GeekStrike

Ok, my bad. Steve Jobs was not present during Phil Schiller’s WWDC keynote today. (Perhaps he was in some dark corner, gazing on at the wheels of his war machine, rolling on).

A number of things was announced today.

1) Streamlining all the Unibody 13 inch MacBooks into 13 inch MacBook Pros with the 13 inch model getting speed bumps, an improved LED Display claimed to have 60% more color garmut and a built in 7 hour battery.

The two models will cost $1199 and $1499 respectively making a $100 price drop on the respective previous gen Unibody MacBooks.

13 inch MacBook
2.26ghz or 2.53ghz Core 2 Duo
2gb or 4gb of DDR3 Memory
SD Card Slot
Built in 7 hour battery
Firewire 800

2) Price drops for the 13 inch MacBook Air, the 15 inch and 17 inch MacBook Pros to $1499 $1699 and $2499 respectively. A $300 price drop across the board in order to better compete against the slew of Value minded ad campaigns by Microsoft. The price drop comes with a catch though, for the 15 inch MacBook Pro. If you still want a 9600m GT instead of just a measly integrated 9400m, you’ll still need to fork out $1999 for it all the same, so for the Graphics Designer, Gamer or for those who wish to edit Video smoothly, your price for a fully featured MacBook Pro would not change.

3) This has got to be the biggest announcement today, Snow Leopard at $29! Windows 7 is set to launch during October, so what a way to throw a wrench into Microsoft’s plans of pricing Windows 7 high(Rumors had it that they planned to price the Home Premium SKU @ $149!) by setting a ridiculously low price for a fully featured version of Snow Leopard without any SKUs to choose from. Apple admitted that Snow Leopard is an evolution of Leopard ( Faster, Smaller Hard Drive footprint. Some new features.) and not the revolution that Leopard was over Tiger and hence the low price was set. Now.. Windows 7 is in many ways.. a similar evolution of Windows Vista and in fact, Windows 7 is what Vista SHOULD HAVE BEEN. Now.. Microsoft.. how much are you gonna price Windows 7 again?

4) Launch of the new iPhone 3GS ( S for speed). Featuring a probable faster processor and Open GL ES 2.0 as well as HSDPA up to 7.2mbps amidst a slew of other (rather minor) improvements/features. The 16gb model is priced at $199 and the 32gb model is priced at $299 and they are available in both white and black.

Improvements/added Features include :
a)3.0 Megapixel Camera with Auto Focus and full VGA Video Recording at 30fps vs the old 2.0 Megapixel photo only Camera on the old 3G
b)Built in Compass to prevent any sorry sod from getting lost. Now, you have a compass to prevent yourself from getting lost. ^_^
c) Improved battery life of up to 25%
d) Voice Control. ( Remember the voice dialing you have on your 3 to 4 year old Nokia? Yep, Apple is touting this as a new feature.)

5) Keeping the Older iPhone 3G at a reduced price of $99 to ensure Apple captures the Low End as well.

6) Launch of Safari 4.0. Claimed to be the Fastest Browser in the World.

7) Finally, the release of iPhone OS 3.0 on the 17th of June. With… *drumroll please….*
a) MMS ( OHMYGAWD )
b) Copy and paste ( Ditto)
c) Landscape Keyboard ( Phew)
d) Tethering via USB or Bluetooth for both Macs and PCs.
e) HTML Video and Audio support for Safari.
f) Find my Phone Feature where in case of a lost or stolen Phone, if you are a Mobileme subscriber, you can still access your iPhone to either inform the person wielding your phone of the loss or to wipe your data to prevent the thief from accessing it.
g) Faster performance across the board.
h) New Spotlight to search for apps, messages or email quickly in the iPhone in another home screen which greatly raises the usability of the iPhone and making it much more of a portable Computer than merely a Smartphone

Many other features were implemented including Stereo Bluetooth and Turn by Turn directions, you may access them via…iPhone OS 3.0 Of course it’s free for existing iPhone users but will cost $9.99 for iPod Touch users. (Apple is sure turning them into 2nd class citizens, aren’t they.)

All in all, a really full featured WWDC, do check out all the above features and more at… WWDC Video Stream