Apple WWDC 2008 event in San Francisco has answered our expectations with some major announcements from Steve Jobs, including the new iPhone 3G revelation. The keynote has introduced us as follows:

• New iPhone games for $9.99.
• New iPhone mashups.
• New MobileMe syncing service.
• iPhone 2.0 firmware available in early July.
• iPhone 3G officially goes live on July 11th for $199 (8GB) or $299 (16GB), with a built-in GPS.

Again, rumors prove to be right and today they just get the official stamp from Apple. Lets view some of them in a nutshell:

New companies join Apple’s train, to bring iphone / iPod Touch users some fantastic and realistic games with amazing graphics and seamlessly playable elements. The keynote has introduced companies like SEGA, Pangea and Digital Legends, offering games such as Super Monkey Ball, that was first introduced at the SDK event back in March, Enigmo and Cro-Mag Rally, turning iPhone into a steering wheel, thanks to the accelerometer function inside the unit device. In addition we can find some neat fighting games to be available around September, all for the price tag of $9.99.

 New iPhone mashups

Apple has decided to team up with some of the most popular services, by assimilating special designated applications inside the iPhone, making the access and the use to those services much more easy and free of charge. Current list includes:

• eBay – from now on, you will be able to use the service from your iPhone device, thanks to a new application that lets you search items, watch favorite stuff, place a bid and follow auctions, all for free (well, just the application, not the items).
• Loopt – a nice location-based application that lets you discover who’s hanging within your location range (don’t try to hide with this service ON).
• TypePad – one of the most popular blogging services, now available from your iPhone, allowing users to upload real time photos, straight from their handset, directly to their blogs.
• Associated Press – another free application, allowing users to upload their media stuff to AP service and contribute to the content.
• Band – a cool feature, developed by an independent insurance developer, allowing users to create their own music and play it from their own iPhone device, with the ability to choose from a various of instruments.
• MLB.com – a nice application, designated for baseball fans, allowing them to receive real time results and watch highlighted moments.

New MobileMe syncing service

A new service for your iPhone, iPod Touch, Mac and PC that works with the applications you know, like Microsoft Outlook on a PC. Mail, Address Book, or iCal on a Mac. Mail, Contacts, and Calendar on your iPhone or iPod touch. The service keeps multiple devices always in sync, allowing users to access and manage their emails, contacts, calendar, photos, and files at me.com, all with amazing applications that are so feature-rich and easy to use on the go. The Push happens automatically, instantly, and continuously, so you will receive all your stuff immediately, without the need to dock or hook your handset. You can drag and drop, click and drag, use keyboard shortcuts, and even switch between applications with a single click. Unfortunately, the service is not free and will cost you $99 a year for 20GB of space, and there’ll be a 60 day free trial.

iPhone 2.0 firmware available on July

iPhone 2.0 firmware update will be available on July for free  ($9.95 for iPod touch owners), featuring some interesting functions, including a sophisticated scientific calculator, iWork documents and MS Office documents support, allowing you to read Word, Excel, and PowerPoint presentations from your handset, image saving from emails, new contacts search, direct download from the new App Store, Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync support, offering push email, calendar, and contacts, with enterprise-grade networking from Cisco IPSec VPN and WPA2 Enterprise support. In addition, The latest iPhone 2.0 update adds support for mass email move and delete. So you can delete many messages at once and organize groups of messages by moving them into different mail folders. Furthermore, it will offer complete language and dictionary support for 20 different languages, including English (U.S.), English (UK), French (France), French (Canada), German, Japanese, Dutch, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese (Portugal), Portuguese (Brazil), Danish, Finnish, Norwegian, Swedish, Korean (no dictionary), Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Russian, and Polish.

Update: you can download firmware 2.0 from here.

iPhone 3G officially goes live on July 11th

With fast 3G wireless technology, GPS, support for Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync, and the new App Store, iPhone 3G puts even more amazing features in your hands. And just like the original iPhone, it combines three products in one —a revolutionary phone, a widescreen iPod, and a breakthrough Internet device. Here are the official specs:

• Screen size: 3.5 inches (diagonal).
• Screen resolution: 480 by 320 pixels (163 ppi).
• Input method:Multi-Touch.
• Storage: 8GB or 16GB.
• Cellular:UMTS/HSDPA (850, 1900, 2100 MHz) GSM/EDGE (850, 900, 1800, 1900 MHz) Wireless data; Wi-Fi (802.11b/g) UMTS/HSDPA (850, 1900, 2100 MHz) EDGE (850, 900, 1800, 1900 MHz) Bluetooth 2.0 + EDR.
• GPS: Assisted-GPS.
• Camera: 2.0 megapixels.
• Battery^: Talk time: Up to 5 hours on 3G; up to 10 hours on 2G. Standby time: Up to 300 hours. Internet use: Up to 5 hours on 3G; up to 6 hours on Wi-Fi. Video playback: Up to 7 hours. Audio playback: Up to 24 hours.
• Dimensions: 4.5 by 2.4 by 0.48 inches (115.5 by 62.1 by 12.3 mm).
• Weight: 4.7 ounces (133 grams).

[via gizmodo]

• Apple announces iPhone SDK package.
• iPhone gets multi-touch games.
• iPhone receives AIM services.
• Apple enables VOIP over WiFi.
• iPhone gets native Exchange support, including push E-mail, calendars, and ActiveSync.
• iPhone SDK available for free from today, requires $99 developers membership.
• iPhone firmware update version 2.0 hits in June.

It’s not that we were strangers to most of today’s new announcements, on the contrary, we’ve been craving for them since the day the iPhone was launched, and finally they are here. Lets view some of them in a nutshell:

Apple’s iPhone SDK

For months we’ve been hearing tons of speculations about it, but today, we finally get a chance to look at Apple’s long-awaited iPhone SDK pack and stand on this exciting developer kit essence. Based on OS X Xcode source code, Cupertino will provide iPhone developers the same API and developing tools, used by Apple, including Cocoa Touch app framework, 3-axis accelerometer, access to an interface builder – providing drag n’ drop structuring of the GUI and automated power management, location enabled app, 3D graphics accelerators, full access to media capabilities and to the iPhone simulator, in order to experiment and run the developing application on OS X.

Multi – Touch Games.

Apple’s iPhone finally gets some official multi-touch games with the accelerometer support, after teaming up with EA and SEGA (jailbroken iphones already have games). Current list includes:

• Spore – from EA – coming up on September.
• Super Monkey Ball – from SEGA – coming up on September.

All games are being developed with the new iPhone SDK and will be available to purchase via Apple store.

Apple’s iPhone AIM Client

We’ve been waiting for this application since day one, but it’s better late than never, having IMing with AOL iChat, designed for the iPhone with the ability to use your own contact list and store your friends’ photos next to their names, like the original application – SWEET.

VOIP Over WiFi

This one is really cool, as Apple enables developers to create VOIP applications for the iPhone and literally save you some bucks, once you contact your friends via wifi connection, when arriving to free hotspots. The meaning is that all iPhone users will be able to connect with each other through a Skype-alike application and speak without spending cell minutes. Personally i think it is going to be AWESOME.

Exchange Support

Another big one, as Apple gets into corporate environment, offering some office required elements as follows:

• Exchange support.
• ActiveSync support
• Push E-mail.
• Push calendar.
• Push contacts.
• Global address list.
• Remote Wipe.
• Cisco VPN.
• Certificates and identities.
• Security policies.

The meaning is that the iPhone will be using the ActiveSync directly with the Exchange server to push all data into it without any intermediate NOC and message servers. You will be able to toggle on/off any of the included functions, at your choice.

SDK Is Available, Developers Membership Costs $99

SDK will be available for downloading, free of charge, for anyone who wants to test his/her coding abilities. Developers who wish to distribute their applications via iTunes App Store (which will appear on iPhones in the next firmware update) will be charged for $99 annual fee. Mind you, Apple plans to launch a $100M fund with Kleiner Perkins VC to support young developers with their initiatives. Developers will have the freedom to set their own prices, if the application will be free Apple won’t charge you, otherwise, Cupertino will split the revenues 70/30 of the price.

Firmware Update v2.0 Available In June

All aforementioned wonders, including enterprise Exchange features, AIM client, Apple App. Store and others will be available for free in final version 2.0 in June, unless you’re iPod Touch owners, who have to pay for their update (*sigh*).