Surprisingly, Jobs started his keynote with the iPhone 2.0 (though he did mention Snow Leopard - Mac OS 10.6 - so now the name is official). He also emphasized that Apple is really a three-part company now: Mac, music / video (the iPod and iTunes), finally the iPhone.

Scott Forstall and Phil Schiller came out to talk about the iPhone, but of this portion was just a rehash of the March announcement of the SDK and Enterprise support, but it was a useful refresher. After all, this is a Developer's confererence, right?

Lots and lots of demos, to the point that I was starting to wonder if they were doing it to see who could stay awake until the end of them. Unfortunate news is that the iPhone 2.0 software has been delayed until early July, and iPod Touch owners will pay $9.95.

The also announced "MobileMe." As we expected, forget about .Mac; this is the replacement. Push email, contacts, calendars -- works with native apps on the Mac and PC. $99 / year, 20GB of online storage and a 60-day free trial when iPhone 2.0 launches in early July. It’s like “Exchange for the rest of us,” said Apple's Phil Schiller.

Of course, what consumers really want to know is where is that 3G iPhone? How much the new iPhone will cost and when will it be available?

Well, they got to it. Thinner at the edges, black plastic back (I'm supposed to like that?), flush headset jack, same display, camera, but 3G. They even compared it to the Nokia N95 and Treo 750 and showed a 36% improvement in download speed.

What else? The heavily rumored GPS is there, as well.

In this time of economic downturn, what about the all-important price? Just as rumored, although it wasn't announced if it was due to a carrier subsidy or not, the price has been reduced.

16 GB = $299, instead of $499.
8 GB = $199, rather than $399.

Side-note: nice to see Al Gore in attendance. Yes, that Oscar and Nobel Prize winner, and it's rumored he's on Apple's Board of Directors. No, he didn't autograph any books.

Source: By Tech Ex http://technologyexpert.blogspot.com/