You know what time it is, Materialistas? It's Apple Time! Time for Steve Jobs' World-Wide Developer Conference Keynote, that is. Though I'm not in San Fran for the announcment, I will be updating this very post in a semi-live-blog, as the announcements of amazing, god-like devices roll out. So bookmark this page, and keep refreshin', because the updating should begin shortly (say, around 1pm EST).
Oh, and for clarities sake, I'll be posting the most recent updates at the bottom, so scroll down for the latest info.
12:00pm - Nuthin' yet. There's been a lot of rumors swirling about what, exactly, they'll be announcing today. My guess is that the iPhone 2 (whatever the specs) is a lock. I also wouldn't be surprised to find out the Touch has replaced a few more iPods (Touch Nano, maybe?). Finally, my fingers are crossed... I'm hoping... I'm praying... That John Mayer plays a song at the end. That would be so awesome.
Oh, and cause I'm a shameless self-promoter:
12:41pm - Apple Stores worldwide are DOWN. There's been some rumors that iPhone 2 wouldn't go on sale until next month. Those may be true, but at the very least, something is getting add to the Apple Store. My guess? iPuppies.
12:48pm - Okay, here's what I love about Apple Announcement Day... A picture of people going up an escalator!!!OMG! I kid, I actually did get excited about this.
12:53pm - I've updated the top picture with a pic of the hall, courtesy of Engadget, who's actually in San Fran. Perhaps I should start a live-blog about live-blogging this live-blog? Just a few more minutes until real info hits, and I can stop making stuff up to talk about...
12:56pm - Okay, MacRumors wins for craziest amount of over-information:
1:00pm - It's go time. Let's do this, Jobs.
1:03pm - Al Gore is in the crowd! Insert your own "inventing the internet" joke here. Although I suppose he'll insert his own joke in a little bit.
1:06pm - I think the above statement came out wrong... I meant I'm sure he'll make some sort of self-effacing joke about it, not "Al Gore is going to have sex on stage, and I'm referring to his penis as a joke." On second thought, I'm sure none of you thought that, and now I'm all embarassed. Anyway, they're still seating people.
1:08pm - Lights have dimmed. Steve is on stage. The crowd goes nuts. Only in San Francisco, people. Only in San Francisco.
1:09pm - 52,000 people at World Wide Developers Conference, massively successful, blah, blah, blah... Okay, "this morning we're talking about iPhone." Here we go.
1:10pm - New Mac OSX - named Snow Leopard, to be debuted after lunch. Snow Leopard, huh? I assume the next update will be code-named Happy Kitty, or something?
1:13pm - Finally, iPhone 2 talk... Though it's boring stuff about Enterprising features. This will be followed by SDK, and then we'll get to end-user features. Meaning, another few minutes until the stuff YOU care about. Also, me.
1:17pm - Okay! On to SDK. Still boring.
1:19pm - They're still talking about the Software Developer Kit (SDK). What is this, a developers conference?
1:23pm - Since this is really boring; possibly even more boring than you can imagine if you're not following the discussion in real-time (they're talking about how to build a User Interface), I'm going to take a moment and plug SketchFest NYC, a national sketch comedy festival happening this weekend in NYC. Three days of stuff that's fun. No discussion of User Interfaces. Okay, plug over!
1:27pm - Still displaying the Interface Builder. I'm going to take another moment, more on topic this time, to pose the following question/statement, that I've been thinking about the past few days: Apple is the technology leader, right? Using the example of the iPhone, before it was released, touch-screen tech was used for museum displays, and that's about it. Now, every phone maker is scrambling to make a touch screen phone. Look back further to the mouse, CD drives, iPods, and basically any innovation Appple has made. The other part of this is, because Apple is the leader, other companies scramble to copy them, but bend over backwards to make something that is, essentially, different. Which defeats the purpose of copying them. Anyway, looks like they're finishing the developer talk, so we're back on.
1:30pm - Sega is demoing Super Monkey Ball for the iPhone, featuring tilt-controls. I realize this sentence makes it sound like I'm insane if you don't know what I'm talking about.
1:33pm - Aha! Here we go...Super Monkey Ball, and other games, will be available at the launch of the iPhone App Store for $9.99. Not bad, for a game with 110 levels and motion controls. Picture below is from Gizmodo, if you couldn't figure that out:
1:35pm - eBay has created an iPhone app called Auctions that let's you do exactly what you think it does. It's a simplified version of eBay that let's you view and bid on auctions in real-time from the iPhone, without having to access the Safari browser. Honestly? I think this is going to be f-ing huge. Why would you use eBay on your computer, when you could just use it on the go?
1:37pm - Next up is Loopt, a social network app that lets you see, on a map, where your friends are. I expect this will shortly be used in a horror movie. "Oh my god, the killer... He's following us on Loopt!" Scary.
1:41pm - Other apps: TypePad, a free piece of software for blogging or sending photos; and Associated Press, for, you know, AP News?
1:43pm - Oh, you know what? The AP thing is actually a pretty forward thinking application: you can send first hand reports on news, with pictures, directly to the AP. This is either awesome, or terrible, depending on how you feel about mass production of the news. I recommend reading this for more info on the subject. That's an actual recommendation, btw, not a snarky "check" "this" "out."
1:47pm - More games, including a physics based game called Enigmo, and a caveman racing game called Cro-Mag Rally, which uses the iPhone as a steering wheel. Because when you're driving a car, the windshield is 3.5" wide. And also, you're a caveman.
1:51pm - More Apps, including Band, a virtual music creator and player; and At Bat, for checking baseball stats and scores in real time. Hey, do you think Apple is launching an App Store or something?
1:56pm - In case you're wondering, they're now demoing two medical apps. Which is nice, except I'm starting to get bored. This better get awesome, quickly.
2:00pm - So... What's everybody up to right now? Doing anything fun?
2:05pm - Okay, Steve is back. I swear to god, if he doesn't announce something good soon, I'm going to... Keep watching this. Sigh.
2:07pm - New features on iPhone 2.0: Full iWork and Office integration; ability to save images you get e-mailed; parental controls; language support.
2:10pm - iPhone 2.0 software in early July. Free for iPhone owners, $9.99 for iPod Touch owners. Yeah, but what about iPhone 2? You know, the phone, and not just the software?
2:13pm - And now, something entirely new.
2:15pm - MobileMe! The rumors were true... .Mac is turning into MobileMe, or as they're calling it, "Exchange for the rest of us." Oh snap.
2:17pm - Mobile Me works for Macs, PCs, and the iPhone. If you update a contact, a calendar item, or a mail message, it'll update on any device you have connected to MobileMe. Macs, it works with iCal, Address Book, and Mail. With PCs, Microsoft Outlook.
2:18pm - It'll be at Me.com, which isn't quite live yet.
2:23pm - Nice! You can also use the iDisk app native in MobileMe to wirelessly send files... Not that shocking, but considering I've had insane problems sending files from phone to phone before, this is pretty helpful.
2:27pm - Side thought, since I'm now going to be very late for a meeting: is this keynote really going to be two hours long?
2:28pm - 60 Day free trial available with iPhone 2.0 software, starting in July. $99 for a yearly subscription. Now, Steve's back again.
2:30pm - Steve sez: "The iPhone is very popular." $10 says this ends in, "so we're remaking it from the ground up," and everybody goes nuts.
2:32pm - Next challenges: 3G, 3rd party app support, more affordable. Here it comes...
2:33pm - Introducing iPhone 3G.
2:35pm - Thinner, black plastic back, solid metal buttons, same display, camera, flush headphone jack, and improved audio.
2:36pm - Also, 3G (duh). Faster than Nokia and Treo. Oh snap, again! Almost as fast as wi-fi (17 second download for wi-fi, versus 21 for iPhone 3G).
2:38pm - Battery life is 300 hours standby, 2G talk-time is 10 hours (double the previous version). 3G talk-time is 5 hours. Also: GPS now integrated in the iPhone. Wow, those rumors are right on the money so far.
2:43pm - More countries for iPhone service. Okay.
2:44pm - Wow, I am going to be super late for that meeting.
2:45pm - Pricing: $199 for an 8GB!
2:46pm - $299 for the 16GB, with a white version available for this size. Wow. These things are going to sell like... Well, like iPhones.
2:47pm - That's the maximum price, world-wide, by the way. They're showing an ad now. You can't see it.
2:50pm - Well, that's it! Steve's gone. iPhone available on July 11th, no other announcements, no One More Thing. Ummm... Hope that was worth it for you guys, and thanks for playing along! And post your impressions in the comments below.