Steve Jobs to keynote WWDC

IDG News Service — Tue, 13 May 2008 10:42:05 -0700

As expected, Apple CEO Steve Jobs will once again kick off the company's Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) being held June 9-13 in San Francisco, Calif. The keynote will take place at 10:00 a.m. on Monday, June 9 at Moscone West.

For the first time WWDC 2008 will feature sessions on writing applications for something other than a Mac. With the release of the iPhone SDK earlier this year, WWDC will now have sessions for mobile developers with in-depth sessions and hands-on labs to explore the capabilities of iPhone 2.0 software, including the iPhone SDK and the App Store.

Apple engineers will be on hand to work with developers on all aspects of iPhone, including hardware. Developers will be shown how to take advantage of the iPhone's Multi-Touch user interface, animation technology and APIs, including programming interfaces for Core OS, Core Services, Media and Cocoa Touch technologies, built-in three axis accelerometer and geographical location technology.

While the iPhone is the new kid on the block, Apple is still a computer company with its Macintosh. The Mac will play a huge role in this year's event with engineers discussing interface design and implementation, application frameworks, security, localization and networking.

Apple will have over 150 sessions for Mac and iPhone development during the five-day event.

While Apple is notoriously quiet on its plans, it's seems reasonable to assume that attendees of the keynote will get to see iPhone 2.0 software demoed during the presentation.

Announced in March, iPhone 2.0 software will allow users to take on the Blackberry. The iPhone will have more enterprise friendly features like "push-based" e-mail, calendar info and contact management; additional support for Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) including Cisco IPsec; and two-factor authentication, certificates and identities.

Apple may also shed some light on recent iPhone shortages during the keynote. Apple's online and brick and mortar retail stores are all currently out of stock for the iPhone.

Whatever happens at the keynote, you can count on Macworld to be there in full force. We will have ongoing coverage throughout the week, beginning the day of the keynote.