Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer has just announced the all new Microsoft Surface, a Windows 8 tablet competitor to Apple's iPad. Microsoft's original Surface was a "big ass table" that mainly gained traction as a product placement on TV shows. This ain't that.

It also ain't an iPad. It has USB 2.0, for example. And a built-in kickstand. And two Smart Cover style magnetic covers that doubles as a multitouch or physical keyboard with a trackpad. And a pen with digital ink that magnetically attaches the body.

There are two versions, one running ARM chips like an iPad, the other running Intel chips like a laptop. The first is called Surface for Windows RT, the second, Surface for Windows 8 Pro.

Yeah. The branding sucks. Microsoft is unwilling to divest themselves of the Windows nomenclature. The actual products look great, and are deserving of much cleaner names like Surface and Surface Pro (or, arguably Xtab and Xtab Pro, or anything that ties into the cooler Xbox brand).

It's interesting to see Microsoft design their own hardware here. They did that before with the Zune, and it decimated the PlaysForSure MP3 player market and their hardware partners. Will the Surface do the same thing to Windows 8 tablet ODMs?

Developing...

Source: WPCentral

Full presser below.

Microsoft Announces Surface: New Family of PCs for Windows

Microsoft-made hardware to be available starting with release of Windows 8 and Windows RT.

LOS ANGELES — June 18, 2012 — Today at an event in Hollywood, Microsoft unveiled Surface: PCs built to be the ultimate stage for Windows. Company executives showed two Windows tablets and accessories that feature significant advances in industrial design and attention to detail. Surface is designed to seamlessly transition between consumption and creation, without compromise. It delivers the power of amazing software with Windows and the feel of premium hardware in one exciting experience.

Advances in Industrial Design

Conceived, designed and engineered entirely by Microsoft employees, and building on the company's 30-year history manufacturing hardware, Surface represents a unique vision for the seamless expression of entertainment and creativity. Extensive investment in industrial design and real user experience includes the following highlights:

Software takes center stage: Surface sports a full-sized USB port and a 16:9 aspect ratio – the industry standard for HD. It has edges angled at 22 degrees, a natural position for the PC at rest or in active use, letting the hardware fade into the background and the software stand out.

VaporMg: The casing of Surface is created using a unique approach called VaporMg (pronounced Vapor-Mag), a combination of material selection and process to mold metal and deposit particles that creates a finish akin to a luxury watch. Starting with magnesium, parts can be molded as thin as .65 mm, thinner than the typical credit card, to create a product that is thin, light and rigid/strong.

Integrated Kickstand: The unique VaporMg approach also enables a built-in kickstand that lets you transition Surface from active use to passive consumption – watching a movie or even using the HD front- or rear-facing video cameras. The kickstand is there when needed, and disappears when not in use, with no extra weight or thickness.

Touch Cover: The 3 mm Touch Cover represents a step forward in human-computer interface. Using a unique pressure-sensitive technology, Touch Cover senses keystrokes as gestures, enabling you to touch type significantly faster than with an on-screen keyboard. It will be available in a selection of vibrant colors. Touch Cover clicks into Surface via a built-in magnetic connector, forming a natural spine like you find on a book, and works as a protective cover. You can also click in a 5 mm-thin Type Cover that adds moving keys for a more traditional typing feel.

An Amazing Windows Experience

Two models of Surface will be available: one running an ARM processor featuring Windows RT, and one with a third-generation Intel Core processor featuring Windows 8 Pro. From the fast and fluid interface, to the ease of connecting you to the people, information and apps that users care about most, Surface will be a premium way to experience all that Windows has to offer. Surface for Windows RT will release with the general availability of Windows 8, and the Windows 8 Pro model will be available about 90 days later. Both will be sold in the Microsoft Store locations in the U.S. and available through select online Microsoft Stores.

Contributing to an Expanded Ecosystem

One of the strengths of Windows is its extensive ecosystem of software and hardware partners, delivering selection and choice that makes a customer's Windows experience uniquely their own. This continues with Surface. Microsoft is delivering a unique contribution to an already strong and growing ecosystem of functional and stylish devices delivered by original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) to bring the experience of Windows to consumers and businesses around the globe.

Additional Product Information

Surface for Windows RT

OS: Windows RT

Light(1): 676 g

Thin(2): 9.3 mm

Clear: 10.6" ClearType HD Display

Energized: 31.5 W-h

Connected: microSD, USB 2.0, Micro HD Video, 2x2 MIMO antennae

Productive: Office '15' Apps, Touch Cover, Type Cover

Practical: VaporMg Case & Stand

Configurable: 32 GB, 64 GB

Surface for Windows 8 Pro

OS: Windows 8 Pro

Light(1): 903 g

Thin(2): 13.5 mm

Clear: 10.6" ClearType Full HD Display

Energized: 42 W-h

Connected: microSDXC, USB 3.0, Mini DisplayPort Video, 2x2 MIMO antennae

Productive: Touch Cover, Type Cover, Pen with Palm Block

Practical: VaporMg Case & Stand

Configurable: 64 GB, 128 GB

(1), (2). Actual size and weight of the device may vary due to configuration and manufacturing process.

Suggested retail pricing will be announced closer to availability and is expected to be competitive with a comparable ARM tablet or Intel Ultrabook-class PC. OEMs will have cost and feature parity on Windows 8 and Windows RT.

For more information about Surface, visit http://www.surface.com.

Ahead of WWDC 2012, rumor had it Apple was considering a fresh coat of paint for the default iPhone interface elements (UIKit). Now that iOS 6 has been introduced, instead of a new, unifying silver look, like Leopard gave OS X, we've gotten several new looks, and a newly tinted status bar to go along with them.

In iOS 5 the default iPhone status bar was constrained to very few states: translucent (for use on top of Lock screen or Home screen wallpapers), light gray, black, or hidden (for videos, games, and other full-screen apps).

With iOS 6, the translucent and hidden states are still there, as is the black state, but the light gray default has been replaced by a color that's tinted based on the that of the menu bar -- or more exactly, a color averaged from the bottom row of menu bar pixels. Developer Simon Blommegård ran several tests and determined if, for example, you entire menu bar was yellow but the bottom row of pixels was half red and half blue, the status bar would be tinted with a purple hue.

You can see the new, tinted status bar plainly in the keynote video when the new Mail features are shown off. (About 90 min. in). You can also see Safari, Passbook and other apps that have been opted-out and set to black instead.

This raises an interesting design question: Should the status bar be part of the app interface, or should it disappear into the casing.

On a black iPhone, the black status bar almost becomes part of the device itself. Even on a white iPhone, due to the black border around the screen, the black status bar becomes more device than interface element.

Consistency becomes invisibility.

If iOS only ever used a black status bar, it would be unobtrusive -- all but unnoticeable to users unless and until they went looking for it. In other words, attention would remain on the app content, not the iOS chrome.

Even in iOS 5 and earlier, the black and light gray status bars were repetitive enough, and light gray matched the default menu bar enough, that they all but disappeared.

The tinted status bar doesn't do that right now. In default Apple apps, it sticks out in a more obvious shade of blue. Arguably that's because it's new. But given its potential to change colors, Skittles-like, from app to app, it'll be hard pressed to fade into unobtrusiveness any time soon.

Themes, skins, carrier customizations, and other variables aside, other major mobile operating systems handle it this way. The status bar is uniform to the point that dedicated users have to go double check to see what color it is, so unmemorable has it become. webOS specifically targeted that experience, keeping their status bar black and rounding the corners so it would look more like words on the case than pixels above an app.

Yet with iOS 6 Apple is deliberately drawing attention to the status bar.

So the question becomes, what advantage is there to having a more noticeable status bar in apps like Mail and Settings? (Apple overrides it with black in apps like Safari and Find my Friends.) Is there information contained in the status bar that needs to be more noticeable in default app interfaces? Does it simply make utilitarian, more data-driven apps a little more cosmetically attractive, where content-rich apps are better left to the less obtrusive black?

Apple showed off the new, more colorful status bars during the WWDC keynote, but iOS 6 is still in beta and things can change between now and the general release date this fall. There's also always a chance some new system in the iPhone 5 could shed better light on the switch to the tinted status bar, so we'll have to wait and see.

Right now, I'd prefer to see Apple go pure black across the board in iOS (and let developers overwrite it if they choose to). Even on a white iPhone, a consistent status bar becomes part of the device, there when I need it, gone when I don't.

Used electronics reseller Gazelle recently published the result of a survey of some 1,000 smartphone-toting customers. 65% picked iPhone as something they couldn't live without, compared to the 1% that said Facebook. 15% went so far as to say that they would sooner give up sex than go a full weekend without their iPhone. Even for those that pick sex, 4% claimed to have used their iPhone while doing the deed.

That dedication spreads to more casual social situations, too. 25% said they almost always use their iPhone in social situations, and 58% ranged from "usually" to "occasionally". Only 17% "rarely" or "never" touched their phones when socializing. 40% said that they would like to see a larger screen on the next iPhone - they're probably going to get their wish. The iPhone also replaced a lot of other gadgets; 70% said they ditched a dedicated music player device since getting their iPhone, while 55% tossed their camera and 40% got rid of their GPS device.

Though 15% actually isn't that much, it's enough to make you think that of the ten people you know that own iPhones, at least one of them likes their device more than a little bit of lovin'. If you can't figure out who that is, you might want to ask yourself if it's you.

Source: PRNewswire

R-Tap for the iPhone and iPad was launched over the weekend, giving gamers a slightly different take on the usual rhythm game mechanics. Even if you're not into music games, you might want to check out a contest hosted by R-Tap in the forums for a chance to win a free iTunes gift card.

The classic mode gives you the option of 4-6 lanes of tapping on easy, medium, or hard difficulty. If you're feeling particularly gutsy, you can crank the gameplay speed up to three times the default. Individual tracks also have a difficulty rating out of ten stars. Once you pick your song, you'll be launched into gameplay that looks pretty much identical to Rock Band: targets will drift down the tracks from the top of the screen in time with the music, and you'll have to tap those lanes as they reach the target zone near the bottom of the screen. You're scored based on how accurate your tapping is, and if you can nail long streaks of notes, you earn multipliers and can eventually enter into an extreme bonus mode for a limited amount of time. The standard tapping is complicated by some sustained notes where you have to hold your finger down or swipe into other lanes.

R-Tap's biggest selling feature is their Run mode, where instead of the Rock Band-style layout, you pick one of three characters to run down a futuristic lane, and you have to tap the screen at the right to get them to destroy the incoming notes. There are still upwards and downwards swipes that make your character jump or duck, but you're still only dealing with one lane of notes.

The music selection is mostly ho-hum. There was one track from each of Ke$ha, Chris Brown, and Adele, but the rest were completely unrecognizable. Regardless, the quality of those tracks are reasonably good given the game style - there's a lot of electronic and club music where you aren't perpetually distracted by foreign lyrics. Most tracks cost a dollar of the in-app currency, but you can also pay the equivalent of 3 cents to play a track through once.

The only real attention to graphics seems to have been given to the avatar models in Run Mode, and even then, their attack and jump animations are choppy. The low frame rate of the ground is particularly jarring. Many parts of the user interface is blocky, if functional. Of course, none of that really effects the gameplay itself - touch input is responsive, and the pace can be blistering once you get good enough to climb up the difficulty ladder (see the video below for an example). That said, it would be really nice to have additional filters and browsing options when looking through the music library, such as sorting by difficulty, and hiding songs you don't already have.

The good

• New take on classic rhythm game mechanic
• Good difficulty scaling

The bad

• Limited and unfamiliar music selection
• Chunky animation at times

The conclusion

R-Tap's core rhythm gameplay is actually pretty good, and with a high ceiling on difficulty, there's a lot of replay value. However, there are way too many things that surround the actual game-playing that make R-Tap less than awesome. The music selection is dismal. The avatars in run mode are badly animated. The menus and user interface are basic and bland.

The only thing really going for R-Tap is its free price point, but even then, the Tap Tap games offer a much wider variety of music, more progression, and greater graphical polish. If you're willing to spend money, Rock Band Reloaded for iOS still delivers the best rhythm game experience available even though it's a year old. If you've overplayed Tap Tap, R-Tap might be a nice change of pace, but overall, I can't see any reason to switch.

Free - Download Now

ABI Research recently published the results of their survey of the smartphone market in Q1 2012, and found that Samsung and Apple together claim a little more than half the market share and 90% of the profits. Global smartphone shipments grew a healthy 41% since last year, though Sony and Samsung were the only ones to see growth quarter-over-quarter. Nokia's decline is so fast that even RIM will soon surpass them in shipments. Analyst Michael Morgan puts Nokia's situation into stark terms: "At this point in the year, Nokia will have to grow its Windows Phone business 5000% in 2012 just to offset its declines in Symbian shipments."

Apple's profitability is already well-known, and graphs like these can give you an idea of just how much of that 90% belongs to Apple versus Samsung. Generally speaking, Apple's grip on the smartphone market is tallied up on an operating system basis, but it's good to see a more appropriate comparison being made directly between manufacturers.

With Samsung effectively representing the Android camp, and Apple iOS, how much room is there for a third player in the smartphone scene? Obviously Nokia has a long ways to go to push Windows Phone into the mainstream, but Microsoft is in this for the long haul and will be able to support the platform better than HP did for webOS. There's still a glimmer of hope for RIM to snag that number three spot if the fall launch of BlackBerry 10 pans out, but they've only been losing historical footholds as time goes on. For now, it's a two-horse race.

Source: ABI

Tapbots co-creator and developer Paul Haddad was kind enough to sit down at WWDC 2012 to talk about the keynote, and about their hugely popular Twitter client, Tweetbot.

We lost the dedicated audio recording, unfortunately, so all we have is the crappy camera recording. Apologies about that (we had several mic failures during the event -- suffice it to say, we're getting all new audio gear for next time).

It's a long talk and covers everything from the Twitter API to privacy settings and more, so watch along!

Jailbreak developer MuscleNerd recently spoke at HITB2012 on the challenges of cracking the iPhone baseband and the evolution of unlocking methods. If you jailbreak and unlock your iPhone, you'll find this interesting.

Just like any other piece of hardware or software, the iPhone baseband and the software Apple uses to make it function has changed over time. This is why we sometimes have to wait for a tool to be updated in order to unlock a new iPhone or an updated version of iOS.

MuscleNerd goes on to explain how different types of unlocks operate such as the difference between a software and hardware unlock. Software unlocks typically require a jailbreak with tools such as redsn0w followed by running a program package in Cydia such as ultrasn0w.

You get a lot of harrassment when a SIM interposer is released and ultrasn0w hasn't received an update. SIM interposers are dealing with a fundamentally different interface than we are. They're dealing with the SIM interface which is not an AT Query kind of thing. In some respects it is but they have a very limited set of things they're allowed to do with the baseband. They're not allowed to control it but can interact with it.

A hardware unlock normally involves using a SIM interposer such as a Gevey SIM or TurboSIM that will sit in the SIM tray along with your own SIM card. It bypasses or changes system checks with hardware to allow your iPhone to run on another network. Sometimes hardware unlocks will not even require a jailbreak.

MuscleNerd goes on to talk about how basebands have changed over different iterations of the iPhone and compares them to other Qualcomm handsets and how changing to a Qualcomm chipset has changed the way the baseband functions and how tools are created. The whole keynote is pretty interesting if you've ever wondered what what goes on behind the scenes when you're booting up your iPhone and how the baseband dictates what networks your iPhone is allowed to run on.

Source: iClarified

Additional Resources:

• How to unlock iOS 5.0 & 5.0.1 via ultrasn0w
• How to jailbreak iOS 5.1.1 via Greenpois0n Absinthe
• Jailbreak and unlock forums

At WWDC 2012, Apple Senior Vice President of iOS, Scott Forstall, did NOT announce the following:

Next up is a brand new app we're calling Files

Now Files is:

The simplest way to get all of your documents in one place

There are a lot of really great apps in the app store that let you create and edit documents, text files, spreadsheets, and presentations, inside apps. There are Apple's own iWork apps, as well as some competitors, and a host of note-taking and text-editing apps that all let you work with documents right in the apps.

Now this is great but the problem is, when you need to find a document you have to try to remember which app you created it, hope you still have it installed, fumble around your Home screen to find the app, and then find the document or not within the app.

So Files takes all of these documents and combines them together in one place. And integrates it right into the OS.

That would have been the simple, user-friendly, file repository I've been asking for in iOS going on several years now.

And it would solve the current problem of users having to remember which app holds what document. (Or deleting documents by accident when they delete apps.)

What Forstall and Apple announced was almost exactly the system I wanted, but for coupons, tickets, cards, and other forms of vouchers instead. It was Passbook.

Passbook has a lot of the functionality I've been asking for for documents for years, but it's for commerce rather than productivity.

It does show -- once again -- that Apple isn't philosophically against repositories in iOS, and can handle them in a way that's drop-dead simple for iOS users. But it also shows what Apple's current priorities are.

Here's the actual Passbook announcement:

Next up is a brand new app we're calling Passbook

Now Passbook is:

The simplest way to get all of your passes in one place

There are a lot of really great apps in the app store that are starting to put passes, boarding passes and tickets, into the apps. There are some airline apps, like this one from United, where you get your boarding pass right in the app.

There are some store card apps, like this one from Starbucks, where you get the store card right in the app and you can use it to scan and pay coffee.

And there are some movie ticket apps like this one, where your movie ticket goes right into the app.

Now this is great but the problem is, when you get to the movie theater or to the airport, you fumble around to find the app, and then find the ticket or the pass within the app.

So Passbook takes all of these passes and combines them together in one place. And integrates it right into the OS.

Now, I'm thrilled with the idea of Passbook. The less I have to carry around in my analog wallet, the better. And it's not difficult to imagine the day when PassKit (the framework behind Passbook) layers QR codes behind more advanced systems like RFID/NFC, all tied to iTunes' hundreds of millions of credit cards-strong checkout system.

It's easy to see why Apple gave Passbook that attention as well -- mobile ecommerce is going to be huge. Billions of dollars huge.

File access isn't that goldmine. It's just a point of friction for iOS users.

Having to remember which app you created which document may be an unnecessary cognitive load. Having documents tied to apps, when apps can be removed or replaced from devices with a touch, jiggle, and tap, may not be the kind user experience Apple is famous for. But it's also not a high-order bit for Apple at the moment.

For many users, especially professional and productive users, files and documents are as important as pictures and coupons, maybe more so. But they won't be shared socially, or paid for or redeemed by the masses.

Apple showed they could do simple, user-friendly, flat file repositories back in iPhone 1.0 with Photos.app and the Image picker. For anyone silly enough to doubt it, they've shown us again with iOS 6 and Passbook.

Maybe in a future WWDC we'll see a Files.app and docs picture bullet pointed, and given the same few seconds of attention pull-to-refresh in Mail got this year. Or maybe iCloud's document system will simply evolve into this, automagically surfacing any compatible file type in any app capable of editing it. That would solve 80% of the problem all on its own.

Bottom line, however, Apple has proven once again that they can do repositories and do them well. They've simple chosen not to do so for files. At least not yet.

Mozilla recently showed off a new browser they're working on for the iPad called Junior. Since the embedded browsing engine on iOS in locked-down to WebKit (UIWebView) by Apple, most of Mozilla's work is on the design front, namely by eliminating tabs and an address bar from the primary browsing experience, and instead tucking them behind a separate menu.

When browsing, there are two half-circles midway through the screen: one for navigating backwards, and a plus symbol that will help you get to your next destination. That plus button can send you to a tabs/search/bookmarks screen, which means those tasks don't have to hang around in your main browsing window all the time. There will also be some kind of multi-user support, so browsing preferences and history can change accordingly. Mozilla also promised that Junior will be optimized for the big Retina display.

In its current iteration, Junior is defaulting to Bing search, but an earlier demo of their next desktop browser showcased a great new way they're working to promote search engine choice. Not only was Mozilla ditching the dedicated search box, but after launching into a search, a few small tabs would pop up on one side which would let you send to other engines for the same query. It's easy to imagine that sort of thing findings its way into Junior, but for now they're separate products. Mozilla has already released mobile versions of Firefox on other platforms that have tab syncing over the cloud and add-on support; hopefully those features will find their way into the final release of Junior, but it's hard to say at these early stages.

The Mozilla guys went so far as to say that the current Safari experience on iOS was miserable, despite still being the best default mobile browser. I'm not wholly convinced that Junior will be able to offer something that's infinitely better. DO you feel like tabs and the address bar cramp the viewable area when browsing on the iPad? If there was anything you could change about Safari on iOS, what would it be?

Source: Mozilla, The Verge

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WWDC, Apple's once-yearly platform keynote, and the biggest gathering of Mac and iOS developers on the planet, is over. Tim Cook has welcomed us and bid us adieu. Phil Schiller has shown us the most advanced laptops in the world. Again. Craig Federighi gave us a first and final tour of OS X Mountain Lion, and Scott Forstall pulled the curtain back on iOS 6. A lot of numbers got thrown around, and that was for the sessions even began.

But let's tackle things in order...

Tim Cook and Apple

Tim Cook was terrific. He looks a little older in person, sounds a little more southern, but his tempo, his manner, and his delivery are absolutely top notch. He might have been nervous at the very beginning -- it was his first WWDC as full-on CEO -- and he might have been melodramatic during the heartstring moments, but overall he was simply outstanding. He anchored the show, gave it both gravitas and emotion, and then, like his predecessor before him, he let the best executive team on the planet take it away.

And take it away they did. This is an Apple still recovering from irreplaceable loss, but also at the height of their game. They're doing more, faster than ever before. It remains to be seen if they can do it better as well, and for how long they can sustain it. If the answer is "yes" and "just you watch us", we're in for one hell of a ride.

Phil Schiller and Retina Macs

Where Phil Schiller was something closer akin to affable at Apple's last Macworld keynote, he's gotten better and better with each subsequent appearance. WWDC was no exception. While the upgrades to the MacBook Air were welcome if incremental, there was nothing incremental about the new Retina MacBook Pro. Bringing a computer to market that's that powerful, that thin, with that kind of screen is no small feat of design, engineering, and logistics. If you can't see that, go ask HP or Dell to sell you one.

Speaking of which, I can't imagine the product VPs of any other PC company were happy that morning. They can't even make the MacBook Air from two years ago yet, and Apple has now lapped them again with the Retina MacBook Pro. As someone who desperately wants more choice and competition in the PC business, I'm begging them to get their heads out of their collective asses and to start investing in the future before they become little more than bankrupt relics of the past.

But back to the Mac. There were lineups outside the Market Street Apple Store every day of WWDC. Developers and designers wanted those new machines. That's a powerful endorsement.

I'll be getting one as soon as I can as well.

Craig Federighi and OS X Mountain Lion

Craig Federighi had the challenging task of taking over from the incredibly charismatic former head of OS X, Bertrand Serlet ("Redmond, start your photocopiers!"). He'd been tentative in the past but not this time. This time he was comfortable and almost charming. He has the same bent body posture as Bill Gates and Dan Dodge and other lifelong coders, and a head of hair to make Bill Clinton and Don King jealous, but he wore all of it with a big smile and a lot of style.

Mountain Lion hadn't been shown on stage before, but it had been previewed in private media events and on Apple.com. That means we already knew something about it going in.

Still, Apple had some intriguing additions: Dictation in lieu of full-on Siri, Power Nap and the ability to not only "just work" but keep "just working", new features for the rapidly growing Chinese market, and OS X and iOS cross-platform gaming, to name but a few.

Moving to a yearly schedule means OS X updates will become more frequent, but each one will be smaller. Like iOS, I'm fine with that as long as -- by giant leap or tiny steps -- OS X gets where it needs to go.

And no, that's not an inevitable "iOS X", at least not for a good long while. Apple's doing a lot to make OS X look familiar to iOS users, but their underpinnings are still very different.

Or, to put it in Steve Jobs' terminology: Apple is making sure the interior of they trucks are every bit as comfortable and well appointed as the interior of their cars. But they're absolutely keeping them as trucks.

Scott Forstall and iOS 6

If Craig Federighi has learned to walk the stage, Scott Forstall knows how to strut. The head of iOS, he's been presenting the new betas and SDKs since 2008 and he's incredibly confident doing it.

For those disappointed with what they got, or were expecting more -- frankly you were reading the wrong websites. (Hey, we even warned you about Maps, okay?)

iOS 6 is an incremental update to a mature operating system. I know a lot of people wanted more (I even floated some ideas this week on Spotlight and Siri), but here's the thing:

Apple is dragging hundreds of millions of users behind their mobile OS now, and they're going to do it slowly and steadily unless and until they're forced to make a radical change.

Right now they're not and they didn't.

That's not to say iOS 6 is done and finished. It's still in beta, and no doubt iPhone 5 will include a few special features we haven't seen yet. (Maybe a new Podcast app and the stuff that makes it work.)

But these are the broad strokes -- Siri, Facebook, Shared Photo Streams, Passbook, FaceTime, Phone, Mail, Safari, Accessibility, and Maps. (200 in total!)

And tomorrow we're going to start deep-diving into all of them.

Sessions

Unlike the Keynote, all the WWDC 2012 sessions were under NDA. That means no one there can really talk about them. For example, I can't urge any developer who didn't go to WWDC or to the specific session at 9am on Friday that needed to be signed off on, reportedly, by two vice-presidents before they could even run it. I can't urge you to watch it the moment it shows up on video in Apple's developer portal. And I can't say how fantastic it was for Apple to share that level of product insight with the WWDC attendees, or hope they do it again next yet.

What I can tell you is that we met with several developers and got their reactions to the shows, and some expert tips on using their apps, and we'll be posting them this week. So stay tuned!

And if you didn't catch Leanna's photoblogs, where she journaled our WWDC 2012 week day by day, go check them all out now. (You don't want to miss Seth Clifford giving Merlin Mann a spanking -- literally.)

• WWDC 2012 day zero
• WWDC 2012 day one
• WWDC 2012 day two
• WWDC 2012 day three
• WWDC 2012 day four and five

We also did two special edition podcasts that are must-listen (sorry about the audio, my mic died -- we'll get something better for next time).

• iPhone & iPad Live 298: WWDC Keynote and iOS 6
• Iterate 23: WWDC 2012 round table

The beginning

Apple might be done with the announcements for now, but we won't be slowing down on the features. Keep your HTTP receptacle of choice locked on iMore. WWDC was only the kickoff. Now the fun starts!