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Apple distributes WWDC '07 mailing
Ooh, can you feel the anticipation WWDC 07? We sure can. In fact, we can hardly wait to not get Leopard!Ok, snarky comments aside, WWDC should be interesting (check out the list of planned sessions here), and Apple distributed an email earlier this week promoting the event, with a reminder that early registration ends April 27th.So sign up, folks. The clock is ticking.Thanks, Andrew!
Apple's Leopard delayed to October, iPhone blamed
Sad news, kids: Apple is pushing back its Mac OS X Leopard release date from WWDC in June (now they tell us!) to October. Apple is blaming it all on the iPhone, saying that "iPhone contains the most sophisticated software ever shipped on a mobile device, and finishing it on time has not come without a price -- we had to borrow some key software engineering and QA resources from our Mac OS X team." Apple will still be showing up at WWDC with a beta version to hand out to developers, since apparently the OS will be feature-complete by then, just not bug-free. We suppose we should be grateful to Apple for being cautious and avoiding the various and often severe quality assurance issues that has plagued it recently, but this whole passing the buck thing is little lame. "Life often presents tradeoffs," says Apple, "and in this case we're sure we've made the right ones." Thanks for that little nugget of wisdom, now get back to work![Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
Apple announces Leopard delays due to the iPhone
Apple has just issued a press release statement announcing that Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard has been delayed until October. The reason? iPhone: "we had to borrow some key software engineering and QA resources from our Mac OS X team, and as a result we will not be able to release Leopard at our Worldwide Developers Conference in early June as planned." However, Apple will still be displaying a "feature complete" version of Leopard at June's WWDC event, and will be giving beta versions for developers to take home and help put the finishing touches on. This is a pretty significant announcement, especially considering that Apple has fallen under criticism as of late for dropping 'Computer' from their name and seemingly shifting their focus from computers to consumer devices such as the iPod, Apple TV and now Mac OS X-delaying iPhone. In a way though, I'm not surprised either, as a number of Mac OS X developers have expressed disbelief that Apple was going to hit a June release with Leopard in its currently buggy and fairly unfinished state.On the bright side, this hopefully can be taken as a sign that Apple is still committed to releasing quality software, even if slightly late this time around. The company could simply have shipped in June and issued 'Service Pack 1' later to patch all the gaping holes their customers found. But that wouldn't be very Apple, would it?[Update: Still nothing at apple.com/pr, but it has been posted to Apple's Hot News site: http://www.apple.com/hotnews/]
ThinkSecret: Leopard in June
Ah, those crazy kids at ThinkSecret and their "sources." Today they're suggesting that Apple's Leopard operating system will be made available in June, as well as new versions of iLife and iWork. In an attempt to compete with Vista, iLife may be a "free" upgrade for customers who buy Leopard.Also, it looks like the next version of iLife will be called "Leopard Edition," and not "iLife 07." Of course, all sorts of release dates have been suggested for Leopard, so who knows. We just know that we want it!
Apple releases more WWDC 2006 videos on iTunes
Apple must be happy with having the WWDC06 video sessions available via iTunes for ADC members, as another set of videos has just been rolled out for developers. This latest collection includes: Graphics & Media State of the Union Welcome to Xcode Taking Advantage of Leopard Features in Cocoa Mac OS X State of the Union IT State of the Union But don't get too comfy with last year's programming; lest ye been living under a rock for the last year or so, we probably don't need to remind you WWDC07 is fast approaching, and more and more signs are pointing towards a debut of both the iPhone and Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard - especially since Apple said the big cat is still on schedule.
WWDC '07 sessions reveal focus on enterprise and switching developers
We reported earlier today that Apple has released the session schedules for WWDC '07, which will take place in San Francisco June 11-15. An analysis of the schedule from Joe Wilcox at eWeek's Microsoft Watch, however, has revealed some interesting tidbits on exactly what Apple has in store for their audience, which includes an estimated 1/3 who will be entirely new to the Mac. Particularly noteworthy is "Immersion Monday" which is entirely focused on introducing new developers, especially Windows devs, to the Mac platform. Another interesting area of focus that is apparently new to WWDC is on the enterprise, as Apple seems to be coming on strong with an entire track of Information Technology sessions and labs aimed at system admins, IT managers and content production professionals. Put another way: it sounds like Apple is going to be firing on all cylinders like many have been expecting. Perhaps even with a few iCylinders we aren't expecting (ba-dum-ching!). [via digg]
WWDC07 Session Tracks Announced
Apple today sent out emails to ADC members announcing the session tracks for the upcoming WWDC07 (June 11-15). They are: Mac OS X Essentials Graphics and Imaging Information Technologies Leopard Innovations Developer Tools Content and Media As I've said before, I barely know which side of Xcode is up, but these sorts of things sound so cool I'd love to drop in. Unfortunately, registration runs $1295, but on the bright side that's the early-bird price, $300 off regular. Heck you can even get five tickets at the price of four for only $5180, so you can take your four closest Mac friends! Nothing says "you're a pal!" like a ticket to WWDC!
WWDC 2007: June 11 - 15
Attention Mac coding nerds (and I say that will all possible respect), Apple has announced the dates for their World Wide Developers Conference (WWDC for those in the know). This year WWDC is happening in San Francisco on June 11th through the 15. WWDC is traditionally a little later in the summer, which leads people to believe that Steve might announce Leopard's availability during the WWDC keynote.Update: It would seem that my memory only goes back as far as last year, which had an unusually late WWDC. This date is more inline with 'traditional' WWDC time. My bad, as the kids say.
AppleInsider: WWDC to take place June 11th - 15th
Take this with a grain of sodium chloride, but AI is reporting that "people familiar with conference planning" have tipped them off to the dates of this year's World Wide Developers Conference. These "people" call June 10th - 15th for WWDC 2007, nearly two full months before last year's knocked-back WWDC, which took place on August 7th, 2006 (delayed, presumably, to make way for the release of the Mac Pro). Even though many folks, including students such as myself, typically consider June to fall under the Summer category, these dates are still technically Spring, which is fueling speculation that Leopard could possibly land on June 10th - the first day of WWDC where Steve Jobs has traditionally done the keynote thing.AI also speculates that iLife and iWork updates could also depend heavily on Leopard technologies, which means we might not see even these software packages until WWDC also. However, they did respond with a coy "stay tuned!" when asked about these updates in their recent Q1 2007 financial results that we liveblogged, so... uh, stay tuned!
WWDC sessions available to all ADC members on iTunes
Back in October, Apple dropped DVDs as their distribution system of choice for WWDC sessions and presentation slides. The company moved all this content to iTunes - but only for Select and Premiere members of the ADC (Apple Developer Connection). Today I just received an ADC email titled "Watch Mac OS X State of the Union," re-announcing the availability of this content, but seemingly for all ADC members. This time around there is no talk of access only for specific members, so it sounds like anyone with a valid ADC account of one level or another can access this library of Mac OS X development goodness. We would post the URL, but it seems as though it is only accessible by logging into one's ADC account online.[Update: According to readers, it sounds like only the general State of the Union sessions are offered, while access to "the juicy stuff" still requires a Leopard Early Starter Kit.]
Sims 2 wins best Mac game award
Aspyr Media's latest newsletter features a summary of the company's participation at last month's Apple Worldwide Developers Conference, where they took home the Best Mac OS X Game award for The Sims 2. Also recognized in the Apple Design Awards was runner-up Wing Nuts 2: Raina's Revenge from Freeverse. While Apple isn't doing much for Mac gaming on the hardware front, Aspyr discusses their plans for using OS X Leopard's XCode developer toolset in future Mac game releases. You can download the Universal Binary update for The Sims 2 here.
Apple fires retail employees for downloading Leopard
Nobody touches Big Brother's Apple's OS until they're good and ready -- not nobody. Apparently not even Apple employees are beyond the long arm of the law, since a few Apple Retail employees have been sacked after being overheard by the Thought Police co-workers while discussing their evil deeds, and were subsequently reported to corporate. Their crime? Downloading the WWDC edition of Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard that was handed out to developers at the recent keynote and has been popping up on file sharing sites of late. At least five employees have been fired so far, with "dozens" more facing electroshock therapy expulsion. When questioned about their actions, the employees fessed up to the crime, and they seemed to think Apple was in the right for giving them the boot, though they do wonder if they'd still have their jobs if they'd hadn't admitted to downloading Leopard. Guess you'll never know now, eh Honest Abe? Though you can assume with our BitTorrent habits that we wouldn't be blabbing about our recent acquisitions in front any Inner Party members Apple corporate types.
Jobs approached by student developer - doesn't fire him?
For those who don't quite get the headline: Jobs is notorious for being a demanding and quick-to-fire-you CEO; there are a few stories of His Steveness doing things like firing an employee who pulled a Porky Pig (an American cartoon character with a stuttering speech impediment) when he found himself on the same elevator as Mr Jobs.With that said, TUAW reader Florian sent us a link to this Flickr image of what looks like a WWDC attendee (student?) approaching Mr. Jobs with something on his PowerBook/MacBook. I'm sure this isn't the first time something like this has happened (with no one receiving a pink slip), but it's a great shot and Steve seems genuinely interested.Florian took the pic, but didn't have a chance to ask this guy about what was going on. If anyone knows anything, or if Mr. Guy Who Was Talking to Steve is a TUAW reader, feel free to drop us a tip (a link to our tips form, by the way, is located at the bottom of our categories list in the middle of this page) and share your wisdom.
Mac OS X Leopard shots aplenty leak to the interwebs
If you haven't yet managed to lay your hands on an illicit download of the developer version of Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard, which was handed out at WWDC earlier this month, take solace in the myriad of screenshots being leaked to the internet by the lucky ones. Most of the enhancements we've spotted so far have been fairly minor -- Steve Jobs saved the big surprises for his keynote or for when they're closer to launch -- but expected upgrades like Automator 2.0, expanded options for popular programs and fun little Finder tweaks are good signs of things to come.[Thanks, Mark J.]Read - Think Secret Leopard shotsRead - LeopardScreenzors Flickr set
The real Leopard show-stopper? Developer goodies that weren't on stage
Reports are surfacing on the web that, while everything Apple showed on stage at WWDC 2006 was exciting and purty 'n all, the more exciting attractions are what wasn't shown on stage. AeroExperience, a Vista developer resource site (of all places), claims to have an exclusive list of many of the underlying changes, newly introduced APIs and other developer goodies that might simply not have been prime fodder for the news and PR spotlight session of the keynote.It's a pretty lengthy list, so here are some of the highlights for you cliffnote readers out there: Leopard will feature resolution-independent user interface and there are several functions to get the current scaling factor and apply it to pixel measurements (we've mentioned how cool this is before, and so has Mr. Gruber). Address Book adds support for sharing accounts, allowing an application to restrict content according to user (.Mac already does this, so I'm wondering if they mean some kind of framework or protocol is in place to open this up to something like WebDAV or simple FTP). Automator includes a new user interface and allows things such as action recording, workflow variables and embedding workflows in other applications. Time Machine has an API that allows developers to exclude unimportant files from a backup set which improves backup performance and reduces space needed for a backup (I was curious about how Time Machine would handle 'useless junk' types of files myself). Carbon, the set of APIs built upon Classic MacOS and used by most 3rd party high-profile Mac OS X applications, now allows Cocoa views to be embedded into the application. This could provide applications like Photoshop and Microsoft Office access to advanced functions previously only available to Cocoa applications. Text engine improvements include a systemwide grammar checking facility, smart quote support, automatic link detection and support for copying and pasting multiple selections. Mail stationery is open to developers, allowing any web designer to create fantastic-looking Mail templates, with defined areas for custom user content (bring on the stationary plugin packs!). A new framework is included for publishing and subscribing to RSS and Atom feeds, including complete RSS parsing and generation. Local feeds can be shared over Bonjour zero-configuration sharing and discovery (I suspected something like this; sounds like Safari and Mail.app might share the same RSS database, as can other apps, so users don't have to waste time exporting/importing between RSS apps). Check out the full list at AeroExperience for more of the potentially rocking Leopard features that Steve and company didn't show on stage.
Switched On: Time Machine restores best, not first
Each week Ross Rubin contributes Switched On, a column about the future of technology, multimedia, and digital entertainment:
