Tag: Keynote »

Tension is building for the Apple Keynote, an annual event to kick off the 2010 WWDC. Let's take a quick look at the things will will most certainly see, and some that we hope to see.

The Next iPhone

The worst kept secret in Apple history is the next generation iPhone. Most likely called the iPhone HD, this new design has people very divided. It's a more boxy design with an aluminum band around the middle and a ceramic/glass back. Some love the design while others hate it.

What we do know is that it has a higher resolution screen at 640x960 (4x the pixels of previous iPhones). This should provide for crisper text and in general a smoother look. The next iPhone will also apparently have a higher resolution camera on the back with a flash (finally!). The camera is reported to be an 8 MP camera that also does 720p HD video recording.

The big addition will be a front facing camera to enable video chat. This will, I'm sure, be a big impressive demo on Monday.

There are also, likely, things we don't know yet about the new iPhone. The device we've seen all over the place is likely holding some secrets back for Monday. There has been talk of the back responding to touch as well as the front. That could be interesting yet I struggle to figure out how it would be used.

Let's hope there are some secrets. Otherwise it will be really hard to Steve to present the new iPhone with his usual 'proud father' new device presentation style.

OS 4

We already know about OS 4, but there reportedly quite a few tidbits that we don't know about yet. Besides the release date of the final, there are likely features of the OS that we don't know yet.

In addition, we don't know how or when it will arrive on the iPad. If there are any iPad specific features, we'll hopefully hear about those on Monday.

Heading for the clouds

It's no secret that Apple has been working on cloud services for the iPhone and more broadly iTunes. The have been building a huge new data center on the east coast to support it. But the undertaking is huge. And I expect the keynote will be mainly focused on the iPhone.

Apple is rumored to be holding another event in June that might introduce cloud services and other such interesting services.

Mac Mini / Macbook Air / Desktop Macs

MacRumors is reporting supply shortages for the MacMini. This is generally an indication that a new version is coming. The timing seems logical that we might see updates to the MacMini and the rather aging Macbook Air and Desktop Macs.

Personally I think it's just about as likely that Apple will turf the Macbook Air as update it. Differences aside, the iPad has taken the glory of the small form factor away.

Apple TV

This hobby project is getting really old now. Theories are that Apple will be releasing an update, this time based on the iPhone OS, not OSX. This would be a fantastic feature as it would open the platform to all of the iPhone OS apps. Apps for TV! This would compete directly with Google TV. The question is, is this a good business to be in?

While I'd like to think that we'll see this Monday, I think it might be too early. But you never know.

We know one thing, this should be a very huge keynote. While we know a lot, we don't know everything. The questions that remain and possibilities are huge.

Check back Monday, we'll give you a few live blogs you can reference to follow the latest info from the keynote. In addition, we'll tweet a few of the highlights at @148Apps and post a full recap and commentary sometime after the event.

[ image credit: Engadget ]

If you’re using Apple’s Keynote app for iPad you’ll be exited to hear that new template options now exist outside of the default themes that come with the presentation app. iPresentee has announced the launch of its Keynote Themes for iPad pack that includes 33 themes designed specifically for the iPad. Priced at $25, users need to have a Mac and a copy of iWork ’09 in order to use the theme pack which can be purchased from the iPresentee website.

All of the themes included in the pack are available in both 1024x768 and 800x600 pixel dimensions and can be used on the iPad as well as the desktop version of Keynote. If you’re already making use of your iPad as a presentation device, this great set of templates is definitely worth considering. We’ve included a gallery showing off some of these exciting new themes below.

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We'll be blogging live from the 2009 WWDC Keynote (come on new iPhone!). Powered by Friendfeed, you can watch the news here, or head on over directly to our special group set up on Friendfeed: WWDC 2009 Keynote Group. If you have a Friendfeed account you can comment and join in on the conversation.

Come Monday morning at 10am Pacific time, Phil Schiller will hit the stage at WWDC to put and end to all of the rumors about the next iPhone. We hope so anyway. I hope that a new iPhone, or maybe multiple iPhones, will be unveiled then. We know that at least OS 3.0 will be discussed heavily.

What features will the next iPhone have? Higher resolution camera? Video capabilities? More memory? There are so many rumors that it's hard to keep up. There have been a few very interesting and convincing looking rumors the last couple days.

We'll also, hopefully, get some more details on OS 3.0 and it's release date.

I'll be at the keynote on Monday and I'll try to tweet the major announcements to our Twitter stream (@148apps). If Twitter fails under the load, we'll move over to our Friendfeed stream. Scratch all that. After further testing, I think the best option is going to be a special FriendFeed group, set up and ready to go with details right here.

You can still get in on our Design The Next iPhone Contest with some great prizes from Griffin Technology. The first prize is valued at an amazing $210. Hurry up though, the entries close at 9am on Monday!

This should be a good keynote!

Well, the keynote is over and no significant iPhone news. No significant news at all, really. Quick roundup: new 17" MacBook Pro, new iWork, new iLife, DRM free iTunes music.

The only iPhone related news had to do with other products mainly. First, there are some new slideshow formats you can sync to the iPhone from the updated iPhoto. Whoop-tee-do! Second, all songs in the iTunes Music Store will be DRM free by the end of this quarter (that's March 31st to you and me). And there will be variable pricing (you know -- all the songs you want will cost more while the ones you don't want will cost less). And finally there will be a Keynote Remote app available for the iPhone. While these are great and wonderful things to some, to me it's just meh...

Where's the iPhone Nano? Were the case manufacturers just playing with us?

Where's the notification service? You know, the one that we were told would launch in September 2008? The one that was in the iPhone SDK, then pulled? Where's iChat for the iPhone?

But most importantly, where is MMS? Every $9 phone has that now. Why doesn't the most advanced phone in the world have it? I bet that new Palm to be announced tomorrow will have it.

I guess we'll have to just keep waiting for these things. Apple always does things on their own time schedule. But, come on! Please, Steve? Or Phil? Or anyone? Pretty please? Or maybe, I will look at that new palm? I wonder how many apps you can load on that device?

The 2009 Macworld Expo is just a week away and Tom and I will both be canvasing the place for interesting iPhone news. If any app developers or hardware folks would like to meet up with us while we are there and give us a preview of what you're working on, give us a shout.

This will be my first Macworld Expo -- I've been stuck at CES for the past 5 years. Tom is a veteran and will be showing me around.

We'll also be very proud to announce the winners of the 2009 Best App Ever Awards on Wednesday at the MacWorld Expo. We'll be announcing the nominees tomorrow with voting open until 1/6/2009 for the winners.

Will we see the iPhone Nano, a new Apple consumer product of some sort, or, as usual, walk away all disappointed with nothing but meager product updates? We'll find out next week as the keynote kicks off the Expo on Tuesday morning.