Apple Monday kicked off the 2011 WWDC Developer Conference with a keynote featuring Steve Jobs and other Apple Executives.  The presentation focused on three main topics, Mac OS X Lion, iOS 5 and iCloud.

Apple started off by discussing the growth of the Mac over the last year, stating 28% growth year over year while PC sales have fallen 1% during this same period.  Further 3/4 of Mac machines sold today are laptops.

250 new features can be found in the new Lion OS, including 10 showcased in the presentation.

1. Multi-touch guestures – Users can now swipe, pinch, and tap to zoom through the OS.  Things now function very much like iOS.  Also, the scroll bar disappears, just like in iOS, adding to the functionality of the Magic Trackpad.
2. Full Screen Applications – The standard method now for apps will be to use them in full-screen.  You can still run more than one at a time, and a swipe brings you between them.
3. Mission Control – According to Apple, the best feature, essentially unifying expose and spaces together.
4. Mac App Store – Now the #1 place to get Mac apps.  In app purchases are coming to the App Store in Lion, as well as push notifications.
5. Launchpad – Guestures makes app icons appear, and you can make folders of apps
6. Resume – instantly resume where you left off in an app.  Similar to how many apps save the state in the iOS.
7. Auto Save – Lion autosaves everything.  No more Command + S every few minutes.
8. Basic versioning – Allowed in apps like pages and keynote, it a looks like time machine view.
9. Airdrop – A new document sharing method using a peer to peer wifi-based network.  Airdrop shows up in finder.  The recipient of a file sent gets a prompt, which they must confirm, and then the OS it downloads it.
10. New version of mail – A new design with multi-column view.  It looks much like iOS mail, and has conversation view like Outlook 2010 or Gmail.

Other items announced included in Lion are Facetime, Lion Server (drastically reduced from $500 previously to $50 now) and over 3000 new API’s.  The software will be available in the Mac app store as a 4GB download only.  The cost is $29.99, and once you purchase, it can be installed on up to 5 machines.  The developer preview is available starting today, and it will be available for everyone in July.

Press Release:

SAN FRANCISCO—June 6, 2011—Apple® today announced that Mac OS® X Lion, the eighth major release of the world’s most advanced operating system with more than 250 new features and 3,000 new developer APIs, will be available to customers in July as a download from the Mac® App Store™ for $29.99. Some of the amazing features in Lion include: new Multi-Touch® gestures; system-wide support for full screen apps; Mission Control, an innovative view of everything running on your Mac; the Mac App Store, the best place to find and explore great software, built right into the OS; Launchpad, a new home for all your apps; and a completely redesigned Mail app.

“The Mac has outpaced the PC industry every quarter for five years running and with OS X Lion we plan to keep extending our lead,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing. “The best version of OS X yet, Lion is packed with innovative features such as new Multi-Touch gestures, system-wide support for full screen apps, and Mission Control for instantly accessing everything running on your Mac.”

New Multi-Touch gestures and fluid animations built into Lion let you interact directly with content on the screen for a more intuitive way to use your Mac. New gestures include momentum scrolling, tapping or pinching your fingers to zoom in on a web page or image, and swiping left or right to turn a page or switch between full screen apps. All Mac notebooks ship with Multi-Touch trackpads and desktop Macs can use Apple’s Magic Trackpad.

Full screen apps take advantage of the entire display and are perfect for reading email, surfing the web or browsing photos, especially on a MacBook Air® or MacBook® Pro. With a single click your app fills the display and you can swipe from one window to another, between full screen apps, or back to your Desktop, Dashboard or Spaces® without ever leaving full screen. iWork® and iLife® apps, as well as Safari®, iTunes®, Mail, FaceTime® and others, all take advantage of Lion’s system-wide support for full screen apps.

Mission Control combines Exposé®, full screen apps, Dashboard and Spaces into one unified experience for a bird’s eye view of every app and window running on your Mac. With a simple swipe, your desktop zooms out to display your open windows grouped by app, thumbnails of your full screen apps and your Dashboard, and allows you to instantly navigate anywhere with a tap.

The Mac App Store is built into Lion and is the best place to discover great new Mac apps, buy them with your iTunes account, download and install them. Apps automatically install directly to Launchpad, and with Lion’s release, the Mac App Store will be able to deliver smaller “delta” app updates and new apps that can take advantage of features like In-App Purchase and Push Notifications.

Launchpad makes it easier than ever to find and launch any app. With a single Multi-Touch gesture, all your Mac apps are displayed in a stunning full screen layout. You can organize apps in any order or into folders and swipe through unlimited pages of apps to find the one you want.

Lion includes a completely redesigned Mail app with an elegant widescreen layout. The new Conversations feature groups related messages into an easily scrollable timeline, intelligently hiding repeated text so the conversation is easy to follow, and retaining graphics and attachments as they were originally sent. An incredibly powerful new search feature allows you to refine your search and suggests matches by person, subject and label as you type. Mail includes built-in support for Microsoft Exchange 2010.

Additional new features in Lion include:

• Resume, which conveniently brings your apps back exactly how you left them when you restart your Mac or quit and relaunch an app;
• Auto Save, which automatically and continuously saves your documents as you work;
• Versions, which automatically records the history of your document as you create it, and gives you an easy way to browse, revert and even copy and paste from previous versions; and
• AirDrop, which finds nearby Macs and automatically sets up a peer-to-peer wireless connection to make transferring files quick and easy.

Pricing & Availability Mac OS X Lion will be available in July as an upgrade to Mac OS X version 10.6 Snow Leopard® from the Mac App Store for $29.99 (US).  Lion will be the easiest OS X upgrade and at about 4GB, it is the size of an HD movie from the iTunes Store®. Mac OS X Lion Server requires Lion and will be available in July from the Mac App Store for $49.99 (US).

Lion requires an Intel-based Mac with a Core 2 Duo, i3, i5, i7 or Xeon processor and 2GB of RAM. The Lion upgrade can be installed on all your authorized personal Macs.

The Mac OS X Lion Up-To-Date upgrade is available at no additional charge via the Mac App Store to all customers who purchased a qualifying new Mac system from Apple or an Apple Authorized Reseller on or after June 6, 2011. Users must request their Up-To-Date upgrade within 30 days of purchase of their Mac computer. Customers who purchase a qualifying Mac between June 6, 2011 and the date when Lion is available in the Mac App Store will have 30 days from Lion’s official release date to make a request.

I spoke to Dieter shortly after he publicly announced he was leaving.  He had an excited optimism about him, and realized this move is really a great one for him personally.  I’ve known Dieter for over 3 years, going back to 2008 when we traded co-host duties with each other, and had him as one of the special guests of The Cell Phone Junkie’s 100th Episode.  We’ve spent time at trade shows together, and I’ve been one to almost literally grab him by the arm and pull him behind the microphone to record a podcast at each one.

I want to formally thank Dieter for all his hard work and personal guidance he’s given me over the last few years.  Good luck buddy!

After last week’s Skype outage, the company Wednesday sent out vouchers to customers for $1.00, or approximately 30 minutes of calling credit.  Simply login, enter the requested information, and the credit is yours.  Olive branches are always nice, kudos Skype!

While i’ve truly enjoyed the Sprint Blackberry Bold 9650, the coverage and plan usage I have is just not justifying the cost.  If I could easily port this over to a Verizon account, I would do it in a heartbeat.  However, that’s not happening.  More details about the device here – http://shop.sprint.com/NASApp/onlinestore/en/Action/DisplayPhones?phoneSKU=SPRIM9650

Phone is in average condition though it does work perfectly.  Additional photos will be taken upon request.  Software is currently the latest leaked build of OS 6, but I can downgrade to the latest Sprint OS 5 if you’re interested. The phone runs on EVDO here in the US, and roams internationally on GSM carriers worldwide.  The SIM slot is unlocked, and any SIM can be accepted.  I also have the MSL code, so you are free to hack away at the device as you please.  The phone comes with a all original items, plus a few additional accessories.  Total retail price of the package is over $500.  Please leave your best offer for this entire package, $200 starting price.

Serious buyers only please. Leave a comment to the post if you’re interested, I will moderate/not approve comments, so your information will only be seen by me.

Buyer gets the following:

• Sprint Blackberry Bold 9650
• Original Battery
• AC Adapter
• microUSB cable
• Unopened stereo headphones
• Stock leather belt holster
• All packaging and paperwork
• Desktop/Nightstand Dock
• Extra Battery
• Standalone battery wall charger with USB outlet
• Hard side case

The Cell Phone Game

A quick PSA on this Friday before Halloween. Make sure you pay attention when you head out trick or treating this Sunday.  And of course, no texting while flying…

Xmarks may not be shutting down after all.  The bookmark syncing tool announced last month that they would be shutting down the service after funds dried up.  So far, 35000 people have signed a pledge to pay $20 per year for a premium version of the service to keep it going.  Great news for those of us who use it to keep bookmarks synced across multiple machines.

Source: Xmarks