Most entry-level phones in AT&T’s handset lineup have been able to send multimedia messages for years. Soon the most advanced will as well. The carrier on Thursday confirmed that it will offer MMS on Apple’s iPhone starting Sept. 25–about two months after the handset first began supporting the feature.
Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard, the latest iteration of Apple’s operating system, arrived at market today–about a month earlier than originally anticipated. And while it doesn’t really deliver the GUI enhancements we’ve come to expect from Apple and some incompatibilities are riling people up, Snow Leopard’s under-the-hood improvements and price point appear to have struck a chord with critics. After the jump, a selection of early reviews.
If Macworld isn’t on its last legs after Apple’s withdrawal from the event, the Consumer Electronics Association is clearly hoping the annual Apple-only convention soon will be. The group, which hosts the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas every January, said Thursday that it is expanding the amount of show floor space dedicated to Apple.
Macworld 2009 is over, but the rumors that prefaced it and were then left unaddressed, remain. Two in particular: an updated iMac and a redesigned Mac mini–both of which failed to make an appearance during Phil Schiller’s Macworld keynote, though it was widely believed they would. The refresh may happen yet, however. Apple has on many occasions uncrated new products on the heels of Macworld.
There’s got to be a joke somewhere in the fact that Macworld, the Consumer Electronics Show and the AVN Awards (the “Pornies”) all happen during the same week. Maybe even one that hasn’t been played out 10 times over. All Things Digital was too busy covering two out of three this week to think of one.
Was it a great keynote? Well, no. Phil Schiller actually did a great job delivering it. Has anyone watched CEOs from other companies? They’d be lucky to have their keynotes delivered by Schiller, let alone Jobs. Apple followers are spoiled.”
— The Macalope puts “the worst Macworld ever” in perspective
Analysts expecting Apple’s Macworld 2009 keynote to be light on revolutionary products or otherwise “modest” or “neutral” were not disappointed. Well, they were disappointed, but they knew they were going to be disappointed going in, so it shouldn’t have come as a shock, right?
Looks like today’s keynote will include a “One More Thing” moment after all, even without Steve Jobs to deliver it. And it will focus on iTunes. Three big updates to the iconic software, today. Plus, Tony Bennett to close out the keynote with two of his most familiar–and given the venue, appropriate–songs.
Phil Schiller returns to the stage to explain Garageband ’09. Our team was challenged to help people learn to play a musical instrument and they came through, says Schiller. Garageband now offers a feature called “Learn to Play” which offers not just nine basic lessons for guitar and piano, but “Artist Lessons” from the likes of John Fogerty, Norah Jones and Sting.
Next up on the Macworld agenda: iMovie. The software has been given not just a refresh, but a full rewrite. We’ve added so much to iMovie this year, says Schiller, that iMovie will be the consumer video editing software to have. And that may turn out to be so.
With the misinformation surrounding Apple CEO Steve Jobs’s health finally refuted, Phil Schiller’s Macworld keynote address today will likely be quite a bit less somber than it was shaping up to be. Certainly, the Macworld audience will be in a more jovial mood now that the morbid undercurrent that might otherwise have darkened the event has been dispersed. Schiller too. Now he need not worry about the audience’s preoccupation with Jobs’s health, just about filling the Apple CEO’s considerable keynote shoes.
With Phil Schiller, Apple’s senior VP of worldwide product marketing, delivering the Macworld keynote today, analyst expectations for big product announcements are running very, very low.
John Paczkowski has been poking fun at the tech industry and the personalities that drive it since 1997. From 1999 to 2007, he wrote the award-winning tech news Web log Good Morning Silicon Valley for the San Jose Mercury News, Silicon Valley's daily newspaper. Read more »
Here is a statement of my ethics and coverage policies. It is more than most of you want to know, but, in the age of suspicion of the media, I am laying it all out.
12:58 AM: Breakfast: Two schools of fish from Tokyo Bay. Calories: 782,000. How I was feeling when I ate this: confused, irradiated, hating my size.
11:37 AM: Exercise: “Taxi Stomp” (alternating legs, for 30 blocks). Calories burned: 148,900,183.
1983. The Beatles announce their first tour in thirteen years, but likewise announce that Michael Jackson will be going on tour with them as a one gigantic mega-concert event.
Best video mashup ever.
A Facebook Memorial
Wow.
Worth it for the Rickrolling photo alone.
Excellent.
Flughumor!
… you vacuous, toffee-nosed, malodorous perverts
Stephen Fry and zoologist Mark Carwardine meet the kakapo — a fat, flightless and very randy rare parrot.
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