Summary of iPhone 4, Apple Announcements from WWDC

It’s been a hectic day for those interested in following Apple’s many announcements coming out of the World Wide Developer’s Conference (WWDC) in San Francisco.  Here’s a quick digest of Steve Job’s announcements and those of his cohorts. Of course the big news of the day was the introduction of the iPhone 4, but there’s several more products and opinions floating around.

The day kicked off with a lot of speculation and there was even a rumor that a touch-enabled ‘magic trackpad‘ would be announced. Steve Jobs made no mention of it, but that doesn’t mean we won’t see it at a future Apple keynote.

Steve Jobs kicked the WWDC conference off by talking about the success of the iPad and the iPhone platform.

You can watch the nearly two-hour long video of Steve Job’s announcements in the player above.

A big part of the success of Apple’s mobile devices are the numerous applications third-party companies have developed. According to Steve Jobs, Apple has paid developers more than $1 billion for these apps. Steve Jobs and friends highlighted several new mobile apps including Netflix for iPhone, FarmVille for iPhone and Guitar Hero for iPhone. One new Apple-made application for iPhone and iPod touch users is iBooks.

The iPhone 4 was formally introduced and it looked a lot like the lost/stolen prototype that we saw earlier. The back to basics name is a relief to some writers who cover mobile technology. In short, the new iPhone 4 is thinner and faster than its predecessors. Its new cameras (yes, two cameras) and display are geared towards HD video and video chat. The iPhone 4 will cost $199 (16GB) or $299 (32GB), but be prepared to spend a heck of a lot more than that over the life of the contract. One of the most compelling features is FaceTime, a video calling feature that requires no setup. Unfortunately, FaceTime only works on WiFi networks and is not supported on AT&T’s 3G network.

Apple changed the name of its new mobile operating system from iPhone OS 4.0 to iOS4.

Steve Jobs’ well-rehearsed keynotes typically go off without a hitch, but that wasn’t the case today. Jobs had trouble connecting his iPhone 4 demo units to the Internet when showing them off in the middle of his presentation.

Many current iPhone owners are going to jump at the chance to buy an iPhone 4.  Ben Lang, Warner Crocker, Sumocat and I are all planning to upgrade to the iPhone 4.  Warner Crocker posted his thoughts about the iPhone announcement here.

Apple announced the Bumper iPhone case during the keynote, but did not introduce any more complex iPhone accessories as it has at previous events. iPhone 4 buyers will find that many accessories designed for previous iPhone models are not compatible with the new slim design.

Notably absent from the WWDC keynote was any mention of Apple’s Mac computers or OSX. The event was solely focused on the company’s mobile devices. Many devices and services we expected to hear about were not announced by Steve Jobs and friends.

All of the interest in the new iPhone proved too much for ATTWireless.com, which appeared to be down for much of Monday evening.  Many current AT&T subscribers must navigate to AT&T’s Web site to determine if they are eligible for an iPhone upgrade.

Late in the afternoon, Apple introduced Safari 5, a faster version of its Web browser for Macs and PCs.

Related Posts

Advertisement