WWDC 2012 Keynote live blog

WWDC 2012 is finally upon us, relieving us from months or rumors and speculation regarding what’s head for iOS, OS X, and Apple’s iDevice and Macintosh hardware. The WWDC 2012 keynote will likely create many new questions as it answers old ones, and we’ll be right here covering it all.

As you wait for our live blog to start today at 1:00 EDT (10:00 a.m. PDT), you can catch up on what you’ve undoubtedly not missed over the past couple of months with our WWDC 2012 rumor roundup. Then, come back here for all the announcements as they happen, as well as for our traditional in-depth follow-ups.

If you like, let us know in our comments area below what you’re hoping to see unveiled today. Apple TV OS? Retina display MacBooks? Or just some more meat on iOS 6 and OS X Mountain Lion?

Live blog entries will update every 20 seconds.

at 2:54 Kirk Hiner said:

Yep, that'll do it. Thanks for joining us, and check back frequently today with more on the new MacBooks and OS announcements.

at 2:53 Kirk Hiner said:

I love when they say the latest OS update is the "...best OS X yet." Would they tell us if it wasn't?

at 2:53 Bill Stiteler said:

And we're out.

at 2:53 Bill Stiteler said:

Tim's wrapping up now, talking about how the apps can change the world.

at 2:52 Bill Stiteler said:

Sorry, browser locked up here. Beta of iOS6 to devs today, customers get it in Fall.

at 2:51 Kirk Hiner said:

Beta release today, ships in the fall, which is likely when we'll be seeing the next iPhone, too.

at 2:50 Kirk Hiner said:

Why all this developer speak? Oh...wait a minute...

at 2:48 Kirk Hiner said:

We'll soon dig deeper into the Game Center features, such as Challenges, because that's what I do.

at 2:48 Bill Stiteler said:

And now for a detailed description of the other 190 new features. Man alive! We were still on PowerPC when this thing started.

at 2:46 Kirk Hiner said:

Isn't there a GPS that has Brian Blessed giving the directions? I'll take him over Siri, but I'm otherwise cool with Apple's Maps update.

at 2:44 Kirk Hiner said:

Vector based maps should mean MUCH faster app updates, by the way. Good to know if you need an update as you're heading out the door.

at 2:43 Bill Stiteler said:

Maps are vector based and very fast.

at 2:43 Bill Stiteler said:

And now a new feature called Flyover,which will give you an idea of what it's like to live in the midwest. Joke!

at 2:42 Bill Stiteler said:

Maps is integrated with Siri

at 2:42 Kirk Hiner said:

Siri integration could be what pushes people away form competing GPS systems. Well, that and price.

at 2:42 Bill Stiteler said:

If traffic slows you down, Maps will update to give you alterate routes

at 2:41 Bill Stiteler said:

Maps will now feature turn by turn navigation

at 2:41 Bill Stiteler said:

Maps will be integrated with Yelp. Which I guess some poeple will be excited about.

at 2:40 Bill Stiteler said:

Next up, as expected, is a new version of Maps not based on Google Maps.

at 2:39 Kirk Hiner said:

Yeah, we're going to be digging deeper into Passbook. That just looks tremendously handy.

at 2:38 Bill Stiteler said:

Passbook has location-sensitive uses: store your Starbucks card info on there and when you enter a Starbucks, the card pops up.

at 2:36 Kirk Hiner said:

I could've used that lock screen push for boarding passes last week. That'll be big.

at 2:35 Bill Stiteler said:

Tickest will pop up in the lock screen with a QR code for scanning.

at 2:35 Kirk Hiner said:

I'll use Passbook, and I'll wonder why I never grabbed any of the other apps already available that were likely its inspiration.

at 2:34 Bill Stiteler said:

A place to store tickets: Plane, movie, etc.

at 2:34 Bill Stiteler said:

New app: Passbook

at 2:33 Kirk Hiner said:

Shared photo streams allows multiple users to upload images to the same stream. That'll be handy for show floor galleries at expos, I should think.

at 2:32 Bill Stiteler said:

Photo stream gets an Instagram-like feature where you can share your photos with certain people. They'll get a notifcation when you update your stream.

at 2:30 Bill Stiteler said:

You'll be able to upload photos via Safari now

at 2:30 Kirk Hiner said:

Smart App Banners...we're getting back into the nickel slots area now.

at 2:29 Bill Stiteler said:

Updates to Safari: 2/3rds of all mobile web traffic comes from Safari for iOS

at 2:29 Kirk Hiner said:

FaceTime barely works on WiFi...I have no interest in attempting it over cellular networks. I draw pictures faster than FaceTime refreshes.

at 2:28 Bill Stiteler said:

Another feature will allow you to sleep without notifications waking you. You can also set it so that if someone calls you multiple times (an emergency) it will wake you.

at 2:27 Kirk Hiner said:

Why is, "I told you never to call me here!" not an option for the message replies on incoming calls?

at 2:25 Bill Stiteler said:

Phone call options: reply to a call wiht a text or set a reminder to call back.

at 2:24 Bill Stiteler said:

You can also see what apps your friends bought on Facebook and share yourself. Blerg. I'll just go block that option now.

at 2:24 Kirk Hiner said:

I'm not paranoid, I don't fear technology, and I have nothing to hide, but I'll still be removing Facebook from my iPhone now that there's direct integration.

at 2:24 Bill Stiteler said:

Facebook is also Siri-integrated. Oh, that's going to cause some hilarity.

at 2:23 Kirk Hiner said:

iPad 2 and iPhone 4 owners will complain, but it makes sense to not look back with Siri. We'll just have to get over it until our next upgrade.

at 2:22 Bill Stiteler said:

Facebook integration, like Twitter. Enter your info for system-wide sharing options.

at 2:22 Bill Stiteler said:

That's "new" as in "the latest one," not a "brand new today" one.

at 2:22 Bill Stiteler said:

Siri is coming to the new iPad.

at 2:21 Bill Stiteler said:

More languages: Spanish, Italian, Korean, Mandarin, Cantonese

at 2:21 Bill Stiteler said:

English and French language support for Canada is coming.

at 2:21 Kirk Hiner said:

Put that next to cruise control and power breaks for automobile necessities.

at 2:20 Bill Stiteler said:

Car manufacturers are going to install a button on the steering wheel to activate Siri. Eyes free phone use.

at 2:19 Bill Stiteler said:

You can tweet from siri as well.

at 2:18 Bill Stiteler said:

Siri can now launch apps.

at 2:18 Kirk Hiner said:

I prefer to make reservations directly with snooty French maitre ds, thank you.

at 2:17 Bill Stiteler said:

Get showtimes, ratings from Rotten Tomatoes, watch the trailer

at 2:17 Bill Stiteler said:

Siri is also integrated with movie info.

at 2:16 Bill Stiteler said:

It's also integrated with Open Table, so you can make reservations from inside Siri.

at 2:15 Bill Stiteler said:

Improvements to finding  a place to eat.

at 2:15 Kirk Hiner said:

If I ask it about John Cena, will it tell me that professional wrestling is not a sport?

at 2:15 Bill Stiteler said:

Shocked... SHOCKED ot learn than iOS devs aren't big sports fans.

at 2:14 Bill Stiteler said:

League standings

at 2:14 Kirk Hiner said:

Siri knowing sports scores immediately eliminates a few apps from my phone, and I only care about two sports.

at 2:14 Bill Stiteler said:

Get scores, and player stats, too.

at 2:13 Bill Stiteler said:

Siri can now check sports scores.

at 2:13 Bill Stiteler said:

200 new features, including updates to Siri.

at 2:12 Bill Stiteler said:

Now let's talk iOS6

at 2:12 Bill Stiteler said:

Almost half of the photos on Twitter's service came from iOS 5

at 2:11 Bill Stiteler said:

1o billion tweets have been sent from iOS 5.

at 2:11 Kirk Hiner said:

Likely, only 7% know their version can be updated.

at 2:10 Bill Stiteler said:

Only 7% of Android customers run their latest version

at 2:10 Bill Stiteler said:

More than 80% of customers run iOS 5 Compared to Android...

at 2:09 Kirk Hiner said:

Mountain Lion drops next month, by the way.

at 2:09 Bill Stiteler said:

And now we talk about iOS. Phew! Busy day!

at 2:09 Bill Stiteler said:

But a new Mac today, and upgrade to ML for free.

at 2:08 Bill Stiteler said:

Upgradable from Snow Lion. Buy once, upgrade all your personal Macs

at 2:08 Kirk Hiner said:

Gene Steinberg mentioned in our talk on The Tech Night Owl last Saturday that he thought Mountain Lion could be free. At $19.99, it may as well be.

at 2:08 Bill Stiteler said:

Mountain Lion will retail for $19.99 on the app store

at 2:08 Bill Stiteler said:

They're running through other features, but nothing about Siri for OS X

at 2:06 Kirk Hiner said:

A lot of game devs are porting their iOS games to OS X, but to shaky results. Converting from touch based controls to mouse + WASD is as problematic as going the other direction.

at 2:05 Bill Stiteler said:

Now they're demoing Airplay with Game Center, playing on the mac with it mirrored on the AppleTV

at 2:03 Bill Stiteler said:

It'll work with games on a Mac and an iDevice, so you can play head to head and turn-based.

at 2:03 Kirk Hiner said:

Ah, yes, GameCenter on the Mac raises its value, too. Now just get it on Apple TV and I can retire.

at 2:02 Bill Stiteler said:

Game Center coming to OS X.

at 2:02 Bill Stiteler said:

So if you've ever deleted a file and thought 'oh well, I have it on my computer at home,' too bad!

at 2:01 Kirk Hiner said:

I don't take naps. I just sleep hard (as Bill will attest). Likewise, I'm old fashioned enough to actually turn my Mac off when I'm not using it.

at 2:01 Bill Stiteler said:

Power Nap keeps apps updated while the Mac is asleep.

at 2:00 Bill Stiteler said:

Next up, something called "POwer Nap"

at 1:58 Bill Stiteler said:

You can share in iPhoto without leaving the app

at 1:58 Bill Stiteler said:

You'll be able to view your tabs using multitouch.

at 1:56 Kirk Hiner said:

Cripes...do I want my family to see on the iPad what I'm browsing on my Mac? (They'll know what birthday gifts I'm buying them, you see.)

at 1:56 Bill Stiteler said:

Cloud tabs: click on a button an see what pages are open on your other devices.

at 1:55 Bill Stiteler said:

Safari snags a feature from Chrome: search from the address bar.

at 1:55 Bill Stiteler said:

Next up, Safari.

at 1:54 Bill Stiteler said:

Sharing links, images and videos is baked in to the system. Enter your account info (Twitter, Flickr) and share system-wide

at 1:54 Kirk Hiner said:

I hope the dictation feature handles accents better than Siri, or else I'll have to hope that a lot of my clients don't have Mountain Lion.

at 1:53 Bill Stiteler said:

Dictation software will be available in any app.

at 1:53 Bill Stiteler said:

So much for Growl, then.

at 1:53 Kirk Hiner said:

We needed that iMessages update badly.

at 1:52 Bill Stiteler said:

Banners slide in, and disappear if you ignore them. Alerts stay up.

at 1:52 Bill Stiteler said:

ML will have a unified notification system.

at 1:51 Bill Stiteler said:

Update a doc on Pages on your iPhone, and it gets updated on your Mac automatically

at 1:50 Bill Stiteler said:

iMessages gets synchonization so you can read conversations on your phone and Mac.

at 1:50 Kirk Hiner said:

iCloud SDK means many more developers will be able to communicate with it. iCloud has immediately become much more useful.

at 1:49 Bill Stiteler said:

Bringing more iCloud innovations to OS X: storing documents on the cloud, multitouch gestures, location reminders.

at 1:47 Bill Stiteler said:

icloud has 125 million users. with ML, you can build support for iCloud.

at 1:46 Bill Stiteler said:

ML has 200 features, and they'll be talking about 8

at 1:45 Bill Stiteler said:

40% of OS X users are on Lion. Now comes Mountain Lion.

at 1:45 Bill Stiteler said:

They've shipped 26 million copies of Lion.

at 1:44 Bill Stiteler said:

Craig Federighi is talking about OS X. 66 million users.

at 1:44 Kirk Hiner said:

Shipping today? But that won't give Greenpeace a chance to bitch about it despite the environment friendly checklist!

at 1:44 Bill Stiteler said:

That's it for laptops: nothing about the plain ol' Macbook. My guess si they're going to discontinue it soon.

at 1:43 Bill Stiteler said:

Shipping today

at 1:43 Bill Stiteler said:

15.4" display. 2.3 G quad-core i7 processor. 1 gig of VRAM, adn 256 gigs of flash storage standard for $2199. Ow, my wallet.

at 1:43 Kirk Hiner said:

45 minutes in and we haven't even hit iOS 6 or OS X Mountain Lion yet.

at 1:42 Bill Stiteler said:

Phil's back to give us the config and price.

at 1:41 Kirk Hiner said:

Which is why never see Apple at CES, I guess.

at 1:41 Bill Stiteler said:

The fan will be quieter as well.

at 1:40 Bill Stiteler said:

As always, the amazing thing about Apple is... this product will be the one that ships. They're not demoing a prototype that may or may not come out.

at 1:39 Bill Stiteler said:

But I think we all knew optical drives and non SSDs were on the way out for them.

at 1:38 Bill Stiteler said:

This is a break almost on par with the original iMac. Not quite, but close.

at 1:38 Kirk Hiner said:

Three million more pixels than an HDTV. Apple is spoiling my eyes. Anything that's not a third gen iPad already looks like a 1979 VHS tape to me.

at 1:38 Bill Stiteler said:

But a pro laptop with no Firewire. Hm.

at 1:38 Bill Stiteler said:

Apple is going all-in with Thunderbolt. Well, almost, it does have USB 3.0

at 1:37 Bill Stiteler said:

No built-in Ethernet. But wifi, Bluetooth 4, and a Facetime HD camera.

at 1:36 Kirk Hiner said:

Ah, the GB ethernet Thunderbolt adapter allays some fears.

at 1:36 Bill Stiteler said:

Apple is making Thunderbolt adapters (to Firewire/Ethernet)

at 1:35 Bill Stiteler said:

New magsafe power cable is thinner than before

at 1:35 Bill Stiteler said:

SD card slot, HDMI out, USB3/2, two thunderbolt ports, and a headphone jack.

at 1:34 Kirk Hiner said:

Retina display, 768GB internal flash storage, HDMI, Thunderbolt, USB 3, this thing's going to be expensive.

at 1:34 Bill Stiteler said:

7 hours of battery life and 30 days of standby. What?

at 1:34 Bill Stiteler said:

It has up to 2.7GHz i7 processors, quad-core. GeForce GT650M graphics. And up to 768 Gigs of storage on a flash SSD

at 1:33 Bill Stiteler said:

Phil's describing the engineering that went into the battery.

at 1:33 Bill Stiteler said:

Now let's talk about the guts of this beast.

at 1:32 Kirk Hiner said:

I wonder how developers will handle the Retina display, considering the vast majority of users won't have it for quite some time, and apps have to be updated specifically to support the Retina display.

at 1:32 Bill Stiteler said:

Diablo 3 will be updated for the new display as well.

at 1:31 Bill Stiteler said:

Apps will have to be updated to work with the new display or they'll be pixel doubled.

at 1:31 Bill Stiteler said:

Aperture updated as well. That shouldn't be a surprise.

at 1:30 Bill Stiteler said:

FCP X has been updated as well. Here we go...

at 1:30 Bill Stiteler said:

Apple's app will be ship updated to work with the new display

at 1:29 Bill Stiteler said:

Phil's still talking about the display: better blacks, reduced glare

at 1:29 Kirk Hiner said:

Likely, though, I'll wait until the Retina is added to the Air.

at 1:29 Bill Stiteler said:

220ppi

at 1:28 Bill Stiteler said:

15.4 inch display with resolution of 2880x1800

at 1:28 Kirk Hiner said:

And there's the rumored MacBook Retina display. Suddenly, I want this instead of an Air.

at 1:28 Kirk Hiner said:

But I'm positive I'll see a lot of these at Macworld Expo this January.

at 1:28 Bill Stiteler said:

With a Retina display

at 1:28 Bill Stiteler said:

No optical drive, apparently.

at 1:27 Bill Stiteler said:

new MPB weighs 4.46 lbs.

at 1:27 Kirk Hiner said:

Good idea, as Charles Moore stated this morning, to test this new MacBook Pro before dumping the old one. Let the people decide if "pro" users are ready to "discard the old legacy things," as Phil put it.

at 1:27 Bill Stiteler said:

New Macbook pro is very thin, but not tapered like the air.

at 1:26 Bill Stiteler said:

"the most beautiful computer we've ever made"

at 1:25 Bill Stiteler said:

A new design for the next generation.

at 1:25 Kirk Hiner said:

I wouldn't call the ethernet port "legacy" technology.

at 1:24 Bill Stiteler said:

Now we're going to hear about the Macbook update.

at 1:24 Kirk Hiner said:

Looks like the talk of a new model this morning was accurate.

at 1:24 Bill Stiteler said:

Macbook Pro is getting an update, but the price isn't changing.  15" gets a quad-core i7, better graphics, same battery life.

at 1:23 Kirk Hiner said:

No talk of a Retina display update.

at 1:23 Bill Stiteler said:

13" macbook air prices remain the same: $1199 and $`1499 for base models

at 1:22 Bill Stiteler said:

Graphics are estimated to be 60% faster

at 1:21 Bill Stiteler said:

And it's shipping today.

at 1:21 Kirk Hiner said:

Yep, get ready to refresh your browser on the Apple Store...the new MacBook Air is shipping today.

at 1:21 Bill Stiteler said:

That's the price point for the 11"

at 1:21 Bill Stiteler said:

Still keeping the 11 and 13" config, the price starts at $999 and goes to $1099

at 1:20 Bill Stiteler said:

Facetime Pro camera shoots 720p

at 1:20 Bill Stiteler said:

Sorry, typo. That's how otehr people have done it. Apple will have USB 3 on both sides, so you don'thave to choose.

at 1:19 Bill Stiteler said:

USB 3 on the Macbook Air. It will be separate from the USB 2 port, and color coded.

at 1:19 Kirk Hiner said:

There are a lot of USB 3 hardware devices out there just waiting for you to take advantage of that.

at 1:19 Bill Stiteler said:

Up to 512 Gigs of SSD storage. that's gonna cost a bit.

at 1:19 Bill Stiteler said:

Ivy Bridge processor, up to 2GH of i7, with turbo boost of 3.2 GHz. Up to 8gigs of ram.

at 1:18 Kirk Hiner said:

That would explain why the Apple Store's down. These will either be available today or available for preorder, it seems.

at 1:18 Bill Stiteler said:

And now, Apple's going to update it again.

at 1:18 Bill Stiteler said:

The competition is finding it hard to copy the Air.

at 1:17 Bill Stiteler said:

Sorry, Macbook Air.

at 1:17 Bill Stiteler said:

STarting with the Macbook line.

at 1:17 Bill Stiteler said:

Phil Schiller is on stage to talk about the change in the Macbook line.

at 1:17 Kirk Hiner said:

We'll be addressing OS X, iOS and new hardware.

at 1:17 Bill Stiteler said:

They are going to announce a change in the notebook line. I'm surprised.

at 1:16 Bill Stiteler said:

New hardware, new iOS, and new OS X.

at 1:16 Bill Stiteler said:

And now, a breakthrough in Flashlight and Fart technology...

at 1:15 Bill Stiteler said:

Video's over, Tim's back.

at 1:15 Bill Stiteler said:

The people are thanking the developers. Nice touch there, Apple.

at 1:13 Bill Stiteler said:

Now there's a video of a child with a speech impediment using the iPad

at 1:13 Kirk Hiner said:

I guess it makes sense Apple is focusing on such unique uses of iOS, considering Android commercials are still talking about music and movies. Didn't we get beyond that two years ago?

at 1:13 Bill Stiteler said:

The theme seems to be that the ecosystem: hardware + software + app store, made it possible for all these to come together. Which is of course, how Apple works.

at 1:12 Bill Stiteler said:

And now they're talking to AirBNB, which lets you rent rooms out to travellers.

at 1:11 Bill Stiteler said:

The developers of 3D anatomy started out selling medical stock photos, but developed the app when they saw the iPad

at 1:10 Bill Stiteler said:

A classroom in India, where a teacher uses an iPad for anatomy lessons.

at 1:10 Bill Stiteler said:

The developer never considered another platform. Boy, wonder who that might be in reference to?

at 1:09 Bill Stiteler said:

Video of a blind man using an app to walk through the forest.

at 1:08 Kirk Hiner said:

Fart app? Singular? Have you SEEN the App Store?

at 1:08 Bill Stiteler said:

And here's a video about how apps have changed lives. Awwww. I'm guessing the Fart app won't be in there.

at 1:08 Kirk Hiner said:

Uh oh...it's heartwarming stories time. Go grab some lunch or take your restroom break.

at 1:07 Bill Stiteler said:

Tim: the work we do makes a difference in people's lives

at 1:06 Bill Stiteler said:

It's in 120 countries now, and will be in 32 more later this month.

at 1:06 Kirk Hiner said:

The 225,000 iPad specific apps is significant. Big name console developers are noticing the iPad, I learned at E3 last week.

at 1:06 Bill Stiteler said:

Apple has paid out $5 billion to devs

at 1:05 Bill Stiteler said:

Customers have downloaded 30 billion apps

at 1:05 Bill Stiteler said:

225,000 for the iPad

at 1:05 Kirk Hiner said:

Multiple planets, most likely.

at 1:05 Bill Stiteler said:

650k apps

at 1:04 Bill Stiteler said:

The App store has over 400 million accounts, and is "the most vibrant on the planet."

at 1:04 Bill Stiteler said:

There are over 1000 Apple engineers at WWDC, and they've closed the company

at 1:03 Kirk Hiner said:

23rd WWDC, that is.

at 1:03 Bill Stiteler said:

Tim Cook notes that this is the 23rd WWDC, which is older than some developers.

at 1:03 Kirk Hiner said:

Is this really the 23rd? How many have been actually media events?

at 1:02 Bill Stiteler said:

And here's Tim Cook.

at 1:02 Bill Stiteler said:

Siri's taking a few jabs at the competition, notably Samsung for making both phones and refrigerators (and, er... iPhone components)

at 1:01 Bill Stiteler said:

Siri is introducing the show, with a few jokes. No, really.

at 1:01 Bill Stiteler said:

This is going to be a lot of developer-level stuff, so don't plan on hearing too much about end user features. Though if we do get one, it'll be the ability for apps to have greater access to Siri.

at 12:59 Bill Stiteler said:

We might get some stealth info about the New iPhone (rumored to have a 16:9 aspect ratio), but my guess is they won't announce that today.

at 12:59 Kirk Hiner said:

After attending last year's Nintendo keynote at E3, any keynote without a live symphony orchestra is kind of a letdown.

at 12:59 Bill Stiteler said:

So here's what we're going to see today: iOS6 and Mountain Lion, both as developer releases.

at 12:53 Bill Stiteler said:

at 12:52 Kirk Hiner said:

If you plan to tell your wife you love her very much, she knows.

at 12:52 Bill Stiteler said:

Testing, testing.

at 12:51 Bill Stiteler said:

Test test, Can you hear me Major Tom?

at 12:06 Kirk Hiner said:

And I'll admit I'm mostly intrigued by what Apple may have in store for Apple TV. The possibility of TV network content distribution is intriguing, as is direct apps for gaming possibilities. Kind of like a Wii U / Game Pad combination without the Wii U.

at 11:56 Kirk Hiner said:

We're about an hour away now. I keep expecting some new rumor to suddenly surface, but it's been mostly a quiet morning.

at 8:13 Kirk Hiner said:

It's not included in our WWDC 2012 rumor roundup, so be sure to check out Charles Moore's article on the new talk about a new third entry in Apple's MacBook line.