Welcome to PhoneNews.com’s coverage of the 2012 Worldwide Developer Conference keynote presented by Apple in San Francisco. Apple is expected to announce iOS 6, new Ivy Bridge MacBook Pros, and the new Apple TV. Continue reading for up to the minute updates.
9:50 – Ready for action. Ten minutes.
9:58AM – slight hiccup, nothing too drastic
10:04AM – Tim Cook onstage extolling the virtues of the App Store 400 million accounts with credit cards tied to them, 650,000 apps in the App Store with 225,000 specifically developed for the iPad and a new milestone of 30 billion downloads, with over US $5 billion paid out to developers.
10:06AM – 32 new countries will be added to the App Store.
10:16AM – Tim Cook back onstage thanking developers and segues into notebook changes with Mountain Lion. Phil Schiller now onstage
10:18AM – MacBook Air changes detailed with new Core i7 Ivy Bridge processors up to 2GHz with intel’s Turbo Boost for up to 3.2GHz burst, 512GB flash storage option in the 13-inch model, 8GB RAM, 720p FaceTime HD camera and even lower price points at $999/$1099 for the 11-inch and $1199/$1499 for the 13 inch
10:26AM New MacBook Pro series detailed with up to 2.7GHz i7 and Nvidia 650M Kepler based GPUs on the 15 and 17 inch models. Next generation MacBook Pro with 15.4 inch Retina display at 2880×1800 confirmed
10:35AM – Ports on the next gen MBP include SD slot, HDMI, Thunderbolt, USB 2 and 3 on both sides, headphone jack and dual microphones with new FaceTime HD camera
10:44AM – Base configuration for new MacBook Pro with Retina Display starts at $2199 with a 2.3GHz quad-core Ivy Bridge i7 processor, 8GB RAM, GT 650M GPU at 1GB, 256GB SSD with a claimed 7 hour 30 day standby battery life.
10:51AM – Mountain Lion being detailed with system wide iClud integration along with system-wide integration of Messages with real-time iCloud sync. Notification Center revamped called Growl now takes advantage of increased resolution support with Banners and Alerts. Dictation now integrated system wide regardless of app and sharing of information across social media is now integrated into the system
10:55AM – Safari being detailed with new JavaScript rendering engine, unified smart search bar a la Chrome and a new feature called Tab View.
11:04AM- Power Nap detailed as new ultra low power active standby mode with active updates of all information when away from the machine. Supported on new generation MacBook Air and Retina MacBook Pro. Fully integrated AirPlay video output and mirroring also detailed with support for Game Center, turn-based and head to head gaming.
11:11AM – Mountain Lion shipping in July for $19.99 with Developer Preview available today. New MacBook models get free upgrade. iOS stats detailed: 365 million devices since March, 81% of apps use Notification Center for 1 1/2 trillion total push notifications, 140m iMessage users with 150 billion messages sent,10 billion Tweets with 47% of photos posted from iOS.
11:16AM – iOS 6 being detailed with new additions to Siri such as sports box score retrival, OpenTable support, integration with movie review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes and app launching capability. Eyes Free functionality also detailed with integration by auto manufacturers to build telematics support for Siri in vehicle systems. Increased language support with Italian and Canadian English being added along with Hangul for Korea, Mandarin and Cantonese
11:19AM – Facebook integration being detailed with sharing support added as well as Game Center integration, Maps and Safari integration. Login from Settings just like Twitter with Mac OS X integration on Mountain Lion
11:25AM – New improvements to Phone app include Reply with message, timed reminders for the setting and Do Not Disturb functionality, which disables audible and visual notifications, but still allows reception of notifications. Scheduling and granular settings support also included.
11:28AM – FaceTime updated in iOS 6 to function over cellular data, possible hint at LTE iPhone. Mobile Safari changes include Offline Reading List support and iCloud Tabs along with photo upload directly from the browser. Smart app banners detailed with information sync between app and browser now enabled.
11:36AM –Shared Photo Streams detailed with comments between friends and photoo tagging enabled. Mail adds VIP Lists, and Flagged mailboxes along with one-touch video/photo attachment support in the composition window and Pull to Refresh for messages. Apple also announces new PassBook app to make managing club cards and memberships easier to manage with templates ranging from frequent flyer programs to season ticket holders for sports along with boarding passes and tickets.
11:40AM – Guided Access feature announced includes selective control for apps, developed in response to usage of devices by children with autism. New Maps also announced with no Google involvement. New key features include integrated Yelp listings, anonymous incident reports, turn-by-turn navigation and Quick Route with lockscreen and Siri integration.
New 3D mapping feature being introduced as Flyover with fully 3D models of major destinations and cities, with real-time rendering. Turn-by-turn navigation being detailed with no evidence of any outside collaboration with third-parties, suggesting Apple is taking Maps completely in-house.
11:48AM – Lost Mode for Find my iPhone detailed, sending a phone number to the iPhone in real-time to make recovery easier.
1:54AM – iOS 6 Developer Preview will go out to developers today and iOS 6 will support iPhone 3GS, 2nd and 3rd Gen iPad, and 4th Gen iPod Touch while dropping the first gen iPad and 3rd Gen iPod Touch. That’s a wrap for the liveblog, stay tuned for more in depth coverage on today’s announcements.
