WWDC 2010: The Good The Bad, and the Meh
As with all big Apple events, I once again find people turning to me for my opinion on the announcements from Apple’s 2010 WWDC. Honestly I can’t blame them, as my opinion is often the only correct one when it comes to such things. I seem to have the uncanny ability to cut through the hype with laser beam-like precision, and somehow categorize the day’s events into one of three categories: Good, Bad, and Meh. Here’s how the WWDC broke down.
The Good
iPhone 4. Yes, iPhone 4, NOT iPhone 4G. With this update I believe the iPhone may finally have everything we initially expected the FIRST iPhone to have three years ago. I’m glad to see the addition of the LED flash, although I am not one of those people who feels a cell phone is a replacement for a real digital camera, nor do I expect to use the video chat features as I do not know anyone who will have an iPhone 4 who I feel the need to see when I talk to (with the possible exception of some future Mac Chicks). But I do love the much nicer screen, the iPad’s guts crammed inside, the larger battery, the HD video and the fact that the white model somehow doesn’t look nearly as effeminate as the previous model. The release date of June 24th is also awesome (so close to Father’s Day, Hint Hint), as I was the first one to call it.
iOS 4. Apple appears to be on a little bit of a rebranding spree, and the iPhone’s operating system is heretofore to be called iOS 4 (presumably until iOS 5 comes out). I’m sure there are some things a few nitpickers can still gripe about, but to be honest it appears iOS 4 has more or less everything I ever jailbroke my iPhone for. If anyone cites “lack of Flash” as a missing feature at this point, you’re an asshole. Give it up.
iMovie for iPhone. This looks about as good as handheld video editing can get, which is not saying much, but it still looks like for the patient and reasonably adroit, this could signal the dawn of a new era of horrible, pointless videos made by young, untalented people documenting every pointless event of their boring lives, and then putting it on YouTube. Why is that cool? Well, it’s in HD, and just about everything is watchable in HD.
Safari 5. While not an official keynote announcement, Apple appears to have released Safari 5. Without actually having downloaded it yet I can’t be sure, but it appears to be a good thing. It’s faster, has a new “reader” view (not sure of the real benefit to that), oodles of new HTML 5 features, and most importantly, EXTENSIONS, so we can finally make Safari as slow and bloated as other browsers. I’m actually surprised Apple isn’t shipping Safari 5 with a Flash Blocking Extension by default.
iBooks gets some updates. I don’t use iBooks on my iPad, so I doubt I’ll be using it on my iPhone, but BOOM! There it is in the iPhone iOS 4. It’s cool that it can sync your purchases and progress between devices, and the ability to read PDFS is nice, if for no other reason than it will stop some people from bitching.
The Meh
iAds is coming along. I know, I know, I put iAds in the MEH category before and some people told me I was crazy, but I’m sorry, I just can’t get too excited about ads, not matter how cool they are (and to be honest, they look about as cool as the annoying Flash ads we all try to block now, they just don’t use Flash). Anyway, if you are a developer looking to make some coin, hopefully iAds will live up to the hype.
FaceTime video conferencing. Despite Apple’s amazingly well picked, pull-at-your-heart-strings moments it chose to showcase the new video conferencing capabilities of the iPhone 4, the actual times I would ever use this in daily life are few and far between, and will be even fewer and farther in betweener until someone I actually know gets an iPhone 4. But for some reason it is something people have either wanted or assumed they should have for years, so I am glad to see it finally arrive. However, as faithful Macenstein reader Jonro points out, “they have video chat in Europe. What’s wrong with using an existing standard?” I’m not sure why Apple chose to create its OWN standard, although I assume it because that’s what they like to do, but they did make it open source, so hopefully it will catch on and we’ll have the option of possibly even chatting with NON-iPhone users in the future.
The Bad
iPhone 4 only goes up to 32 GB?!?! – This is borderline insane, especially given that the new iPhone 4 is being touted as the be-all end-all handheld HD video recorder/editor. I currently have the 32 GB iPhone 3G S, and granted I have a ton of crap on mine to review, including 3 Navigation apps each weighing in around 2 GB, but still, I am close to running out space, and a bump to 64 GB would have made the decision to upgrade a little easier (although it’s still pretty damn easy).
Apple pretty much announces the Mac platform is dead. Well, Apple didn’t so much come out and announce this as they didn’t come out and announce ANYTHING that didn’t have to do with their handheld devices. Oh well. At this point Mac developers are used to being treated as second class citizens.
Conclusion
So, that’s it. All in all a pretty sweet event for iPhone aficionados, and also a sweet day for anyone who doesn’t yet own an iPhone, and who wants to buy my 3G S. Let me know how right I am in the comments.
“If anyone cites “lack of Flash” as a missing feature at this point, you’re an ASSHOLE. Give it up, ASSHOLE.”
“I’m actually surprised Apple isn’t shipping Safari 5 with a Flash Blocking Extension by default.” There’s always ClickToFlash – I never realized how much I hated Flash until I got the option to not load the crap with ClickToFlash.
I wanted one thing today; iPhone on Verizon. I have been patiently waiting, using a crappy phone, but ABSOLUTELY REFUSING to switch to AT&T. I want to be the Apple fanboy, but I can’t do AT&T. My contract with Verizon is up and means new phones this month. I might have to sport a Droid.
Damn I wanted the iPhone.
@Killer they’re doing the next best thing in Safari 5 – the Reeder functionality will dim out ANYTHING on the page that isn’t the story table. that includes adsense, banner ads, etc. pretty subtle of you think about it.
i still think the IPhone 4 is coming to verizon. all they have to do is replace the metal banding strip with a CDMA antenna… i’m holding off my purchase till January and getting an iPad now – and if it actually does go to verizon, i might stick with at&t anyway. i just want the option.
imagine if none of these leaks prior to the event occurred. if the gizmodo and viatamese leaks never happened, if the mobile repair guys didn’t get their hands on the extra parts. this would’ve been an AMAZING update. 4x pixel density? 720p HD? front facing camera using only the telephone number? A4 chip?
it’s really a shame that the leaks occurred. i guess that’s what happens when there is so much excitement for a product. i really doubt anyone would give a f*ck if the HTC incredible evo droid nexus 14 (coming August 2010 ) production frame was leaked.
i wouldnt go and make the comment about mac being dead. their OS is right on par with the likes of windows and will be for some time. they have mentioned after releasing snow leopard that we wouldnt be seeing any substantial OS upgrades any time soon. that was in part probably to work on the ipad and whatever else is going on, but they kinda bought some time with snow leopard being how good it is.
Doc, I was expecting 64gigs as well! I waited two years to upgrade from 16 gigs to…. 32?! wtf. Still upgrading, but if they release a 64gig version next year, i won’t wait again. My first iPod back in 2005 had 64 gigs. C’mon apple! Why aren’t we up to 128 gigs as the base standard yet??
I agree with Joe. I haven’t found much things in Snow Leopard that I could improve, and I’m hard pressed to come up with new features to add…
Snow Leopard rocks – and Apple knows it.
The area where Apple has been slacking off is in computer hardware. Really wish they could have some better hardware – or AT LEAST keep up with the competition.
iBooks could be in the meh, other than that, you’re spot on.
Good summary (as usual) but the Mac platform isn’t dead 😉 they still need it so developer can create iPhone/iPad apps! Apple won’t earn money in the future if they degrade Mac users! Wait until the next event (or silent updates)!
All very true..
They really went on about the video chat feature.
At the moment I won’t imagine using it but a few good friends have iPhone so I reckon it could be seriously useful; most of all the back camera chat thing so I oculd show my friends somethoing…
Also the iMovie feature was fucking awesome.
Still waiting on widgets and a better alert system. I’d love to be able to glance at my phone to see weather and notifications and not sift through six different apps.
But I’ll still probably buy it.
I was also waiting for 64 GB memory, but maybe they did the right thing; increasing battery size ?
White is “effeminate”? Cut the gender role stereotyping “doctor.” It makes YOU look like the asshole.
Otherwise, good article.
The Mac is dead because it wasn’t mentioned?
What kind of ridiculous deduction is this?
When the unibody enclosure was introduced with much
ado, did anyone figure there were no more upgrades to
the iDevices in the wings?
iFluff is “nice to have”. At the end of the day it’s my MBP
that pulls its weight… every – single – day!
I believe Apple’s new “FaceTime” Opensource standard is enable future Video Chat across all devices. Imagine chatting with your kids using an iphone while they use an ipad or a mac or pc with “Facetime” Application. I would love that. and that is definately a big leap over simple “Phone to Phone Video Chat”
Wait, mac’s dead? Does that include MacBook Pro? MacBook? I don’t think they have been sleeping on the job with these wonderful laptops. I have two MacBook Pros and love them!
@Eric,
I am hooked on LockInfo (http://lockinfo.ashman.com/). There’s this great thing called “jailbreaking” that fixes pretty much all of the feature issues that people have had with the iPhone for a long time now … but shhhh, don’t tell Apple!
iPhone operating system will henceforth be known as iOS4. Heretofore would indicate “up until now,” not “from here on out.” I agree with the 32 gigs not being sufficient. Having recently started downloading tv seasons from iTunes, I want more room to pack crap onto this device! Bummer 🙁
“Only 32GB???” Macenstein your a greedy f. Look what your getting for $300. U keep carrying ur 720p video camera, ipod, regular camera, laptop, ipad all in your pocket.
oh and FaceTime is bada$$!
“the actual times I would ever use this in daily life are few and far between”
can you show less enthusiasm? wow man, the amount of things i can imagine to use that for make me want that feature more now.
“Mac platform dead”?
What you want a 6 hour keynote speech? Jobs could only talk about 9 new features. All of which had the crowd cheering.
I want it. Not getting it. Lack of 64GB is ridiculous, for a next-gen product. And I’m sure as hell not gonna get the 32GB device to find out a 64GB is right around the corner. My 3GS will suffice as it’ll do most things the 4 will, until such time as I’m ready.
For the FaceTime ad I wish they would have used a real life experience, like me trying to walk my wife through the process of hooking up an iPod to a speaker without a visual on what she was talking about when she mentioned the “yellow and black thingy”. Not to sound sexist, this conversation honestly went down last week and I remember thinking, “I wish I had a freaking camera right now”!