WWDC 2008: What We Know So Far
June 8th, 2008

Its fair to say that most readers, even recent switchers, are familiar with the secrecy that surrounds Apple product launches. Not only that, but there are strong suspicions that Apple also feeds the rumor mill with fake information so that in the rare situation official details are leaked, you can never be quite certain of their validity. With this in mind, we will take a look at what can be expected at Apple’s World Wide Developers Conference in San Francisco at the beginning of next week.

Apple’s promotional material for WWDC carries the slogan: “A landmark event. In more ways than one.” Clearly there will be two major announcements at the expo, the first being the unveiling of the iPhone 2.0. However, the precise nature of the second major announcement isn’t as clear. There has been speculation that Apple will unveil Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard, essentially a maintenance release that will focus on performance and reliability rather than adding new features. While there will be an update to Leopard at the expo, it will be more minor and focus on adding support for new products announced at the expo, retaining support for both Intel and PowerPC based Macs.

The iPhone has been a phenomenal global success, not just in its official markets. We’ve put together a convenient list of current and future carriers here. However, there are several main areas in which it has received consistent criticism, including lack of 3G connectivity, a poor quality camera and missing standard functionality such Bluetooth A2DP. Apple will remedy these issues in the upcoming model. Additionally, Apple will open the previously announced iPhone application store on the 9th.

The iPhone 2.0 will be 3G. Examination of leaked firmware for the unreleased phone has revealed that Apple will continue to use Infineon chips, with a PMB8878, supporting tri-band HSDPA downstream speeds of up to 7.2Mbps and camera resolutions of up to 5MP, at the core of the iPhone. This will not only solve the problem of slow download speeds, but will also allow users to browse the internet without their phone appearing engaged. Sony and Skyworks have been reported on other websites to also be chip suppliers. We currently have no reliable information in relation to video conferencing.

Additionally, the iPhone will gain A-GPS functionality using a Broadcom GPS chip. Working along side the existing location system, the chip will allow geo-tagging of photos taken on the iPhone’s new 3MP camera (which is expected to have image quality on par with competing phones this time round, including auto-focus, a xenon flash and support for video at the screen’s native resolution) and basic GPS navigation, with more advanced TomTom style navigation expected to come via third party applications soon after launch.

The second landmark announcement will be a complete overhaul of Apples .Mac web services platform. Very little is known about the exact nature of the new features, but it will coincide with the launch of the iPhone due to the tight integration between the two. Over the air syncing of bookmarks, calendars, notes and contacts can be expected, along with enhancements to the inbuilt Mac OS X applications to take advantage of the new functionality. However, the focus at the conference will be on how developers can further integrate their applications on both the Mac and the iPhone with .Mac. Apple is also expected to offer a cut down version of .Mac priced at US$50 per year which will support syncing, email and developer functionality, but lack any significant online file storage and other extras.

That sums up our predictions based on what we have heard around the web and from our own sources. This article will be updated if new information comes to light, and discussion is welcome below.

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