So it’s that time again, WWDC is later today, kicking off at 1700 hrs UTC (that’s 1800 BST, 1000 PT, 1200 CT and 1300 ET). The rumour mill has been churning out some fantabulous ‘features’ that the next iPhone will come packed with. These range from the pretty standard storage bump to the down right unlikely 5MP zooming camera.

So here’s where I put it on the line and make my predictions for the iPhone (more like playing bingo with Apple involved but predictions none the less):

Definitely:

• Storage bump – 16Gb and 32Gb replacing the 8Gb and 16Gb
• More RAM
• New processor (incremental speed bump most likely)
• 3.2Mp camera (no zoom or flash just a straight drop-in sensor replacement)
• Digital compass (magnetometer)
• Video recording
• All the trappings of the current 3.0 beta (MMS, Copy/Paste, Spotlight etc etc)
• 7.2Mbps HSPDA (rather than the limited to 3.6Mbps current chipset)
• Change of back plate to a matte finish (hopefully less scratch prone)

Possibly:

• 802.11 N (rather than b/g)
• Front facing camera for video calling
• Budget iPhone (I wouldn’t put it past Apple to keep the current iPhone 3G like they have done the White Macbook as a ‘budget’ offering)

Predictions for WWDC, because WWDC is much bigger than the iPhone.

• iPhone revision 3 announced for release in July
• iPhone 3.0 firmware made available for download from the keynote for original iPhone 3G owners
• iPhone Push notification servers go live for the main stream
• New API/SDK talk for the iPhone 3.0 firmware/hardware (after all it is a developers conference)
• Snow Leopard goes Gold
• Snow Leopard shown off to the Apple faithful to be released July/August/September
• Lots of talk about the new technology behind Snow Leopard  including perhaps a road map to a new file system to replace the ageing HFS
• MacBook and possibly MacBook Pro incremental refresh (processor, memory, HDD bumps)
• Talk or presence of Steve Jobs returning (might be in the panel of Apple Execs up on the stage for the keynote)

Many people have been speculating about an Apple Tablet. One might be in the works but I doubt we’ll see it at WWDC, if they’re going to announce something like that it’ll be at a special event on their terms in. Apple learnt a valuable lesson from the iPhone 2.0, iPhone 3G, App Store and Mobile Me launch: Don’t overload yourself with everything all at once. Will there be a ‘One more thing’? Will Steve Jobs be the ‘One more thing’? All will be revealed come 1500 UTC!

So that’s it from me, you’ll have to wait till this afternoon to find out the juicy details, but rest assured if there’s anything tasty you’ll see it here on PixelatedGeek.

Tags: apple, iPhone and Apps, osx, wwdc