WWDC is set to start Monday with a keynote from Phil Schiller at 10 a.m. PST. Here’s what I think we will see.
Snow Leopard
• A refined GUI - darker, more like iLife ’09.
• A good look at how Exchange integration for iCal, Mail and Address Book will crush Entourage.
• Apple will show a bunch of graphs showing how much faster it is than Leopard.
• A quick tour of 10.6 Server. Expect updates to imaging and push mail/calendars/contacts. Think ‘MobileMe for Companies.’
• An early-October release date.
• Snow Leopard is Intel-only. The sun has set on the PPC era, folks.
iPhone OS 3.0
• We’ll see demos of apps using APIs new to 3.0. A bunch of demos.
• More MobileMe integration.
• Content ratings in the App Store - think G, PG PG–13, etc. Apple will be lifting some of the rules set on developers about offensive content. iPhone users will be able to set what levels of content/apps they will allow on their device. Still no pornographic images in the App Store, though.
• A early July release date, with Beta 6 being shipped this week to developers. $10 upgrade for iPod touch users.
• Additional features tied to the 3rd-gen iPhone (see below).
New iPhone - the ‘iPhone Video’
• Matte, rubbery back. No more shiny, slick plastic like on the 3G.
• Faster processor and more RAM with the same battery life as the 3G.
• Front-facing camera for video chat, but video chat will be Wi-Fi only. Built-in iChat for older models, too, but just for text-based and audio chat.
• Auto-focus camera (front and back)
• Early July release - 6 models. 8GB, 16GB, and 32GB, all in black or white. $149, $249, $349.
• Still AT&T only.
• Maybe a joke or 3 about the Palm Pre.
Other Stuff
• No tablet. No mention of a tablet. No vague mention of a tablet.
• Update to MobileMe - faster iDisk (why doesn’t Apple just buy Dropbox? I mean, come on..), faster web apps, etc.
• Brief update on Steve, who will be back end of the month (Maybe to announce faster notebooks?)