9to5 Staff

We know it isn’t really any of our business but the question has to be asked.  Is el Jobso getting a bit thin?  Every show it seems he is getting thinner and thinner…almost like he got cursed by a Gypsy or something.

One has to wonder, with his past, is his thinness affecting Apple’s stock price?

Now this doesn’t mean he has cancer again or is sick or anything.  He seems very spry on stage and overall very healthy and happy.  It very well could be a quotient of his age.  Maybe he is mimicking his products (or vice versa?)  Or he could be on the age-increasing technique of food deprivation…or maybe he likes being thin…

But just so thin….GAWD! When did we turn into our own grandmothers already!

Update: The WSJ says they spoke to Apple who stated that SJ has been sick for the last few weeks but powered through the WWDC keynote…also a commenter states:

My dad had the same cancer in around the same date that Jobs did, they have to redo your stomach because he has barely no pancreas, and my dad doesnt have cancer anymore (i hope) but he gets thinner all the time… he has lost like 50 pounds in a year.

If he is indeed sick we wish him the best on getting better soon…

So we’ve heard from an AT&T rep….Also confirmed by Silicon Alley insider.

We knew this would happen – it makes sense.  Overall, the deal still represents a pretty big bargain.  It would be nice if Apple let you do bluetooth or WiFi tethering.  (Yes we are aware of the TinyProxy hack that allows this).  That would make the $10 3G surcharge easy to swallow.

 Apple has published the QuickTime feed of today’s keynote session at WWDC, making it available online and (eventually) through the new Apple keynotes session on iTunes.

 Apple’s playing it quiet on Snow Leopard, revealing only that the upgrade is focused on ensuring a future for OS X, with the implication that rumours of a move away from PowerPC is now in the company’s sights.

Bertrand Serlet, Apple’s senior vice president of Software Engineering describes the new OS stating, "We have delivered more than a thousand new features to OS X in just seven years and Snow Leopard lays the foundation for thousands more.  In our continued effort to deliver the best user experience, we hit the pause button on new features to focus on perfecting the world’s most advanced operating system.”

Snow Leopard will enhance the performance of OS X, set a new standard for quality and lay the foundation for future OS X innovation. Snow Leopard is optimised for multi-core processors, taps into the vast computing power of graphic processing units (GPUs), enables breakthrough amounts of RAM and features a new, modern media platform with QuickTime X. Snow Leopard includes out-of-the-box support for Microsoft Exchange 2007 and is scheduled to ship in about a year.

Expectation is already building on the software, which is expected to ship next year. It’s thought it will offer support for 64-bit computing, speed and stability improvements, and a unified development engine for all Apple devices. A new technology called Grand Central is expected to help developers design more efficient multi-core programs for Macs, and to offer more support for exploiting the processor power of graphics processors for non-graphics apps. Well, that and support for 64-bit computing and 16TB of memory – and an improved version of QuickTime.

Using media technology pioneered in OS X iPhone, Snow Leopard introduces QuickTime X, which optimises support for modern audio and video formats resulting in extremely efficient media playback. Snow Leopard also includes Safari with the fastest implementation of JavaScript ever, increasing performance by 53 per cent, making Web 2.0 applications feel more responsive.

For the first time, OS X includes native support for Microsoft Exchange 2007 in OS X applications Mail, iCal and Address Book, making it even easier to integrate Macs into organisations of any size.

Enterprise users for the iPhone seem pretty pleased. You have to admit, it is quite impressive. The Army dude is hardcore about getting shot at and destroying missing iPhones. Guess it goes with the territory.

 Here, for your delectation and delight, we’d like to present you with Apple’s latest TV ad spot for the iPhone 3G…."It’s finally here, the first phone to beat the iPhone…

Apple will not receive follow-on revenue from most of its new telecom partners according to SEC filing Form 8-K for APPLE IN. This is a very interesting development for several reasons.  It means that Apple is stuck in their original agreements with AT&T, O2, Orange, Tmobile, etc.  It also means that the old model wasn’t optimal for Apple and it is going for a new model where it is no longer taking a cut of monthly revenues.

The new carriers will be doing the writeoff themselves for the new countries.  How this will affect Apple’s sales model is unclear.  Will they sell them in the Apple stores for the $199 price?  Will they still be Jailbreakable and/or downgradable?

So many questions… From the SEC Filing:

Item 8.01. Other Events

Apple Inc. ("Apple") Chief Executive Officer Steve Jobs announced today at Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference that Apple has sold over 6 million iPhones to date, including over 700,000 in the current June quarter. Mr. Jobs also announced that the new iPhone 3G will be available initially in 22 countries, and that the iPhone 2.0 software will be available to all iPhone customers, both beginning on July 11, 2008.

Apple has signed multi-year agreements with carriers authorizing them to distribute and provide network services for iPhones in over 70 countries. These agreements are generally not exclusive with a specific carrier, except in the United States, United Kingdom, France, Germany, Spain, Ireland, and certain other countries. Under the vast majority of these agreements, Apple will not receive follow-on revenue generating payments from carriers for the new iPhone 3G beyond the purchase of the device by carriers or a commission on sales of the device by Apple. Apple will continue to receive payments from cellular network providers related to first-generation iPhones as long as they remain active on authorized networks.

Apple assumes no obligation to update any of the statements in this Form 8-K regarding the iPhone, iPhone 3G and iPhone 2.0 software.

Although Steve Jobs didn’t reveal any surprises, our expectations were pretty high…and Apple met them.  The devil is in the details and the location-based stuff is going to be really cool when developers (and Advertisers) start utilizing them.

Bravo Apple. 

Now we want to know more about Snow Leopard…

 Apple has confirmed what we first said it would – the debut of the new Mobile Me service, which pushes essential information to iPhone users.

It’s Exchange – for the rest of us, pushing email, contacts, and calendars over-the-air, ensuring everything remains in sync between the iPhone, Mac, or PC, syncing data both ways. It works with Mail, iCal, and Address Book on a Mac and Outlook on Windows.

iDisk is integrated as well, while Mail allows panes to be resized, multiple messages to be selected an more. iDisk lets users send files to people through the application, over-the-air. There’s also features for iPhoto users, it’s incredibly effective.

Oh, yes, a 60-day free trial of the service will be made available along with the iPhone 2.0 Software in early July. And, indeed, MobileMe replaces .Mac, subscribers to which will automatically upgraded to the new service. 

We’re doing the 9to5mac Livepanel again.  If you’ve got a big monitor and lots of bandwidth, you can pull in 4 feeds in one window.  Click here for head exploding coverage today from Macrumors, Engadget, Gizmodo and Computerworld.

 Apple Stores are down worldwide, while the iPhone Dev Center is also unavailable in the prelude to the WWDC 2008 keynote today.

Queues are already beginning to form at the Moscone Centre as hundreds jostle for the best seat at the keynote, which is expected to see the introduction of the 3G iPhone.

Likelihood of new product introductions has increased now, with the non-availability of the Apple Store.

Here’s a late breaking hypothesis: the landmark event is not just about the iPhone SDK’s GPS hooks, Core Location, and the incredible possibilities they represent.  The Snow Leopard OS mystery is about Apple branching off into 2 diverging Major ‘desktop’ OSes.  Leopard for large traditional computers, Snow Leopard for MacBook Air and smaller – like Tablets?  Stuff that would run on the Intel Atom.

This makes sense across a lot of lines.  Intel Atoms are extremely energy efficient, but they are also underpowered for a desktop OS.  Apple could be releasing an Intel Atom optimized version of OSX today….

Or this could all be hooey and they might be talking about 2 versions of the iPhone (right mykbibby?)….What do you think?

Yes, the Apple Stores are down…

http://s3.amazonaws.com/BBG/asid.swf

Click to start the nuttieness.  Thanks to Boing Boing.

The Guardian today is running a piece on five ways the new 3G iPhone could change the music distribution industry.

1. Unlimited Music downloads on the mobile itunes Library?  Maybe not now but soon.
2. iTunes is currently in 22 countries.  The iPhone will be in many more.  Expect Apple to close the gap with many more international iTunes music store releases
3. The experience of having a mobile device that can also purchase music in a smooth package is something new and revolutionary.
4. Subscription model – not just for unlimited tracks – but also a possible model based on "by musician" type model.  Imagine Music meets podcast.  Paid subscription.  New music as the band produces it.
5. It doesn’t stop there.  With all of the tools avaialble on the iPhone, you can also mix and record music…or add to your favorites.  It truly is a new paradigm – in your pocket.

Developers, developers, developers – and they’re all in San Francisco today for the opening of the WWDC, with that in mind news of the Mac Fusion gizmo is setting tongues wagging – though whether it’s true, false of a happily optimistic Photoshop pipedream isn’t completely clear (Our BS detecter needle broke off when we saw this).

See here, Mac Fusion looks so much like an Apple TV it may actually be one, and the use of a Windows logo within Apple’s site seems a little, erm, unusual. 

So what am I going on about? Mac Fusion – allegedly a product for budget-strapped developers searching for the hardware they need to port applications to the Mac. Though that’ what we thought the Mac mini (if it lasts) could be used for. If claims are true (and this close to WWDC it kind of doesn’t matter any more), Mac Fusion will be equipped with a 2.1GHz Intel Core 2 Duo mobile processor, will offer an 800MHz FSB and 3MB L2 cache. And yeah, the U.S.P. is its Boot Camp support, meaning users will be able to run Windows and Linux on the device, while maintaining the stability they expect from Mac OS X.

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It is starting to get slightly sad.  Microsoft is releasing emails to developers asking them not to jump ship.  Blackberry and now Samsung are releasing iPhone clones.  Samsung’s looks "bricky" with the type of screen you’d be happy with in 2006.

Oh, and this bad boy runs Windows Mobile 6.  Sure, you can install Opera Mini and have an "OK" browsing experience.  However, you are still stuck with the clunkieness of the WM6 interface and instability of the overall OS.

According to photographs released with a statement from Samsung, the Omnia resembles the original iPhone in its dark, shiny finish, curved edges and slim form.

The phone will be unveiled at the CommunicAsia trade fair in Singapore starting June 17 and go on sale in southeast Asia that week. It will be available in Europe in July.

All of this reminds us of when the Coyote pulls out the umbrella to shield himself from the fast approaching boulder.

 Microsoft last night attempted to reassure its partners over the fate of Windows Mobile, trumpeting sales of 20 million supporting devices, while an analyst predicts 14 million iPhone sales this year.

RBC Capital Markets analyst Mike Abramsky has conducted a global survey that finds 20 per cent of those surveyed plan to buy the 3G iPhone – 70 per cent of which are new to the device. The analyst expects the new iPhone will begin shipping in July and to sell 14 million units this year, 4-5 million in the first 90 days.

In a clear attempt to rally its troops for the coming onslaught, Microsoft sent a statement to partners last night, and in so doing underscored just how scared the company is of Apple and the iPhone, touting "freedom", "flexibility" and "choice", the company’s senior vice president of the mobile communications business, Andy Lees, said sales of licensed devices so far make it the biggest smartphone platform.

It’s a message packed with figures designed to tart up Microsoft’s image in the sector, revealing 50 device manufacturers now build 150 different Windows Mobile phones, "with features like GPS, 3+ megapixel cameras, and voice activation — features that other operating systems have been slow to deliver," the message says, in a thinly-disguised barb at Apple’s now one year old offering.

Applications are also touted in this pre-war announcement – 18,000 applications are already available to Windows Mobile users, Lees claims. Though, with over 200,000 developers busily cooking up applications for the iPhone, it remains to be seen just how long that will seem like a big number.

In a dose of Redmond reality, Lees points to the big threat to the company’s grasp on the space – commitment: "Overall, we all benefit from the increased attention on everything that a smartphone can do and the difference it can make in people’s lives. But ultimately, it is your commitment to Windows Mobile that’s helped shape our success," he writes.

As MacDailyNews, which has published the letter in full, points out: "Translation: We’re scared shitless of Apple and, if you aren’t already, you should be, too."

As we reported way back in January, Slingplayer IS coming to the iPod Touch, iPhone platform.  It has been an extremely busy topic on their forums for the past 6 months. Sling has also been hiring iPhone Engineers since earlier in the year.  But all of that doesn’t an iPhone Slingplayer make….

Engadget finally got its hands on the real deal…at least in Beta, below.  AT&T, say goodbye to all of your 3G bandwidth!

http://www.viddler.com//simple_on_site/984c53dc

Hopefully we’ll see this in much better form later today…

BGR (not to be confused with PBR) got the latest Blackberry leak on their iPhone kil..competitor.  Interesting timing.

It looks pretty similar to iPhone version 1 overall in form factor.  It has lots of buttons (see right) but most importantly, it runs the Blackberry software that millions of businesses have doing their enterprise email.  Us IT people aren’t known to like switching platforms very often so no matter how good or bad it is, it will get adopted in a lot of businesses.

If you’ve used an iPhone and a Blackberry, you know there is a world of difference in the details.  Web browsing for instance.

Here’s a typical scenario: A small business director asks his IT guy "why can’t we have an iPhone" (he just spent $20,000 on BBY infrastructure/clients and training).  IT Director: "Here!  Have a blackberry thunder, it is pretty much the same thing!"

Sorry to Mr. Small Business Director….

Speaking of drinks (PBR), does anyone else think the "blackberry thunder" sounds like a bad drink?  Maybe 2 parts blackberry schnapps and 1 shot of Rumpleminze?  OK, obviously the weekend is hitting.  Back to work!

Apple’s latest round of job postings includes a Input Device Firmware Engineer who is responsible for the iPhone’s Multi-Touch firmware.  One of the prerequisites?

Familiarity with video camera, displays, or input technologies.

Obviously, if they are recruiting now for this position, the next iPhone doesn’t necessarily carry this functionality.  However, recent rumors have pointed to such functionality.  In fact, low quality video recording is currently available on generation 1 hardware through jailbroken Apps so it isn’t a huge stretch.

 Do you really believe Apple has time to waste on a “hobby”?

Steve Rubel at Micro Persuasion so very doesn’t. He’s written an insightful examination of the deeper plan for the product. He argues that with maybe four or five million to be sold by the end of the year, and with the OS X developer community expanding at a phenomenal rate on strength of the iPhone (and, let’s face it, the Mac) it’s only a question of time before Cupertino ups its game for Apple TV. 

“To date, more than 100,000 developers have downloaded the iPhone software development kit (SDK). This will create all kinds of value on a platform that has arguably sold double the units as Apple TV. Expect Apple to do the same with Apple TV in the near future. It may not be at this year’s Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC), but I guarantee it’s coming. They’re not going to let the hackers have all the fun. Further, watch for TiVo and Slingbox to do the same,” he writes. Read it.