Predictions for WWDC '07

This June the center of the Mac universe will be at Moscone West in downtown San Francisco as developers and IT professionals from around the globe come together for the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC).

Technically-speaking WWDC 2007 should lack the glamour of Macworld! But, this is Apple we're talking about, and everything Apple does, under the stewardship of CEO Steve Jobs, is followed with great interest by developers, consumers, and the public at large!

Here are my predictions for next week:

*New iMacs and iPods (maybe delayed until Apple Expo Paris)
*iLife 07
*iWork 07
*iLife and iWork integrated into Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard
*Boot Camp no longer requires reboot in Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard
*Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac release date announced
*Blu-Ray build-to-order (BTO) option available from Apple Store
*.Mac updated with Google co-branding and sans subscription

Lots of cool new applications and updates from third-party developers.

Los Angeles Galaxy

Alas Macworld is over for another year! No announcements regarding iLife, iWork or iTunes updates. However, Friday hasn't ended yet. It wouldn't be surprising if Apple Inc. holds off software and hardware revisions until the end of January or February when Apple TV bows.

Soccer superstar David Beckham, who has played for Manchester United, Real Madrid and England, is US-bound to the tune of, purportedly, $250 million dollars. Wonder if he'll receive a free Apple iPhone?

I'll have to content myself with an iTunes Store Music copy of JoJo's infectious, if ultimately disposable, Too Little, Too Late (Radio Version) courtesy of a Coca-Cola Music/Burger King promotion!

Took Toast 8 for a spin and the new features are worth the entrance fee! The only caveat, and this isn't the fault of Roxio, is that UK customers still can't use Toast to transfer recordings from sky+. And Apple still continues to preclude the burning of paid-for iTunes content.

Beast Machines

ars technica has an in-depth review of Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger. There's more to 10.4 than simply search. However, Spotlight's genesis can be traced back to BeOS BFS (Be File System). That's no accident. Whilst I await notification that Amazon UK has dispatched my copy (presumably after 6:00PM GMT), there's nothing to stop me from playing with the all-new QuickTime 7 is there?

The latest iteration of QuickTime has undergone an extreme and timely makeover. From improved sound controls to creating multi-channel audio support (up to 5.1 surround sound). It's a bind that Apple insists on charging for the glossy Pro version, but that didn't stop me in 2002. The Batman Begins/Dark Water trailers marked the occasion. Here's a screen capture taken from the H.264 High Definition edition of the fourth Batman Begins trailer. Divine.



You'd be hard pressed to get more 'bang' for your money from the relatively modest outlay of £206.99 RRP (Tiger, QuickTime Pro, iWork and iLife '05). A decade ago anyone interested in non linear content authoring would have had to remortgage or sell the farm!

Woolworths' Revenge of the Sith merchandise has marginally improved. A veritable glut of Republic Gunships has arrived, yet no sign of the coveted ARC-170 Starfighter.

InStyle

iWork '05 arrived yesterday and refreshingly includes printed documents for both Keynote 2 and Pages. Although I've had little time to fully explore Pages, Apple's newest software (from the Keynote team) skews more towards lavish publishing and less towards word processing. In its current 1.0 iteration Pages is no replacement for AppleWorks 6.2. However, users of Microsoft Office 2004 for Mac can rejoice as Pages replaces the absent Adobe PageMaker (now an InDesign CS plug-in) and rivals Publisher. Well worth buying.

The release of Pages is cause to reflect on how far publishing applications have developed. In 1998 my first web site was built using Claris Homepage 3.0 (a free license from Macworld UK magazine). Then I migrated to PageMill 3.0 and, latterly, GoLive when Adobe ceased PageMill support and offered an inexpensive upgrade path. GoLive CS now sports Photoshop's signature GUI and seamless integration too.

Time to produce a competitor for Detour magazine.

Tool Time

With the advent of Mac OS X 10.2 Jaguar, Apple heralded Inkwell a proprietary handwriting recognition application built on Apple’s Recognition Engine. Given the initial fanfare, Inkwell has taken a backseat over the past two years. During this time PIXAR developed Sketch Review tool for The Incredibles (2004). Will Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger showcase an improved Inkwell based on PIXAR R&D?

Although iWork '05 has yet to arrive, I've started toying with iLife '05. Apple's killer application suite is now squarely aimed at the prosumer and I’m enamoured! iPhoto 5 is shaping up to be a Photoshop Elements beater as it supports RAW! Whether or not this will affect Adobe's future decision regarding Mac OS support is debatable - allegedly when iPhoto 1 was shown to developers Adobe threatened to cease development of Photoshop and Apple scaled down its feature set. However, I'd argue that iPhoto and Photoshop Elements are complimentary. Here's Adobe's workflow tip. Photoshop remains the de facto standard for icon design.

Mac OS X 10.3.8 was released last evening ahead of expectations.

The Face

Microsoft's Office for Mac suite continues to exclude Access and Publisher! Publisher is a basic page-layout editor. My budget doesn't stretch to Adobe's InDesign or Quark Xpress. Therefore Pages (part of iWork '05) is a compelling substitute at a very affordable £43.99 (including Keynote 2). I'll post reviews of iLife and iWork soon.

John Williams has started scoring Revenge of the Sith with the legendary London Symphony Orchestra. The score should reflect the rich tonal textures of all the previous installments. Williams' work on Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban has deservedly been nominated for an Oscar.

MAME celebrates its eighth birthday!