WWDC 2010 has come and gone and the biggest announcement from the show was certainly the iPhone 4. The device had been rumored for months and was finally made official at the show. The real reason for the show wasn’t solely to introduce the new iPhone 4, but to give developers some training.
If you are registered as an Apple Developer, you can now download the session videos from WWDC 2010 free of charge in both HD and SD formats. The videos cover all the session that were given at WWDC.
If you aren’t registered as a developer with Apple, you won’t be able to get the videos. I guess you could register as a developer just to get the videos. Registration is free for the developer program at Apple.
Having formed one of Steve Jobs’ nine key points about the new iPhone 4 this past Monday, Apple’s Retina Display technology has been making headlines again today over claims that they are “false marketing”. Wired spoke to Dr. Raymond Soneira, president of DisplayMate Technologies, who disagreed with Apple’s suggestion that Retina Display, exceeded the “300 pixels per inch” quoted for an average eye. Soneira – though agreeing that the iPhone 4’s display was likely to be the best smartphone screen on the market – converted 20/12 angular resolution to the linear resolution of a display, and came up with a figure of 477 pixels per inch at 12-inches, significantly higher than the iPhone 4’s 326ppi. Since there are some big claims all round here, SlashGear spoke to Dr. William H.A. Beaudot, Ph.D. of Kybervision Consulting, a visual sciences expert with 20 years experience in the research and computer vision field. Dr. Beaudot told us that part of the confusion here is from the mistaken belief that 20/20 vision is “perfect”, but that even at higher limits of visual acuity, Apple’s claims still hold water.
For instance, despite popular thinking, normal visual acuity is not in fact 20/20 – the ability to discriminate two points separated by one-sixtieth of a degree (or 1 arc minute) – but, at its maximum, around 20/16 to 20/12. In fact 20/20 is at the lower limit of regular acuity. Taking that lower limit and working out the visual angle of 1 arc minute from a foot away gets you a roughly 89 micrometer dot, or 286.5dpi.
Dr. Soneira bases his calculations on the angular resolution of the eye being 50 cycles per degree (cpd), which in more familiar terms is 20/12; Dr Beaudot pointed out to us that this is pretty much the maximum theoretical resolution of the human eye. In terms of range, 20/20 vision is equivalent to 30 cpd. Based on holding your phone at the average distance – that is, around 18-inches away from your face – at 50 cpd the Retina Display’s 326ppi matches the visual acuity of the 20/12 eye. Dr Beaudot told us that Apple’s claims about Retina Display basically remain valid – in fact get stronger – for any viewing distances beyond 10-inches (and limited to a reasonable near reading distance, around 20-inches or arm-length).
We asked Dr. Beaudot (who produced retina models used to make silicon retinas for computer vision and prosthetics, among other things) whether Retina Display was really as close to human retina resolution as Apple suggest, and he told us that “this is the closest thing ever done in display technology that matches [the eye's resolution].” That resolution is naturally limited by the spacing between photoreceptors in the retina at its densest point, the fovea at the center, which can reach at most 60 cpd; the iPhone 4’s maximum 50 cpd at 18-inches is not far off that theoretical limit of the “perfect” eye.
Both experts agree that the iPhone 4’s display delivers the best visuals in a mobile device to-date; these new figures suggest you’d not just need 20/20 but also truly “perfect” vision to differentiate pixels in normal use. Every iPhone may come with 960 x 640 resolution, but every eye is different. In the end, the proof of the pudding is in the iPhone 4 experience; something we can ourselves confirm is incredibly impressive from our hands-on earlier this week.
At the Apple worldwide developer’s conference, Steve Jobs talked about a lot of numbers at onstage. Apple talked about the 29% US market share of the smart phone market that the iPhone has achieved. Apple discussed the 58% market share of mobile Web browsing that it now has. Apple even talked about their 22% marketshare in e-books. The most important number, however, that Apple talked about so was 100 million. That’s how many iOS devices are in the market as of this month. That’s significant and it shows what Apple’s long-term platform play is all about. Hint, it’s no longer about the personal computer, at least the personal computer as we know it.
The very iOS name is significant. Think about it. When the iPhone was introduced Apple pointed out that this was just another iteration of OS X optimized for a phone. Over time, it became known as the iPhone OS and as of WWDC it now has name of its own. That’s because iOS is a platform play and I believe this is the future that Apple is betting on. Betting on big time. In a world of connected devices and screens, phones are only one part of the equation.
Sure, Apple has 29% of the US smartphone market and that’s not trivial and it is important. While no vendor is likely to achieve the dominant position in the smartphone space that Microsoft achieved with their desktop PC operating system, Apple has shown that it doesn’t need to do that. If Apple can maintain a 30 to 40% market share in the phone business and at the same time maintain a strong position in the tablet business and of course the hand-held pocket-sized tablet that we call the iPod touch, Apple can successfully leverage iOS as the next-generation platform for connected devices. With Apple, it’s not about three screens and a cloud but rather multiple screens and connected services within an applications ecosystem that’s leveraged across each device.
At the D8 conference, Steve Jobs compared the PC to a truck. A useful vehicle for sure, but one that fewer and fewer people need each year even though there’s still a market for them. It appears Apple’s goal is to make the PC something they’ll continue to build for those who need them but over time attempt to shift the market away from both Macintosh and Mac OS as well as Windows and Windows PCs as well. I note that this years developer’s conference was the first one that I can recall where was no mention of Mac OS at all. Not a single slide, not a single update on the OS or Mac market. Nothing at all at the keynote. That wasn’t an accident. (in the past, even when OS X was off WWDC from a dev cycle, it still received pretty prominent exposure). This year, it’s all been about was all about iOS and iOS devices and the developer story behind them.
Apple iPhone 4 hands-on:
While I normally don’t speculate on Apple products, one can actually get a pretty good idea where Apple is moving. We’ve heard rumors over the last few weeks of the new version of Apple TV built upon iOS. That’s looking more and more like a likely next product and I expect it could be introduced as early as next fall at the annual iPod refresh. Given the goal of a connected, next generation device platform it’s also easy to understand why Apple might view Google as a greater competitive threat than old rival Microsoft.
While Microsoft talks about multiple connected screens, Windows is a PC platform and Windows Phone a smartphone platform. There’s no unified model, architecture or evangelism to tie those products and services together just yet. Google on the other hand has articulated a similar strategy for Android, a platform for phones, tablets, TVs, netbooks and every other non-PC device. Expect to see more clashes in the months ahead between Cupertino and Mountain View and more companies to look to Microsoft as the new Switzerland for alliances and partnerships (Apple in fact did announce a Microsoft partnership at WWDC and the Bing search engine is now an option on iOS and Safari)
I think we’re seeing a bold strategy in play. A recognition that the PC vs. Mac is a battle for the last century not this one. By marginalizing the personal computer, including Macintosh, Apple sets the stage for where the real battle of the future is and what life might look like in a post-PC world.
I thought there would be far more rumors leading up to Apple’s World Wide Developer’s Conference. After all, the big story had already been blown, which left a lot of room open for speculation. Besides, a number of significant Apple products are due for an update, right?
Macrumors runs an Apple buyer’s guide where they track the lifecycle of Apple’s key products. A few of Apple’s products haven’t been updated in a long time, longer than their usual average. But some are approaching record period of stagnation.
M.I.A.: The Mac Pro, Apple’s headless desktop machine, hasn’t been updated in 462 days. That’s a half year longer than its average, and the longest period the Pro machine has gone without an update since, well, the last update. From 2002 on, the machine was updated every six months or so; now it’s been well over a year, with only 2 updates in the last 3 years.
Of course this is a sign of the changing marketplace. Desktops are less popular than laptops. Professional desktops are much less popular than less expensive consumer machines, especially a machine like the iconic iMac. Besides, Apple has quite a few other meals on its plate. But if the Mac Pro was going to updated anywhere, it should be at the WWDC, the best spot to reach developers, right?
That’s not how Apple does things these days. It was sad to see Apple pull out of the venerable Macworld conferences, effectively killing the interest of most journalists in IDG’s trade show. Apple doesn’t even need a trade show keynote, as the company hosts numerous events in San Francisco every year to announce new products. The journalists and analysts will show up. Even if the most exciting product is a refreshed iPod nano with a video camera, we’ll show up, without even knowing what we’re about to see.
Unless there’s a major redesign for the Mac Pro case, Apple will launch the next model with a press release. With a professional unit like this, the most exciting stuff is happening on the inside. USB 3.0, new system bus architectures, better graphics, improved power management and cooling, none of these things are especially photogenic, so Apple can launch them with an e-mail and a new page on its home Web site.
I don’t think we’ve seen the end of the Mac Pro or the headless desktop, but I do think we’ve seen the end of the Mac Pro making a keynote appearance.
M.I.A.: The MacBook Air was last updated a year ago. The Air is a strange bird. Full disclosure: I bought a first generation Air when it was released. I needed to replace a dead laptop. A netbook wasn’t powerful enough for the light Photoshop and video editing tasks I perform, but I was also going to be traveling more. The Air was a great fit. After about seven months, I realized it wasn’t powerful enough for me to be productive, but I still use it often.
The Air has a nebulous market. It’s much too expensive to be an extravagant impulse buy, like many netbooks. It’s more powerful than an iPad by far, but it’s also the least powerful computer running Apple’s Mac OS X. Even the Mac Mini is faster. With the economy in the tank, it would be a tough time to introduce an entirely new redesign for the Air. It wouldn’t generate the momentum needed for the Air to take off. Apple likes to release a product and then, a few months or even weeks later, brag about sales results. That wouldn’t happen with a new MacBook Air.
The MacBook Air will eventually get a processor boost. I’d like to think it will get an Intel Core i3 chip, but I’d bet Apple will stick with the lower power Core 2 Duo’s for a while and milk the battery life stats for all their worth. It won’t be worth a keynote appearance except as a sideshow. Again, Apple could launch this product with a press release and be done with it.
M.I.A.: The Apple TV hasn’t been updated in . . . wait, has it ever been updated? There was a minor interface update. There was a slight storage boost. Other than that, nothing. The Apple TV is the worst Apple product I’ve ever owned, and I’m embarrassed that I bought one. It’s buggy and unreliable, it clogs my network, and I’ve never settled in for a nice Saturday night watching a movie on the Apple TV that didn’t end with cursing and multiple restarts.
Steve Jobs hates television. The Apple TV has always been, as Jobs said, a hobby, and I wonder who whined and cried until Jobs agreed to release this little white gremlin. Steve Jobs wants to create products that are active and engaging, not passive and sedentary. The iPod is for jogging and traveling. That’s why it has Nike software built in. The iMac is about creativity, that’s why it comes with photo, video and music making software, and nothing to help watch television.
Every good Windows machine ships with a solid TV tool on board in Windows Media Center. You can watch and record TV on your Windows machine, if you can figure out how to attach your coaxial cable. On the Mac, there are a few third party options, and the Apple TV even has an HDMI output, but Apple’s TV strategy has been a confused mess.
That’s why so many people fell for the recent Apple TV rumor, that it would become an iPhone-sized device running iPhone OS (now iOS4). Preposterous. First of all, there’s the storage size limits. There’s the problem of cannibalizing iPod touch sales, which are significant, even among Apple’s iPod / iPhone families.
Mostly, though, Steve Jobs hates TV, and the last thing he wants is to sell you a device that lets you watch more TV, then take it to your friends house so they can share in the TV watching experience. Steve Jobs doesn’t want your butt on a couch unless your hands are also moving. He certainly doesn’t want you to proselytize sedentary TV viewing with a device that makes it more portable. Not to mention the sheer inelegance of having to find the inputs on every TV you want to connect to such a device.
The Apple TV never made much sense for Apple, anyway. Apple likes to enter an established product category and make a device that has fewer features, but performs them in the most elegant way possible. There were already a few good TV boxes on the market, but it wasn’t established, and by the time Apple TV hit the scene, the DVR market was already being strangled by cable providers roping customers in with cheap, built-in software.
When the FCC resolves these silly CableCard issues and it’s just as easy for customers to buy a third party product as it is to use their existing cable box, Apple might do more with the Apple TV. Until then, I expect some minor interface polish, maybe a storage bump, ad nauseum.
M.I.A.: That weird Magic Trackpad accessory. Of all the strange rumors I’ve heard leading up to an Apple event, this one caught me the most off guard. It’s a completely new product for Apple, and very few manufacturers promote trackpad accessories. After all, a desktop comes with a mouse, and a laptop comes with a trackpad. But of all the rumors I heard, this one made the most sense and would have had the greatest effect.
Apple has a serious fragmentation problem that is holding back the potential of its laptop line. Multitouch is a great technology, but only laptops support it. Adobe went through multiple generations of Photoshop before it supported multi-touch, which is just ridiculous because multitouch gestures make the most sense on the programs in Adobe’s Creative Suite. Multitouch would be great in any number of apps, from productivity software like Excel to games to graphics software and so on.
Imagine if Apple provided a trackpad with every iMac? Not instead of a mouse, but separate from it. Perhaps it would confuse some users, but developers might take notice and start developing better multitouch gesture support into their apps. Thus, the best place to launch such a peripheral, and to give one away to every person in the audience, would have been the World Wide Developer’s Conference.
Sure, Apple’s desktop share is tiny compared to much larger, enterprise-oriented rivals, but its developers are a vocal and influential group. Multitouch support will be everywhere eventually. Apple just missed an opportunity to give the tech a push.
Keen to live through the whole iPhone 4 event again, only this time with visuals? If our liveblog wasn’t enough to sate your Apple desires, you’ll be pleased to hear that the full WWDC 2010 keynote video is now available to watch on-demand through the Apple site.
Lasting around two hours in all, the demo covers everything from iPad sales stats, the latest features of the newly-christened iOS4, and then of course is dominated by Apple’s fourth-generation iPhone. Steve runs through nine key iPhone 4 features, including Retina Display and the new camera functionality.
Of course, if you’re short of time then you can catch up with some of the best features from our own coverage. Check out highlights of Apple’s attempt to popularise mobile video calling in the FaceTime demo, our own hands-on with the iPhone 4, and then analyst Ben Bajarin’s hands-on report.
Now that the dust is beginning to settle on Steve Jobs’ WWDC10 keynote, we thought we’d ask the most pertinent question of all: who’s buying this new hero mobile device from Apple? We know the company’s loyal fan base will not disappoint, but what about you, undecided voter? Did that 960 x 640 IPS screen make you look upon Cupertino’s wares with a new level of appreciation? And let us not neglect the iPhone’s detractors here — have they been placated by the inclusion of HD video recording, video chat and a meaty new A4 processor? Tick the appropriate box below, then visit us in the comments and let us know what you thought.
Now here’s a surprise. After filling the WWDC 2010 keynote with naught but iPhone 4 goodness, Apple has slipped out Safari 5, the latest version of their desktop browser. Packing a claimed 30-percent performance boost over Safari 4, the new version is also apparently three percent faster than Chrome 5.0 and over twice as fast as Firefox 3.6. Of course, it’s still a free download, and is available both for Mac and Windows machines.
There’s no shortage of HTML5 goodness, either, just as we’ve heard in rumors leading up to the new browser’s release. Apple have squeezed in HTML5 Geolocation, HTML5 sectioning elements, HTML5 draggable attribute, HTML5 forms validation, HTML5 Ruby, HTML5 AJAX History, EventSource and WebSocket, together with a new, free Safari Developer Program. That uses standard web technologies like HTML5, CSS3 and JavaScript to create new extensions, and there’s a dedicated Extension Builder in which each runs, sandboxed and with a signed digital Apple signature.
Most interesting to end users, perhaps, is the new Safari Reader mode which, at the tap of a button, slices out any extraneous information on the page and leaves just the core text. Safari 5 will be available for download at apple.com/safari
Press Release:
Apple Releases Safari 5
SAN FRANCISCO, June 7 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — Apple® today released Safari® 5, the latest version of the world’s fastest and most innovative web browser, featuring the new Safari Reader for reading articles on the web without distraction, a 30 percent performance increase over Safari 4,* and the ability to choose Google, Yahoo! or Bing as the search service powering Safari’s search field. Available for both Mac® and Windows, Safari 5 includes improved developer tools and supports more than a dozen new HTML5 technologies that allow web developers to create rich, dynamic websites. With Safari 5, developers can now create secure Safari Extensions to customize and enhance the browsing experience.
“Safari continues to lead the pack in performance, innovation and standards support,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing. “Safari now runs on over 200 million devices worldwide and its open source WebKit engine runs on over 500 million devices.”
Safari Reader makes it easy to read single and multipage articles on the web by presenting them in a new, scrollable view without any additional content or clutter. When Safari 5 detects an article, users can click on the Reader icon in the Smart Address Field to display the entire article for clear, uninterrupted reading with options to enlarge, print or send via email.
Powered by the Nitro JavaScript engine, Safari 5 on the Mac runs JavaScript 30 percent faster than Safari 4, three percent faster than Chrome 5.0, and over twice as fast as Firefox 3.6.* Safari 5 loads new webpages faster using Domain Name System (DNS) prefetching, and improves the caching of previously viewed pages to return to them more quickly.
Safari 5 adds more than a dozen powerful HTML5 features that allow web developers to create media-rich experiences, including full screen playback and closed captions for HTML5 video. Other new HTML5 features in Safari 5 include HTML5 Geolocation, HTML5 sectioning elements, HTML5 draggable attribute, HTML5 forms validation, HTML5 Ruby, HTML5 AJAX History, EventSource and WebSocket.
The new, free Safari Developer Program allows developers to customize and enhance Safari 5 with extensions based on standard web technologies like HTML5, CSS3 and JavaScript. The Extension Builder, new in Safari 5, simplifies the development, installation and packaging of extensions. For enhanced security and stability, Safari Extensions are sandboxed, signed with a digital certificate from Apple and run solely in the browser.
Pricing & Availability
Safari 5 is available for both Mac OS® X and Windows as a free download at www.apple.com/safari. Safari 5 for Mac OS X requires Mac OS X Leopard 10.5.8 or Mac OS X Snow Leopard® 10.6.2 or later. Safari 5 for Windows requires Windows XP SP2, Windows Vista or Windows 7, a minimum 256MB of memory and a system with at least a 500 MHz Intel Pentium processor. Full system requirements and more information on Safari 5 can be found at www.apple.com/safari. The Safari Developer Program is free to join at developer.apple.com/programs/safari.
*Performance will vary based on system configuration, network connection and other factors. All testing conducted by Apple in May 2010 on an iMac® 3.06 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo system running Mac OS X 10.6.3, with 4GB of RAM. JavaScript benchmark based on the SunSpider 0.9.1 JavaScript Performance test.
Slimmer, brighter, more powerful and apparently the product of 18 months development: the Apple iPhone 4 certainly is something. The WWDC 2010 opening keynote is over, and we’ve just been back to check out the new Apple smartphone. Set to debut on June 24th – and up for preorder from June 15th – the Jobs hyperbole and press shots don’t do the iPhone 4 justice in your hand. Whether you’re an Apple fan or not, you have to give them credit for creating a very slick device.
More first impressions and hands-on gallery and videos after the cut
At just only 9.3mm thick, we already know it’s 24-percent thinner than the iPhone 3GS. Still, the squared off edges means it doesn’t feel quite as slender as you might imagine. Happily the incredible IPS screen – using Apple’s new Retina Display 960 x 640 technology – more than makes up for it. Icons are smooth, crisp and clean, and text is incredibly precise. We browsed through a few webpages and were blown away by how amazingly readable they were even at zoomed-out levels. All of a sudden the limitation is your eyesight not the resolution of the phone.
As for iMovie for iPhone, we had a brief play and shuffled some clips and photos around, and it’s as intuitive as you’d expect being so similar to the desktop version (watch hands-on video). The Apple A4 processor doesn’t seem to feel the strain, either; pages whip past, the timeline changes scale with a simple pinch, and there’s no laggardly rendering. We’ll have to see how it copes with significantly longer clips when we get our review unit, but it’s already blown rival on-device editing systems out of the water.
iOS4 is a great balance of the familiar and the new, and the multitasking UI works well. Still, today felt like a hardware showcase – Apple demonstrating their expertise in putting together industry-leading hardware – and the iPhone 4 certainly epitomises that. Considering the price we reckon they’ve got a winner on their hands, though we’ll save the conclusive judgements until our review. Until then, enjoy our HUGE hands-on gallery and video!
If you put your ear up to the screen, you can hear these two beasts snarling at one another. Hit up the gallery for more shots, along with some iPhone 3G for good measure. Let’s see how they stack up on the big stats, shall we?
Not enough for you? We’ll have a big comparison of all the “majors” for you shortly.
Now, there’s a lot left to learn about Apple’s FaceTime video chat service. For instance, they called it “open,” but they also only mentioned a zero-configuration iPhone 4 to iPhone 4 calling setup. Meanwhile Qik can make calls between EVO 4Gs, but also stream video live to the web (while the iPhone needs to record and then upload to get “social” using its official apps). No mention was made of the FaceTime call resolution, but given the fact that the front camera is merely VGA, it’s probably streaming at the same 640 x 480 that Qik is constrained to in the free service. However, a premium version of Qik for $5 a month lets you go beyond that resolution, using the EVO’s higher resolution cameras. Perhaps the largest distinction is the fact that the EVO can stream video calls over 3G or 4G, while the iPhone 4 is constrained to WiFi for the time being. Naturally, we expect other video calling apps (Skype, please?) to crop up on both platforms and give these initial offerings a run for their money.
We’ve just gotten some face time (ha ha!) with the new iPhone 4, and let’s just say this: it’s incredibly sexy. We’ll hand it to Apple, the phone is so thin it’s kind of mind-boggling. The 3GS by comparison looks bloated. Feast your eyes on the pics below, and check out the FaceTime video demo after the break! Oh, and special thanks to hand models Kara Swisher and Walt Mossberg.
Some takeaways about the device:
As we said, it’s shockingly thin.
The screen is truly outrageous — you basically cannot see pixels on it. We’re not being hyperbolic when we say it’s easily the best looking mobile phone screen we’ve ever laid eyes on.
The build quality is really solid. The home button feels much snappier, and on the whole it just feels like a tightly-packed device, but it’s not heavy.
The side buttons are really nice and clicky.
iOS 4 is very familiar — there’s not a lot added to fit and finish.
The general speed of the whole OS is way snappier. The camera app in particular is noticeably faster — shots get snapped in an instant.
Update: More pics! We’ve also thrown in a video demo of the iPhone 4 running its FaceTime video chat app. Check it out at the usual location.
M.I.A.: That weird 
Now here’s a surprise. After filling the 
