According to sources familiar with Apple's plans, the company will drop deployment support for its WebObjects web application server in Mac OS X Snow Leopard Server later this year.
Pundits are roasting Apple over a scuffle raised by Mozilla and Opera to define the free Ogg Theora video codec as the official way to present video on the web in the new HTML 5 specification. The problem: HTML isn't supposed to define content codecs, and even if it were, Ogg Theora, commercially abandoned nearly a decade ago, doesn't have what it takes to deliver video on the increasingly mobile web.
MobileMe web applications have received another facelift, with new features including a revised iDisk module that enables easy file sharing using a system Apple first debuted with its iWork.com experiment at Macworld Expo.
With another year of mobile development under its belt, Apple has released another major update to its mobile operating system and introduced the new iPhone 3G S hardware to entice new buyers and another flurry of upgrades. Here's what's new.
The original iPhone defined a new height of spectacle in consumer electronics launches. With the release of the iPhone 3G S, Apple has managed to keep the media circus surrounding its new smartphones engaged for the third year in a row, and has greatly improved its in-store processing.
Announced at WWDC, Apple's new Find My iPhone and Remote Wipe services went online today with the warning that high traffic to the site might slow or prevent access for users trying it out on launch day. The site appears to be up intermittently and yet not actually functional yet.
Despite warnings from AT&T that claimed high demand for the new iPhone 3G S would prevent it from shipping pre-orders by the June 19 launch date, Apple is still promising to satisfy all web pre-orders with a Friday delivery.
In marked contrast to the PC market, where differention primarily centers around gigabytes, GHz, and Intel Inside branding, Apple is working to keep attention on the iPhone's software, with a curious avoidance of any mention of the make or specification of its internals, apparently for competitive reasons.
Leading anti-virus software producers Symantec and McAfee will face new competition in the lucrative market for fixing Windows when Microsoft launches its own free security service, dubbed Morro, sometime in the second half of 2009.
The iPhone 3G S uses a Samsung processor incorporating an ARM Cortex-A8 processor core and Imagination's PowerVR SGX graphics core to achieve a significant new class of speed while remaining backwardly compatible with existing iPhone apps.
The new iPhone 3G S achieves its OpenGL ES 2.0 support using the PowerVR SGX graphics processor core, according to sources familiar with the new iPhone's graphics processor design, as AppleInsider first anticipated in a report last April that broke news of a secret deal struck between Imagination Technologies, Samsung, and Apple.
After trying to beat back the Mac's increasing encroachment into the PC world with ads focused on price, Microsoft's club has been picked up by Apple to give Windows 7 an embarrassing pummeling in terms of price.
The new 13" MacBook Pro unveiled at WWDC makes room for its new SD card slot and FireWire 800 port in part by giving up a digital audio input port. Instead, the new model uses the same integrated mic and headphone port as the iPhone.
Amid all of the new features highlighted Monday in Snow Leopard, iPhone 3.0 and Safari 4.0 were a few unpublicized retractions: Safari 4.0 has lost its "tabs on top" and returned to the old conventional tabs of the previous 3.0 version, while all mention of full ZFS support in Snow Leopard Server has been scrubbed.
At WWDC, Apple revealed a few new details related to its iPhone 3.0 operating system update for existing iPhone and iPod touch users, including its release date set for June 17, 2009. Meanwhile, new information clarifies why U.S. wireless carrier AT&T has delayed support for tethering and MMS features of the software.
During its presentation at WWDC Monday, Apple highlighted new pricing for the iPhone 3G and the upcoming iPhone 3G S model but didn't explain that existing iPhone 3G customers will have to pay a $200 premium to upgrade to the latest model if they want one right away.
Sprint's CEO stated today that despite the comments coming from Verizon Wireless, his company's exclusive rights to sell the Palm Pre will extend longer than six months.
Citing only "people familiar with the initiative," the Financial Times claims that Apple plans to release an iPhone model with a substantially lower retail price in order to boost sales, and that the introduction could happen as soon as the opening day of WWDC.
The iPhone 3.0 operating system release will include new support for direct downloads of movie and TV content from the iTunes Store, according to people familiar with Apple's internal training materials.
Shares of Palm, Inc spiked upward roughly ten percent on rumors that the new Palm Pre phone might only remain exclusively tied to Sprint for six months, suggesting availability through Verizon Wireless and AT&T as early as January 2010.
AT&T has formally announced plans for deploying its 7.2 Mbps mobile data service upgrade this year, which will support faster iPhone models expected to be released this summer.
Luxury watch maker Cartier International filed suit against Apple today for allowing a third party iPhone developer to post an application depicting a watch image which Cartier claims infringes on its designs. Later, however, it withdrew the complaint.
OQO, a company formed by two members of Apple's Titanium PowerBook G4 team who left the company to deliver the micro-sized laptops that Steve Jobs refused to build at Apple, is shutting down after nearly a decade of trying.
Interest in iPhone development is hot enough to be setting records in another category Apple has pioneered: education podcasts. Stanford's iPhone course has recently hit a million downloads milestone in iTunes U.
Apple this week enlisted the services of the Associated Press and called upon many of its iPhone developers to help stress test its new Push Notification service slated for delivery in iPhone 3.0.
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Prince McLean and Kasper Jade
