WWDC Shows Off Apple's New iCloud, iOS 5, And OS X Lion

So Apple had the annual WWDC which usually introduces the new iPhone. Well with all the issues that Japan is facing, it looks like we will have to wait until September for that. So Apple came up with some other goodies to get by with.

One of the biggest is iCloud which stores your music, photos, videos, apps and other files. This will allow you to enjoy most of your software and music on all of your iOS devices everywhere. Speaking of iOS, the intro of iOS 5 brings some welcome changes such as a revamp of the notification system and the use of the volume button as a shutter in the camera app. And of course Apple showed off the new OS X Lion which finally brings Full Screen Mode (what took so long) and Mission Control, which is Expose on steroids.

Take a look at all the new stuff here.

iPhone OS 3.0 out June 17th

Apple is launching iPhone OS version 3.0 next week, bringing with it a slew of new features, including cut and paste, undo, MMS support and more. But what about the gaming features?

We already knew that Apple would allow for in-application purchases, ushering in the era of microtransactions via add-on game packs and other downloadable types of content. iPhone OS 3.0 also adds new options for developers to tap into other new features, including new "push" notification technology, Google Maps availability in any application, peer-to-peer support for paid apps and much, much more.

Two iPhone game developers, Gameloft and ngmoco, showed off playable apps that take advantage of these new features.

Gameloft's Asphalt 5 takes advantage of peer-to-peer functionality by adding multiplayer over Bluetooth. It also lets players tap into their own music collections by accessing custom soundtracks directly from your iPod library.

ngmoco's Star Defense, just released today, will be one of the first games to take advantage of in-app purchases. iPhone owners can download new galaxies adding "hundreds of hours of gameplay."

[via Kotaku]

UPDATE:  Well, US iPhone users, guess what.  AT&T will not be supporting MMS for the iPhone.  I guess they need a way to charge me even more than for my data and text message plan.  I’d been pretty happy with my AT&T service for the past few years, but this may be the proverbial straw.

Leopard Love

There was a beta version of Leopard that "somehow" made it to a bit torrent last week. Well if you're not interested in downloading a pirated version (not that I'm encouraging this), but you would like to see some of what Leopard has for you, check out what the guys at Crunchgear have for you.

There are more video shots on their site, so if you hurry over, they should still be up.

Check it out after the leap. [Crunchgear]

Leopard Beta Leaked: Apple Users Start Your Torrents

It looks like the WWDC beta of Leopard was leaked onto the Oink BitTorrent Web site. Nobody’s completely downloaded the 6GB file yet, but the site’s forum is red hot with activity and the file already has 205 comments.

Choice lines about the leak in recent days have included “this is f*#$ing ridiculous. i want leopard, and i want it now. hurry, before some heads start to roll” and “Please do not talk about this torrent file outside of OINK.”

Someone should notify Apple.

Oh, and my favorite screen shot is below, that one made me giggle!!!
Click on it to enlarge.

Courtesy of Engadget

Apple's Mac OS X Leopard fully unveiled

Posted Jun 11th 2007 11:11AM by Paul Miller
Filed under: Desktops, Laptops

No matter what rampant rumors have been tossed around, we always knew there was going to be one main attraction to WWDC 2007: a feature-complete version of Leopard. Steve Jobs and co. didn't disappoint, announcing 10 of the "300 new features of the OS."

1. New Desktop - First off is the new desktop, featuring a new menu bar, a snazzed up dock and "Stacks" to help you keep your desktop clean. For instance, there's a default Stack that collects all your downloads in one place on the dock.

2. New Finder - More on the aesthetics side, Apple is going with a unified look for apps, which nixes the brushed metal style and instead mimics the current iTunes theme -- surprise, surprise. In fact, the new Finder looks and performs almost exactly like iTunes, all the way down to integrated Cover Flow for shuffling through your files. You can also save smart searches in the "playlists" side of the interface. On the back end of things, Leopard includes "Back to my Mac," which keeps track of your home Mac's IP address through various (and secure!) magicks, letting you browse your files remotely as if they were on a local network. Spotlight search also works over networks now, as expected.

3. Quick Look - Another new Finder integrated function, Quick Look lets you open up previews of most common document types without opening the respective app, and unsupported doc types can be added through extensions.

Keep reading for the rest!

4. 64-bit top to bottom - Apple is driving a hard line and going fully 64-bit in every aspect of Leopard. Hard luck for those rocking older machines, but the speed demons should rejoice

5. Core Animation - Same song as last year, but enough crowd pleasing effects to make it worth a second gander.

6. Boot Camp - Sadly, there aren't any surprise Parallels-killing functions here, but the lack of need to burn a drivers CD should take this one out of the hax0rs' court and see more users taking advantage of it.

7. Spaces - Once again, nothing new here.

8. Dashboard - Yeah, 10 new features? Not so much. Web Clip still sounds fun.

9. iChat - Now features tabbed chats and uses AAC for audio, along with those other fancy features like Photo Booth effects mentioned last year. You can also show off any Quick Look-supported document over a chat, movies included.

10. Time Machine - Backup for noobs, and previews in Quick Look

So no multi-touch interfacing or anything fancy like that, but still a crowd-pleasing offering. $129 and she's yours, come October.

Jobs’ Keynote Leaked

Somehow the keynote outline for Apple's WWDC has hit the net. This supposed keynote outline comes from a German site and we have no idea whether or not it’s true.

Check it out with a serious grain of salt. [Tech Feed]

CowBell at WWDC

As you may know, this upcoming Monday will be the WWDC (World Wide Developers Conference). Apple's little get together where all things new from Apple will be introduced, speculated and talked about to a nauseous state.

Well CowBell Tech will bring you the latests updates when Mr. Jobs lays on us the goods.

So stay tuned!!!

OS X Leopard To Be Animated OS

OK, I've never been a huge Apple OS fan as many here may know. But I've gained a lot of respect for Apple and some of the ideas that they have put together recently. Well, I think that respect has gotten a little bigger for them in my book.

Rumor has it that during the WWDC, Steve Jobs will speak about Apples new OS X Leopard, and will most likely unveil the “top secret” features Apple has kept under wraps. Apple will introduce their "Core Animation" to the masses.

Core Animation will allow programmers and developers to really do some amazing visual stuff, which in turn will change the way programs for OS X are made. Leopard is said to have a few nice APIs to develop with and that they’ll end up “changing the way programmers think”.

I'm almost ashamed to say that I can't wait to see it.

Read more here. [Wired]

iMac Gets Dressed Up For WWDC

All right, let’s fire up the rumor mill about what’s coming our way at WWDC. Could it be a brushed metal iMac, ala Mac Pro, perhaps, with a Santa Rosa chipset? It’s buzzing around that the newest iMac will also be super sized to proportions larger than the current 24-inch model. I'll bet that this is the case because the 17-incher was axed not too long ago and flat-panel prices are plummeting.

Oh and don’t forget that the Macbook Pros could be upgraded tomorrow.

Fun stuff!!!