WWDC

I can't wait for iCloud. Finally there will be an easy way to have all my itunes libraries synced. The thing is you're only relying on the network to get it onto your device in the first place. If you lose your network connection after that it's not a big deal because you still have the files stored locally. I think Apple TV is the only device that wont store the files locally.

Also, you can still sync via usb so if you dont have a network connection you can still get files onto other devices if you need to. I just hope that they'll let us do local network syncing like dropbox does. So i can sync my itunes library from my laptop to my mediacenter without having to download everything via adsl.

How did you feel about all the new touch/gesture input to Lion?

I don't know yet. My only mac is a 4 year old macbook and the only touch it does is two finger scrolling and two finger right-click. I really like the way they work and I expect that I will like the new gestures whenever I get around to upgrading to a new macbook pro.

On the other hand I have the magic mouse and I turn off most of the touch stuff on it because it's pretty much useless. I put that down to its size and the fact its not fixed in place though.

I feel like we're waiting for the other shoe to drop, i.e. hardware to match. Which I assume we'll see in July.

I'm excited about enough iOS 5 features to consider getting an iPhone.

Yeah, I think that Apple doesn't want to obscure their iCloud/IOS5/Lion theme with news of incremental hardware updates. I expect new MacBook Airs sometime in the next month.

Set up iCloud account with any e-mail address you like... except for a MobileMe address. It probably won't matter for actually using the service, but are they TRYING to drive me to Gmail?

That document scares the hell out of me... or it would if I hadn't already moved all of my important stuff off of .Mac.

Given how "smoothly" the .Mac to MobileMe transition went, I can't imagine the horrors in store for this one.

I think there's a LOT to like.

Notifications... they've only sucked donkey balls for YEARS... I get that Apple wants to "do it right" (see: Copy/Paste) but seriously, it HAD to be fixed. It looks nice, from what little we saw, it looks like they got the details pretty well ironed out, its not just "lets get this out the door quick, the natives are getting restless". I hope its as good or better in practice, but I tend to trust Apple to do these things well.

Photo stuff is nice. Being able to hand your iphone/touch to someone and have them take a picture without them seeing your "personal stash" or getting into the rest of the interface is nice. It also seems (from various reports Ive been getting) that the Camera app loads a lot faster as well, so that's a plus in catching those "quick" moments. Click the camera icon on the Lock Screen, snap picture. Nice. No comment on the "you *CANT* repurpose the volume button for the camera" change of heart... Hopefully 3rd party apps can now do it as well...

AirDisplay of the entire interface is great for Education, for Sales meetings. Just bring an Apple TV, plug it into their projector/TV, airdisplay, bang.

For the techies, PC-free is nice, but not a huge deal. For Joe-6pack, I think the ability to never have to connect to a PC, just run directly on the ipad/iphone/touch is a great thing. Very nice for Teenagers/kids that have these devices, they can manage their own stuff without having to sync to iTunes.

Twitter? Meh... I use it... It's nice... But I think Apple should just make APIs or Plugins for a bunch of social sites and be done with it... or even a "Generic" API that those sites can write to themselves... Just sayin...

Reminders? Well, It's one of those things that LOTS of people get a free/pay app to do... I guess it's almost just an extension of Calendaring... kinda. Don't know yet...

I think BlackBerry should be very worried about iMessage. I don't think it's worrisome to the Phone Carriers yet (since it's iOS only) but if it were "opened up" (you know... like Facetime was... err... uhh...) it could become problematic to their revenue streams. But Blackberry is in a tough spot right now. They are really far behind when it comes to "what people expect" from a phone. Their one saving grace right now is their existing customer base is quite sticky, and the main reasons for that are 1)BB email and 2)BBM. If folks can now do BBM not just with BB folks, but with ipads, iphones, ipod touches... (Lion? I didn't see if it was a target platform) That's another big nail in their coffin.

Some of the other stuff I'm waiting to hear about (since the rest of WWDC is NDA'd itll slowly trickle and ooze out I suppose). For example, looking at the picture here I see...

Multitasking gestures (which I think we've seen in iPad "easter eggs"). New iPad music app... Well, it could use some improvement. Split keyboard (looks nice). Typing shortcuts (muh...whu?) Option to speak text selection (???) Improved Facetime Quality (How about improved facetime "open-ness"?

As for Lion? Checking out this image...

iChat service Plugins? Push Notifications? Vertical Text? Full-Screen Terminal (oh goodie... hopefully with big green text!) Xsan Built in? Merge folders... interesting.

I think there's a LOT that's still not "in the wild" that's going to be very interesting.

As for the Cloud. Ive heard several tech pundits describe it as a different "concept" on the cloud. And I guess compared to Google, it is, since they want everything to be done via the browser as opposed to "an app that has hooks into the cloud". At the end of the day, I think Apple made it a bit "single User centric". In a way, I can see where that makes it a much more robust/easier thing to do, but in another, I think they could have gone even bigger (and maybe they will in the future). Everything they were showing was "you can update all your devices", "take a photo, it shows up on your iPad and your home Mac, automagically". There was nothing that I saw in the "your coworker could work on something at the same time as you do" like folks do in Google Docs. Im hoping to hear a bit more of the "how do we keep things properly synced" in the coming weeks... as that (along with the 'service down' issues) is the bane of any "cloud" system.

Morg "Lots of meat to chew on... As they say, Google get your photocopiers ready" anti

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morganti
As for the Cloud. Ive heard several tech pundits describe it as a different "concept" on the cloud. And I guess compared to Google, it is, since they want everything to be done via the browser as opposed to "an app that has hooks into the cloud".

Google seems to have two different cloud strategies. The one that you're thinking of is, obviously, the Chrome strategy. The thing about Chrome is that it isn't strictly cloud-oriented. It is just a new take on the idea of a thin client. While the highest profile uses of ChromeOS devices will be related to cloud computing, the concept works just as well in a more traditional thin-client model on a closed network. These browser-based apps CAN be designed to function without a live connection via the local storage capabilities of HTML 5.

Their second cloud strategy is the opposite of what you're describing. It is the Android strategy. In the Android category, they ARE pushing for apps that hook into the cloud. They've even expanded this to the Google TV platform which now has Android 3.1 with the same Android Market as the phone and tablet devices (with the requisite filters so apps that don't translate well to the sofa/remote navigation model don't show up for TV users and vice-versa). On this front, even Google's "classic" cloud offerings operate as client-server apps. Gmail, Google Docs, Google Maps, Google Navigation, Google Music, Calendars, Contacts, Google Voice, etc... each function as "an app that has hooks into the cloud".

As for photocopiers, I'd say there's been plenty of copying already. The new notification handling in iOS 5 is pretty much a direct clone of Android... except Google realized that it doesn't work as well in a tablet form factor so they have a different presentation method in Honeycomb that works better (and is transparent to the apps issuing the notifications). The split-keyboard has been available for Android for a while now, along with several unique text-entry concepts like word tracing (Swype, FlexT9, ShapeWriter, et al).

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morganti
For the techies, PC-free is nice, but not a huge deal. For Joe-6pack, I think the ability to never have to connect to a PC, just run directly on the ipad/iphone/touch is a great thing. Very nice for Teenagers/kids that have these devices, they can manage their own stuff without having to sync to iTunes.

This is pretty big for schools and businesses though. Apple had some ways for enterprises to deploy and what not, but this will give people a lot more flexibility.

Oh there's no doubt that Apple copies too... That's why I for one, while not an Android user or "fanboi", am glad its there and that it's pushing the tech and the ideas forward.

As for the cloud strategy, though, I dont know if I would call all those google apps a "cloud strategy". Don't get me wrong, they do have their data in the cloud, and they have local store and apps and so forth, but I dont know that I would call all those things one coherent "strategy" as opposed to, we have lots of web based data that we and you guys can tie into. I mean, Apple's weather app grabbing data from NWS or Yahoo or Weather Underground is not a cloud strategy.

Im not saying Google's apps aren't cloud apps, or that they arent hooking into it, but it seems like apple is working on providing "A CLOUD" that everyone hooks into for data storage, photos, backups etc. The little i've heard says that a LOT of the cloud stuff is going to be exposed via APIs so I could see it as a DropBox on Steroids, with limitations to stretch a metaphor a bit far?

I think it'll be interesting what trickles out over the next month or so as the Devs digest what they can and can't do with a lot of this stuff.

Morg "I for one just want my angry birds to play better, that's the only important thing" anti

The most revolutionary aspect of the Chromebook offerings is definitely a cloud computing strategy. They are going to lease the laptops to businesses for $28/month and to schools for $20/month.

This includes the hardware and the cloud services. The cloud services include management tools and the full Google Apps suite which covers email, Google Docs (Word Processor, Spreadsheet, Presentation, etc.) and they have a development framework for organizations to build custom cloud applications either for internal use or to sell to other organizations using Google Apps.

Sure, this is primarily targeted at businesses and other large organizations but there are features for end-users as well. They already have Picasa integration and Google Music integration. The hardware arrives next week and I will be able to provide a more thorough assessment then.

Microsoft also has a cloud computing strategy that is about to get very big. It is almost entirely business-oriented and is centered on a hosted Exchange/SharePoint service with the requisite directory services frameworks.

So, Apple is strictly consumer-focused. Microsoft is strictly business-focused. Google appears to be riding the fence.

DPBD

Here's a great writeup on Google's AppEngine APIs for cloud computing:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/06/07/inside_google_app_engine/

Watching the WWDC keynote now. Steve looks really, really bad...

I agree. Did you watch the town council meeting?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gtuz5OmOh_M
Look at 23:15 ("free wi-fi" idiocy)

Your link points to 21 minute movie, didn't see how to get to 23:15.

typo 13:15 sorry

Don't know if anyone out there is "in touch" or "inside" enough, but I'd really like to see (maybe some links?) some more reports on the kind of stuff that Apple is exposing to developers. I know that sounds vague, but when watching the keynote, you can see on the screens behind some of the presenters, other stuff (200 new features!) that they didn't talk about (i.e. stuff we'll talk about in your sessions later). There were hints floating around (given all the NDAs) that there's "lots of cool shit in IOS5", but they talked about just the top 10. I'd like to read more about the bottom 190 I suppose...

Morg "Any tips or clues?" anti

You can sign up for a free developer account and watch all the wwdc session videos.

So, new models of almost every Mac strongly suggested, and iOS 6 (at least announcement) confirmed. Apple TV app development rumored. What else?