[MacTechAspen]

No OS update sneak peek. It must have run long.

[great]

Does this dam phone even have the capability to see the other person while your talking to them? Japan already has this technology. If this phone doesn't have that capability, I would rather buy a Japanese phone with more advanced technology.

[6555]

Yeah, I was checking out the prices. How can they charge more for the Touch? I going to sell my Touch for the iPhone, but I don't see how I could get more than a $100 for it, being that the new iPhone is only $199, which is a hella better price. It's what the price should have been all along.

[zensunni]

>There have been a lot of reports about Apple encouraging developers to charge for their iPhone software. Interesting, though, how much free stuff we've seen today on stage.

Really? Can't remember reading one of those reports hear... Wonder why?

In any event, this shouldn't be surprising and certainly not interesting. Sure, a lot of the software you're seeing might be free; but don't fool yourself or your readers into thinking that the software isn't being made available to increase revenue of these commercial organisations. They provide the software to hook you, the more users they get the more revenue they can get from advertisers, etc.

What will be interesting (but again, not surprising) will be how few programs are available form non commericial organisations. This 'openness' with iPhone 2.0 is nothing more than a farce until people can create and distribute software freely without having to pay a tithe to Apple and without having to fear that Apple will blacklist you for creating something they don't like.

[jacobseric]

Is it odd that Jobs seemingly did not mention, and certainly didn't bring onstage, anyone from AT&T. I know they have other partners around the world now, but the omission of any mention of AT&T -- for their "great support" this past year, for completing their 3G network, or anything -- seemed odd to me. As if Apple perhaps wishes they hadn't given AT&T such a long exclusive deal in the US? (On Steve's bullet-point list of top things users asked Apple to change, I'd bet that "make it available to customers on other networks" would have made the top five!) Also interesting: no mention of AT&T's rates, and whether or how much they'll change for using the 3G network.
I'm also surprised there was no mention of how to "back up" your spiffy new iPhone 3G. After all, you'll be downloading applications, storing data & settings for those apps, and not everything will automatically sync with Me.com, and not everyone will fork over $99 per year to use it. Shouldn't there be some Apple-simple way to fully back up an iPhone?

[togasiphone]

I can't wait to get mine on Wed. I found a site that is giving away a free ebook just for ordering from them. Check it out www.iphonedownloadworld.com

[jg167]

iPhone 3G availability is JULY 11th, not june 11th.

[sevenduey]

Will we have to crack this new one, so I can use T_Mobil?

[jimbarg]

Still no Adobe Flash :-(

Does anyone even care? It seems to me that a growing number of sites (especially musicians/bands/record labels) are using Flash as a big part of their content, and the iPhone can't view them. This seems odd for a company which wants to be "cool" with the iPod generation.

Does third party application support include things like browser plugins and those kinds of things?

[bigpics]

[quote name='DJRizzo']
>

danviento said:

> Anyone have an official Apple rational for the name change?Not but it's a common business-marketing rationale that when you make major changes to a product (especially improvements) you change the name (particularly when the original name had some negative attitudes associated with it). Plus mobile me is a somewhat more descriptive name for the service's primary selling point - exchange type synching on the go.

It's because it's available to anybody with a web browser now -- Windows at least, but I imagine to Linux as well. .Mac could totally not be accessed from Windows (being able to join at one time was part of the exclusivity of being a Machead) -- let alone do two way/delayed until sign on push syncing of all this stuff -- storage was ridiculously small for a paid service.

but now almost a no-brainer for anyone with an iPhone AND a computer.

errr, to anyone with an old style desktop or notebook computer and the game-changing new Apple Mobile computer/phone/iPod.

and the name, like many Apple names isn't as bad as it first sounds (if totally narcissisti) -- it really does give you a workable set of your stuff wherever you are on whatever device you're on and for iPhone users saves valuable storage space by placing accessible iWork, Office and Photos up in the cloud.

basically a very successful make-over of a fairly lousy product. and yes, as the poster said, a rebranding campagn.

whatever, the boys and girls in Cupertino have been busy little squirrels.

and it's finally a reasonably feature-rich service for the price now.

[bigpics]

One (partial) quote:
bq. It's inspiring to see how the Mac and it's operating system are so UNIMPORTANT at the developers conference. :0 What's the point of spending nearly two hours on a product that is aimed at so small a part of the Mac market and user base? Most users would settle for a more funcitonal and stable computer and operating system rather than more portable features for a device they will never own.+






Another (partial) quote:

Pennywigeon said:

Wow what a real let down.

what about all the other stuff Mac?

Like
iPod Touch prices? will they drop alongside iPhone 3G?
.Mac becoming .Me
Blue Ray as a build to order option and Blue Ray Support?

First time I felt a real disappointment with a Jobs Keynote.

Should have just called this the WWiPhone Conference.

The whole keynote was not about a phone. It was about a tectonic shift in how people use computing.
OS X on its own couldn't displace MS's 90% market share for years and years. OS X Mobile, on the other hand is a classic "end-around" play similar to that which MS ran on IBM in the beginning of the mass personal computer age, grabbing control of the way people interacted with computers.


Bill G next turned on a dime fast enough to counter the next revolution -- internet computing (with another crappy product, but it was part of Windows) -- but MS is far, far behind in the emerging new platform of totally mobile, cell-assisted, small-form factor computing, which, I'm totally sure will have the same effect on traditional desktop/notiebook computing that cell phones have had on landlines.

bq. Re: "a device they most Mac users will never own"
You couldn't be more wrong. This will be all the computer most people will ever really need in time -- especially as form factors up to 7-10" evolve (maybe in iPhone 3.0 with support for higher/multiple resolutions), keyboards get good haptic feedback, battery tech keeps advancing, the App Store matures, etc.
Apple is the clear leader in the next tectonic phase shift of digital tech and you're disappointed because they didn't talk about your soon to be semi-niche market big ol' honkin' horse and buggy computer?? a new physical media drive on a PC would have been bigger news??

Computers will long be an important part of Apple, but a new mid-range desktop or new physical media drive or new peripheral connection portain't getting big face time at a Stevenote anymore, let alone the cover of Time Magazine. More intimate, smaller events for such today.


So iPhone news (Apple OS X Mobile news), not going from 3 to 8% market share (or whatever -- exact is not my point) is Apple's new chance to wrest control of computing from a stumbling Steve Ballmer and co.

This is big. Very, very big. Other than sounding way too infomerciallish for me more than a few times, I was basically slack-jawed about how much further Apple's gone in developing this complete digital ecosystem -- computers, neocomputers and new cloud integration of it all.

Sheesh. Smell the coffee, folks!!

[Pennywigeon]

The coffee....

Hmmm

Yup, Space Monkey ball is vital to digital computing and much more important than news about future OS chip support, BLue Ray support and new Models of computers.

Let me list a few things your idea of the new "wave" of telephone computing will not do very well. Things the "old horse and buggy" tech will still be needed for quite some time.

Photoshop
Illustrator
Indesign
Quark
FInal Cut Pro
Logic
Pro Tools
Dreamweaver
Flash Development
XTools
Impostioning
RIPing
Color corrrection
Audio Editing
Video Editing
Commercial Design
Ad Design
Media Burning and manufacturing
Servers
Databases
Database Development
Software Development
iPhone Software Development


I will admit that those that think computing is nothing but sitting in some trendy coffee shop updating their facebook account is "cutting edge tech" then this keynote must have made you salivate.

But those old cronies that use the old "horse and buggy" technology and actually use computers and technology to actually do work on and create these things people think is "cutting edge" would think that a developers conference would be a little more in-depth about things used to actually make a living instead of "Latte Toys".

The poor pricing between the iPod Touch and the iPhone 3G is a good example of focusing too much on one aspect and being blind to the overall picture.

After last time i checked Apple wasn't a Phone company.


Or is it?

(shaking head)

Asking people to "wake up and smell the coffee" only tells people that trendy "Latte Tech" to some is the actual end all.

I wonder if Chocolate Mocha will rain down from "the cloud" as the new American Idol sings and dances to a new iPhone anthem while users abroad smile cheesy smiles as they play SPace Monkey in the bathroom of their workplace instead of actually doing something productive.


I smelled the coffee and it smelled like a teen magazine, full of trendy fashion and trendy gossip but lacking that one vital thing.




Substance.

[MacKayaker]

Since I work with Mac users each day, I think I have something of a pulse on their computing interests and needs (and they may or may not reflect the larger Mac user base). Based on that, I would observe that 5-10% of the users I work with day-in and day-out give a rip about all of yesterday's hoopla. Almost none of them have iPhones and probably never will. And few users need or want access to their email anywhere they are, nor have any interest in paying the monthly fees for it to be so. They don't have calendars, never mind a concern to sync across multiple devices. They don't have .mac accounts, so the transition to MobileMe is just so much tech-speak to them. As I read the updates, as the Macworld staff (expertly) reported them, I was thinking of a couple of customers who would welcome some of what was reported, because it addressed issues we had bumped into, but beyond that - I heard little that would be of interest to the customers I serve.



I'm not saying that what Apple announced isn't amazing - but from where I stand, it is so, to a niche market - perhaps broader, in time, with the initial price change (but with hikes in monthly fees) - but this is a product that is being sold based on the selling of a lifestyle, too - and few of us need the lifestyle. Much like MTV programming - it's not "art" reflecting reality - it's marketing execs selling a lifestyle that puts money in their pockets as teens spend the necessary bucks to live that lifestyle. I have no issue with Apple becoming the top in this market - but it isn't a market the average Mac user is in, or has an interest in getting into. That was my point - they chose to invest all of their public broadcast time on something a small segment of the Mac market care about.

Where was the news about upgrades for the long-in-the-tooth Mac Mini - for the Mac Pro - how about really listening to customers and releasing the middle desktop Mac - half the size and internal storage, etc. of the MacPro - it would only hit the vast majority of Mac users better than the iMac does currently - and I'll bet they would sell more of them than the iPhone, too. How about announcements about price reductions on SSDs, so they could be used in MacBooks, etc. so users could really get some battery life from their systems. How about an O.S. that isn't so RAM and video RAM hungry, while systems barely have room for adequate RAM. These kinds of announcements would have been more relevant to more of the Mac user base than tweaks and (needed) improvements to a product that is approaching a year old.

[imagineengine]

Apple gives the iPhone HSPA to bring it up to the latest technology but then opts to leave out a video calling front-end camera. Then they compare it's browsing and email speeds to that of the Nokia N95 which is a device that does have video calling. HSPA is not just for the speed of data transmission but also the ability to stream voice and data at the same time. Everything else about the device I think is great but the lack of video calling makes me wonder if Apple really sees what the future of mobile computing and telecommunications industry is and what it can offer consumers. Rogers here in Canada has over 60% of the country coast to coast with HSPA coverage (over 25 cities and towns) and is expanding this to cover the rest of the country by the end of the year. In the UK and Asia HSPA is more used and the amount of video calling cellphones is more known. It's to bad Apple couldn't see this opportunity to compete on a level playing field by offering the iPhone version 2 with video calling.