TDL Live This week: (6/9) WWDC reactions

Last night Adam and I left our thoughts be known on the Apple WWDC keynote. While Adam ws taking a more thoughtful tone after considering the keynote a few hours. I stuck by my word of the day: "underwhelming." Enjoy:

Dear Apple: Please free the keynote

Many moons ago, Apple keynote day meant huddling around the computer, and watching a live feed of the proceedings. What would happen!? What would Steve reveal!? How would the crowd react!? This was in the late 90's early 00's. Then in a strange technological step backwards, just as more people could watch the broadband presentation, and just as Apple's popularity began to soar, the live feeds disappeared. Now we're left with the clipped text of bloggers in attendance to fill us in, as to what's happening as the event unfolds.

Granted the surge in popularity also would mean increased bandwidth concerns if the event was live. At the same time, bandwidth costs have fallen dramatically, and continue to do so. Also, Apple has increased it's "rainy day" fund to over $20 billion. Granted there are plenty of ways people would suggest spending that money, but providing a live feed (especially when the event is already professionally taped for later download) would be a literal drop in the iPod bucket.

Apparently though, it's not the money that keeps Apple from providing the stream live. For WWDC, just as we did for MWSF, we asked Apple to allow us to stream the keynote live, with our humble little site footing the bandwidth bill, and taking the heat for any performance issues: All we asked was to tap into the feed from the production company. Those requests were, denied - a surprise to no one, including us.

The point isn't whether we ever stream these events, but rather that it only makes sense for Apple to make them freely available. Wouldn't be better for the first impressions of the keynote to be directly from Apple? (At least from Apple's standpoint) Wouldn't that be better than having the information passed on by bloggers who could err with specs/pricing, as well as add their own commentary/spin to the coverage?

We're not asking Apple to do something groundbreaking: we're asking them to return to a previous practice that was ahead of its time, and in the process, they will gain more control over the message taken from each keynote.

In the meantime, we'll continue to provide what we believe is the next best thing: Live video coverage before, during, and after the event. If Apple wants a tiny site to be the first with live video of new products via our correspondents at these events, that's perfectly fine for us. But for Apple fans in general, it's a shame we can no longer hear the latest and greatest straight from Steve's mouth.

What we got. What we expected.

And so the WWDC Keynote is in the books. The 3G iPhone was announced. The rumored video chat features were not. The GPS was there, the apps store is there, although not today, and Apple did manage to hit the $199 price point.

To call it underwhelming would be an understatement. We were staffed, and prepared for an afternoon of putting the new applications through their paces. Of showing people just what wonderful things they could do with the new phone. While the new phone, especially the price point will increase sales, especially in new markets, frankly there's very little reason for existing iPhone customers to run out and get one. (even though you can't. Not 'til July.)

This was one of those keynotes that raised more questions than it answers: why can we still not copy and paste? Why is there no mms? Why is mobile me any better than say push email, and why does it seem like such an awkward .mac replacement?

All we know is, the phone will be here next month, along with the apps store, although not even all the demo'ed apps will be available then.

And so, along with mundane things like copy and paste, we didn't hear anything about iChat for Windows, a new tablet, or iPod touch changes. We didn't even get the traditional "up and to the right" sales graph. And no "one more thing."

We can only take comfort in the fact that Phil Schiller made an appearance on stage. At least some keynote traditions remain.

Final Reminder: Live video coverage of keynote announcements Monday

Just a quick reminder that we'll be serving up our live video analysis of the WWDC keynote beginning at noon ET / 9AM PT. We'll be your first source for keynote developments, video of the new device(s) and reaction from the Mac Çommunity. Everyone watching will be able to chat and interact with us live on-air via iChat.

If Macworld was any indication, we expect a big crowd, so here's a few tips:
1. Load the videostream early. We will need to initially cap the the video connections at 30,000, allowing more people to view depending on bandwidth/web stability.
2. Secret second stream. If our main website goes down, you'll also be able to watch the live video at www.mogulus.com/tdl .
3. There's no step three!

We look forward to a fun event, and hope you'll join us. We'll be bringing the latest and fastest reports from the Keynote that we can.

See you Monday!

Let's not forget the other part of WWDC...

iPhone this, iPhone that. As the WWDC keynote approaches, the chatter is ratcheted up even further abouth the new iPhone, and its slew of features/software.

But let's not forget, WWDC existed long before the iPhone. First and foremost, it is a conference for OS X developers. We might just be looking at a situation in which Steve sneaks something under the radar regarding Mac development, while everyone is worked up in an iPhone frenzy. We already know how the iPhone story ends: Bigger storage, gps, and probably video conferencing. So where could the surprise come from next Monday? How about a new API making it easier to run Windows apps natively under OS X? Maybe the announcement of a similar self-service Apple store independent OS X developers? Maybe some new xCode tricks making development for the Mac and the iPhone simultaneously a cake walk?

Again, even we've speculated on possible hardware announcements like newer MacBooks, or the introduction of a tablet, but it could be a quiet, under-the-radar development tweak that has the greatest long-lasting effect on Apple marketshare and stock price in the long-term.

(And don't forget, we'll have live video coverage of the keynote announcements beginning at noon ET / 9AM PT.)