Apple claims to have refined 90 percent of the Leopard OS
Apple's WWDC today was filled with big announcements -- new and repriced Macbooks, and the iPhone 3G S. Not to be lost in the announcements was Apple's new OS, Snow Leopard. As anticipated, Apple used the conference to introduce Snow Leopard, the successor to Apple's Leopard (OS X 10.5).
At the conference, Apple bragged of now having close to 75 million active OS X users worldwide, up from 25 million in 2007. It also blasted competitor Microsoft's Windows Vista OS as a failure, quoting InformationWeek's Paul McDougall. Mr. McDougall wrote, "Vista has failed to catch on with mainstream computer users, while business have shunned it outright."
Apple is gunning aggressively for Windows 7, releasing Snow Leopard in September, a full month before Microsoft's release. The release is priced at $29 (versus $129 for the previous OS, Leopard) and $49 for a "family pack" that can install on several home machines.
The company brags that the new OS improves 90 percent of the Leopard base, includes better standards support, and deploys new technologies. The install process is also reportedly 45 percent faster and the OS consumes 6 GB less space, similar to the shrinking footprint of Windows 7 versus Vista.
The new OS also features some snazzy new features, such as the Stacks (for better folder exploration) and the Exposed dock feature. It also features new algorithmic enhancements such as text selection in PDF documents. Chinese character recognition is also now supported via a drawing interface.
Safari 4, which has been being beta tested, also was released as part of the new OS. Also released for Windows, Apple claims that the browser is 8 times as fast as Internet Explorer 8 at JavaScript rendering. It receives a perfect 100/100 on the Acid3 test; unlike IE 8 which fails with a 21/100 (other browsers like Opera 10 also received perfect marks).
QuickTime X is another key program, bringing "hardware acceleration, color correct, new technology for streaming (HTTP streaming)."
Apple is also making a fuss about its new OpenCL graphics and computing standard, which it hopes will be leveraged for better graphics and compute-heavy processing alike.
Between Safari 4, QuickTime X, and Snow Leopard Apple certainly delivered on all the rumors and expectations when it came to its OS and software. However, the biggest surprise of all had to be the price. With the new ultra-low price of OS X, the pressure is on Microsoft to lower its prices accordingly, or convince the consumer that it has a more functional new product.
Microsoft is somewhat safeguarded, though, by the fact that Apple's closed box hardware policies won't allow non-Apple-hardware users to jump to OS X. Still, the newly reduced price helps erode Microsoft's cost arguments, and invariably will soon be appearing in smarmy Apple commercials on TVs across the nation.
There has been tremendous buzz surrounding the follow-up to Apple’s hugely successful iPhone 3G. While the original iPhone put Apple on the map in the world of smartphones, it was the iPhone 3G’s lower price of entry and enhanced features/speed which put the smartphone over the top (and brought AT&T a wealth of new wireless subscribers). Together, there have been over 40 million iPhones and iPod touches sold around the world according to Apple.
Today at the Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) in San Francisco, Apple introduced its third generation iPhone: the iPhone 3G S (the “S” stands for Speed). The latest iPhone confirms most of the rumors that have been swirling around for the past few months.
The iPhone 3G S is available in capacities of 16GB and 32GB – both will be available in black and white. The phone also features a new 3MP camera (now capable of recording 30 fps video) on the back of the device. The iPhone 3G S also has the ability to edit videos directly on the device.
In addition, the new iPhone 3G S promises better battery life (see image to the right) despite the increased processing power. Speaking of processing power, Apple brags about 2x to 3.6x speed performance improvements over a wide range of apps.
Another new addition to the iPhone 3G S is the increase in data transfer speeds from 3.6Mbps to 7.2Mbps HSDPA. AT&T already announced plans to beef up its data networks to handle the faster transfer speeds.
Voice dialing is also coming to the iPhone 3G S – something that most other phones have already had for years. However, the voice commands also extend to other aspects of the iPhone 3GS like “previous track”, “play album” or “play songs by The Killers” within the Music app.
Other new hardware features include a built-in digital compass, Nike+ support, and hardware encryption.
As you may have already surmised, the iPhone 3G S is sporting OS 3.0 which was announced way back in March. IPhone OS 3.0 brings a wealth of new features including long-requested support for copy and paste, MMS, turn-by-turn directions, voice memo recording, Spotlight search, landscape email/notes/messaging, 3G tethering (via Bluetooth or USB), stereo Bluetooth (A2DP), peer-to-peer Bluetooth connectivity, and more. IPhone OS 3.0 will be available to download on June 17 (free for iPhone users, $9.95 for iPod touch users).
As expected, pricing for the new 16GB and 32GB iPhone 3G S will mirror the prices of the current 8GB and 16GB iPhone 3Gs: $199 and $299 respectively. To make things even more interesting, Apple is also discounting the price of the iPhone 3G (8GB model) to $99 to further expand its user base -- the new price is effective today. The iPhone 3G S will be available June 17.
Apple also announced updates to its MacBook Pro lineup. The new 15” MacBook Pro is available with up to 3.06GHz dual core processor, 8GB of RAM, and up to a 500GB HDD (or 256GB SSD). It features a 7-hour runtime with its built-in battery. Interestingly, Apple has finally stepped into modern times by equipping the 15" MacBook Pro with a Secure Digital (SD) slot.
The base system will retail for $1,699 with a 2.53GHz processor and integrated NVIDIA GeForce 9400M graphics, and ramp up quickly from there (with higher-tier models getting discrete NVIDIA GeForce 9600M GT graphics).
The 13" aluminum MacBook was also updated to include an integrated battery, SD slot, and Firewire 800 -- it is also now called a MacBook Pro. The base $1,199 system comes with 2GB of memory, a 2.26GHz processor, GeForce 9400M graphics, and a 160GB HDD. Stepping up to a 2.53GHz processor, 4GB of RAM, and a 250GB HDD will set you back $1,499. The new 13" MacBook Pro also has battery life of up to 7 hours.
The other big addition is with the updated MacBook Air. The machine now retails for $1,499 in its base configuration (1.86GHz Core 2 Duo, 2GB, 9400M, 120GB HDD) and $1,799 with a 2.13GHz Core 2 Duo processor, 9400M, and a 128GB SSD.
All of the new MacBooks are available to purchase today.
Today at the Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) in San Francisco, Apple introduced its third generation iPhone: the iPhone 3G S (the “S” stands for Speed). The latest iPhone confirms most of the rumors that have been swirling around for the past few months.
The iPhone 3G S is available in capacities of 16GB and 32GB – both will be available in black and white. The phone also features a new 3MP camera (now capable of recording 30 fps video) on the back of the device. The iPhone 3G S also has the ability to edit videos directly on the device.
In addition, the new iPhone 3G S promises better battery life (see image to the right) despite the increased processing power. Speaking of processing power, Apple brags about 2x to 3.6x speed performance improvements over a wide range of apps.
Another new addition to the iPhone 3G S is the increase in data transfer speeds from 3.6Mbps to 7.2Mbps HSDPA. AT&T already announced plans to beef up its data networks to handle the faster transfer speeds.
Voice dialing is also coming to the iPhone 3G S – something that most other phones have already had for years. However, the voice commands also extend to other aspects of the iPhone 3GS like “previous track”, “play album” or “play songs by The Killers” within the Music app.
Other new hardware features include a built-in digital compass, Nike+ support, and hardware encryption.
As you may have already surmised, the iPhone 3G S is sporting OS 3.0 which was announced way back in March. IPhone OS 3.0 brings a wealth of new features including long-requested support for copy and paste, MMS, turn-by-turn directions, voice memo recording, Spotlight search, landscape email/notes/messaging, 3G tethering (via Bluetooth or USB), stereo Bluetooth (A2DP), peer-to-peer Bluetooth connectivity, and more. IPhone OS 3.0 will be available to download on June 17 (free for iPhone users, $9.95 for iPod touch users).
As expected, pricing for the new 16GB and 32GB iPhone 3G S will mirror the prices of the current 8GB and 16GB iPhone 3Gs: $199 and $299 respectively. To make things even more interesting, Apple is also discounting the price of the iPhone 3G (8GB model) to $99 to further expand its user base -- the new price is effective today. The iPhone 3G S will be available June 17.
Apple also announced updates to its MacBook Pro lineup. The new 15” MacBook Pro is available with up to 3.06GHz dual core processor, 8GB of RAM, and up to a 500GB HDD (or 256GB SSD). It features a 7-hour runtime with its built-in battery. Interestingly, Apple has finally stepped into modern times by equipping the 15" MacBook Pro with a Secure Digital (SD) slot.
The base system will retail for $1,699 with a 2.53GHz processor and integrated NVIDIA GeForce 9400M graphics, and ramp up quickly from there (with higher-tier models getting discrete NVIDIA GeForce 9600M GT graphics).
The 13" aluminum MacBook was also updated to include an integrated battery, SD slot, and Firewire 800 -- it is also now called a MacBook Pro. The base $1,199 system comes with 2GB of memory, a 2.26GHz processor, GeForce 9400M graphics, and a 160GB HDD. Stepping up to a 2.53GHz processor, 4GB of RAM, and a 250GB HDD will set you back $1,499. The new 13" MacBook Pro also has battery life of up to 7 hours.
The other big addition is with the updated MacBook Air. The machine now retails for $1,499 in its base configuration (1.86GHz Core 2 Duo, 2GB, 9400M, 120GB HDD) and $1,799 with a 2.13GHz Core 2 Duo processor, 9400M, and a 128GB SSD.
All of the new MacBooks are available to purchase today.
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