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Issue link: https://digital.macdirectory.com/i/1877
56 MacDirectory DEPARTMENT COMPILED BY RIC GETTER APPLE NEWS > THE WWDC KEYNOTE WHEN IT COMES TO APPLE NEWS, GO TO MACDIRECTORY.COM AND SUBSCRIBE TO EMACDAILY. EMACDAILY DELIVERS THE TOP APPLE NEWS, PRODUCT RELEASES, INDUSTRY TRENDS, SPECIAL DEALS AND MORE. THIS IS A FREE E-NEWS SERVICE TO MAC USERS. SAN FRANCISCO -- There were no bombshells dropped but there were more than enough fireworks to light up the sky during Phil Schiller and friends' keynote opening the 2009 Worldwide Developers' Conference (WWDC) at the Moscone Center. Most, but not all, of the revelations were simply confirming the realities of recent rumors. The underlying and unspoken theme of the keynote was that Apple was about to give us a lot more for a lot less. In deference to journalistic style over showmanship, we'll reverse the order of the announcements, starting with the big news and work our way down to the merely exciting. The iPhone 3GS (peedier) And, for a company whose origins lie in the creation of great computer hardware and software, the "big news" was about its little telephone. With its rapidly growing feature set, the fact that the iPhone can make phone calls is becoming less and less significant. All the while, it's blending more seamlessly with the rest of Apple's product lines. The iPhone 3GS and the accompanying 3.0 OS update adds a host of new features that the portable communications pundits had said were essential for an Apple phone to be a success (that was back several million phones ago). The "S" in the second-generation iPhone 3G certainly implies that the device is speedier, but Apple, perhaps quite wisely, avoided going public with how that was made possible with a device that is physically identical to its predecessor. However, if the hardware gurus at Anandtech.com are to be believed, the 3GS boasts significantly different processor technology that is quite similar to the recently introduced (and rapidly overshadowed) Palm Pre. T-Mobile Netherlands was kind enough to post specs that revealed double the RAM and a 30 percent faster processor (finally faster than the Touch). However, the word "slow" rarely surfaced in comments about the 3G, so Apple's playing down the numbers makes some sense. Even though it was credited with being the source of the dramatic rescue photo of US Airways 1549 that graced front pages everywhere, the iPhone's camera has never been one of its strongest features. It now gets a boost to 3 megapixels as well as a video recording and editing capability, so iPhone users can now post, as well as view, compromising videos of their friends on YouTube. The new phone is a much better listener, as well. Rather than simply adding voice dialing, Voice Control can give commands your iPod, as well. If, like Ensign Chekov, English is not your native tongue, the phone will be happy to listen to you in more than 20 languages. Having a map is great, but without knowing which way you're facing, they can be of limited help. The 3GS now has a sense of direction with its electronic compass. The feature opens the door for TomTom's turn-by-turn navigation system, which will be available later this summer. The company is also going to offer car a mounting kit that will provide hands-free and hands-off access to the phone and GPS. The 3GS will be able to take advantage of the 7.2 Mbps HSDPA (High Speed Downlink Packet Access) network being rolled out (albeit slowly, according to some sources) in the United States. Combined with improvements on the software side, this should make your Internet experience a bit brisker, as well. There's one thing that the 3GS will not have: fingerprints on the screen. The new phones will be shipped with an oleophobic coating, so a quick swipe of a lint-free cloth should clear off the fingerprints bring the sparkle right back. One announcement squelched the rumors about an iPhone Nano. Apple and AT&T will continue to sell the original 8 GB 3G as an entry-level model priced at a BlackBerry-squeezing $99.