snow leopard
WWDC 2008
10/06/08 10:48 Filed in: News
8GB model will cost £99 on the £30 & £35 tariff, and free on the £45 & £75 tariff. 16GB model, £159 on the £30 & £35, £59 on the £45 tariff and free on the £75 tariff. They will also be releasing a Pay-as-you-go version, pricing not yet available. Update: Previous owners will also be able to upgrade for free to the new model. Visit O2 for full details.
It’s also now available in white and black, the buttons are metal and the headphone socket is no longer recessed, making it easier to work with other headphones. Oh, and back is plactic now, which should help with reception I’ve read.
Not upgrading the camera seems a strange oversight. It still has the same 2 megapixel camera of the previous model, and no ability to record video, why? Many were also expecting a front facing camera, but that’s just an expectation, a good one mind. The problem is we still tend to go by the numbers and see 7mp as better than 2, just like the old days of the Mhz myth, we have the Megapixel myth:
“The megapixel myth was started by camera makers and swallowed hook, line and sinker by camera measurebators. Camera makers use the number of megapixels a camera has to hoodwink you into thinking it has something to do with camera quality.”
Really, unless you’re heavily cropping an image or planning on printing over A5, 2mp is probably fine. I’m not an Apple appologist, as it does seem rather dumb to have missed even adding 1 extra megapixel. Sure it’ll happen in the next revision, they probably were concentrating on 3G & GPS first. If you’re a serious photographer, you’re going to have a proper camera anyway.
David Pogue came to the same conclusions.
The only other missing feature it seems, is MMS (Multimedia Message Service), unless you’re waiting for that haptic feedback? They have improved Enterprise integration (which is interesting for those corporate chappies). My brother is planning on getting one, so I’ll see what he uses most, I’d suspect I’d be surfing mostly.
You can watch the new iPhone advert here.
Update: Apple have released a guided tour of the iPhone here.
Apple also launched MobileMe, a replacement for .Mac (itself a replacement of the free iTools, damn them!). MobileMe will push services like calendars, mail and contacts to the iPhone. As well as a suite of web based applications. It’s still going to cost you 20GB storage $49 - 40GB storage $99 annually. You can no doubt get these services for free elsewhere, perhaps less elegantly, but you pays your money... You can now watch a tour of the service here.
There was also some information on the next version of Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard. The OS appears to be laying foundations for the future, rather than adding flashy new features. Expected 2009.
Sadly, and I didn’t really expect it, there were no new Macs, specifically a new MacBook or MacBook Pro which is what I’m waiting for.
The keynote is available to watch here (but it’s a pretty dull one).