Apple WWDC 2012 Meta Liveblog: All The News As It Happened


Wow, that was an early start. Luke and Danny kicked off Gizmodo Australia’s meta liveblog at 3am AEST to bring you all the big updates from WWDC, along with any Australian-specific news. Here’s how it all went down. How did your predictions go?

As always guys, we’re looking for constructive comments.
If you don’t like them Apples — that’s cool! But please don’t troll.


[5:00] If you’re just joining us, here’s what we saw this morning:

New MacBook Pros
New MacBook Air
Debut of next Generation MacBook Pro.
A detailed look at Mountain Lion
An in-depth look at iOS 6
…including new Maps and the confirmation that Apple will no longer support 1st Generation iPad owners for software updates.

[5:00] The Apple Australia Store is slowly coming back online. The 2.3Ghz 15-inch Next Generation MacBook Pro will set you back $2199, while the 2.6Ghz model wil cost you $2799. Detailed specs here.

[4:55] We’ll bring you all the news as the morning progresses!

[4:55] And that’s a wrap! Thanks for tuning into the meta liveblog.


[4:55] For those playing the “take my money” game, the Apple Store is still down around the world. Cook loves these products, saying that he can’t think of a better reason to get up in the morning.

[4:54] Tim Cook is back out now to huge cheers. The developers seem to like what they’ve seen. Any chance of a “one more thing” from Cook? Not likely in my opinion. That was a Jobs thing.

[4:53] Tough break, 1st Gen iPad owners.

[4:52] If you’re on the developer program, you can download iOS 6 today. Supports the iPhone 3GS and later, the 2nd and 3rd Generation iPad and the 4th Generation iPod Touch.

[4:52] It’s endless goodies from Apple today! What are you excited about so far?

[4:51] Lots of new APIs for developers in iOS 6. Transit apps, Map Kit, state-preservation, inter-app audio support and video stabilisation to name a few.

[4:51] Lost Mode, says Forstall, means you can mark your phone as lost in iCloud and have whoever finds it tap one button to call your emergency contact to say they found it. Beats the pants off of existing notifications.

[4:40] iOS 6 announcements slide includes something called Lost Mode, Game Center Challenges, faster Javascript, improved piracy controls (sorry, Jailbreakers) and redesigned stores.

[4:50] Forstall now giving us a demonstration of Turn-By-Turn navigation, with Siri calling out directions. Naturally.

It’s worth pointing out that Android has had turn-by-turn for years now. Hurrah for playing catch-up.

[4:49] You can see the Allure Media (Gizmodo Australia) offices in that Flyover shot, too! *Waves at self*

[4:48] Forstall now demonstrating Flyover at the Sydney Opera House.

That’s Sydney! Looks gorgeously detailed, too.


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[4:47] All this integrated 3D-ness is being demoed on the iPad now. Lots of oohs and aahs. Screenshots from a Flyover menu that cites Sydney as a supported city. Maybe we won’t be left out!

[4:45] New feature in Maps called Flyover. 3D support for Maps to look at buildings. Not unlike what Google demonstrated last week.


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[4:44] Siri has also been updated for navigation. “Are we there yet?” Forstall asks Siri. “Relax and enjoy the drive. You’ll be there in 14 minutes” Siri replies.


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[4:44] Gives you that nice, angled GPS view for Turn-by-Turn. Thanks to the new traffic service, Apple will route you around traffic and accidents, and the navigation even works on the lockscreen.


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[4:43] Topography has been done in-house, Apple will run its own traffic service, 100 million business listings (complete with their own shiny business card) have been built, anonymous real-time incident reports for accidents, and…oh yes! Turn-by-turn navigation!


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[4:43] Danny: I see some turn by turn action. Finally. Seriously.

[4:42] And now, new Maps! Hurrah! Forstall says it’s entirely new from the ground up. Goodbye, Google. It was nice using you.

[4:41] Forstall says that the iPhone is great for children with autism, but it can get tricky when settings panes and other apps get in the way. Guided Access gives you a single-app mode, meaning that you can lock down a device.

[4:40] We’re now getting a look at another new feature: Guided Access. Apple had a big push around accessibility at the start of this event. Let’s see how it builds on that.

[4:39] When you get to the local Starbucks, for example, Passbook knows where you are and automatically pulls itself up for easy use. It seems more helpful in the airport example. Passbook is telling Forstall that his flight gate has changed. Sends out a push notification.

[4:38] We’re now getting a demo of Passbook. Forstall shows that he’s got a ticket for a San Francisco Giants game, his Starbucks rewards cards and an Apple Store card. Devs will get access to templates to make it easy to make nice looking cards in Passbook, and each new card comes with its own barcode or QR code.

[4:37] Apple is also introducing a new app called Passbook. Something that will collect boarding passes, movie and train tickets and rewards cards.

I’m calling it right now: new iPhone will have NFC support to tie into Passbook.

[4:36] Flagged messages are also getting their own mailbox. Good news for GMail users there.

Photos and videos can now be insterted into the Mail message frame. Pull to Refresh support coming to Mail and support for encrypted attachments.

[4:35] Mail app updates now. You can set VIPs in the new app, meaning that the device notifies you when the updates come in, rather than just an anonymous little bling.


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[4:34] Also known as Apple being clever and not spending a billion dollars on Instagram.

[4:33] Danny: Choose the photos you like to share, and the friends you want to share them with, and they’ll receive a push notification.

[4:33] Next up, Photo Stream updates. Apple is introducing something it’s calling Shared Photo Streams, which means that you get access to photos taken by friends and family, with authorisation, of course.

[4:32] Moving a phone into landscape now brings up a full-screen view, pushing the top bar out of the way.

[4:32] No more “we have an app!” pop-ups either, Apple says, with Smart App Banners now replacing them. Much cleaner and less annoying.

[4:31] We’re getting a look at the mobile Safari improvements in iOS 6 now. A bit of familair ground to cover including iCloud Tabs mentioned earlier and a Reading List.

Safari now gets integration with the Camera Roll so you can upload photos to your favourite websites, Forstall says.

[4:30] FaceTime now. Long overdue support for FaceTime calls over cellular networks, rather than just support over Wi-Fi.

Roaming Facebook is also great news for grandparents. Between this, the photo stream notifications and the Facebook stuff it’s like Apple just had the best day of announcements for old people ever!


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Apple is unifying your phone number and your Apple ID. That means if someone calls on your phone for FaceTime, you’ll be able to answer it on your Mac or iPad.

[4:29] Do Not Disturb is another new feature Apple is showing off. You switch the phone onto Do Not Disturb (at night for example) and the phone won’t bother you, light up, or make a sound. It also works on a schedule, too. Good for those with a regimented sleeping pattern, meaning not journalists who get up at 3am to cover Apple conferences!


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[4:28] Those reminders also work with geofences, meaning once you leave a meeting location, for example, you’ll be flooded with the missed calls.

[4:27] That’s it for Facebook. Now some enhancements to the Phone app. Wait. This thing can make phone calls, too?!?!? Calls now come up with two new buttons. As well as Decline and Answer for calls, you can Reply with Message or Remind Me Later


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[4:26] The App Store now has Facebook integration, meaning you can Like apps, songs and have it all post to your Timeline. Photos and Calendars are also pulled into iOS from Facebook with iOS 6.

[4:25] Next up: Facebook integration. It’s a lot like Twitter integration really. Notification Center for iOS now shows two new buttons, Tap to Tweet (with a Twitter logo next to it) and Tap to Post (with a Facebook logo there).

[4:24] There’s a quick last tidbit on Siri: she’s going to be in the New iPad.

[4:23] Siri can also speak new languages. Korean, Mandarin (Taiwan), Cantonese, Italian, Swedish and more. Local search is also rolling out around the world. Looks like Siri can actually do something in Australia now?


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[4:22] Apple working with car manufacturers like BMW, GM, Mercedes Benz, Land Rover, Jaguar, Audi, Toyota and Honda to integrate Siri into cars. Works with steering wheel push-button controls.

[4:21] Danny: Siri opening apps is pretty cool. Just saying: S Voice (Samsung’s Siri rip off) can open apps, too. Just did it on the Galaxy S III in front of me. Sacrebleu!

[4:20] There’s that big slide of announcements for Siri. Move facts, move a meeting, movie reviews, launch an app, English Premier League scores, FaceTime someone and something we’re now looking at called Eyes Free.

[4:19] Siri can also launch apps. I smell a developer API right around the corner…

[4:19] Siri also knows what’s playing at local movie theatres. Integrates reviews from Rotten Tomatoes and lets you watch a trailer, too. Way to get the geek audience back on track: we’re watching The Avengers trailer!

You can also ask about specific actors. “Show me movies starring Scarlett Johansson,” Forstall asks. Creepy laughs ensue.

[4:18] Back to Siri: she knows about good restaurants. Sorts them by location and rating. They’ve integrated with OpenTable, a restaurant booking service. What’s the bet none of this makes it to Australia?

[4:17] Whoa, was that a new Maps icon on-screen? We’ll find out soon!

[4:16] Those stats are displayed on the back of quaint little Baseball cards, too. Naw.
Siri knows who is taller out of LeBron and Kobe.

[4:15] We’re starting with Siri support in iOS 6. Apparently, there’s 200 new features in Siri. She’s been studying for 8 months, jokes Forstall. We’re getting a demo now. Ambitious, aren’t they!

Forstall says Siri is now good at sports results. Asks what the result of the last Giants game was. I’m presuming that’s Grid Iron. Siri now showing what Buster Posey’s batting average is.

[4:14] Today Apple is “happy to announce iOS 6”.

[4:13] There’s 130 million Game Center accounts, too.
Hands up, how many people actually use Game Center? I think it’s awful, personally.
We’re taking a look at the roadmap now over the last 5 years.

[4:12] iMessage has seen 150 billion messages sent so far. That’s 1 billion a day. 10 billion tweets have been sent from iOS 5.

[4:12] Lots of talk of Android fragmentation. Nice little comparison slide there too.

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[4:11] 365 million iOS devices have been sold through March 30, Forstall says. 80 per cent of those devices are on iOS 5.

[4:10] iOS lead Scott Forstall is up now, talking iOS.

[4:09] Mountain Lion launching in July for US$19.99. Shipped, of course, through the App Store.


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[4:08] Safari getting support for Baidu. Chinese input methods improved, Chinese email service support.

[4:07] We’ve just been given the token slide of all the other things Apple couldn’t get to in its Mountain Lion preview, including location-based reminders, encrypted backups, do not track in Safari, offline reading list, widget search, form input on Preview, and now, we’re looking at increased support for China. Big round of applause from devs on that one.

[4:06] Danny: Haha, really?

[4:06] Some say that he likes to moonlight at Apple press conferences, others say that he’s the best mascot Apple has ever designed. All we know is: HE’S CALLED THE APPLE STIG!


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[4:05] Apple has brought out “Mr X” to help with the game demo
It’s essentially The Stig

[4:04] Looks like Game Center on Mac will support cross-platform, head-to-head gaming. We’re now getting a demo.

[4:02] Onto Airplay Mirroring! Or as I’m calling it: the only reason anyone would ever want an Apple TV. And finally: Game Center. Syncs with your mobile devices, of course.

[4:01] Another new Mountain Lion feature: Power Nap. According to the slide it “keeps your Mac up to date while it’s sleeping”. That means that it auto-refreshes your data with the lid closed. Works with MacBook Air (2nd Generation) and the new Next-Generation MacBook Pro.

[4:00] While we’re waiting to move on, let’s do a quick recap:
New MacBook Pros
New MacBook Air
Next Generation MacBook Pro

Looks like Apple’s saving iOS 6 until last. What do you think will be in there? New Maps, I’m hoping.

[3:59] Fleeting demo of Voice Dictation to tweet something from Notification Center. How convergent of you, Apple.

[3:59] Sharing features like Twitter are getting a demo, too.

[3:58] iCloud will also now sync up your tabs in what Apple is creatively calling “iCloud Tabs
They can be scrolled through using gestures, and we’re getting a demo right now.
On gestures: you can pinch-in and pinch-out from tabs in new Safari.


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[3:57] Safari is introducing “Unified Smart Search”. Thankfully, I’m already using a browser that does it, called Chrome. Sorry Apple! iCloud will also now sync up your tabs in what Apple is creatively calling “iCloud Tabs”

[3:56] Next up: updated Safari.

[3:55] Moving on very quickly now to sharing. Users can now share their links, images, videos via email, Twitter or AirDrop right from the application. We’re also spying that Flickr, Gmail and Vimeo are also getting sharing support.

[3:54] Hello there. Looks like Siri Dictation is coming to Mac.
Dictation will be baked into the system and applications like Microsoft Word will have access to it.
No demo, sadly.

[3:53] We’ve just been shown Pages and Numbers in the iCloud. Now we’re looking at Notification Center

[3:51] Hey Gizmodians — maybe it’s just me, is anyone else a bit irked by Apple’s desktop OS strategy? Or are you already thumbing your credit card waiting to give Apple your money?

[3:50] We’re getting an iCloud demo now.


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[3:49] Mountain Lion will (as we know) bring us three new apps for cross-platform syncing, including Notes, Reminders and Messages. We’ve already seen the Messages beta hit as a pre-release treat from Apple. That was a few months ago.

Apple’s now talking about how it’s putting Documents (that’s the app name) into iCloud.
Looks like we’ve got a new Dock design as well. Of course, it’s glass.

[3:48] There are 200 new features, and Apple is today showing us 8.
The first is iCloud, which now has over 125 million users

[3:47] Personally, OS X is starting to annoy me. If I wanted iOS, I’d buy an iPad, not a copy of Mountain Lion. Let’s see what Apple has in store for us.

By the numbers: 26 million copies of Lion sold so far (over 9 months). That’s 40 per cent of the Mac user base.Apple is bragging that it’s done that faster than Windows could have ever hoped.

[3:46] That’s it for the MacBook updates. Don’t go anywhere, we’re now looking at OS X.

[3:45] That US$2199 gets you the 2.3Ghz quad-core i7 processor, 8GB of ram, 1GB GT 650M, 256GB of flash storage and the 7-hour battery. That one starts shipping…you guessed it. Today!


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[3:43] Tell them the price, son! We’ve got it: US$2199

[3:41] I’d say something like $1800 if Apple wants to blow everyone away on price point as well as design.
But if we’re being realistic, I’d say the price will start north of $2000.

[3:39] And now we’re getting a video on the thing from all the usual suspects, including Sir Ive.
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[3:36] 802.11n, Bluetooth 4.0, 7-hours of battery life, 720p Facetime camera, dual microphones, support for Firewire 800 and Ethernet via new Thunderbolt adapters.

[3:35] Also has what Apple is calling “MagSafe 2”, two Thunderbolt ports and, oh hello there, HDMI!
Just what in the hell is MagSafe 2 you ask? Well for a start, it’s thinner.

[3:34] We’re now taking a look at the guts of the thing. Schiller is saying that it’s predominately occupied by batteries. There are two fans in there too to keep everything as cool on the inside as it looks on the outside.
The graphics are powered by the GeForce GT 650M. Solid state storage option tops out at a whopping 768GB.
That’s going to cost you a boatload.

[3:33] I don’t want you guys to freak out or anything, but Diablo III is getting updated with Retina display support.

[3:32] You guys ready to part with your money yet?
Other professional apps are getting Retina updates too, including Aperture, Final Cut and Photoshop. Some games are also getting updated.


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[3:31] That means that apps like Mail and Safari will have crisp, Retina support.
Same with iMovie and iPhoto

[3:30] Schiller says it’s “thinner than his finger” at 0.71 inches
– It weighs 4.46 pounds
– Schiller confirms that it has a Retina display.
– (That’s 2880×1800 for those playing the resolution game)
– 5,184,000 pixels
– All packed into a 15.4-inch display (measured diagonally of course)
– Right now we’re all just waiting on the price of this thing.
– Apple is saying that it’s outing a new version of Lion to keep up with the Retina display.


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[3:28] Schiller is calling it “the most beautiful notebook we’ve ever made…a breakthrough in engineering”


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[3:27] New product: Next-Generation MacBook Pro
Ah. Schiller mentions that this new product has the “killer display”. This might be our Retina.
Cheers go up in the audience

[3:26] No Retina Displays it seems. Big who cares on my end. Looks like there’s a new model here too. Schiller’s talking about it now

[3:25] Prices stay the same on the 13-inch model, same battery life too

[3:24] MacBook Pro specs updated: Ivy Bridge processors up to 2.7Ghz quad-core i7, turbo boost to 3.7Ghz. Up to 8GB graphics. New Kepler architecture on the GPU with 1GB of video memory.


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[3:23] Danny: Guys, we’ll check if that means AU too!

[3:22] Both USB ports will support USB 3.0
The new MacBook Airs ship, of course, today.
Now we’re talking about updates to the MacBook Pro line
In what I’m calling Apple’s new worst kept secret.


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[3:21] There’s still only going to be two USB ports on the MacBook Air though

[3:20] Interesting move going with USB 3.0 considering they backed Thunderbolt last year. We’ll see how this goes.

[3:19] It’s definitely getting an update and I’m now sad because my laptop is out of date.
Schiller says everyone is trying to copy Apple’s MacBook Air
Here’s the specs:
– 8GB RAM, Ivy Bridge, faster graphics
– “Turbo boost up to 3.2Ghz
– 512GB of flash (SSD) storage
– Schiller confirms USB 3.0


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[3:18] Danny: OK, now we’re talking Luke!

[3:17] “Our lineup is by far the best in the industry” Schiller says
Starting with the MacBook Air

[3:16] Cook thanks developers for doing some awesome work.
“Today we’re announcing big changes in our notebook lineup” he says.
That’s a big picture of a MacBook Air right there.
Phil Schiller introduced to detail the changes

[3:15] Video winds up, Tim Cook strolls back out

[3:14] There’s now someone talking about how the iPad is helping kids with speech impediments.

[3:13] I’m not sure what Apple makes better: hardware or heartwarming videos?

[3:12] A medical company is now talking on the video about how they use the iPad to teach students about anatomy in new ways


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[3:10] We’re hearing about how a blind person is able to walk through a forest near him thanks to Apple hardware and apps.

[3:08] Apple is opening the App Store in another 32 countries.
And now we’re getting a little video about apps.


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[3:05] We so often seem to start here. Good to get the crowd warmed up for applause I guess.
The App Store now has 400 million registered store accounts and credit cards and access to 650,000 apps. 225,000 of them made for iPad

There’s been a stunning 30 billion apps downloaded so far, Cook says.
That makes US$5 billion paid out to developers so far.

[3:04] Tim Cook saying that this is the 23rd WWDC.
Adding that the conference sold out in under two hours this year
We’re now talking about updates to the App Store.

[3:03] Enter Tim Cook


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[3:02] Siri’s making fun of everyone from Android right through to VCs
And now Samsung too!
“I’m excited for the new Samsung,” she says, “the refrigerator”.

[3:01] There’s a welcoming video voiced none other than Siri herself.

[3:00] Doors sealed, MacBooks on-stage. Here we go!

[2:58] Everyone seems to be seated. They’ve just told everyone to turn their devices onto silent. According to CNET there’s heightened security at the event, including body scanners and full patdowns. Creepy.

[2:55] Good morning! We’re about 5 minutes away from hearing what Apple has in store for this year’s WWDC and the Apple Store is already down, meaning we’re likely to see some new hardware after the dust of the event clears. We’ve already seen rumours of new MacBook Pros and Mac Pros, and even a rumoured MacBook Air update incoming. Not long now!


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