What’s New from Apple

Read this in this morning’s edition of Today which reminded me why I switched to the Internet for news. Emphasis added by me:

Apple unveiled a new version of the iPhone early this morning, in an attempt to boost its standing in the mobile market further and take another swipe at its rivals.

The announcement, expected to take place at Apple’s worldwide developers conference in San Francisco, has been hotly anticipated by the company’s fans — with dozens of rumors online about the launch.

According to sources, the new iPhone will have twice as much memory […] and other features including a faster processor and an improved camera capable of recording video.

A launch date has not yet been confirmed.

These are why I am finding faults with the report:

1. Didn’t the article open with Apple announcing a new iPhone? But why did it continue the reporting like the announcement hasn’t been made right after that paragraph? The entire keynote presentation ended around 3 am SGT. I wonder if this was too late for Today to update news before printing.
2. Strictly speaking it’s Worldwide Developers Conference or WWDC, not worldwide developers conference.
3. I already knew what to expect based on my source with extremely good track record one day ago.
4. Once again, I don’t understand why the launch date is not known when this article said that Apple has unveiled a new version of iPhone.
5. By the time Today reports again with details of the conference tomorrow, the news will already been more than 24 hours old. Am quite certain that it will not make into the afternoon edition today since Today’s website has not yet been updated.

I guess I know details of the announcement because I am so keeping myself on track with such announcements. But it does reflect the poor state of our tech news reports available in mainstream media. They are either not accurate/critical enough (Now then I recall a rambling I had about a 早报 article that I didn’t have the chance to blog about) or are reported days later. And this does not happen only to the newspaper medium. Is it because tech news aren’t just important enough? Then again, our TV news aren’t refreshing their news reporting fast enough too, and that’s another blog entry…

Alright. Allow me to update you what’s new from Apple based on the WWDC 2009 conference held from SGT 1am to 3+am this morning.

iPhone 3G S

Vodpod videos no longer available.

• New iPhone announced: iPhone 3G S, with S representing Speed.
• Comes in the original black and white version, with exactly the same dimensions, and is just 2 grams heavier than the iPhone 3G.
• Launching on June 19th in the US and some other countries. Singapore’s launch date is in July.
• Pricing in the US could be a good gauge of how it will be like in Singapore. The new phones will be sold at the same price as the iPhone 3G now. The older iPhone 3G will still be available, at a much lower price of 99USD. AMAZING…
• Hardware improvements include more memory (16GB and 32 GB), better camera (3MP with auto-focus and video recording capability), built in compass (which ties in nicely with the Maps application for easier navigation), faster processor for a more responsive iPhone and better battery life.
• Interesting innovation in iPhone 3G S that we Singaporean may not be able to make use of: voice control capability. Theoretically, you could say voice commands such as “Call Zheng Jie” or “Play songs by 周杰伦” and it will execute them. However, I believe that the feature is tied in to the American accent and will not understand ours. I also wonder if the voice control is a hardware or a software feature as it is currently only available to iPhone 3G S owners come June 19th.
• Watch the iPhone 3G S guided tour from Apple.

Have the impulse to upgrade my iPhone 3G to this iPhone 3G S (what an un-Apple, mouthful naming convention) but really have to consider the cost of upgrading after trading in the phone. I don’t mind extending my contract for another two years but I suspect that the upgrade will be extremely expensive. And the improvements to the new iPhone isn’t that appealing… yet.

iPhone OS 3.0

Note that this is not the phone itself but the operating system that runs in all iPhones and iPod Touches.

• Available from June 17th. (AH!!! I will be in Beijing at that time! But I have to wait for the jailbreak solution be released anyways.)
• Good news: MMS and tethering available in iPhone OS 3.0 is supported by Singtel.

Other News

• Apple has updated all their laptops (MacBook, MacBook Pro and MacBook Air) with better hardware and incorporated built in batteries. And they are all available at a lower entry price. There has never been a better timing to get yourself a laptop from Apple.
• The new Snow Leopard operating system will be available on September 29th. Most importantly, Leopard owners will be able to upgrade their OS at only 29USD. OMG… It’s so cheap that the notion of piracy just disappears~
  • Interesting features in Snow Leopard include:
    • Ability to save 6GB in hard disk space and faster installation.
    • Faster shutdown and wake-up (which is already much faster compared to Windows).
    • Ability to write Chinese on multi-touch touch pads.
    • New Quicktime X that is able to do simple editing and publish directly to YouTube. It will even be able to do screen capturing.
• Safari 4 is out of beta. Have been using it since this morning and find it much more responsive compared to the beta version. It takes up quite a bit of RAM though…