Just finished listening to the first session of Apple's WWDC this year. Here's my favorite announcements:

After a couple hours of beating around the bush and showing off the SDK and a couple of iPhone games (basically boring stuff), and a moment of Windows bashing, they finally announced the new features of the iPhone 2.0.

The first. 3G. This is great as it will allow faster surfing of the web and also will allow for more bandwidth consuming apps. He also did a comparison of the speeds between EDGE and 3G and found that 3G is 2.8 times faster than EDGE. Thats a HUGE difference. And in this example, an email attachment was 3.5 times faster to download. Wow.

The next improvement was the battery life. 300 hours of standby, 24 hours of audio, and 7 hours of video. Very impressive and slightly improved from the first iPhone.

Physically, the new iPhone looks.....great. Slightly thicker, but who really cares? The best change about the physical look at it is the flush headphone jack. No more having to use Apple's headphones, you can use your own! Which is great because I love my Sennheisers.

Demand for an iPhone in other countries has been great throughout the whole world. Steve Jobs made this comment/joke.

"We've sold iPhone in six countries so far, but believe me, they're in use ALL over the world."
Yes sir, your are correct =)
"It's clear there is a demand."

Steve then announced that the iPhone will be available (legally this time =p) in over 70 different countries.

"We'll be rolling it out in 70 countries in the next several months. Next time you're in Malta and you need an iPhone 3G, it'll be there for ya."

Personally, my favorite addition to the iPhone 2.0 is the GPS. This is a great feature and will be used by tons. GPS + Maps is just what everyone wants. Not much was said but it is clear that there will be maps for easy navigating wherever you may be. Also GPS will be integrated with the website loopt. This shows, via GPS, where your friends are on a map, along with communication. A very interesting web 2.0 site and could be fun, and useful to you. I could see this and twitter being weaved together to form an awesome mashup.

But what sealed the deal for me is this:

"The number one reason people didn't buy iPhones is because they just can't afford it (56%). So as we arrive at iPhone's 1st birthday -- we're going to take it to the next level."

"iPhone started off at $599 for an 8GB device, which now sells for $399 -- we want to make it even more affordable. I'm happy to tell you the 8GB model will sell for $199."

A price cut in HALF?! Done. I'm getting one. You sir drive a hard bargain. There will also be a 16GB version for $299. Which Jobs says "-- for that model we have a white one."

Those were the best of show of the first session of WWDC and I will be listening to the next session in a couple hours. Jobs will be talking about the new update to OS X (Snow Leopard). I'm just hoping he doesn't announce a new MacBook Pro, as I just bought mine.

Ryan Moore

UPDATE: I'd also like to note that all the pictures, quotes, and information was gathered from here at Engadget. Thanks to them for the live updates and pictures! The commentary, on the other hand, is all me.

Also I will be NOT listening to the second session as it is closed and not open to PR. Bummer.

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