According to a report from BGR, which cited a “trusted source,” Apple is preparing to demo a refreshed version of its Apple TV OS at WWDC next week. The report also claimed it is the same OS that runs on the much-rumored Apple HDTV that many reports indicate the company is working on. BGR also said Apple is testing a new “control out” API. The report explained:
A newly redesigned 15-inch MacBook Pro was all but rumor until we reported earlier this month that Apple indeed has a slimmed down, all-new MacBook Pro sporting a Retina display, Ivy Bridge, and speedy USB 3. We followed that up with a report revealing Apple’s new MacBook Airs and iMacs will both likely include super-high resolution Retina displays. At the time, we reported Apple’s WWDC in June would be expected for at least the unveiling of the new slim MacBook Pro; although, a gradual roll out of Retina iMacs and Airs following the Pros would not be much of a surprise. Apple typically rolls out new Mac features such as higher-res displays gradually.
Following those reports, The Wall Street Journal published a story today quoting analysts who now all seem to agree that we will see upgraded Macs this summer. Ben Reitzes of Barclays Capital claimed the new Retina Mac lineup would debut at WWDC in June:
Reitzes said it is likely the Mac line will feature the retina-display technology used in the iPad, as well as the new Ivy Bridge quad-core processors from Intel Corp. (INTC) He also estimates that Apple’s new operating-system upgrade, called Mountain Lion, and the new MacBook Airs should be on the market before the first Ultrabook laptops with Microsoft Corp.’s (MSFT) Windows 8 operating system hit the shelves in the fall… “We believe recent data reflect a pause ahead of new products, which we believe will be released this quarter in June,” according to Reitzes, who has an overweight rating and $750 target price on Apple’s stock.
Last week, we revealed Apple’s decision to drop Google Maps in iOS 6 in exchange for its own in-house solution branded simply as “Maps.” At the time, we told you many versions of iOS 6 have been floating around Apple’s campus, which indicated Apple is likely on track for a mid-June unveiling at this year’s World Wide Developers Conference. Shortly after, references to an upcoming iOS 6 beta were found in the code strings of the iCloud.com beta website.
One app developer informed us today that it has recently noticed users running iOS 6 using its app. The developer observed the “iOS6” string when collecting the OS version from analytics software. It has not been able to trace exactly when the iOS 6 users started appearing, but it was sometime over the past week. Other developers that we spoke to began seeing hits in late April. There is a good chance that this means Apple is amidst iOS 6 compatibility testing with higher-profile applications from the App Store. The process of next-generation versions of iOS appearing in developer usage logs occurred last year too.
Although Apple’s new Maps app and its 3D mode will likely be pushed as a major feature of iOS 6, we noted previously that anyone anticipating major home screen changes or Android-style widgets will likely be disappointed. Yesterday, The Wall Street Journal reported Apple was preparing to unveil an upgrade to iCloud at WWDC that would include new sharing and commenting features for photos, as well as video syncing capabilities that will likely be the Video Stream feature we told you about last year.
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According to a report from The Wall Street Journal, Apple is about to unveil an upgraded iCloud service at WWDC in June. Citing the usual sources “familiar with the matter,” the report also claimed the features would include new photo-sharing capabilities for sharing and commenting on sets of photos. It also mentioned the ability to sync video to iCloud, which sounds a lot like a Video Stream feature that we mentioned last year. Perhaps this is the reason Phil Schiller no longer needed Instagram?
The new features, expected to be announced at Apple’s world-wide developer conference beginning June 11, will allow iCloud users to share sets of photos with other iCloud users and to comment on them, these people said… Apple is trying to better compete in the red-hot market for photo sharing, dominated by fast-growing online services such as Facebook Inc. and mobile apps like Instagram—which Facebook has agreed to acquire for $1 billion.
We revealed last September that Apple was readying its Find My Friends network. At the time, we reported references to video streams that indicated Apple was likely considering a video syncing/stream feature similar to Photo Stream.
According to the report, Apple is “rolling out new features cautiously” as it worries about the cost of storing large amounts of data, but is also considering increasing the maximum number of photos and albums users can store:
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Apple announced this morning that its 2012 Worldwide Developers Conference is set to take place June 11 at the Moscone Convention Center, but the event’s $1600 tickets are now listed as sold out within two hours of going live. In 2010, it took roughly a week for tickets to sell out, and last year it took about half a day. Tickets were limited to one per person, or five per organization, and are non-transferable and non-refundable.
With the announcement of the 2012 Worldwide Developer Conference today, Apple also opened its Apple Design Awards nomination page for iOS and Mac developers. Apple announced last year that the annual awards would now only apply to Mac and iOS apps residing in the App Store, which appears to be the case this year as well.
Through the website set up for WWDC, developers can sign up and nominate apps for inclusion in the awards. To be considered, the app must be on the App Store or Mac App Store by May 1. Note: Apps that are not nominated can still win an Apple Design Award if they catch Apple’s eye.
Last year’s winners included iPhone apps Infinity Blade, Cut the Rope, and Golfscape GPS Rangefinder, and iPad apps djay for iPad, Osmos, and Our Choice. For Mac developers, apps including Capo, Pixelmator, and Anomaly Warzone Earth took home last year’s awards. At WWDC 2011, Apple also handed out awards to student developers, which will likely happen again—especially given Apple’s new scholarship program for the 2012 event.
Winners will get an Apple Design Award trophy and usually some Apple gear or prizes that have not been announced. Apple broke down the criteria for apps considered for the awards:
Update: Within two hours, Apple has now confirmed that all tickets to WWDC 2012 are sold out.
Apple just announced the June 11 kickoff date for its Worldwide Developer Conference at the Moscone Convention Center. Developers should buy their tickets as soon as possible here. ($1,599 each—Hope your app is doing well!) (Also, do not forget to book your hotel.)
Apple is also offering a scholarship program this year for young developers ages 13 and older:
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“We have a great WWDC planned this year and can’t wait to share the latest news about iOS and OS X Mountain Lion with developers,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing. “The iOS platform has created an entirely new industry with fantastic opportunities for developers across the country and around the world.”
Activities at Apple’s WWDC 2012 include:
Press release follows:
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Yesterday, we reported that Qualcomm announced it was having “trouble meeting demand” for its next-generation chips that would likely find their way into an LTE-enabled iPhone 5. While the announcement was a clear indication that Apple’s rumored October release window was much more likely than talk of a June unveiling at WWDC, Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster agreed and said the new device will be the mother of all hardware upgrades:
“We think one of the big features of iPhone 5 is going to be LTE… when iPhone 4S came out it was obviously the same form factor… this is going to be a big hardware upgrade… this is going to be the year of the hardware… the mother of all upgrades “
Since CNET posted the iPhone 5 story this weekend…
…the iPhone 5 is a “complete redesign. This is a very large project that Steve dedicated all of his time to. He was not that involved in the 4S because his time was limited.”
…we thought it would be a good time to tell you what our sources think happened to the iPhone 5 that some were expecting. We’ve heard from Foxconn managers as well as Apple employees and carrier partners on this and have tried to piece together the full story.
The iPhone 4S as you see it was originally planned to be released at WWDC with iOS 5, like every iPhone before it.
But something happened around February of this year that threw everything off. Apple was still integrating the Siri team and code into iOS and it was going much slower than planned. In February, Apple knew they weren’t going to be able to get an iOS 5 Beta to developers in April and they sure weren’t going to have a stable version by WWDC. They would be lucky to get a final version of Siri into customers’ hands by the holiday shopping season (Siri is currently in Beta in three languages).
At the same time, Apple’s iPhone 5 (teardrop) plans were moving along on or ahead of schedule and the first prototypes were testing well. CNET says that Steve Jobs was overseeing this project which sounds about right.
With mid-October being the earliest possible date of a Siri-fied iOS being ready – with “Apple-levels” of polish –Apple had to look at its options. Would they release the iPhone 4S at WWDC with a modified version of iOS 4? Without Siri and the other iOS 5 improvements, the update might have seemed a little bland to the average customer.
Instead Apple chose a different route.
In a series of PDFs released today (Intro, Site Plan/Landscaping, Floor Plans and Renderings), the City of Cupertino released detailed floor plans of Apple’s 20,000 plus person super-structure.
The building, affectionately dubbed “the Mothership” was announced by Apple CEO Steve Jobs on June 7th, just days after WWDC earlier this year.
Jobs called the new building “a spaceship” and said Apple will use its experience in building retail store masterpieces to construct this “architectural landmark”. Parking underneath, the building would perhaps be used for events like the WWDC – Jobs mentioned that it would have a large auditorium and a single cafeteria [below] that could seat 3,000 at a time.
Cupertino’s Mayor went on record a few weeks later saying “there was no way they weren’t going to approve the deal”.
The massive building’s plans detail the main building and a mostly subterranean adjacent parking structure with Solar roof (below).
Full plans embedded after the break:
Before we even start, obviously this is something that isn’t covered by warranty and may destroy your phone. Once you go to iOS 5, you cant go back. APPLE WILL LIKELY FIX THIS IN AN UPCOMING iOS 5 UPDATE AND YOU WON’T BE ABLE TO USE YOUR DEVICE (until iOS 5 final is released or a developer adds your phone to his or her device list).
Gizmodo posts a video on how to activate an iPhone on iOS without having your device ID provisioned by a developer/Apple. The exploit uses a combination of Voiceover and the pull down notifications to activate the phone. The user that found this exploit says the device continues to work after restarts (so you won’t need to activate it every time you restart). The steps are below:
1. Download the iOS 5 IPSW file from the web (it’s easy and readily available. Just Google it and torrent it down).
2. Update your iPhone using iTunes. To do this, connect your iPhone to your computer, click on the Check for Update button with theOption (Mac) or Shift (PC) key pressed. Select the iOS 5 IPSW file from the place you downloaded it to.
3. Wait until it upgrades. A new activation screen will appear.Activate iOS 5
1. Triple click the home button. This will activate the Voice Over.
2. Triple click the home button and Emergency Call will appear.
3. Click on Emergency Call and, while it’s switching, swipe with your three fingers down.
4. The Notification Center will appear!
5. Click on the Weather widget. The Weather app will load.
6. Click on the home button to exit to the iPhone’s springboard.
TUAW notes that inside the USB device profiles of iOS 5 are profiles for two never before seen devices called “iPad3,1” and “iPad3,2.” Obviosuly Apple is going to be making more iPads in the future and devices often show up in these profiles many months before they are delivered. However, there was some speculation earlier this year that an enhanced iPad 2 or iPad 3 with a Retina display would be released in time for the holidays.
Most analysts currently estimate that the next version of the iPad will hit at the beginning of next year so.
Interestingly, TUAW notes that there are no new iPod touches listed. Touches usually are released in the Fall, but with no new iPhone hardware announced or released at WWDC, Apple’s traditional hardware release schedule has been put in question.
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Image credit: This is my next…
The Mac OS X Lion segment of the WWDC 2011 keynote has just begun. Apple previously previewed some of the features last Fall and on their homepage, including iPad-like Launchpad, full-screen apps, deep multi-touch gestures integration, and Mission Control. There are more than 250 new features in Lion and Apple will be demoing ten today, most of the stuff we’ve seen already.
Go past the fold for an overview of the feaures… We’re updating this story with new capabilities as Phil Schiller reveals them on stage at San Francisco’s Moscone West. For other keynote news, check out the complete WWDC 2011 coverage and follow us @9to5mac.
With five days to go before WWDC, Apple now is the official registrant behind iCloud.com. It appears that there may just be some live iCloud demos in store (shocking, we know). Also, it explains why Apple had to go public about the iCloud.com – the domain registration would have went public beforehand anyhow
