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Last Tuesday, Phil Shiller, Bertran Surlet, and Scott Forstall took the stage and made some major announcements of updates to Apple’s Product line. It was a big event where big announcements were made and some rumors were proven true. Let’s get into what happened last Tuesday:

New Macbook Pros

• Faster Processors
• Up To 8 Gigabytes of RAM
• SD Card Reader
• New 13 Inch Model
• Built-in Battery
• White $999 Macbook Only Remaining Macbook

Snow Leopard

• Faster Performance
• Built-In Exchange
• Safari 4 With Crash-Prevention
• Quicktime 10
• 3D Dock Rendering
• Expose in Dock
• Faster 64 Bit
• Better Multi-threading
• Upgrade $29 for Leopard Users and Family Pack for $49- Coming Out in September

iPhone 3.0

• Find my iPhone and Remote Wipe (MobileMe Subscription required $99/Year)
• Faster Safari
• Much More
• Released Wednesday June 17th
• MMS (Not in US till end of Summer 2009)
  

iPhone 3GS

• Faster Performance
• 3 Megapixel Camera with Auto focus, White balance, and exposure)
  
• Video Recording, Editing and Sharing
• Compass for Location
• Voice Control
• Longer Battery Life
• $199 for 16 GB and $299 for 32 GB
• 8 GB iPhone 3G available for $99 and 16 GB for $166
  

The time has come once again for Apple to give the Worldwide Developers Conference Keynote.  The keynote will be on  Monday June 8th and will be delivered by Phil Shiller. There has, as always, been flurries of rumors about what we will see, who will do it and when new products will be released.

New iPhone

• 32 GB Model
• Better Camera with Video Recording
• Thinner Body
• Turn-By-Turn Directions
• iPhone 3.0 Software

Snow Leopard:

• Preview of Progress
• Announcement of Release Date

Tablet:

• Not announced at WWDC

Netbook:

• Not Announced at WWDC

Steve  Jobs:

• Reports have stated he has become much healthier and is on schedule to return at the end of June
• Cameo at Keynote????

There you have it my thoughts of what will occur at WWDC this Monday. I will write a review and reaction as usual on Tuesday after the keynote.

The Mac Mini  is a small computer that is currently the least expensive Mac on the market. The reason is because the Mac Mini only comes with the computer and leaves out the keyboard, mouse and monitor which is fine if you have those laying around. However the entry price is very high at $600 and does not provide the specs that are equivolent for that price tag. Howevr, there are a few uses that the Mac Mini is perfect for.

1. Media Center

One of the simplist uses for this, is a media center where you just hook up the Mac Mini to you big screen TV and  unlock a lot of possibilities. First you can play web meda like, Podcasts on your big home theater and other digtial media like music, video and many others in the comfort of your living room. You could also get a capture care to let you use your Mac Mini as a DVR (Digital Video Recorder) to record TV and watch whenever it is convienient for you.Finally, you can surf the internet and watch video on the big screen with sites like Hulu.

2. Home Server

The Mac Mini also makes a great home server where you can store your files for either backing them up, sharing with other computers or streaming media throughout your home. All you need to do is hook it up to your home network and setup file sharing on each computer.

3. Kitchen Computer or Home Management System

Maybe you want to have a computer to browse and store recipies using software like, SousChief, where you can find recipes or to track a family schedule or what you need to pick-up at the market. The Mac Mini is perfect because you don’t need to much power and you can just set this up on a kitchen counter and you can do all this and more.

There are 3 great uses for the Mac Mini and could make it much more worthwhile and more viable. One note though, is that if you don’t want to pay full price you can try and buy it used and save some money!

You don’t need to be a major Apple Fanboy like me to know that Steve Jobs has been on medical leave since January and will not be returning until June and this has brought Mr. Jobs’ health into question and if he is going to be able to return to Apple as CEO. Mr. Jobs had pancreatic cancer in 2004 and although it was treated people, especially shareholders, have questioned if he can continue to lead Apple and if he is about to die who will take over the role of Apple CEO after him. Although Apple claims that Steve will be returning in June and resume his role but, he is 54 and not immortal so at some point in time, he will have to step down from CEO either from resigning or dying while still CEO and many people are wondering who will succeed Steve.  History lesson here, when Steve was fired in 1984, Apple declined until he returned and Apple lost it’s hold on the Personal computer market that it created. The problem was that no one had the charism or skills Steve does and   I have looked at the people I think are possibilities to take over the CEO position and weigh in who I think will be chosen although I hope this plan will not have to be put in action anytime soon.

The Contenders:

Tim Cook

Tim Cook is the obvious choice since, he is the Chief Operating Officer and while Steve is on medical leave he is Interim CEO. He is a very  well qualified business leader but, I do not think he has the charisma that gave Steve the cult following nor, the vision that has fuel Apple’s innovation.

Phil Shiller

Phil Shiller, Apple’s Senior Vice President of Worldwide Product Marketing, is well know for helping Steve in his keynote demos and has worked with Steve since he ran NeXt Computer which means he may be more in tune with the Steve’s plan for Apple. The one worry I have is lack of business experience and if he could be an effective CEO and well as a visionary.

Scott  Forstall

Scott Forstall, to me would be the ideal candiate as far as being the visionary who can attract the Apple Cult following as well as keep the vision for Apple’s future alive. The only downside is that he does not have the business experience but, I think if he keeps Cook on as COO as the Business guy and he runs the vision and keeps the Apple culture alive.

Winner:

As I said he is ideal for keeping the Apple cuture alive and not only that reminds me of a younger Steve Jobs and would be good to keep the vision for Apple’s future alive and the culture that keeps the public interested in Apple.

What if I told you for the next four days that you could get over $1,000 of software for only $40 and give 25% of that to charity. Well it is true! Macheist lets mac users buy some of the best shareware applciations for a limited time and only for $40! This bundle provides a lot of great apps like: KineMac, a easy to  use Mottion graphics program, Sous Chief , a great cooking application that suggests recipies based on supplies you have, iSale, a program that simplifies selling stuff on E-Bay, Picturesque, a easy image editor, World of  Goo, a great game, PhoneView, an app that lets users view the contents of their iPhone or iPod Touch, Little Snapper, A powerful screenshot utillity, Acorn, a simplified photo editor, and Wiretap Studio, a powerful audio recording utillity. Also, as MacHeist raises more money for charity they will “Unlock” more applications. When they raise a total of $400,000 they will unlock the “killer app” for me Boinx TV because it turns your computer into a video mixer without any  extra equipment. Also when even more money is raised, they will “Unlock”  Espresso, a very powerful web editor and Hit List a great productivity application.

If one application I described peaked your interest, then you should buy it, not only do you get a bunch of great applications but you also give money to charity and help people in need. I suggest that all Mac users invest the $40 and get a great collection of applications  but make sure you do it before time runs out!

Believe it or not, I was not always the major Apple fan that I am today. In fact for most of my ife I was a major Windows fan and continued to be up-until recently. Looking back, there were good reasons for my distate with Apple the primary reasons the lack of power on the old Macs of that time, they were slow and inefficent. The other issue I had was that the operating system was outdated and Apple had not been innovating for a long time and making their OS better.

Starting in Kindergarten. my school used Macs, taught us to use Apple Works and the Mac OS. At first, I had no issue with it, probably because I was young and took no notice to the computers being slow, but, after I got my first computer in 3rd Grade, I realized that Windows was way more advanced than the Mac and I thought that the Mac was a lost cause.  I thought that Windows had a better operating system and better software and Apple was just a junk os. I continued this belief through Middle School and the first half of High School. But then things changed.

There were two turing points for Apple that caused me to re-think Thinking Different, both of these changes occured after Steve Jobs returned to Apple in 1997. The first change was in 2000 when Apple unveiled Mac OSX, a new, powerful and modern operating system that Microsoft has yet to beat to this day. However, this was not too much of a change at first as far as speed was concerned because Apple still used Power PC processors which were much slower and made the new operating system still be slow. However, that changed in 2006 when Apple announced that they would transition to Intel processors. I believe that it is because of these two factors that has led to Apples major increase in marketshare and success. Since these changes I have become a major Apple fan and last Ocotber I bought a Macbook Pro after realizing that Macs were the best machines for video production. After all that hate, I am now considering whether on not I am ever going to buy a Windows machine again and if Windows 7 isn’t a complete improvement over Vista then the answer may be no!

Whn I bought the iPod Touch I realized that it was such a powerful device that it does a lot of the work that people would buy a netbook to do! The iPod touch has one of the most powerful Email,  web browser and note application. The only thing that it does not have is access to Cloud services like Google Docs, but that could easily be done with software and could make the iPod Touch a full replacement for netbooks. One advantage is that it has is that no netbook can do is it’s size, the iPod Touch is pocket size and because of that it can go anywhere without having to carry a bag. The iPod Touch also has thousands of Applications that can be installed over the internet and give the users access to many more features for the iPod Touch.

There have been rumors floating around for the past year or so about Apple putting out a netbook, it makes sense however, they already have a mini netbook. However if they release a netbook I think they will use the iPhone OS because it is simple and powerful and well developed instead of OSX which can be complicated.

As I mentioned on Monday, today, Apple gave a preview of what is to comer in the next version of the iPhone Software, iPhone 3.0. There has been a lot of speculation about features will be added to the new software and what will not but, now, now I will determine which rumors came true and which are just rumors.

1. Spotlight Search- Search will be implemented in all appications which is great because it will make data easier to access
2. In-App Purchase- As usual Apple has found a great way to revolution an old business. This time, it was subscription services like newspaers and magazines. The new SDK now allows users to buy addition content such as magazine issues or game levels from with in a third-party application. This will build a large market of mobile content providers and will be very successful.
3. Landscape Keyboard- There is no longer a need for getting third-party applications just to get a horizontal keyboard it will now be built in in all key applications and most importantly, Mail!
4. Peer-to-Peer Connectivity- This is a great feature for both work and play because it allows people to connect devices over WiFi or Bluetooth. This could be used as a method of sharing data for work or playing games against one-another.
5. Stereo Bluetooth- Perfect if you want to use a stero Bluetooth headphone set.
6. Third-Party Accessory Applications- Apple is also opening up SDK support to let third-party accesory developers to develop apps to interact with the accessory. This will greatly expand then accessory market and will really expand the hardware of the iPhone.
7. Push Notification- Finally, Apple has developed push notification and they claim it is due to battery issues that they did not implement background applications. This will push text, audio and badge notifications to the home screen.
8. Turn-By-Turn Directions- Finally users can get turn by turn directions, however, they will only be through third-parties because Apple cannot due to Licensing issues.
9. Cut, Copy and Paste- That’s right Apple has heard everyone’s complaints and they are implimenting a revolutionary method of copy and paste!
10. MMS- Picture Messaging has been added which is great if you have a picture you need to share.

This new software will be released to developers right now, and will be releassed to the public in Summer for free for iPhone users and for $10 for iPodTouch owners, All-in-all it is a worthwhile upgrade! I think that Apple waiting until June indicates that they will be releasing new hardware this summer and leads me to suggest to wait until summer to buy a new iPhone because there is a 90% chance of new hardware being released as well as the software. I definitly will buy the upgrade for my iPod Touch and will write a full review at that time.

Tomorrow, Apple is going to give a preview of the next version of the iPhone operating system, iPhone Software 3.0, at their campus and to a group of journalists.It is believed that although, this is a preview and not a roll-out, that distribution of this new software will happen soon, I think it wil be released in the next month, unless, Apple releases new hardware, because then it would make sense that they wait for the next generation of hardware. But, I thought it would be a good idea to write what I think the next generation of software will include, because it has a lot to live up to.

The single most demanded feature is copy and paste it is essential for putting in Wireless passwords and just saving time when trying to get work done. Although copy and paste is more of a convenience feature, it has been demanded since day one and because of that Apple needs to put it out. I am not sure how this will be implemented but, after two years, they need to get it out or it will cost them dearly, it is do or die now!

The other feature that people have been craving for some time is background applications, because applications like instant messaging could be always running so if you are not actively running the application, you can get messages and get notified of when new messages arrive. I think this feature is less likley than copy and paste because Apple flat-out mocked background applications and task managers in their last SDK announcement and it would look bad if they went back on what they had said before.

Tethering has also been a frequent request because it would be great to be able to  take that $30/ month for iPhone service and be able to use that on your laptop as well as on your iphone. It would be very convient to the iPhone users and would be simple to implement with a new applications. The final thing that has been speculated about being added was MMS so users can send multimedia as well as text messages.

One thing that I am curious about is that the tradition has been for the past two years that Apple releases a new iPhone on the anniversary in June in each year but, I am curious what they will add besides increasing the memory. I also wonder if the new software will be availible for the iPod Touch and what price, I think if it adds a few of the features I mentioned it is 100% worth the nominal charge.

Yesterday, Apple unveiled their newest version of the iPod Shuffle  and just to preface this review, I have never been a major fan of the iPod Shuffle and am a very satisfied iPod Touch user and do not think the shuffle is what I would need. Despite all this, I will give a fair  review of the new product top help my readers get a fair  picture. 

The new  iPod Shuffle has a new capacity of 4 Gigabytes, which holds about 1,000 songs. The price has also gone up to $80, a  $30 difference  over the old price. The design has been reverted back to the original “Stick of gum” design and has moved the controls onto the headphones which I do not understand why they did that. The only new feature they added was Voice-over, which allows your  ipod shuffle to read the name and the artist of the songs before they play so that you  know  what song  is coming up, this also works on playlists which is great. The shuffle also allows you to use multiple playlists and with voice-over, you can choose the playlist  you want. 

All-in-all, I guess the  iPod Shuffle is a good entry level iPod  although I would recommend getting a Nano, Classic  or Shuffle that has a larger capacity and a screen.  However, on the  other hand the voice-over feature has replaced  many of the functions of a screen but, I like more features. I was surprised  at the price jump they made because Apple usually  updates features and keeps prices the same but they practically doubled the price this time. All-in-all the iPod  Shuffle is a great basic  music player although I doubt it will continue in the current fashion much longer.