Yesterday at 10:00AM PT Apple kicked off WWDC 2012. For those of you who don’t know this is Apple’s World Wide Developers Conference. In addition to being a resource for Apple developers across the world it’s also been a forum for Apple to announce new products. Five years ago this is where Steve Jobs unveiled the iPhone. Rumors have been rampant about what may or may not be there. Did they debut iOS 6, a whole new MacBook line, will the MacBooks have retina displays, new Apple homegrown maps application? All questions had to wait for the official announcement to find out. Here’s how it went down and after a day of sinking in here are my reactions.
Note: Detailed specs and video of the keynote are available on apple.com.
Macbook Air – Underwhelmed
Highlights include upgraded Ivy Bridge processors up to 2 GHz dual-core i7, upgraded ram up to 8GB, 512 GB of flash storage and USB 3.0 with a 720P FaceTime HD camera. Pricing drops by $100. This is nothing too crazy, just a refresh of hardware to keep up with the times. Still a great little computer though the 11-inch model is too small for me (I’m not quite a fan of laptops that size).
Macbook Pro – Underwhelmed and Overwhelmed
First we were treated to some vanilla hardware upgrades to the Macbook Pro. Ivy Bridge processors up to 2.7 GHz quad-core i7s, up to 8 GB of memory and 60% faster integrated graphics with the option for upgraded separate graphics. USB 3.0 is there too and they claim 7 hours of battery life still. Yes, there are optical drives as well. Interestingly they’ve gotten rid of the 17-inch book. Pricing starts at $1199 for the 13-inch and $1799 for the 15-inch. Hence the underwhelming.
Then they overwhelmed with a new product that they’re still calling the Macbook Pro, this time the next generation. It’s the new notebook that we’ve been expecting. Coming in at 0.71 inches thin (1/4 thinner than current line of pros) and weighing 4.46 lbs this new model sports a retina display at 2880×1800 pixels on a 15.4 inch display. Upgraded specs galore in this model too. Pretty darn exciting. Apple just threw down the gauntlet for competitors and I think we’ve fundamentally changed the laptop display business. It comes at a steep starting price of $2199 which we’ll see drop over the years but it’s a great start into the high-resolution display era of laptops. Note that it has no opticoal drive.
OS X Mountain Lion – Whelmed
I was neither underwhelmed or overwhelmed by their touting of OS X Mountain Lion. It had already been announced so they only focused on a few features. Lots more iCloud integration with syncing apps (nice). I love the fact that they integrated iMessage into the OS. If you get a message on your iPhone or iPad you can answer it right there on your Mac desktop or laptop. Safari is being updated as well to be faster (great – Chrome competition) and have synced tabbed browsing. I’m not so into that because of the way I use Safari windows across multiple devices, I happen to like the differences. There’s airplay mirroring removing the need for that display adapter and HDMI cable (and another reason to spend another $99 on an Apple TV).
They did introduce an interesting new feature called Power nap. The concept behind this is that your Mac will update itself, backup and sync when it’s offline. My jury is still out on this feature. It’s a bit creepy frankly. When my computer is closed I kind of want it off. Maybe the convenience factor will outweigh the creepiness? It’s coming out in July and only costs $19.99 to upgrade (all the back to Snow Leopard). I’m glad I skipped a version. I’m saving $5.
iOS 6 – Overwhelmed
Perhaps the worst kept secret (they let the banners show before the conference) iOS 6 was announced. It’s going to have over 200 new features (don’t worry, I won’t go through them all) and is of course touted to remain the most advanced mobile OS on the planet. There have been some advancements to Siri with upgraded integration with Yelp and others. Apple has partnered with car companies like Toyota, Jaguar, GM and others to put Siri buttons in cars (Siri is going to be everywhere). Most notably is that iOS 6 will bring Siri to the iPad, well only the “new iPad” (3rd generation). It’s a start, but I’m a bit disappointed it’s only available on the current model. I’m still not going to buy a current model, my iPad2 will suffice.
Next up is Facebook integration. It’s going to be done just like what they did with Twitter which I thought was noticeably absent from iOS 5. Maybe it was all part of a plan to boost Facebook stock after its IPO. Greed is good. Right Gordon?
Another cool feature is updating the phone app. It’s not something we really think of. Who actually uses the iPhone as a phone these days anyway? Well they’ve added some new features that will integrate reminders and a do not disturb feature into the phone app. You can reply back to people with message and decide whose calls get through and whose do not. And if you didn’t already think that the voice phone call was dead you might now knowing that you can now FaceTime over the cellular network (pretty cool and a 3rd party app killer).
There was an interesting feature in mail called VIPs sort of like a priority inbox on Gmail. They’ve also made it easier to insert photos and videos into mail – good because I think it lacks today. There’s another new app called Passbook which will integrate all of your passes in one place. Boarding passes, movie tickets, etc. will be stored one place. Today they integrate with United for boarding passes (thank you status on that airline). I think this has big possibilities for the future. Every time I go to the movies or a sporting event I always wonder why I have to print out tickets. One day soon my iPhone will take care of all that.
Last but certainly not least is the updated Maps app. Yup, the rumors are true and Google maps is out and a home grown Apple maps solution is in. build from the ground up it looks like it’ll be a pretty great replacement. The graphics looks great, they’ll still have traffic (anonymously sourced from iOS users of course) and turn by turn directions. The big upgrade here is that turn-by-turn directions will be available on the lock screen. Thank you!!! I’ve been hating how I have to unlock the phone for directions. The pictures I saw of that app looked good. The maps themselves may take some time to get used to but the turn-by-turn looks great right on the screen. There are also 3D maps but I’m going to have to play with that before I make any judgment.
iOS 6 will ship this fall (not soon enough) and supports iPhone 3GS and later, iPad2 and later and the 4th generation iPod touch. All we need now is some new iPhone 5 hardware.
So a pretty good event. I’m excited for iOS 6 and I love the new retina display Mac. What did you think? Rushing out to buy new things?