If Apple isn’t your choice of platform, then we also unboxed HTC’s new flagship Windows Mobile smartphone, the Touch Pro2.  A slide-out QWERTY keyboard, huge touchscreen and more connectivity than you could legitimately ask for, we’ll have the full review this coming week. 

Meanwhile, we also reviewed Amazon’s latest ebook reader, the 9.7-inch Kindle DX.  Aimed at students, newspaper & magazine addicts and businesses, the big question is whether it offers a realistic leap over the Kindle 2 that’s around $100 cheaper.  Finally, we featured our review of Sleek Audio’s CT6 Custom earphones, individually molded to the wearer’s ear-canal and promising tailored audio. 

Elsewhere, we saw the Palm Pre jailbroken and running Doom, heard a glowing review of the Viliv X70 UMPC, and saw leaked details of Intel’s upcoming Atom CPU range.  There were also hands-on videos of Pixel Qi’s incredible 3Qi low-power display, leaked photos of Sony Ericsson’s XPERIA X2, and confirmation that the Nokia N97 and N86 8MP were both arriving in stores across America.  Archos also held their long-awaited press conference, sadly not delivering the Android MID we’d been promised but dropping the Windows 7 Archos 9 UMPC instead.

You could say that the two new MacBook Pro machines are more of the same.  They each keep the unibody casings of their predecessors, making them thin and light, but they now use non-user-serviceable batteries as in the MacBook Air and the 17-inch MacBook Pro.  Apple say this allows them to squeeze high-capacity Li-Poly cells in there, boosting runtime to up to 7hrs; we won’t know whether that pans out until we’ve spent more time with our review units.

What we can tell from these first-impressions is that the new display is brilliant, with bright, rich colors that certainly seem the most impressive of the Apple panels we’ve seen.  They’re still glossy, which we know some people find frustrating, but we reckon we could live with that for the quality of the display.  The keyboard and multitouch trackpad are the same as we’ve already used, but there’s a new SD card port on the side that replaces the ExpressCard slot.  If we’re honest we do wonder whether Apple really couldn’t fit both in – the company says their research indicates only a “single figure” of users actually took advantage of the ExpressCard slot – but they insist it’s a tight arrangement.  Still, it’s great to be able to slot an SD card in straight out of a camera or camcorder, but pro-photographers will likely miss a CF slot.

In terms of hard specifications, Apple offer the 13-inch MacBook Pro with a choice of 2.26GHz or 2.53GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processors (each with 1066MHz FSB and 3MB of L2 cache), up to 8GB of 1066MHz DDR3 RAM, up to 500GB of 5,400rpm HDD or 256GB of SSD storage.  There’s a DVD burner but no Blu-ray option, while graphics are courtesy of NVIDIA’s GeForce 9400M with 256MB of DDR3 SDRAM.  Connectivity includes WiFi a/b/g/n, Bluetooth 2.1+EDR and gigabit ethernet, plus a FireWire 800 port, Mini DisplayPort, two USB 2.0 ports, audio in/out and an iSight webcam.  The range starts at $1,199 for the 2.26GHz model and $1,499 for the 2.53GHz model.

The 15-inch MacBook Pro has the same ports, wireless connectivity and RAM options, but scales up the processor choices to 2.53GHz, 2.66GHz, 2.8GHz or 3.06GHz Intel Core 2 Duo chips.  Graphics on all but the entry level model are NVIDIA GeForce 9400M and 9400M GT (the 2.53GHz model makes do with just the 9400M), and storage is up to 500GB of 7,200rpm HDD or up to 256GB of SSD.

We’re taking away both a 13-inch and 15-inch MacBook Pro to put through their paces in a full SlashGear review, but our first-impressions are that Apple has taken two of their already attractive notebooks and made them even better.  Yes, the dropped ExpressCard port may frustrate a few people, but in terms of mass-use the SD card slot is probably a better bet.  We’ll be keeping an eye on the runtime the fixed batteries offer – our experience with the MacBook Pro 17-inch is that the stated figures are very much a best-case-scenario prediction – and contrasting them with the last-gen models to see whether there’s a real difference.  Keep reading SlashGear for the full reviews!

Unboxing Apple MacBook Pro 13 and 15-inch

TomTom’s may have been the most memorable demonstration, but there were also iPhone OS 3.0 software appearances from Line 6, and ScrollMotion with their Iceberg ebook reader that supports in-app downloads of magazines, papers and over 1m ebooks.  Not all of the demonstrations went quite to plan, though, so if you have a dark, secretive urge to see Apple keynotes fall a little flat, then this is the video for you.

We’ll have hands-on time with Apple’s new 13-inch and 15-inch MacBook Pro notebooks in a few hours time, so make sure to check back later for all our first impressions.  As to the iPhone 3G S, are you considering upgrading?  Let us know in the comments.

Video demo after the cut

There’s also portrait and landscape modes, with the mapping automatically rotating to suite.  TomTom have given the app a night mode, which changes the colors to low-glare alternatives, and the car kit will support the iPhone in both orientations.

The kit also supplies power to the iPhone, and can be used to “enhance GPS data” presumably with some sort of integrated GPS antenna of its own.  Meanwhile it also has a speaker and microphone for hands-free calls.  We don’t yet know how much software or car kit will cost, though something tells us it won’t be all that cheap.

Tethering means that iPhone owners will be able to connect their handset up to their PC or Mac and use its 3G connection to get online.  Both Bluetooth and USB hook-ups will be supported, and no specific software is needed.  According to Apple, 22 carriers have announced support for tethering as of OS 3.0′s June 17th release, though frustratingly AT&T does not appear to be one of them.

Find My iPhone is a location service available to MobileMe subscribers, and allows a lost or misplaced iPhone to be tracked by GPS.  It can then be instructed to make a noise – even when set to silent – or display an on-screen message; if properly lost, not just misplaced, the iPhone can be remotely wiped.

As for Safari, that gets 3x faster JavaScript and the same HTTP audio and video streaming as in QuickTime X.  Autofill uses contacts information and stored passwords to fill in forms, and there’s also HTML 5 support including video and audio tags. 

Apple also announced that iPhone users will be able to rent and purchase movies on their handset, together with audiobooks, and download them across the 3G network.  iPhone OS 3.0 will be a free upgrade to original and 3G iPhone owners, while iPod touch owners will be charged $9.95 for the upgrade.

SlashGear is already live-blogging from San Francisco, waiting for the keynote to begin.  You can find all of our coverage at http://live.slashgear.com/ either on your computer or via your iPhone’s Mobile Safari browser.

The keynote begins in roughly an hours time, and we’ll be delivering all the news as it’s announced.  For the full rumor-list as to what’s expected to be unveiled today, check out our summary post from this morning.

Already an iPhone user?  Check out http://live.slashgear.com/ on your Apple smartphone (or the iPod touch, for that matter) and you’ll find the specially-formated version which also features full automatic refreshes.  You’ll see our comments as we make them, including photo and embedded video.

As for what’s on the cards for today, check out our summary post from earlier on today where we gather up all the rumors and sift out some of the dross.  High on the list of expected announcements is the new iPhone, potentially called the iPhone 3GS or iPhone Video, though we’re also expecting news on OS X Snow Leopard.  Join us at http://live.slashgear.com/ in a little over two hours to find out!

Photo of the rear of the third-gen iPhone Video after the cut

The device pictured certainly seems to tick all of the obvious boxes tipped by pre-launch rumors.  There’s the new chassis, new chrome-free finish and second slot – believed to be for a front-facing camera – on the top of the fascia.

However the headphone socket doesn’t appear to be on the bottom of the iPhone video, as shown in the last set of leaked photos, which suggests that somewhere along the line there are some fakes.  According to Nowhere Else, a source at Orange France suggests that the new iPhone will come in 8, 16 and 32GB capacities and in both white and black finishes, will be 3mm smaller (no word on in which dimension; it seems too much to hope for that Apple have packed higher specs into a thinner body) and launch on February 9th in France (first on Orange, then 7-10 days later on carriers SFR and Bouygues Telecom).

Remember, SlashGear are live-blogging the Apple 2009 WWDC Keynote, so join us at 10am PT (1PM ET) at http://live.slashgear.com/ for all the announcements as they happen!

Amid the speculation there’s talk of a front-facing camera for video calls, an FM transmitter for squirting music through your car stereo, and a higher resolution camera.  We’ve just seen what are purported to be leaked photos of the new iPhone Video, which show off the tweaked casing and shifted headphone port; there’s also talk of three different iPhone models, with varying degrees of data connectivity tailored to different markets, in multiple colors.

Whatever gets announced, SlashGear will be there when Phil Schiller takes to the stage on Monday and we’ll be using our homegrown no-refresh-needed Live Blog system to bring you all the details.  Join us at http://live.slashgear.com/ on Monday June 8th: the keynote kicks off at 10am Pacific (1pm Eastern; 6pm London).

The keynote kicks off at 10am PT on June 8th 2009, and begins several days of programming, code-comparing and general hands-on excitement of the sort that makes OS X devs moist.  Apple will also roll out the final Developer Preview release of Snow Leopard.

SlashGear will be attending the WWDC09 keynote, and live blogging the whole event at http://live.slashgear.com/ from 10am PT June 8th (e.g. 1pm ET).  It’ll also be an opportunity for iPhone and iPod touch users to try out our new mobile liveblog client, specially formulated for the Apple touchscreen devices.  The same news, the same automatic refresh, but perfectly to-scale on your iPhone or iPod touch!

Press Release:

Apple Worldwide Developers Conference to Kick Off with Keynote Address on Monday, June 8

CUPERTINO, California—May 13, 2009—Apple® will kick off its annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) with a keynote address on Monday, June 8 at 10:00 a.m. A team of Apple executives, led by Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing, will deliver the keynote. WWDC will offer in-depth sessions on both iPhone™ OS 3.0, the world’s most advanced mobile operating system, and Mac OS® X Snow Leopard™, an even more powerful and refined version of the world’s best desktop operating system and the foundation for future Mac® innovation.

“Last June, we gave developers an early look at the powerful new technologies that form the underpinnings of Mac OS X Snow Leopard,” said Bertrand Serlet, Apple’s senior vice president of Software Engineering. “At WWDC, we will be giving our developers a final Developer Preview release so they can see the incredible progress we’ve made on Snow Leopard and work with us as we move toward its final release.”

Snow Leopard and Mac technical sessions will showcase hundreds of refinements to the operating system and dive deep into its new technologies including a 64-bit architecture, QuickTime® X, next-generation multicore and GPU processor support, and amazing new accessibility technologies. iPhone OS 3.0 technical sessions will cover introductory and advanced concepts to help developers get the most out of the iPhone OS 3.0 SDK and over 1,000 new APIs available for iPhone OS 3.0.

WWDC also offers attendees the unique opportunity to work side-by-side with Apple engineers to solve code-level issues, gain insight into development techniques and get expert advice on interface design.

Other activities at Apple’s WWDC 2009 include:

more than 100 technical sessions presented by Apple engineers on a wide range of technology-specific topics for developing, deploying and integrating iPhone OS 3.0 and Mac OS X technologies;
over 1,000 Apple engineers presenting the latest in Apple technologies and providing one-to-one direction in hands-on labs; and
the opportunity to connect with thousands of fellow iPhone and Mac developers from around the world.

Visit the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference 2009 website for registration and more details at http://developer.apple.com/wwdc.

The event is also expected to coincide with Apple releasing the iPhone and iPod touch firmware 3.0, which will bring several new features to the devices.  While many column inches have been given over to iPhone OS 3.0′s cut & paste abilities, of more interest to developers are the new APIs such as push notification, that will allow them to create applications more in line with Apple’s own.

There also might be the chance of an announcement for the release date of OS X 10.6 “Snow Leopard”, which has seen multiple new seeds to developers in recent months.  Videos from the WWDC will be available – to purchase, mind – after the event, for any developer who was unable to attend.