Last Minute Rumor Updates on Apple WWDC '09: New iPhone, New iPhone OS, Cheaper iPhone

New iPhone, New iPhone OS, Cheaper $99 iPhone, Steve Jobs is Back...


Apple's WWDC 2009 liveblog is just a weekend away. On the menu: Definitely Snow Leopard, new iPhone, new iPhone OS, and maybe even a guest star appearance of Steve Jobs himself. Here are the latest updates:

Search for What we know today for the updates.

The new iPhone

The biggest announcement and biggest question mark is the new version of the iPhone. A new model is coming for sure, but we don't know what will be in it.

Most probably, the new Apple cell will keep its current design. Since Steve Jobs came to Apple, dramatic industrial design changes have only happened across various generations of gut changes. Historically, the iMac, the Powerbook/Macbook, or the Mac Pro went through several iterations before experiencing a complete redesign. It's too early for the iPhone to change its face dramatically, specially when the current form factor works so well. And, after all, there are only a few ways to do a touch-screen phone. The iPhone 3G's design is simple, elegant, and works extremely well, so there is no reason to see a big re-design now.

Some people are talking about multiple color versions. With the iPod mini, nano, and shuffle, color became a way to convert the low-end hardware into fashion accessories. The iMac also went through that phase, which was later abandoned. The iPod, however, always stayed either white or black, becoming an icon on its own right. The iPhone is also a higher-end icon. Down the line—maybe in a different incarnation, as the iPhone OS product family expands—color will appear. But for now, looking at Apple's past history, logic dictates that the iPhone won't see the variety of colors that the iPod nano has now.

Other rumors point at something called "the unibody iPhone", which is a retarded notion at best. The iPhone is already "unibody." It may not be carved out of a single piece of aluminum, but there's no need for that. It is a single surface—which is made of plastic to make reception better—and a glass top. It doesn't get any simpler than that.

What we know today:

• Like I said above, we knew that the new iPhone was coming already, but Walter Mossberg—who is well known for having a very tight relation with Apple—strongly suggested that the new hardware is a sure shot next week. He did it in his Palm Pre review, potentially offsetting the Pre's current advantages with unrevealed incoming features in the iPhone.

• The Financial Times, BGR, and Engadget also say their sources claim that $99 iPhones are on the pipeline.

• There may be sightly different components in the design, as shown in the pages of a Chinese original components wholesaler.

• The new iPhone may also experience a change of materials, going from shiny to matte.

[via Gizmodo]

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