Immediate Reactions to WWDC 2009

I’d like to highlight the points that stood out to me at today’s WWDC keynote. They’re listed roughly in the order they were presented. If you’d like to read the liveblog that I read to get all this juicy info, click over to Engadget’s liveblog coverage. Of course, go to the Apple website for the official news.

15″ MacBook Pro

• Eventually I’ll need to buy a new battery for my MacBook Pro (when my current one stops holding a charge), and I’m glad to see that they’ve made a battery with even better battery life than my computer currently has. UPDATE: I don’t think I got this one right. Yes, the 15″ MacBook Pro has a better battery, (up from 5 hours to 7) but these new 15″ MBPs have a battery that cannot be swapped out by the user, only by Apple (one more reason I’m glad I got my computer when I did). So, it’s unclear to me whether the type of battery found in my computer received an update. I’m guessing it didn’t.
• I’m really glad I got my 15″ MacBook Pro when I did. My computer has an ExpressCard slot; now they come with an SD card slot instead. The average user will like this move, but not the power user. I think it’s a very strange decision.
• I’m glad to see the MacBook Pro received a price cut, even if it only affects the low-end model.
• I really wish my MacBook Pro could handle 8GB of RAM. That is a HUGE update. The hard drive and processor updates are also nice.
• Refreshed features and lower price is immediately available.

17″ MacBook Pro

• The 17″ MacBook Pro has such a niche market. I’m surprised they cut its price, but I won’t complain.
• I’m very glad to see that they left the ExpressCard slot on the 17″. Those power users need the flexibility.
• Lower price is immediately available.

13″ MacBook

• The FireWire 800 port is making a return to the 13″ MacBook. I bet those early adopters aren’t happy.
• I’m shocked that it can handle 8GB of RAM as well.
• The standard backlit keyboard is a bigger deal than you may think. I’ve come to really appreciate that feature on my computer.
• I’m confused on one point. Since the MacBook is now technically part of the MacBook Pro line, is it called a MacBook Pro? I know they made it a part of the line to further differentiate it from the old, white MacBook they’re still making (still, sort of a weird decision). But what is it called?
• Refreshed features and lower price immediately available.

MacBook Air

• That is one insane price cut! It’s now $700 cheaper.
• Lower price immediately available.

Snow Leopard

• It’s only a $29 upgrade for current Leopard users! I didn’t think I’d be upgrading for a while, but it looks like I will be.
• Exchange support doesn’t really mean anything to me, but I know it does to a lot of people. Way to go, Apple!
• The update to Exposé sounds like something I’d use.
• Somehow Snow Leopard is half the size of Leopard. I don’t see how that’s possible, but I’m all for it.
• The handwriting recognition for the trackpad could be cool. I’ll give my verdict once I give it a try.
• Safari 4 looks fast, but Firefox is still king in my book.
• Grand Central Dispatch will unlock the power behind multi-core systems. I’m very excited to see this in action.
• Available this September.

iPhone OS 3.0

• The fact that tethering is coming to the iPhone but isn’t coming to AT&T iPhone users (i.e. American iPhone users) is as epic a failure as you can imagine.
• Find My iPhone is awesome. Every cell phone should have this feature. Login to the web, send a message to your phone, it’ll play a sound, even if it’s set to silent. (I could see awesome potential to abuse this feature to great comedic effect.) Also includes a wipe command to use if your iPhone is stolen.
• The built-in iTunes U support might add to the growing fad of universities using the iPhone/iPod touch in the classroom.
• Turn-by-turn apps will soon hit the App Store. I’m pretty excited about that, but I’ll say this: the fact that TomTom didn’t announce the price of their app during their demo is probably a bad sign.
• I know nothing about Zipcar, but the fact that there’s an iPhone app that can unlock a car is pretty sweet.
• The iPhone OS 3.0 is a tremendous upgrade, but anyone who paid attention to the demo event months ago knew about a lot of the basic features already. As such, I won’t list them again here.
• Available June 17 — free for iPhone, $9.95 for iPod touch.

iPhone 3G S

• The name is lame (the ‘s’ stands for speed). The name lameness will not hurt sales.
• A 3 megapixel camera on a phone is crazy. I remember when that was considered the standard for point-and-shoot cameras. How far we’ve come.
• Macro and tap focus look great. I’d like to see the result of each in person.
• An iPhone video camera (without jailbreak) is long overdue. The polished features look impressive, but I won’t coo over something that should have been released at the iPhone’s initial launch.
• How accurate is the voice control? It’s a sweet feature if I don’t have to shout the same command over and over again.
• I have said since its 2007 release that I wouldn’t buy an iPhone until the capacity hit at least 30GB. We now have a 32GB model for $299. The 16GB model sells for $199. (Prices are for iPhones bought on contract.)
• If you’re mid-contract you’d pay $299 for the 3G and $399/$499 for the 3G S.
• Available June 19.

iPhone 3G

• It was a GREAT decision to keep the 8GB iPhone 3G on the market for $99.
• New price starts today, so if price was what was holding you back before go get one.

General Thoughts

• It would appear that not even Apple is immune to the recession. Price cuts occurred across the board.
• For the first time I will seriously look at purchasing an iPhone. (I am already an AT&T customer, so the consideration comes down to the increase in monthly service costs and the purchase of a very expensive phone.)
• I will be upgrading to Snow Leopard immediately. The $29 upgrade cost was my favorite announcement of the day. I still can’t believe it.
• Even though I no longer have the newest version of the 15″ MacBook Pro I’m glad I purchased mine when I did. It’ll be years before I need more than 4GB of RAM, but I can see myself needing the ExpressCard slot much sooner.
• Clearly the 13″ MacBook is the biggest winner of the day in terms of refreshed products. I also think it’s Apple’s biggest surprise of the day.
• Even at its new price, you still shouldn’t buy the MacBook Air. There are satisfied customers, I’m sure. But it seems to generate more complaints than any other Apple product. If you want a small Apple computer, buy a MacBook, not a MacBook Air.

What Do You Think?

Have any thoughts about today’s keynote? Leave them in the comments.