One of the big announcements to come out of WWDC 08′ was the introduction of Apple’s new MobileMe Internet service. MobileMe features push email, push contacts and push calendars from your “cloud” to native apps on your iPhone, iPod touch, Mac or PC. MobileMe will be available shortly and will replace Apple’s .mac service.

The MobileMe service will deliver a desktop-like experience on the web. Changes made on your MobileMe cloud will automatically update native applications on all of computers and or devices. “Think of MobileMe as ‘Exchange for the rest of us,’” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “Now users who are not part of an enterprise that runs Exchange can get the same push email, push calendars and push contacts that the big guys get.”

The MobileMe web applications are 100% ad free and includes 20GB of online storage. The service will be available on July 11th priced at $99 for individuals and $149 for a family pack (includes one master account with 20GB of storage and four 5GB family member accounts.

Apple has posted a video tour describing the new features of MobileMe.

With the iPhone 2.0 Software Update, your iPhone will do even more. Extend its capabilities with innovative applications you download directly from the new App Store. Get push email, calendar, and contacts from your Microsoft Exchange server at work. And use great new features in Mail, Contacts, and other applications. Free in the next update.

iPhone firmware 2.0 was detailed in WWDC with some rumored features finally seeing the day of light. Features include:

• iWork and Office document viewing
• Save images from E-Mail directly to photo library
• Contact Search
• E-Mail/SMS Bulk Delete & Move
• Scientific Calculator when switched to Landscape Mode in Calculator
• Support for a TON of languages including Chinese, Japanese

On top of those features, Jobs detailed enterprise support for mass distribution of apps (up to 100 authorized iPhones) and also unveiled a new push notification system for apps that would use it (such as IM clients).

Firmware 2.0 will be available for iPhone users come ‘Early July’ for free and for iPod Touch users at a reduced fee (compared to the last update) of $9.95.

We all suspected it, but now it is confirmed: someone very, very close to the 3G iPhone launch has told me that Apple will announce their new model at the WWDC Keynote on June 9th. The second-generation iPhone will be available worldwide right after the launch, and not at year’s end, as previously thought. The new model will also herald new sales policies in some countries.

In Spain, for example, the 3G iPhone will be available for sale at the June 18th grand opening of Telefonica’s megastore—an Apple Store-like shop located in the company’s historical building in Madrid’s Gran Vía— with nationwide availability the next day or after a few hours. The other European countries with iPhone availability will have similar launch schedules.

According to another source involved in the launch, the 3G iPhone will no longer be available at a fixed price point—at least in some countries, and its launch will also bring new sales policies, although these have not been completely specified yet.

The move is a logical step, since the iPhone has clearly solidified its position as the cellphone to beat during the last 12 months, and companies in the cutthroat European cellphone market need to use it as an incentive to capture clients aggressively.

This most probably means the new 3G iPhone will be integrated in the usual marketing systems of carriers, with point-based trade-ups, discounts for carrier switchers and other service-based subvention packages.

via [Gizmodo]

June 9-13, 2008, San Francisco, Moscone West

The groundbreaking innovations of Mac OS X Leopard and iPhone OS offer two revolutionary development platforms for developers and IT professionals. The Apple Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) is the only place you can receive technical information on these sophisticated platforms from the engineers who created them. Bring your code to the labs and work one-to-one with Apple engineers, applying development methods and best-practices you gain from sessions to enhance your application.

Get the details on over 150 sessions and labs.

Immerse yourself with over 150 information-rich sessions and labs where Apple engineers go in-depth on the innovative technologies that power iPhone OS, Leopard, and Leopard Server. Get all the details, including sessions for the first-ever iPhone track, that will take you deep into the technologies that offer you infinite possibilities.

http://developer.apple.com/wwdc

via Ars Technica

In the last several weeks, rumors and speculation about the upcoming 3G version of the iPhone have greatly multiplied. The reasons for this sudden increase in noise could could be any number of things, but seasoned Apple-rumor-followers know from experience that an increase in chatter almost always indicates that something is about to hit, regardless of whether any one chatterer was entirely accurate.

So, we know it’s coming, but what else? Here, we try to differentiate between what we know, what we don’t, and everything in between.

What we know

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