Mac Corner: Rumors swirl about the upcoming worldwide Apple developers conference   

  
By Larry Grinnell, Palm Beach Phoenix Apple Users Group

larry grinnellEvery year, usually in June, Apple hosts a huge conference to support the developer community. The role of this conference has changed slightly over the last few years to include support of the iPods, iPads, iPhones, and other non-Macintosh devices that have emerged from the talented minds of the Apple hardware and operating system developers.

This conference is designed to be Apple’s showcase of the latest tools and technologies for the third party software and hardware developer communities. It has been the launching pad of new SDKs (software development kits), which are CDs and DVDs loaded with all the information developers need to write software or design hardware that works with Apple products.

It’s also a grand stage for Apple CEO Steve Jobs to show off the latest in Apple technology to an appreciative audience. Last year, the iPhone 3GS was launched at WWDC. In the past, a number of other products and software have been introduced, including several iterations of Mac OS X, and iPhone OS 3.0.

This week (this article was written on June 6), San Francisco’s Moscone Center hosts another WWDC. According to some of the rumor sites, here are a few probable highlights and a few things conspicuously absent:

Mac OS X 10.7 — a likely no-show. Apple’s too busy with their huge suite of mobile devices, so we might not hear about the next major release of the Mac OS until next February’s Macworld Expo.

In another piece of evidence of Apple’s schizophrenic nature is the complete absence of an IT conference track of presentations and seminars. It’s not so much that Apple has abandoned the enterprise (again), but that the need for new conference tracks for their growing mobile device suite, and the rapidly growing number of developers who want and need to know how to write software the right way for these devices.

Enough of the “bad” news. Here’s some interesting and potentially “good” stuff that will probably be announced during Steve Jobs’ keynote address:

iPhone OS 4.0. Announced last April, the next major iteration of the iPhone operating system includes multitasking for the first time, the ability to group applications in folders, and a much-improved email client including a unified inbox that shows all of your email accounts in one window. Owners of the original 1.0 iPhones need not apply. The processor in the original iPhone is simply not powerful enough.

iPhone 4.0: The rumored next-gen iPhone is supposed to be announced during Steve’s keynote. This new phone has generated a lot of controversy and a lot of lawsuits—threatened or real, due to various prototypes getting “out into the wild” by careless Apple employees and others trying to take advantage of having a prototype in their hot little hands.  The folks at Gizmodo.com, based on taking this prototype apart (before Apple’s lawyers demanded the phone’s return), identified some big changes:

Most likely AT&T will still be the sole supplier.

Of course, by the time you read this, the news should be out — unless Steve decides to hold the introduction just because one of the units leaked (he’s done it before).

The rumor pages also predict new speed bumped MacBooks and iMacs. The iPod Touch may get a camera ad a processor upgrade.

These are just a few of the rumors, and anyone who professes to be a Mac fan boy loves reading about the latest rumors from their favorite technology company.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Readers are welcome to comment on this or any Mac Corner columns by visiting the Palm Beach Phoenix blog as well as by writing the editor of Palm Beach Business.com.

Mac Corner runs every Wednesday only in Palm Beach Business.com. Click to read the previous column.

About Larry Grinnell: Larry has been working with Macintosh and Windows PCs for over 25 years and worked as a senior technical writer and IT support professional for a major midwest-based consumer electronics and telecommunications equipment manufacturer here in South Florida. His musings on a wide variety of topics from computers to jazz guitar to strange foreign cars from the 1950s can be viewed at the MyMac.com website. Click here to reach him by email.

palm beach phoenix logoWriters of this column are members of the Palm Beach Phoenix Apple User Group, a nonprofit organization for Apple Computing Device Users, recognized by Apple Inc., with the purpose of providing educational training and coaching to its members (students, professionals and seniors alike) in a cordial social environment. The club meets the second Saturday (1-4 p.m.) and fourth Wednesday (6-8 p.m.) of each month at the Fire Station #2, 4301 Dixie Highway in West Palm Beach (just two block south of Southern Boulevard). Click here to visit their website. Click here to reach them by email.

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