[Janichsan]

The shortest version:
- All unibody MacBooks are now called MacBooks Pro and got new revisions with built-in batteries (like the MBP 17"). Nothing spectacular, but okay. The 13" MBP now has Firewire 800. No optional matte screen on the 13" and 15" MBPs, though. Bugger.
- Snow Leopard comes in September and costs $29 (at least for existing users of Leopard). Excellent! Allegedly whooping fast, but I still doubt that existing programs will profit very much.
- Safari 4 is final and available. (Actually, I'm using right now.) They did away with the tabs in the window's title bar. Thank god!
- Nothing new on iPhone OS 3.0 (that we haven't heard before), except the release date: June 17.
- New iPhone 3GS with most of the features that the rumours predicted (compass, 3 megapixel camera with autofocus, video option) and more (faster connection speed, speech recognition – a pity that this won't be available on old iPhones with iPhone OS 3.0).
- No Steve Jobs.

I was surprised that that much hardware was shown, but in general rather good news.

[Jan]

Pretty good show. Snow Leopard seems to be a beast "under the hood", which is a great thing. OS X already has enough "features", a completely re-written, speedy, stable 64-Bit-capable finder owns every possible UI gimmick thinkable. I wonder if and how gaming under OS X will be influenced by the introduction of OpenCL.
$29 for the upgrade is a steal.

Why they don't offer matte display options on the 13" and 15" MBPs is beyond me. I'll definitely get an iPhone 3GS to replace my 1st gen device. It's about time.

[dojoboy]

Jan, on June 8th 2009, 04:16 PM, said:

I'll definitely get an iPhone 3GS to replace my 1st gen device. It's about time.

Really was hoping beyond hope that they'd offer a low-end model, but I could go for the 3GS. Biggest issue for me is still the AT&T plans.

[teflon]

Well, the 3G is now the low end model... I mean, itll still be expensive without a contract, but its half the price (and half the speed and half the bandwidth etc. etc. etc.) with a contract.

On other matters, I think its fantastic that theyre offering an upgrade to Snow Leopard at the very reasonable sum of just $30 ($50 for the family upgrade). Since Im the only one in the family with an intel mac, Im happy to pay a third the price for my snow leopard. I do wonder how it will install though, will it require that Leopard is on the HDD before hand? Could be a hassle should your HDD take a dump on you (to quote a Battle Cat).

The refreshed MBP range is quite good. The 13" with the FW800 port is fab, but I now get to bemoan the loss of ExpressCard. Its the only way youre going to be able to get eSATA, and just an SD slot doesnt cater for the wonderfully silly numbers of custom memory cards, so an ExpressCard would have offered that option instead. In fact, Id rather have just had an eSATA slot, even though you wont see me buying a new machine until USB3, FW3200 and eSATA 2 have arrived anyway.

Building in the batteries has been a positive improvement for the 17" I believe, so its good for the rest of the range I guess. Sure, theres a small number of people who absolutely need multiple batteries in order to survive, but 7 hours in mega optimal conditions (read as 5) is decent enough. For replacement batteries, they should last a lot longer than previous MBP's, they say 5 years, but I imagine just outside of your 3 years AppleCare warranty is going to be typical. Since youd be tied to your desk or have to go to an Apple store even with removable batteries, the turn around will have to be pretty snappy to keep people satisfied, but shouldnt be too bad.

and WHY NO MATTE SCREENS!!!!!!!

EDIT: bah! they changed the tabs back in Safari 4, but the other nonsense changes they made to the interface remained, and the old commands from the beta dont work

[Mr. Selvetarm]

Is AT&T tethering confirmed or not at this point?

[Hansi]

Mr. Selvetarm, on June 8th 2009, 10:19 PM, said:

Is AT&T tethering confirmed or not at this point?

No MMS nor tethering for AT&T

[Sneaky Snake]

No Blu-Ray ??

[teflon]

No word on Blu-Ray, but that doesnt mean its not happening. Theres any number of reasons why they might not have talked about it, but if the new licensing fees have come into effect, then its nowhere near as much a pita to get it done. Or they might get the underlying support and leave the software side to third parties like in windows... who knows.

One good thing I noticed is that theyre bringing 3 and 4 finger gestures to older macbooks. Something that I figured might have been possible in the first place. Good to see this retrograde update.

On the whole, I think that this might be a day one purchase for me. Its got enough upsides for me to work through any minor kinks that there might be... And Ill always have my cloned backup just in case.

[Mr. Selvetarm]

So those with our generation MBP will get the multifinger update? Sounds good to me.

[jackdawsson]

As excellent as I think the latest range of Mac laptops are, the continuing lack of a matte option remains a deal-breaker for me.

Looking forward to Snow Leopard but, overall, far too much on iPhone for me in this WWDC. So we now have 75 million OS X users... Sounds impressive. But how many of those are using Macs? Probably well under 30 million.

[Eric5h5]

jackdawsson, on June 8th 2009, 07:56 PM, said:

So we now have 75 million OS X users... Sounds impressive. But how many of those are using Macs? Probably well under 30 million.

Nope. 75 million - 40 million = 35 million.

--Eric

[jackdawsson]

Eric5h5, on June 9th 2009, 01:21 AM, said:

Nope. 75 million - 40 million = 35 million.

--Eric

I'd like to believe you, really, but until I see official stats I'm guessing there are well over 45 million iPhone/iPod users included in that 75 million.

[Kaoro]

Janichsan, on June 8th 2009, 01:49 PM, said:

The shortest version:
- Snow Leopard comes in September and costs $29 (at least for existing users of Leopard). Excellent! Allegedly whooping fast, but I still doubt that existing programs will profit very much.

Awesome! Will definitely get.

Janichsan, on June 8th 2009, 01:49 PM, said:

- Safari 4 is final and available. (Actually, I'm using right now.) They did away with the tabs in the window's title bar. Thank god!

The new tabs were a pleasant surprise (as well as the more vivid loading icon).

I'm curious why some of you are so against glossy screens (or is it merely the fact we're not offered a choice?)? I have a 15" unibody MBP and I only very seldom ever experience glare problems. Most of the time the screen looks absolutely fantastic.

[Eric5h5]

jackdawsson, on June 8th 2009, 08:25 PM, said:

I'd like to believe you, really, but until I see official stats I'm guessing there are well over 45 million iPhone/iPod users included in that 75 million.

Apple said 40 million. If that's not official, then who is? Also, they've been shipping zillions of Macs in the last couple years or so.

--Eric

[Janichsan]

Hansi, on June 9th 2009, 12:29 AM, said:

No MMS nor tethering for AT&T

Not yet, but both will come somewhat later.

[DaveyJJ]

dojoboy, on June 8th 2009, 05:08 PM, said:

Really was hoping beyond hope that they'd offer a low-end model, but I could go for the 3GS. Biggest issue for me is still the AT&T plans.

This is my issue too and the reason I don't have an iPhone (or any cell phone) myself.

Sure, the "old" 8GB 3G is now $99, and the new 3GS models are $199/$299 but the cost of the phone isn't the problem for me. I'd gladly pay $300 for the iPhone ... It's Rogers plans. Taxes in they're $80/month for three years at a minimum ... nearly $3,000.

When Rogers gets them down to $25–30 a month I'll maybe bite. Cell phone plans should be way way cheaper by now. Only Koodo is offering anything decent up here (no "system access fees", what you see is the price all in, etc).

[jackdawsson]

Eric5h5, on June 9th 2009, 01:39 AM, said:

Apple said 40 million. If that's not official, then who is? Also, they've been shipping zillions of Macs in the last couple years or so.

--Eric

Sorry dude, but I'm not accepting those Apple figures. AFAIK, Apple sold 40 million+ iPhones, then you ought to add all those iPod touches with a version of OS X. That'll easily be a good few million. Then do the arithmetic.

Reason I'm curious about this distinction is, I'd love it as much as any Mac user to think that the Mac user-base has grown by some 10 million in 2 years. This would give the likes of Feral & other Mac-native game developers a significant pro rata increase in Mac gamers of, if we follow basic logic, some 40%. Sadly, it'll be nowhere near that. As an educated guess, & mindful of the fact that many Macs sold are going to existing Mac owners, I'd say the Mac user base has grown about 2.5 to 3 million. To my calculation, that's about 28 million at best.

[jackdawsson]

Kaoro, on June 9th 2009, 01:33 AM, said:

I'm curious why some of you are so against glossy screens (or is it merely the fact we're not offered a choice?)? I have a 15" unibody MBP and I only very seldom ever experience glare problems. Most of the time the screen looks absolutely fantastic.

How about when you're using these Mac laptops with large windows behind you on a sunny day, or in rooms where there's lots of artificial lighting, etc.? I can't see how significant glare/reflectivity problems could be avoided in those settings.

That's not a big deal for my stationary iMac situated in nearly ideal settings, but when using a laptop outside, I can't always control the lighting. Just curious, as otherwise the new MBPs look excellent & would be irresistible to me.

[Kaoro]

jackdawsson, on June 9th 2009, 05:23 AM, said:

How about when you're using these Mac laptops with large windows behind you on a sunny day, or in rooms where there's lots of artificial lighting, etc.? I can't see how significant glare/reflectivity problems could be avoided in those settings.

That's not a big deal for my stationary iMac situated in nearly ideal settings, but when using a laptop outside, I can't always control the lighting. Just curious, as otherwise the new MBPs look excellent & would be irresistible to me.

Well I don't have experience with big windows, but I've been in a few places with plenty of artificial lights and have had no problems. The screen's brightness overpowers any glare that is caused I think.

About using laptops outside, I can't even if it's matte. The sun is so bright that it makes the screen appear extremely dim that I can't read it.

[dojoboy]

DaveyJJ, on June 9th 2009, 06:56 AM, said:

This is my issue too and the reason I don't have an iPhone (or any cell phone) myself.

Sure, the "old" 8GB 3G is now $99, and the new 3GS models are $199/$299 but the cost of the phone isn't the problem for me. I'd gladly pay $300 for the iPhone ... It's Rogers plans. Taxes in they're $80/month for three years at a minimum ... nearly $3,000.

When Rogers gets them down to $25–30 a month I'll maybe bite. Cell phone plans should be way way cheaper by now. Only Koodo is offering anything decent up here (no "system access fees", what you see is the price all in, etc).

Well, I hope we'll still see a low-end iPhone with a limited data plan from AT&T by September. If not, maybe AT&T will wise up and offer a reasonable service plan. I'd get a 3GS for $59.99 / mos. including limited data.

I'd much rather have a low-end model iPhone with a voice plan and wi-fi.

Last night, I ordered Apple's in-ear headphones w/ mic for my iPod touch. It's Skype for me.