If you believe that today's WWDC Keynote presentation was a barn-burner, I've got a bridge I want to sell you.

 

It was a quiet morning in San Francisco, my home town.

 

Steve Jobs's keynote presentation at today's Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference provided precious little additional information about the upcoming Mac OS 10.5 (aka Leopard), introduced no new Mac or iPod hardware, extended fast-but-finicky Safari to Windows users, and walled third-party iPhone software developers off into a Safari-bounded Web-app sandbox.

 

Sometimes even the much vaunted reality-distortion field could use an infusion of fresh dilithium crystals; today was one of those days. Still and all, however, the future looks bright - albeit evolutionary, not revolutionary.

 

But before I explain what today's announcements might mean to you and your Mac life, allow me to freely admit that I'm jaded. If I had a buck for every keynote I've attended since 1984, I could afford a down payment on an iPhone. Exhibit A: The notebook in which I scribbled my notes during today's event bears the logo of WWDC 1991. You'll have to forgive me if offering Safari to Windows users didn't inspire me leap to my seat and shout "Hurrah!"

 

But forgive me my Marvin the robot whining - let's talk Apple...

 

First, the Good Gaming News ... Maybe

 

Like the cicada, reports that Apple is about to make a major advance in the gaming arena emerge on a regular basis. Also like that unfortunate Auchenorrhyncha, such news makes a bit of noise, then disappears yet again.

 

This time it might be different.

 

No lesser lights than Bing Gordon, Co-Founder and Chief Creative Officer of Electronic Arts, and the legendary John Carmack, Owner and Chief Technology Officer of id Software, had their individual moments in the spotlight on the Moscone Center stage today.

 

Gordon admitted that the current Mac-games landscape is more than a bit bleak, but that EA was going to help "rectify the situation." In support of that effort, he enumerated four EA games that will soon be available for the Mac: Command and Conquer 3, Battlefield 2142, Need for Speed Carbon, and Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. In August, Madden NFL 08 and Tiger Woods PGA Tour 08 will be added to that list.

 

Carmack demoed his company's seriously impressive id Tech 5 technology, which gives games artists unprecendented control over 3D environments without mucking up the game structures painstakingly assembled by the game's engineers. What's more, it frees environment designers from the pesky texture-memory limitations that have in the past caused many games to look far less than realistic. This id Tech 5 technology will be fully Mac-native. Carmack also said that we should expect announcements from id at QuakeCom and the upcoming E3 Summit in July.

 

Unfortunately, neither Gordon not Carmack spoke about whether the benefits of their new games and new technologies would be available for pre-Intel Macs. Transgaming Technologie's website claims that its Cider technology is what's enabling EA to bring the games Gordon mentioned to the Mac, but the same site also explains Cider as a "an interpreter between the game's original code and the Intel Mac." Our prediction is that pre-Intel Macs will be S.O.L. in the brave new world of Mac gaming. We hope we're wrong.

 

More...

 

---

And Then There's Tiger

 

For a comprehensive overview of the WWDC annoucements, including all the Leopard news, check out the Mac|Live podcast #11, in which Mac|Life editor in chief, Leslie Ayers, reviews editor Roman Loyola, and I discuss in sumptuous detail what Jobs discussed during today's keynote. In summary, Jobs went through a top ten list of features to be found among what he described as 300 new features that will ship with Leopard when it's released n October.

 

Unfortunately, all the attendees at the keynote presentation had already heard about most of Jobs's top ten at the previous WWDC on last August 7, 2006, when he first introduced Leopard.

 

Let's tick off the old news, one feature at a time:

 

> 64-bit archiitecture? Check - a boon for addressing scads of RAM quickly and efficiently. Expect high-end apps and projects to run noticeably more snappily.

 

> Core Animation? Check - if it works even a tenth as well as it demos, this sytem-level animation technology should enable developers to create stunning new animated 3D and video apps.

 

> Boot Camp? Check - the developers of both Parallels and VMWare breathed deep sighs of relief when Jobs announced that the closest Leopard would come to Windows integration would be the incorparation of a non-beta version of dual-boot Boot Camp. Running Windows inside Mac OS X - aka virtualization - is still a "third-party opportunity." For now, at least...

 

> Spaces? Check - the ability to create multiple workspaces on the fly with their own dedicated apps may merely be a flashy solution in search of a problem, or it may be the next great interface advance since Expose. We're betting on the former and hoping for the latter - though, making Spaces sound quite a bit more attractive, Jobs said that you'll be able to set up as many Spaces as you want. Another reason for more RAM...

 

> Dashboard and WebClips? Check - widget lovers (and you know who you are) may rejoice at the opportunity to transform slices of websites into Dashboardable widgets. The Mac|Life editorial team, on the other hand, finds ourselves stifling a collective yawn.

 

> iChat enhancements? Check - an indication that Apple can at times try to put too much "fun" into what's really a quite utilitarian app. We're willing to bet that the iChat Theater will be one of the least-used features of Leopard. Or, even more likely, it'll end up like that cool toy you once received, played with once or twice, then forgot about.

 

> Time Machine? Check - system level CYA. If you don't backup regularly - and, according to Steve, you don't - you may find this automatic archiving sytem of interest and value. I'm interested, though, to see how many people actually dig into it to learn how it works before they need it to save their bacon. My guess is not many. It reminds me a bit of Spotlight - that is, it looks like a good idea on paper, but a pain in actual implementation. As a dedicated backer-upper, though, I hope I'm wrong - anything that can help folks backup their increasingly important digital assets has to be A Good Thing.

 

All seven of these members of the top ten are old news - not boring, useless, dull news, to be sure, but hardly earth-shattering new revelations worthy of getting worked up about. That said, they're all welcome additions to a new operating system that's sure to knock the living poop out of Vista - as I said, listen to our podcast, Mac|Live #11, for more details on each of these features, or follow the links I've added to this list for more info.

 

Jobs also announced three new Leopard features that hadn't been revealed last year. They ranged from the underwhelming (a new Desktop) to the encouraging (a refurbished Finder) to the truly interesting (QuickLook).

 

More...

 

---

> Desktop. Okay, so the Leopard menu bar is translucent, the Dock is 3D and reflective, and new Stacks folders help you organize stuff in your Dock (which can be easily done - though less elegantly - today). Nothing earthshaking here. The Stacks "fan" view, in fact, seems quite odd at first blush, and also seems to limit you to a rather small number of "fannable" items per Stack. The Downlaods Stack, on the other hand, looks promising in its ability to tame and contain downloads, and the new, deeper window shadows seem to actually be helpfuly. All in all, however, the new Desktop is primarily eye candy.

 

> Finder. There's some real meat to the refurbished Finder - enough, I venture to predict, that you'll be seeing more than one article in Mac|Life or on MacLife.com that's designed to help you get the most out of it. The new network searchability capability will be a true boon to home, office, and remote networks (if it works well), as will the abilty to use Boolean logic in Spotlight searches (although, admittedly, this is a relatively complex capability that will be used by few). The new Cover Flow file view is a truly useful treat, enabling you to page through images of your files as you do through your CDs in iTunes. Speaking of iTunes, the new Finder looks a lot like its music-organizing forebear - Apple appears to be bringing all of its hardware and software together into one Grand Unified Interface Theory (expect the old iPod's scrool 'n' click interface to go the way of the dinosaur Real Soon Now). Although we need to dig into the Leopard beta before we pronouce the new Finder a full success, even this cynical soul is encouraged.

 

> Quick Look. Truly slick - ranks up there in the "How did we live without it?" strata along with Expose. At its most basic, Quick Look simply allows you to view the contents of a file without having to launch the app that it's linked to - and if you've ever needed to look at an InDesign or Photoshop file and had to wait while those turgid beasts slouched towards the desktop, you'll greatly appreciate the time saved. (But wait - will Adobe apps work with Quick Look? At 11:46 on the evening of June 11th, the answer to that question is not known; stay tuned...). Quick Look enables three different levels of file viewing: At its most basic, there's the Cover Flow view in the Finder. Next up is an expanded window view. Finally, there's a full-screen view - great for videos and large images. Put me down as impressed.

 

The final verdict: Although we had hoped for more out of the Leopard announcements - wow us, Steve, please! - we must admit that what we saw demonstrated today in Moscone Center is one slick, smooth, well-thought-through, and undeniably attractive operating system. Of course, all we saw were demos, so there are still many questions that need to be answered - but Leopard appears to be a winner. An incremental, evolutionary winner, but a winner nonetheless.

 

That said, I'm worried about how much horsepower will be required to support a lot of the slickness I witnessed today (system requirements weren't announced) and I find myself a bit more than a little concerned that all the eye candy may give us all a case of digital diabetes rather than simply allowing us to get our work done with efficiency (though the new, simplified user-level icons were an eye-settling relaxation).

 

However, Leopard looks well worth the upgrade price - which Jobs teasingly introduced as $129 each for the Basic, Premier, Buiness, Enterprise, and Ulitmate version in a clear swipe at Microsoft's inane Vista pricing scheme. As Jobs said, though, "We think most people will buy the Ultimate version."

 

In other news

 

Jobs also announced the release of a public beta of a Windows XP/Vista version of Safari 3. Y'know, it may be that I'm not a business guy; it may be that I'm not a Windows guy; it may be that I'm a simple, dyed-in-the-wool Mac head ... but I couldn't care less. Yes, it may help Apple increase its market share. Yes, it may further bring The Goodness That Is Macintosh to the Windows heathens, but... hey... let someone else worry about that.

 

One Safari tie-in that is of interest, however, is that Jobs announced that developers would be able to use standard AJAX methodologies to create Web-based apps that will run on the iPhone's Safari implementation, and that will have access to all iPhone services such as the keyboard, scrolling management, calendaring, contacts, full security, Google whatever, and the like. The developers in the crowd who had been hoping for a full SDK (software development kit) seemed cool to the idea, but at least it puts them in a better situation than what was announced a couple of months back - which was that the iPhone would be a totally closed system. Now it's available for web-centric apps.

 

So that's it

 

What the five-thousand-plus of us crammed into the Moscone Center this Monday morning were shown was, all in all, all good stuff: Leopard looks as good as ever - and, with its Finder and other interface improvements, even a bit better than we knew of on Sunday.

 

But...

 

New iMacs? Not yet.

 

New Cinema Displays? Not yet.

 

New multi-touch screen iPods? Not yet.

 

A new subcompact 'Book? Not ... yet?

 

As the Firesign Theater once reminded us, the future ain't here yet.