Ridley Scott Options Brave New World

Well, let’s see how the rumors held up. People were expecting to see a new iPhone 3G model, and Apple delivered on almost every level. Almost. The long-awaited App Store for the iPhone and iPod touch demoed nicely, packed with games and other useful applications, many for free. MobileMe surprised us as a more than welcome replacement for Apple’s .Mac services. We did not, however, get a real glimpse of the rumored “Snow Leopard” OS (10.6) during the actual Keynote address. It was mentioned briefly at the beginning, but never revisited. Details, and full commentary, after the jump.

Though it’s going to be hard to talk about the new iPhone 3G first, let’s try and take things in order shall we?

Apple’s 3 Parts
Steve stated that Apple now exists primarily in three parts: Mac, Music, iPhone. Strange for Apple to not use a more clever model to convey this thought. An acronym or something perhaps? MMiP just doesn’t ring home. It’s mostly just funny that Mac and Music are so broad as to what they could mean (iMacs, Mac Minis, MacBooks are all Macs, and I guess music is anything to do with iPods and iTunes) while the iPhone is very specific and also encompasses the Music part heavily. And what about video? With Apple TV 2.0 being such a big deal in the last Keynote address, and HD movie rentals, etc… could he as easily used Media instead of Music? Fortunately, Apple has always been a bit more than the sum of its parts. Still, this was a strange choice of words for Mr. Jobs in my opinion, completely forgetting (so soon) recent breakthroughs.

Snow Leopard
More after lunch apparently, and unfortunately we won’t be there. I am sure more will surface about Mac 10.6 in the coming days by people with actual invitations and press passes! We’ll have to wait until then to know for sure. We are expecting complete Cocoa, and assuming by the name of it that it will compliment Leopard more than replace it. Maybe a free (or at least cheaper) upgrade? Perhaps a different version (think Windows XP versus Windows XP Media Center)? Time will tell, but hopefully not too much time. The online buzz is hardly a buzz at all… mostly jokes that the next OS should be called Mac OS X LOLCATZ.

iPhone 2.0
Now we get into the meat. This will be a firmware update for every iPhone user, no matter the model. For free. For $9.99 if you are using an iPod Touch (sorry guys). It should show up in early July, and will consist of three major components…

1.) App Store
The most exciting feature on the iPhone 2.0 firmware update is the new App Store. Wireless download support (over WiFi or cell network, depending on the size of the app), iTunes integration for backup (using FairPlay DRM), and best of all - developers set the price and keep 70% of the revenue unless the developer wants the software to be free in which case Apple will charge them absolutely nothing to host the app in their store. Many neat games (Sega’s Super Monkey Ball and Pangea’s Digital Legends) and applications (eBay, TypePad, Loopt, MIMvista, etc…) were demoed, and many more are coming. Be very excited.

2.) Enterprises and Ad Hoc
To better compete as a business gadget, Enterprises or Ad Hoc can distribute apps to specific groups of people (employees, students, etc…) by authorizing specific phones, or specific intranets/networks, to have access to the application.

3.) MobileMe
A long overdue overhaul of Apple’s well-intended .Mac services. “Exchange, for the rest of us.” Push e-mail, contacts, calendars, etc… Sync everything between iPhones, Macs, and PCs, both ways. Beautiful interface, works on multiple platforms, and syncs several devices and machines seamlessly despite where they are or what they are running. Use an iMac at home, but Windows at work? Use an iPhone and a MacBook Pro? Now problem. Have them all communicating with each other in a way you never imagined. This is going to be very cool. 60-day free trial. Existing .Mac users will be automatically upgraded for free. Same price as .Mac current annual subscription.

Other software improvements boasted were a push notification system to help customers with software support (instead of annoying and system draining background processes), contact search with live searching, full iWork document support, complete support for Office documents (Word, Excel, and now PowerPoint), bulk delete & move for messages, the ability to save images you get, a new calculator with scientific mode when you rotate the iPhone, parental controls, and tremendous language support

iPhone 3G
And here is what everyone was waiting for! iPhone recently had a birthday, and looking over the past year Apple has learned a lot. So far most of the things people wanted out of the iPhone have been added with the 2.0 software update. From day one people wanted third party apps, and Apple may have lost a few customers over it. They have endlessly lost the battle with the JailBreak community, who would hack their iPhones with thirds party apps as quickly as Apple could patch the vulnerabilities. Now with the 2.0 software, Apple still has some improvements they want to announce in the new 3G model…

1.) Duh, 3G!
How does the iPhone 3G tackle the challenges? 3G = faster data downloads, perfect for Safari and Mail. Comparing download speeds between 3G and EDGE. 3G finished in 21 seconds. EDGE finished in 59 seconds. Worried about the battery life? Apple claimed originally that 3G would have killed the iPhone excellent battery life, but now they are boasting the new iPhone 3G model gets 300 hours of standby, 10 hours of 2G talk time, 5 hours of 3G talk-time, 5-6 hours of high-speed browsing, 7 hours of video, and 24 hours of audio. This sounds too good to be true, and it usually is. Though not by much. Early rumors pointed to evidence that users may be able to switch the 3G functionality on and off to reserve battery life. And why not? This definitely helps when you turn off Bluetooth or WiFi if you know you won’t be using them.

2.) Integrated GPS
Wow. Think a pulsating red dot moving across the Google map as you take the best route on your road trip or vacation. I simply cannot believe how fast this is all happening. This little device is becoming more relevant and useful than most laptops. It is still unclear if the GPS functionality will come with the new iPhone plan or cost extra, but most signs point to that it will be included with the bundled data plan.

3.) Price
Jobs stated that 56% of the people that want an iPhone but didn’t get one say it was due to price. Even after the tremendous early price cut that left early adopters in fits of rage (even after $100 rebates of store credit). The first iPhone started at $599 for an 8GB model, now $399. The iPhone 3G 8GB will sell for, get this… only $199! $299 for a 16GB model, and you can get this one in white. Available July 11th in 22 countries. And anyone who bought an iPhone since May 17th will be able to switch to the 3G model for free!

Other noticeable differences are that the device is now one solid piece and has reversed the uses of plastic and metal (old model had an aluminum back and plastic buttons while the 3G model has a plastic case with metal buttons). Another welcome change is that the headphone jack is now flush, allowing the use of any standard headphone jack. The recessed jack on my current iPhone drives me insane! I have bought multiple portable speakers that I had to take back because they wouldn’t fit. Ridiculous. The only rumor we didn’t see come true was that of an additional video sensor on the screen side of the phone to allow for video chat and video conferencing. It wouldn’t surprise me if it’s there and Steve decided to wait until some apps that make use of it pop up to say, “Hey, by the way… it’s been there all along!” I’m not holding my breath though.

Either way, the beautiful and revolutionary iPhone just got a lot better. And a lot (I mean a lot) more accessible. This is a win-win situation in my book. And though I won’t be rushing out to replace my early 4GB model, I am excited to see such fast progress. I will probably wait for much larger models to become affordable before wanting to replace mine (unless that video chat option surfaces after all), but it is getting easier and easier to convince people to switch to this device. And I have a feeling things only get better from here. Bravo, Apple. Bravo.