I was inspired to write about this when I read a Cult of Mac post by Pete Mortensen. Mortensen wrote that Apple had proved once again, with the announcement of MobileMe, that Apple, “Still Dislikes Being a Team Player.” His point was that MobileMe could have integrated easily with other online applications. Apple should, “Help Flickr talk to iPhoto talk to GMail talk to Facebook talk to GCal talk to iCal talk to Jaiku talk to Wordpress.”

What is consistently overlooked by some is the bigger Apple picture, the big-kahuna overall plan, so to speak. Apple is a genius at this, and uses it so well that it is overlooked time and time again. I disagree with Mortensen and here’s why:

Apple built the web apps. for MobileMe with SproutCore. It’s an open source project, platform-independent, Cocoa-inspired JavaScript framework for creating web apps, such as the ones showcased at the WWDC, that look and feel like Desktop applications.

AppleInsider reported that Apple didn’t just use it to build MobileMe apps. – they enhanced it’s performance and added new functionality to the project. This sounds to me like team work, and they were generous with their efforts.

Interesting thing is (back to the bigger picture,) this is open source project, that anyone can work on. Imagine what would happen if Apple decided to do with the MobileMe service, what it is doing with the iPhone: open it to developers! Imagine the possibilities.

I think iPhone 3rd party developers right now, are barely scratching the surface of what is going to become an avalanche of amazing iPhone applications. Again, swing that view to MobileMe and you get…a bigger picture.

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Apple’s keynote at the WWDC today unwrapped all the past 3 weeks rumors and speculation, though some was left out. Jobs stated that the new iPhone 3G will be available July 11th, and cut the pricing way down – $199 for the 8GB, and $299 for the 16GB.

The keynote also unwrapped the re-vamp of dot Mac to Mobile Me. Still at $99.95 annually, the service now boasts 20 GB of disk space and over the air syncing with all devices, PC computers, Macs, Iphone and any other device you might have.

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The Apple store online is down, and we know what that means – it is 1 hour and 20 minutes until the WWDC keynote, and new products are going to be released. Boom! as Jobs would say.

There’s a rumor to that a new product for developers call Mac-Fusion, and some are speculating that this will be introduced along with the 3G iPhone. We’ll see – I’ll do a full report after the show.

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It’s Friday – and I’m sure there is going to be some big, hot, sweaty rumor that’ll pop up today. We have just the weekend to go before Steve Jobs delivers his keynote for the 2008 WWDC. So, for your convenience, I give you the rumor round-up; What We Know so Far.

March 25th, Digg founder Kevin Rose (whose predictions on the first iPhone were dead wrong,) set the blogosphere on a hot flash claiming that the new iPhone would have 2 cameras – one on the front and one on the back. Video Conferencing anyone?

May 30th, it was widely reported that the dot Mac service was going to be overhauled and possibly would be re-domained to .me – or simply Mobile Me. The ihpone would be able to wirelessly sync with your account.

June 1st, AT&T evidently boosted their 3G network, in preparation for the 3G iphone launch. Some have clocked in speed-spikes as fast as 1400 – 1500 kbps, much faster than the norm of 500-800 kbps.

June 2nd, Leander Kahney reported a HOT tip from a reliable source that the 3G iPhone (or iPhone 2.0) will of course have 3G, but also, GPS, will be thinner, and have a longer battery life. He also mentioned that the iPhone will be subsidized, but who will be doing the subsidy is still unknown, but these subsidies would bring the price down to $200.00.

June 5th, Brian Caulfield of Forbes.com posted an article and photo gallery of his “Stalking the iPhone” where he went to the West Coast distribution center of Apple, contract manufacturer, Quanta Computer, and witnessed hefty stacks of plain brown cardboard boxes. A stack next to them were plainly labeled “iMac.” The assumption is that they are the 3G iPhone, and possibly the MacTablet , (or iTablet) if there is such a thing.

Wow – a lot of stuff to devour. What do we know for sure that Steve will unveil? 3G, for certain. What’s not a sealed deal is whether it is thinner, has GPS, a camera on the front and back, and if there will really be two models instead of the one model. Throw in the i-Tablet and we have a good weight of speculation. Hopefully we haven’t built this thing up to a level where we are going to be let down with a big, loud, thunder thud.

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Over at the Cult of Mac, someone asked if anyone knew the history of the WWDC and what the “big” announcements were over the past few years. Leigh McMullen posted a list, and what a list it is. However, the WWDC announcements were, not exactly Rock-Star quality.

Let’s see: we have in 2002, OS X – 10.2, 2003 were the PowerMac G5, the ‘iApps’, 2004 were the 23 & 30 inch Cinema Displays, and OS X Tiger (10.4) was previewed, 2005 the decision to switch from PPC to Intel processors, 2006 The MacPro, Intel based Xserve, and Leopard was previewed, and finally in 2007 a feature complete version of Leopard was demonstrated.

Other than the PowerMac G5 and the MacPro, I don’t see a lot of Major hardware unveilings. Will Steve-o change character and blow everyone out of the water with a Mac-Tablet? I don’t think so. I know I’m new to this, but Apple wants to sell the iPhone, and in record numbers. A tablet would get in the way, don’t you think?

After reading many, many blogs, articles and reviews about the iPhone, I have come to the same conclusion that others have: the iPhone is literally a computer in your shirt or jeans pocket, and its capabilities and growth is…well astronomical. What Steve revealed in his introduction of the iPhone last year was just barely scratching the surface of what is equal to the original blue-and-white Power Mac G3, in your pocket.

I think yes, a tablet is on it’s way…but not at the WWDC. The 3G iPhone will be the star attraction.

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