Eighteen days . The number hung over the auditorium like fog on a grey-haired San Francisco day . Although Steve Jobs spend most of his keynote address at June ’s Worldwide Developers Conference ( WWDC ) talk over the next version of Mac OS X ( Leopard ) , the impending release of the iPhone , which is go under for June 29 , colored every aspect of the presentment .
It did n’t help that Jobs inclose Leopard at last year ’s WWDC , making big part of this year ’s presentation experience like an old - fashioned summer telly rerun . to begin with , the idea was that Leopard would be released by this year ’s conference . But Apple ’s brainsick rush to ready the iPhone for its appointment with destiny intend that Leopard would have to hold back until October .
Hints of Leopard
Yes , Jobs did unveil some fresh features in Leopard , features that could make this the crowing overhaul of the Mac OS hug drug interface since that operating organisation was first launched .
Cover Flow , a apt iTunes attention deficit disorder - on that Apple purchase from computer programmer Jonathan del Strother , is now ramp up into iTunes . It ’s also going to be one of four received view options in the new Leopard edition of the Finder .
Apple appear to have settled on a individual window flair — the one you ’ll find now in iTunes 7 — and that choice alone will put up some delicious consistency to the Mac port . The addition of Stacks to the Dock could make the Dock a pivotal part of the Mac interface , rather than a minor shaft for launching and shift program . make in a few of the previously harbinger feature , specially Spaces , the multiworkspace utility , and Leopard could indeed enable a major melioration in Mac OS X productiveness — albeit after a bit of a acquisition curve .
Jobs drop some metre discourse Boot Camp , mostly to emphasize what it was n’t : a Parallels Desktop and VMWare Fusion killer . Those two political platform permit you run Windows and Mac OS side - by - side ( instead of rebooting into a Windows session ) . There had been some talk that the next rendering of Boot Camp would offer the same feature . But Jobs gave Parallels and VMWare a boastful verbal hug , call Boot Camp “ a neat accompaniment ” to those programs . ( For more details on Jobs ’s Leopard preview , see More of Leopard Revealed . )
Counting down
As nice as it was to get those few tidbits about Leopard , what people were really talking about in the entrance hall after Jobs ’s computer address was the equipment that will be released just 18 days after the keynote : the iPhone .
Ever since the iPhone was announced at last January ’s Macworld Expo , the people who drop a line software for the Mac have wondered : Will we be able to publish computer software that lam on the iPhone , too ?
Apple ’s reply has evolved over time . In January , it appeared to be no . By other May , the company was “ wrestling ” with the matter . By the end of May , Steve Jobs was suggest that Apple would find a way to allow developers write software system for the iPhone .
At WWDC , Jobs say that would - be iPhone developer could spell snazzy Web applications programme that would bring on the phone ’s progress - in Safari WWW web browser . That ’s not a defective mind — in fact , it ’s one that many developer would have suggested themselves if they had get the luck .
These day , vane - base software can be pretty sophisticated . We ’ve even devoted a account in this publication to the singular new authority rooms offered by Google ( see page 60 ) . But as advanced as entanglement software system has become , it ’s still not good enough for many tasks or for people who work without access to the net .
Apple ’s understandably been sprinting for six month just to get the iPhone quick for the world to see . And I have little dubiety that , in a few months , the company will be ready to speak to developers about other means of writing “ real ” software ( not just World Wide Web applications ) to lean on its fresh baby . That ’s good news for potential iPhone users . Because as skilled as Apple ’s in - household computer programmer are , they wo n’t ever be able-bodied to fulfill the needs of every iPhone user . That ’s where autonomous computer programmer could play a key role — just as they do on the Mac .
By the time you learn this , the hype about the iPhone will have reach a crescendo . We plan on providing in - profundity coverage of the iPhone in our next issue , but in the meantime I advance you to inflict macworld.com/ iphone for the latest iPhone coverage fromMacworld ’s expert writer .
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