7:30pm – 10pm
We’re trying to get everyone coming to the ACAMUG picnic next month to commit to bringing the goodies we’ll need. If you’re planning to come (and I hope everyone is) and haven’t already done so go check out the picnic post, pick an item and post a comment that you’re bringing it.
The picnic should be great. Jason is getting some of his Apple museum pieces up and running and he’ll have his fire pit going later in the evening.
Apple’s annual World Wide Developers’ Conference (WWDC) is the other time (besides MacWorld San Francisco in January) when Apple announces major new hardware and software products. This year it falls on the very same week as our meeting so we will be reviewing what was announced and watching selected segments of the Steve Jobs’ et al keynote presentation on Monday, June 9 at 10:00AM PDT.
Presentation topics may change so be sure to verify on the day of the meeting. Got questions you’d like to have answered? Feel free to post them as comments before the meeting so the presenters have a chance to prepare.
Steve Jobs just finished the 2008 World Wide Developers Conference keynote and, other than a confirmation of the rumor that the next Mac OS X version will be nicknamed “Snow Leopard”, it was all about the iPhone. A very brief summary:
The next generation iPhone will be called iPhone 3G and ship next month worldwide. Major new features: 3G communications (duh) for much faster Net access; built-in GPS; plastic back versus current metal; available in white; cheaper! 8GB will sell for $199, 16GB for $299. Available July 11th worldwide.
The first major update to the iPhone software will be available next month and will be a free update for existing iPhone users (iPod touch users will have to pay $10 for it.) Main feature is support for third party iPhone applications but there are other goodies as well such as contact list searching. It will also provide support for Microsoft Exchange servers which is very important for business iPhone users.
Lots of demos of third party applications, especially games. Again, the standard method for people to acquire these applications will be via a new iTunes iPhone Applications store however Apple also announced that corporations will have a mechanism to distribute their own applications internally without using the iTunes Store at all. Also, small developers will be able to distribute their applications without the iTMS with a limit of 100 authorized iPhones.
The current .Mac will soon be transformed into Mobile Me. Similar features except the emphasis will be on seamless synchronization of contacts, bookmarks, photos and now email across your different devices. Same price, $99/year, and current .Mac accounts will be automatically converted to Mobile Me. More details are available at the .Mac web site.
Some details are emerging about the next major update to Mac OS X. Code-named “Snow Leopard” it will emphasize improving the performance and stability of existing features over adding new ones. Not a whole lot of details yet but Apple has posted some basic information:
Not a lot of glamorous stuff there but the under-the-hood changes discussed should substantially improve the overall experience which beats new eye candy any day.
Apple now has an official podcast for their keynote presentations:
It currently lists the last two MacWorld San Francisco keynotes as well as the iPhone software roadmap from this past March. If past keynotes are any indication then Monday’s WWDC keynote will appear within a few hours of it’s conclusion.
I probably should have known this before but Apple has an actual web site dedicated to free online seminars!
Here, for example, is a new 30 minute seminar on iWork 08:
Lots of other topics as well.