I watched the video of the WWDC Keynote address last night and after some sleep and time to ponder, I’m disappointed with the announcements. 

Steve Jobs looked totally uninspired during the address.  I’ve watched many of his Apple addresses these last few years and for this one he looked as if he was just going through the motions.  I think the audience picked up on this and didn’t reflect the level of enthusiasm one normally expects at these events. 

For all the announcements about Leopard it was mostly window (pun intended) dressing.  Many of the announcements such as the new Desktop and the Dock were just “Vista like glamor.”  No new usability enhancements or technical features…it’s all been done before.  Stacks may be the only truly useful new feature demonstrated. The technical features of Leopard that were previewed have all been known since January.  No mention of the ZFS file system.  I do believe Leopard is a very good upgrade from Tiger, but as far as the WWDC address goes…where’s the beef? 

Third-party developers got screwed on the iPhone announcement.  It’s nice that the iPhone will support ajax applications via it’s built-in Safari browser, but it severely handicaps most applications and developers.  Apple needs to find a safe way to allow it’s developers fuller access to this platform.  I’m lowering my personal expectations for the success of the iPhone based upon the current restrictions.

The Safari for Windows announcement was to give  access to more developers (Windows) for the iPhone.  I don’t believe it’s an effort to capture any larger share of the browser market.

No new hardware announcements.  The Mac Mini and iMac are due updates.  Couldn’t Apple have made some announcement about a future hardware product?

So here I set today, more then a little disappointed about the whole thing.  I won’t be buying an iPhone anytime soon,  but I will upgrade to Leopard when it’s released.

Technorati Tags: apple, apple+safari, steve+jobs, apple+leopard, wwdc, apple+iphone, wwdc+keynote

2 Comments

  1. Hi Earl,

    While I’m not an Apple guy and hence don’t follow stuff too closely, I do remember mention of a resolution independent graphical system for Leopard. What’s the word on that? That would be a big step up and really set OS-X apart, however temporarily, from the rest.

    ps – nice to see more entries from you over at DebJr.

  2. Hi Richard,

    According to Apple, Leopard will support resolution independence. Below is some information from the Apple Developers Connection for Leopard.

    Resolution Independence

    The old assumption that displays are 72dpi has been rendered obsolete by advances in display technology. Macs now ship with displays that sport native resolutions of 100dpi or better. Furthermore, the number of pixels per inch will continue to increase dramatically over the next few years. This will make displays crisper and smoother, but it also means that interfaces that are pixel-based will shrink to the point of being unusable. The solution is to remove the 72dpi assumption that has been the norm. In Leopard, the system, including the Carbon and Cocoa frameworks, will be able to draw user interface elements using a scale factor. This will let the user interface maintain the same physical size while gaining resolution and crispness from high dpi displays.

    While I’m disappointed of the WWDC anouncements, I still think Leopard will be one of the more advanced OS’s out there. At least at the time of it’s introduction.

    Believe it or not, I’m tired of all this iPhone hype! Me..Mr Apple! LOL

    Ref P.S.: Thanks, I haven’t done as much as I’d hoped but I’m enjoying working on the Devon Jr. Logo’s. I’ve enjoy seeing your entries as well.