Apple Unveils iPhone 3G S – First Take

FInally, it’s time for an iPhone update. First Apple has some stats. More than 50,00 apps in the store now and combined platform presence of more than 40 million devices to support that platform (that’s iPhone and iPod Touch. Apple didn’t break out the numbers but it’s not too hard to figure out). There was a quick recap of the OS 3.0 feature set and a few new things detailed.

1. There’s now access to the full iTunes store on the device including music and movies. Same rules apply as to 3G access for content.

2. Tethering is officially supported but it’s carrier by carrier. Apple says ATT has not stated it’s position on tethering yet. Hope they see the light and allow it.

3. New feature for MobileMe users called Find My iPhone. Very cool. Leave your iPhone somewhere and you can see exactly where you left with on screen maps. You can also a send a message to the device that will display along with a audio cue. Perfect for attracting a waiter’s attention when you leave your iPhone in a restaurant. Even better, it will sound the audio tone even if volume is off. Worst case, you can do a full remote wipe as well.

The big news though is the next generation of the iPhone, called iPhone 3G S. The S standing for speed. Coming in the same form factor as the curerent iPhone 3G, Apple says the new iPhone is on average 2X faster than the current generation. But that’s not all. There’s full suport for 7.2 MBPS HSDPA, a new 3MP camera with autofocus and the ability to record 30 FPS VGA video. There’s also a basic video editor integrated into the phone and videos can be emailed, MMS or send directly to You Tube. There’s also a very cool implemation of voice control (you have to see the UI in action to appreciate it) and a digital compass that’s API addressable as well as integrated into maps. Other new features include Nike + integration and encryption built directly into hardware (which among other things, mean wipe remote is near instant).

Apple’s doing two configs at the current price points. One will be 16gb and the other 32gb for $199 and $299 respectively. The bigger news is there’s indeed a $99 iPhone now, the current iPhone 3G will now be offered in an 8gb version for $99. That’s huge and potentially very, very disruptive for Apple competitors. Be interesting to see how others responds to a $99 iPhone.

$99 model drops today, OS 3.0 hits on june 17th and the new 3G S comes on the 19th.

Bottom line? Apple both raised the bar in terms of price and performance with a 32gb 3G S model (at a $299 price point) and hit the magic $99 for a full featured iPhone. Considering that two years ago an 8gb iPhone would have set you back $599, that’s going to attract a lot of new iPhone users to the fold. With then models combined with a commanding presence in the application market, the iPhone is still the platform that most consumers are going to weigh against when making their purchase decisions. This summer’s smartphone battle is on in a big way. I’ll have more to say once 3.0 and the new devices are released.

Apple Introduces Snow Leopard – First Take

Next up, Snow Leopard. Apple is officially calling this 10.6 As previously noted, it’s a full 64 bit OS and works with Intel Macs only. This is the OS release that spells the final swan song for Power PC. Not a surprise and let’s face it, if you’re not on an Intel Mac, it’s time to move on. Lots of stuff that falls into three core buckets, Refinements, Technologies, and Exchange.

In terms of Refinements, Apple’s made some nice tweaks to the UI. Expose, for example is now integrated into the dock. Safari 4 is the default browser (and it’s now golden for all platforms as well as of today). Apple claims it’s now almost 8x faster than IE. Wow. There’s also a new version of Quicktime that supports lots of good stuff like hardware acceleration, color sync and HTTP streaming.

With tech, Apple’s got a lot of new stuff that will definitely appeal to this audience. As mentioned, Snow Leopard is 64 bit so there is essentially no memory limit (there is a cap but it’s 16 billion gigabytes). All the OS apps are now 64 bit so they’ll perform accordingly. In addition Apple has integrated multi-core support directly into the OS so devs don’t have to deal with threads. Called Grand Central Dispatch is the name of the manager and developers can deal with it at the app and API level. Nice.

From an end user view, the biggest feature is Exchange support. Yep, Snow Leopard has direct support for calendar, address book and email for Exchange 2007. Excellent. This is probably one of the most important things Apple has done and totally opens the Mac to the business market. While Entourage has supported Exchange for some time, Apple’s integration might obviate the need for that going forward. Combined with iWork, Apple now has very credible software support for business functionality.

Devs get a release today and general release will be in Sept. Best news? Pricing is $29 for a single license and $49 for the family pack. That pretty much makes this a no brainer. There’s an OS war brewing (Apple took a few Vista, Win 7 shots) and at this point, it’s looking to me like Snow Leopard comes out ahead. It will be fun to put these two things head to head in final release.

Apple Updates Macbook line. First Take

Apple kicked things off this morning at their worldwide developers conference with lots of news. First up, new refresh to the Macbook line. Apple refreshed the 13″ uni-body Macbook and 15″ Macbook Pro with faster processors, more addressable memory, larger hard drives and built in battery the debuted with the 17″ Macbook Pro in January. The 15″ loses an express card in favor of an SD slot and the 13″ gains the SD slot. In fact, there are so many improvements that Apple now calls the uni-body 13″ machine a Macbook Pro now, which seems fitting.

Price points for the new units have dropped as well. The 13″ now starts at $1,199 and the 15″ starts at $1,699. Some price adjustments to the 17″ and Macbook Air as well. Nicely done and very well balanced product line, including a refreshed Macbook that Apple quietly upgraded a few weeks ago.

Nice upgrade to the line. New price points will be welcome. In particular the 13″ line looks very well positioned for back to school. New stuff is all available today.