), crowd laughs. "This is nuts." Instead, Apple will provide 'push notification' interface -- Apple Push Notication server allows 3rd parties to push badges (how many messages), custom alert sounds, push text alerts like SMS notices, which will include buttons to activate the app. This method preserves battery life and works over-the-air. Available September.

1:57pm: Last App: Digital Legends Entertainment (Xavier Costa): App called Crom: award winning developer - new to platform; fantasy action adventure title; took 4 days to port game; it's 3D jumping game (via accelerometer); Ready by September.

1:55pm: Up Next: MIMvista (Mark Cain): medical imaging software. Shows MRI type imaging. Moving through slices of CT scan and PET scan showing metabolic activity. Can fuse two images together. Top, side, front views, touch screen. "1 week prototype - 3 weeks "sdk let idea just fall out without hindrance." Showing 3D movie for PET images. "New direction for our company." No price yet.

1:53pm: Up Next: Modality (Dr S Mark Williams): "medical comunity really flocking to iPhone." Showing an anatomy app.

1:49pm: Up Next: Major League Baseball (Jeremy Schoenherr): App displays all today's games, get on base, line score, who's pitching, video clips of games, "first mobile device with video highlights - minutes after play during game," "couldnt find better app on any other device,"

will be on apps store (no price cited).

1:47pm: Up Next: Cow Music (Mark Terry): A developer in the insurance industry in the UK wrote this App called Band. Keyboard, drum machine, 12 bar blues playing blues on custom interface, record, dub, jam with friends, no price yet but arriving in "few weeks time."

1:42pm: Up Next: Pangea Software (Brian Greenstone): Porting games from Mac OS X, including Enigmo - physica based puzzle game. Completely touch-based. Touch objects, rotate, add parts, renders water drops like really fast Lemmings around a puzzle screen. Also CroMag rally -- 3D racing game. The iPhone acts as the steering wheel. Both games $9.99 each.

1:39pm: Up Next: Associated Press (AP) News (Benjamin Mosse): "Mobile News Network" App. Allows you to add locations, finds location for news, news cached for offline reading, swipe through photos with captions, video from news networks (showing Stevie Wonder clip). You can also "get involved by reporting the news you see" by sending photos from your iPhone to the AP. FREE.

1:37pm: Up Next: TypePad (Michael Sippey) - great mobile blogging app. TypePad is largest professional blogging service. With the iPhone TypePad app you can create posts, take photos, browse photos, enter in post editor, select a blog , add categories, enter body text and upload / publish. Also FREE at launch of App Store."

1:35pm: Loopt - location based services + social network App that shows your friends as pins on the map; CEO Sam Altman: "best device we've ever worked on." this is the best and most powerful mobile platform." Blog entrees, photo uploads, leave comment... are some of the features. Also FREE with App Store launch. Altman: "new era of mobile, thrilled to be part of it."

1:30pm: Ken Sun from eBay now talking..."auctions on iPhone - quickly become the #1 platform for mobile apps at eBay." He's demoing a search for active listings...integrates WebKit so you can see the HTML the seller uploaded w/ the item. Red and Green bid amount shows winning/losing bids. You can place bids, watch items... The eBay App will be FREE when the App Store launches.



1:30pm: Eathan Einhorn from Sega is showing a new version of MonkeyBall for iPhone with over 100 levels...available on App Store when it launches for $9.99

1:29pm: Fox and IW say iPhone "blows away" Blackberry, Windows Mobile, Symbian

1:28pm: Jonathan Backer (Disney): after workign with hundreds of other mobiel devices, developingfor th iphoen is a breath of fresh air.

1:27pm: Debugging iPhone apps made trivial via....demo app shows contacts that match 10 mile radius; "great set of APIs and powerful tools";

1:23pm:Interface Builder gives elements the appropirate UI elements, keeps buttons centered as UI changes from profile ot landscape, simulates app that brings up contacts that match nearby locations...

1:21pm: adds address APIs and location services API; uses 300 lines of demo glue, builds interface and shows app in Interface Builder laying out interface in a window, drops search button segmented controls into window...

1:19pm: Now demoing developer tools...

1:17am: He says the Core OS is the EXACT same kernel as the version running on Macs. "line for line the same source code," "rich media layer," "3D positional audio, HW accelerated OpenGL ES," "cocoa touch - "user interface, obj. oriented framework. makes buiding an applicaiton for our frull screen touch iinterface an absolute breeze."

1:17am: Scott Forstall, Apple's new Senior VP of iPhone Software is on stage talking about the SDK.

1:15am: Comments: Son: "we can access our [MS] SharePoint environment"; Genentech: "secure", Son: "works with secret service, FBI, DHS."; Disney: "power of the laptop in smartphone.";



.

1:13am: 35 percent of the Fortune 500 is participating in the iPhone developer program including Disney, Sonnenschein, Genentech, the US Army, etc. .\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

1:11am: Apple has split up the iPhone SDK into 3 parts -- Enterprise, SDK, and 'new features'.\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

1:10am: Apple has received over 25,000 applications for a paid iPhone developer membership and accepted 4,000 thus far. 200,000 downloads of the iPhone SDK in 95 days.\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\ t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

1:09am: Apple is not a three trick poney: Macs, Music and iPhone.\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\ t\t\t\t\t

1:08am: Steve is on stage. Says there's a record 5,200 developers at the conference and Apple unfortunately could not find a bigger venue, hence the sell-out. Over 1000 Apple engineers on site this week.\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

1:05am: Lights have dimmed.\t\t

1:03am: Former Vice President Al Gore has been spotted in the crowd, which is still taking its seats.\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

12:58am: 2 minutes to go... Six months of pent up anticipation comes down to a 90 minute keynote. Imagine the pressure on el-Jobso to deliver.\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

12:50am: 10 minutes to go. Journalists and attendees have been let into the main keynote hall and are taking their seats.\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t



12:27am: Still waiting...keynote starts in just over a 30 minutes....





12:02am: Attendees still waiting to enter main keynote hall...







11:43am: Waiting for keynote to begin....

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 10
    aplnubaplnub Posts: 2,605member
    hmmmm... That was an easy read. I expected a little more...
  • Reply 2 of 10
    mstonemstone Posts: 11,510member
    Nothing about Snow Leopard? What's the two bridges metaphor supposed to be?
  • Reply 3 of 10
    camroidv27camroidv27 Posts: 523member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by aplnub View Post


    hmmmm... That was an easy read. I expected a little more...



    Its what happens when your chip manufacturer didn't have their updates done in time. The MacBooks will get their own release.



    ---



    Anyone want to tell me why the iPod Touch is still 300 bucks for 8gb, and the iPhone3G 8gb is only 200? That's confusing me a bit... and most likely will piss off a lot of iPod Touch owners.



    Also, is iPhone software 2.0 going to cost previous phone users something? (and thus shafting early adopters even MORE)



    Oh, and still no video recording using the camera.



    Lastly... yay for enterprise! Well needed, along with a few other features.





    Sadly, didn't seem like anything ground breaking... just a next-in-line update. Good for developers I think though. I hope they enjoy their week!
  • Reply 4 of 10
    SpamSandwichSpamSandwich Posts: 33,407member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by camroidv27 View Post


    Anyone want to tell me why the iPod Touch is still 300 bucks for 8gb, and the iPhone3G 8gb is only 200? That's confusing me a bit... and most likely will piss off a lot of iPod Touch owners.



    Why in the world should you be mad if you already own a Touch? You were hoping you could take it back in for a credit?



    You bought it at the price it was offered. No soup for you!
  • Reply 5 of 10
    Nice job in the recap - thanks!



    Waiting, once again, for MBP update - thanks Intel



    happily awaiting July 11th
  • Reply 6 of 10
    wtbardwtbard Posts: 42member
    Are the apps available now, or do we have to wait until early July?
  • Reply 7 of 10
    SpamSandwichSpamSandwich Posts: 33,407member
    OK. Steve said so far they've sold 6 million iPhones. Is this in line with expectations? The new $199 and $299 prices should really kick sales into third gear... what are your estimates for end of the year sales figures?



    I'll guess... 14 million iPhones (including first gen and the 3Gs).
  • Reply 8 of 10
    Apple is making a really boneheaded mistake in not allowing the Back To School rebate to be applied to iPhone purchases.



    It's stopping me from plunking down for a new laptop. But I do think I will now get the new 8GB iPhone. They've got me for $200, but could have had me for $2000!



    Plus, the college market is maybe the one place where iPhones haven't penetrated as deeply as they should be capable of. At the local university, you see tons of students with iPods (which they got free with their laptops) and MOTO RAZR's and Ericson and LG phones!



    Pushing free iPhones with laptop purchases would make Apple the NUMBER ONE smart phone vendor, hands down. And it would tear market share away from T-Mobile and Verizon. And make tons of money! Think of all those college kids paying $60 a month for access plans!



    Apple isn't selling phones, it's selling access to iTunes, $720/year subscriptions to AT&T and market penetration numbers to let it dominate the next round carrier contract negotiations.



    UGH! Why can't I get a free one with a laptop?!?!?!
  • Reply 9 of 10
    SpamSandwichSpamSandwich Posts: 33,407member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by BruceLee5000 View Post


    Apple is making a really boneheaded mistake in not allowing the Back To School rebate to be applied to iPhone purchases.



    It's stopping me from plunking down for a new laptop. But I do think I will now get the new 8GB iPhone. They've got me for $200, but could have had me for $2000!



    Plus, the college market is maybe the one place where iPhones haven't penetrated as deeply as they should be capable of. At the local university, you see tons of students with iPods (which they got free with their laptops) and MOTO RAZR's and Ericson and LG phones!



    Pushing free iPhones with laptop purchases would make Apple the NUMBER ONE smart phone vendor, hands down. And it would tear market share away from T-Mobile and Verizon. And make tons of money! Think of all those college kids paying $60 a month for access plans!



    Apple isn't selling phones, it's selling access to iTunes, $720/year subscriptions to AT&T and market penetration numbers to let it dominate the next round carrier contract negotiations.



    UGH! Why can't I get a free one with a laptop?!?!?!



    They'll have no problem moving another 8 to 10 million iPhone 3G's with the new pricing and features.
  • Reply 10 of 10
    solipsismsolipsism Posts: 25,726member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by mstone View Post


    Nothing about Snow Leopard? What's the two bridges metaphor supposed to be?



    Mac OS X and OS X iPhone.





    Quote:
    Originally Posted by camroidv27 View Post


    Its what happens when your chip manufacturer didn't have their updates done in time. The MacBooks will get their own release.



    Quote:
    Originally Posted by ByronVanArsdale View Post


    Waiting, once again, for MBP update - thanks Intel



    Wasn't going to happen. Even if Intel was on time they wouldn't have ramped up production for the units needed. But most importantly, it's only been half the average refresh cycle for MB and MBPs so it was out of the question to begin with. Also, they may push it a little past the normal time if they are modding the case.





    Quote:
    Originally Posted by SpamSandwich View Post


    They'll have no problem moving another 8 to 10 million iPhone 3G's with the new pricing and features.



    Easily!
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