Apple WWDC June 7-11: It's All About The Apps

[Paul Daniel Ash]

Now that the dates for the Apple Worldwide Developer Conference have been announced, the countdown for the new iPhone will probably begin in earnest, barring any unexpected acceleration in the release schedule due to the Gizmodogate drama. The advance information for the yearly event is all heavily iPhone based, promting one observer to assert that we won't see an update to Snow Leopard this year.

Apple announced that the theme for this year's WWDC, which will be held at San Francisco's Moscone Center from June 7th through the 11th, is "The Center of the App Universe," indicating a focus on the iPhone OS. Given that the keynote speech on opening day has historically featured an announcement of a next-generation iPhone, and that the updated iPhone OS is expected "sometime this summer," it's unsurprising that Apple is choosing to emphasize its mobile ecosystem, which now consists of the iPod touch, the iPhone and the iPad. As the number of iPhone OS devices nears 100 million, Apple is clearly putting the platform at the center of its future plans and encouraging developers to jump in to iPhone OS 4. “This year’s WWDC offers developers in-depth sessions and hands-on working labs to learn more about iPhone OS 4, the world’s most advanced mobile operating system,” Apple’s senior vice president of iPhone Software, Scott Forstall, wrote in the Apple press release announcing the conference. “WWDC provides a unique opportunity for developers to work side-by-side with Apple engineers and interface designers to make their iPhone and iPad apps even better.”

Conspicuous by its absence, though, is any mention of an update to Mac OS X. John Gruber, who had heard from his numerous Apple contacts back in January that Apple was pushing to get Mac OS X 10.7 ready for the WWDC, revised his estimate at the time of the iPhone OS 4 announcement, and now looks at the few OS X related sessions and concludes that we won't see an update this year. Gruber says Apple is focused intensely on beating Android, writing that his souces have told him that "[a]nything that is not directly competitive with Android is on the back burner."

[prankz55]

WOW !!! just cant wait for the new iPhone 4G !!

[prankz55]

Visit the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference 2010 website for registration and more details at developer.apple.com/wwdc.

[greggt98]

Yeh allready a member!!

[MetallicaFan1991]

Cant wait first comment !!

Clearly you weren't first, your 3 minutes too late.

iPhone OS 4.0 sucks bad IMO. No proper Bluetooth and still no themes. I really do hate the ugly grey/white UI.
It better not be all about apps as over 90% of the App Store apps do not interest me at all. I use one app and thats Beejive

[b3nny]

why bother updating their open operating system when their closed operating system is making them so much more money? RIP max os x.

[redcard]

Clearly you weren't first, your 3 minutes too late.

iPhone OS 4.0 sucks bad IMO. No proper Bluetooth and still no themes. I really do hate the ugly grey/white UI.
It better not be all about apps as over 90% of the App Store apps do not interest me at all. I use one app and thats Beejive

1. You haven't used 4.0. It hasn't been released yet
2. Most themes are ugly as people creating and installing them usually have no idea about design.
3. There's 150 000 apps in the store. So you find about 15 000 useful
4. Why do you want 'proper' Bluetooth? To send crappy ringtones to your friends? Give it up

[greggt98]

True But Not with themes, gosh Just jailbreak it its not hard !!

[z3r01]

1. You haven't used 4.0. It hasn't been released yet
2. Most themes are ugly as people creating and installing them usually have no idea about design.
3. There's 150 000 apps in the store. So you find about 15 000 useful
4. Why do you want 'proper' Bluetooth? To send crappy ringtones to your friends? Give it up

LMAO lol that was great sorry metallica fan, (i love metallica)


lol

[Evilsaint]

Xcited

[Poseidon79]

Sweet! This is several weeks earlier than originally expected!

[TheOrioles33]

WOW !!! just cant wait for the new iPhone 4G !!

You mean the 4th gen! Its not a 4G phone.

iPhone OS 4.0 sucks bad IMO. No proper Bluetooth and still no themes. I really do hate the ugly grey/white UI.
It better not be all about apps as over 90% of the App Store apps do not interest me at all. I use one app and thats Beejive

I disagree with everything you said except about the UI. At least the dock is changing to look more like OSX.

Sweet! This is several weeks earlier than originally expected!

Several? Maybe a few.

[wolverinemarky]

i will be in cali the week after so i guess i will miss out on being there but sure will be watching the forums as steve talks live for updates

[norfskate]

Man, I am sick of people calling it the "iPhone 4G"!!!
They will clearly be saving that title for when 4G networks are available and they make a compatable handset!
My money is on the "iPhone+"
or if it's another 3G varient: the "iPhone 3G+"

and lastly, it's not even the 4th generation of iPhone!
We had the 2G (1st gen) then the 3G (2nd gen) and the 3GS (which was clearly a revision of the same 2nd generation handset) thus: altho this may be the 4th iPhone, if it's of new design, will be the 3rd generation of iPhone.
It's possable, and quite likely, to be yet another 3G varient.

[MetallicaFan1991]

1. You haven't used 4.0. It hasn't been released yet
2. Most themes are ugly as people creating and installing them usually have no idea about design.
3. There's 150 000 apps in the store. So you find about 15 000 useful
4. Why do you want 'proper' Bluetooth? To send crappy ringtones to your friends? Give it up

Lol, I actually find less than 100 apps useful. The App Store is full of junk. iPhone 3.0 had over 100 features in it and from what I can see it's no different to 2.0 expect the landscape modes. I agree with the themes, a lot of them are ugly.

I want proper Bluetooth so maybe someone can make an app that allows my iPhone to interact with my PS3 and my MBP. Using Wifi to control stuff is stupid as I don't have wifi except at home. Also to receive songs and stuff from friends. At least they can choose a song as a ringtone without creating one in iTunes or using the default crappy sounds lol.

[Meglomaniac]

tbh i am not looking forward to the new iphone but to iphone os 4.0 instead

as a nearly 1 year owner of a 3gs my opinion if they release the new iphone already in june is that they are releasing new iphones to soon.

i had a 2g before it i skipped the 3g for the same reason and i will probably do the same with the next iphone.
skip it and wait for the next one besides they come with 2 year contracts and i am fine with my current contract so the question is not really would i want the next iphone because i would but it is rather would i want another contract.

And i could buy the phone without contract but then either of my iphones would be without 3g so no thx

but still iphone os 4 features awesomeness and i cant wait.

[MetallicaFan1991]

Yeh same here I had iPhone 2G and skipped out the 3G but now I want the 4th gen iPhone because the 3GS looks like the 3G.

[ZeroShift]

@redcard
@MetallicaFan1991
Cool story, bros.

MetallicaFan is right about many things. Who's to say he hasn't used a beta of 4.0? And most of the apps in the AppStore are crap novelty Apps that people use once and then delete. I can't say anything for the UI but having PROPER Bluetooth 2.0 profiles installed and working OOB w/o Jailbreak would have made 60% of us iPhone users happier!

[redcard]

Man, I am sick of people calling it the "iPhone 4G"!!!
They will clearly be saving that title for when 4G networks are available and they make a compatable handset!
My money is on the "iPhone+"
or if it's another 3G varient: the "iPhone 3G+"

and lastly, it's not even the 4th generation of iPhone!
We had the 2G (1st gen) then the 3G (2nd gen) and the 3GS (which was clearly a revision of the same 2nd generation handset) thus: altho this may be the 4th iPhone, if it's of new design, will be the 3rd generation of iPhone.
It's possable, and quite likely, to be yet another 3G varient.

It's the 4th generation. The hardware jump from the 3G to the 3GS was bigger than the jump from the 2G from the 3G - as the 2G / 3G essentially have the same hardware. So to try to argue that the 3GS is a revision and the 3G isn't is pretty laughable and uninformed. You're making your judgement on the colour of the casing.

We all know 4G doesn't indicate the cell network. Seriously. It's time to give up on this, move on with your life. We all know this.

[ztphonehome]

Sure, he may have used a beta of 4.0, but it's a beta for a reason. I will agree that a vast majority of the apps are novelty apps though.