Funkadelic Playground Thoughts from The Shrop

I was jazzed about the WWDC Keynote before it started yesterday. I was all setup with twitter, ichat, plurk, macrumors, engadget, ustream audio, etc. The live ustream audio feed was very helpful. Thanks to my friends for pointing me to that link. I will catch the full video tonight on my AppleTV so I can get the full experience.

Just a few thoughts (not in any particular order):

• I am excited about the 3G phone. Not so much for me, but so Lisa can get an iPhone. I have been very satisfied with my first generation iPhone and since that phone will support the 2.0 firmware, it will be a great handset for a long time.
• I like the thinner design of the 3G.
• I don't think 3G speeds will be quite as exciting in the real world. We have 3G in Charlotte, but it isn't the fastest 3G from what I understand. It will be an improvement over EDGE of course.
• No mention of a front camera or iChat for Windows. I can't really imagine me walking around holding a phone a certain way just so my friend on the other end can see my lovely face. I have never been into video chat on my Mac. Video chat may be most beneficial for family members who actually want to see their loved ones from afar.
• The announced battery life is a huge win. I am sure those numbers aren't quite real world, but they are much better than most 3G phones.
• The biggest win has to be the price - $199 USD for the 8GB and $299 USD for the 16GB. That makes the iPhone affordable for most people. By the end of the year, you will see iPhones everywhere.
• The app store is going to be huge. This will separate the iPhone from the Blackberry devices. The ability to install apps over the air is something I have enjoyed with a jailbroken phone for a while now, but I am glad that Apple will be standardizing and supporting an official app deployment scheme. No worries for corporate security as the enterprise can manage the apps deployed on company owned iPhones.
• me.com sounds really cool. Others can do much of the same/similar (ex: www.sugarsync.com). Also, I don't have as much need since I will sync most of my stuff with Exchange. If you don't have Exchange, this may be the way to go.
• The Keynote was filled with game and a few industry app demos. I think this was a bit overdone. I would have liked to see more demos and explanations about what is missing in the iPhone now: ex: copy/paste, voice dialing, etc.
• Leopard Snow? This is under NDA so I don't know much about it.

I was a bit bummed I didn't go to WWDC this year, but not so much now. There were no real surprises for me except for the pricing of the 3G iPhone. I can only blame myself and others like me who pressure the rumor sites to tell everything they can ahead of time.

What are your thoughts? Comment and let me know.