In their review of June's upclocked, marked-down MacBook Air, MacWorld noticed some odd benchmark results. Compared to the Late 2008 MacBook Air, clocked at 1.86GHz, the new top-end model, clocked at 2.13GHz, couldn't quite keep up. This is odd, since the rest of the specs have remained basically static, and the only difference between the processors is clock speed.

Confirming their suspicions, they found the June 2009 1.83GHz Air to be markedly slower than the Late 2008 1.83GHz model, despite nearly identical specs. So, what the hell?

The obvious answer here would be some kind of firmware change, since it doesn't make sense from a hardware perspective. MacWorld speculates that the newer Airs could have more aggressive thermal management features, which throttle the processor when it gets too hot—a theory somewhat supported by the fact that high-stress benchmarks showed a proportionally greater performance decrease than easier ones.

Another possibility in the same vein: Underutilizing faster processors simply gives Apple better power consumption and heat results. Problem is, that doesn't explain why the matched processors perform differently. Also, Apple's whole pretense that the new Airs are faster than the old ones would have been a intentional, egregious lie.

Until these benchmarks are replicated and examined, we'll have to remain a little bit skeptical. But if they can be, then Apple's got some splainin' to do, I think. [MacWorld via MacRumors]

As John mentioned yesterday, it's an update that resembles Windows 7's amazing Taskbar, in that you can get at more windows and files from the Dock itself, currently considered more of an app launcher than an app manager. Here are the new key attributes for Exposé, and how it works within the Dock:

• Exposé itself has a new look: Windows are arranged in a grid rather than in whatever open space is available, and the title of each window appears underneath. (You can see this in the video below, if you pay attention.)

• Stacks, those folder contents that pop up from the Dock, also got tweaked. Most notably, you can scroll to see all the stuff in a stack without clicking the "More" arrow, and folders that appear in stacks can be opened and browsed, too.

• If you click and hold an app icon in the Dock, all the windows open in that app will reveal themselves in the Exposé grid, lined up neatly. Using some key command or cursor gesture (which I don't know), you can even zoom in to one of the open windows, and check it out without leaving Exposé.

• If you grab a file, you can drag it to the dock and hold it over an app icon. This springs open App, and arranges the open windows of that app in Exposé, so you can easily drop the file where it needs to go. (I currently do this by holding the file with my mouse while doing a combo-keystroke to bring the window back into view, so I can see how this will make life easier.)

The image associated with this post is best viewed using a browser.

[Apple's Snow Leopard "Refinements"; Snow Leopard Full Coverage on Gizmodo]

Apparently it's not quite real-time, but the effect is extremely slick. The icons are grouped by their approximate colors, creates a subtle rainbow gradient, which is a nice touch, and only evident from relatively far away.

That said, Apple should probably chill a little bit with the WE HAVE SO MANY APPS marketing strategy, as this wall inadvertently demonstrates: in a random crop here, which has about a hundred apps, I see maybe two that I'd even consider downloading. [Techcrunch]

The image associated with this post is best viewed using a browser.

iPhone 3GS
• iPhone 3GS Complete Feature Guide
• iPhone 3G vs. iPhone 3GS Comparison Chart
• iPhone 3GS Video Walkthrough (Quick 4-Minute Version)
• iPhone 3GS Gets Voice Control

iPhone Pricing Issues: The Untold Story
• iPhone 3G Owners Will Have To Pay $200 Extra To Get iPhone 3GS Early
• Old 16GB iPhone 3G to Sell for $149
• The Not-So-New $99 8GB iPhone
• AT&T's Tethering and MMS Support Delay—and Possible Reason For It

iPhone OS and Apps
• iPhone 3.0: The Whole Story
• "Find My iPhone" Is a Relief to Us Forgetful Types
• App Roundup: iPhone 3.0

New MacBook Pros
• New Amazingly Priced 15-Inch MacBook Pros
• All-New, Low-Priced 13-Inch MacBook Pro, Plus Great Price Reductions for MacBook Air

Mac OS X Snow Leopard and Safari
• Mac OSX Snow Leopard: The Whole Story (Including $29 Upgrade Price!)
• Safari 4 Available, Dubbed "World's Fastest Browser"

The Whole Damn Keynote
• Wish You'da Been There, Elbow To Elbow With Bloggers, Feeling Chen's Hot Breath On Your Neck? Watch This, and Imagine

iPhone Rumors
The biggest batch of rumors had to do with the phone, and man were some of them off base:

• "iPhone Video" name? NOPE

• "iPhone 3GS" name? YEP

• Video shooting? YEP

• iPhone matte black finish? NOPE

• iPhone front camera and videoconferencing? NOPE

• $99 iPhone? YEP

• Glowing Apple logo? NOPE

• Autofocus 3-megapixel camera? YEP

• Magnetometer/compass? YEP

• OLED screen? NOPE

• iPhone Speed and Memory Boost? YEP

• Aluminum "unibody" iPhone? NOPE

• Verizon iPhone or some other Apple phone? NOPE

• iPhone Nano, whatever that is? NOPE

Other Apple Rumors:
It was easy to dismiss the tablet rumor early on, but there were other speculations that were a little easier to swallow:

• Apple tablet? NOPE

• 13-Inch MacBook Pro? YEP

• Marble look-and-feel for Snow Leopard? NOPE

• 64GB iPod Touch? NOPE

• Steve Jobs appearance? NOPE

(Note: If I left any out, go ahead and throw them into comments. There's no way I can verify that I got 'em all above.)

So, did we get took? Or did we take home quite a bit? From this tally, out of 19, only 7 came true, but when you factor that in with some unexpected fun, like the Find My Phone remote MobileMe feature, or the voice controls, or the MacBook Pro's new SD card slot (which is nice, though not an HDMI port), it was a decent haul despite any disappointment. In case you haven't had enough, here's the full coverage from WWDC. [WWDC 2009 on Gizmodo]

How do you qualify for the announced pricing? New customer, new line of service, presumably contract renewal, that sort of thing. Update: AT&T confirms that most iPhone 3G owners will be eligible for the good upgrade price after 18 months. Last year, people who owned iPhone Numero Uno got a shoo-in, but apparently that's not the deal now. To add insult to injury, you'll even have to pay an $18 upgrade fee to jump from 3G to 3GS.

Here's the skinny, sent straight to us from AT&T:

iPhone 3G S: Device Pricing
• iPhone 3G S will cost $199 (16GB) and $299 (32GB) for new and qualifying customers.
• If you are not currently eligible for an upgrade but still want iPhone 3G S, early upgrade prices are $399 (16GB) and $499 (32GB)
• No-commitment pricing: $599 (16GB) and $699 (32GB)

iPhone 3G: Device Pricing
• iPhone 3G will cost $99 (8GB) and, while supplies last, $149 (16GB) for new and qualifying customers.
• If you are not currently eligible for an upgrade but still want iPhone 3G, early upgrade prices are $299 (8GB) and, while supplies last, $349 (16GB)
• No-commitment pricing: $499 (8GB) and, while supplies last, $549 (16GB)

Upgrade eligibility varies with each customer, but in general, you will become eligible the longer your tenure in your service agreement. Customers can find out at www.att.com/iPhone or in one of our stores if they are upgrade-eligible.

We received this from reader Alon, who went through the sign-up process:

We also just saw these crazy insane prices on Apple's website, thanks to commenter mrwizzz, but we can't see how those numbers are final—at least, we hope to hell they're not:

For non-qualified customers, including existing AT&T customers who want to upgrade from another phone or replace an iPhone 3G, the price with a new two-year agreement is $499 (8GB), $599 (16GB), or $699 (32GB).

[Wirelessinfo.com; David Chartier on Twitter; other various tips and sources—thanks!]

Apple didn't say a thing about this today at WWDC, nor is it on their site. Apple keeping two 16GB products in their iPhone line seems unlikely, so this deal—spotted on AT&T's website—could just last until existing stock is cleared. Well, good luck with that. [BGR]

iPhone 3GS
• iPhone 3GS Complete Feature Guide
• iPhone 3G vs. iPhone 3GS Comparison Chart
• The Not-So-New $99 8GB iPhone
• iPhone 3GS Gets Voice Control
• "Find My iPhone" Is a Relief to Us Forgetful Types
• Old 16GB iPhone 3G to Sell for $149
• And the One Caveat: AT&T.

iPhone OS
• iPhone 3.0: The Whole Story
• App Roundup: iPhone 3.0

Mac OS X
• Mac OSX Snow Leopard: The Whole Story
• Safari 4 Available, Dubbed "World's Fastest Browser"

New MacBooks
• New 15-Inch MacBook Pros
• Introducing the New, Cheap, 13-Inch MacBook Pro

WWDC 2009
• Liveblog Archive

More info at our full iPhone 3GS guide.

Snow Leopard, otherwise known as OS X 10.6, was first announced at last year's WWDC, and we got a pretty comprehensive rundown of what to expect: serious 64-bit support; the ability to really use multi-core processors with Grand Central; GPGPU processing (that's graphics card processing, in English) with OpenCL; and more under-the-hood upgrades. There've been plenty of rumors since then, but here's the official word:

WHAT'S NEW:

FASTER PERFORMANCE

• Much of the codebase has been rewritten, for speed increases system-wide.

• Installation is 45% faster, which is considerate, I guess.

• General optimizations abound: opening JPEGs, for example, is now twice as fast in Preview. PDFs are 1.5x faster. Some of this could be down to the new 64-bit, multi-threaded underpinnings; mostly, though, it's just plain old software tweaking.

• Same goes for Mail: it's about twice as fast to launch, search and move messages.

• Installing Snow Leopard actually saves space: you'll get back 6GB of hard drive space over Leopard 10.5. Successive versions of OS X are usually faster, yeah, but much smaller? That's new.

SAFARI 4

• Javascript performance, which is basically the core issue in the browser wars nowadays, is up by 50%. Browsing as a whole is faster, and Safari 4 passes the Acid3 CSS test at 100%. It gets Coverflow (for history browsing), just like virtually every other part of OS X. "Fastest in the World", they say. In addition, Safari 4 now has "crash resistance", meaning Chrome-like threaded processes, so a single crashed tab doesn't take down the entire browser. More here.

MICROSOFT EXCHANGE SUPPORT

• According to our own Mark Wilson, "it looks like it should look." That means seamless integration with Mail, Contacts and iCal. The implementation looks fairly complete, and most importantly, it's standard in Snow Leopard—not part of a separate app suite.

QUICKTIME 10

• QT gets a new interface, looks like the iTunes video player. Hardware acceleration for video playback, too. You can do some quick video editing as well, like in older versions of Quicktime Pro, except with an iMovie-style visual timeline. It's very pretty, and a welcome improvement of the ultra-limited editing powers of previous QTs. This, of course, is now standard. Oh right, and there' a new, vaguely menacing icon.

NEW DOCK, EXPOSE

• It's a lot like regular Exposé, except it can be controlled from the dock, and offers more in the way of interactivity, i.e., dragging content between previewed windows. App grouping is now managed by from the dock icons. Nothing revolutionary, but it's nice to see tighter Exposé integration. I see little hints of Windows 7's awesome new taskbar, maybe?

• Sorta related, but not worthy of its own heading: you can magnify some icons in Finder, and preview video in thumbnails.

64-BIT, GPGPU, AND MULTI-CORE SUPPORT:

• 64 whole bits: All native OS X apps, like Mail, Quicktime, Finder, and Safari, are fully coded for 64-bit compatibility. This shouldn't have a massive effect on performance, but it's an inevitable progression, and a positive one. Previously.

• Multi-core support, i.e. Grand Central: We knew this was coming, but it bears repeating: the whole OS has been optimized to use all those fancy multi-core processors in your MacBooks and iMacs. This includes core apps. The API, which will allow developers to tap into Grand Central, which is essentially the software brain of the OS X multi-core engine, will expand support to third-party apps. Previously.

• GPGPU acceleration: Not much new here, but Snow Leopard will support GPU acceleration in non-graphics apps, when appropriate. Again, previously.

HOW MUCH, AND WHEN?

• Well, this is a hell of a surprise, but it fits with Apple's vision of Snow Leopard as a stopgap product: $29 to upgrade from Leopard, down from their regular $129 upgrade price. $49 for a family pack. It comes out in September, before Windows 7, and a developer preview is available from today. Anyone who buys a new Mac from June 8th can upgrade for a nominal $10 handling fee.

Apple Unveils Mac OS X Snow Leopard

SAN FRANCISCO, June 8 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — Apple® today unveiled Mac OS® X Snow Leopard™, an even more powerful and refined version of the world's most advanced operating system and the foundation for future Mac® innovation. Snow Leopard builds on a decade of OS X innovation and success with hundreds of refinements, new core technologies, out of the box support for Microsoft Exchange and new accessibility features. Snow Leopard will ship as an upgrade for Mac OS X Leopard users in September 2009 for $29.

"We've built on the success of Leopard and created an even better experience for our users from installation to shutdown," said Bertrand Serlet, Apple's senior vice president of Software Engineering. "Apple engineers have made hundreds of improvements so with Snow Leopard your system is going to feel faster, more responsive and even more reliable than before."

To create Snow Leopard, Apple engineers focused on perfecting the world's most advanced operating system, refining 90 percent of the more than 1,000 projects in Mac OS X. Users will notice a more responsive Finder™; Mail that loads messages 85 percent faster and conducts searches up to 90 percent faster;* Time Machine® with up to 50 percent faster initial backup;* a Dock with Expose integration; a 64-bit version of Safari® 4 that boosts the performance of the Nitro JavaScript engine by up to 50 percent** and is resistant to crashes caused by plug-ins. Snow Leopard also includes an all new QuickTime® X, with a redesigned player that allows users to easily view, record, trim and share video to YouTube, MobileMe™ or iTunes®. Snow Leopard is half the size of the previous version and frees up to 6GB of drive space once installed.

For the first time, system applications including Finder, Mail, iCal®, iChat® and Safari are 64-bit and Snow Leopard's support for 64-bit processors makes use of large amounts of RAM, increases performance, and improves security while remaining compatible with 32-bit applications. Grand Central Dispatch (GCD) provides a revolutionary new way for software to take advantage of multicore processors. GCD is integrated throughout Snow Leopard, from new system-wide APIs to high-level frameworks and programming language extensions, improving responsiveness across the system. OpenCL, a C-based open standard, allows developers to tap the incredible power of the graphics processing unit for tasks that go beyond graphics.

Snow Leopard builds support for Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 right into Mac OS X Mail, Address Book and iCal so you can use these applications to send and receive email, create and respond to meeting invitations, and search and manage your contacts with global address lists. Exchange information works seamlessly within Snow Leopard so users can take advantage of OS X only features such as fast Spotlight™ searches and Quick Look previews. Snow Leopard is the only desktop operating system with out of the box support for Exchange 2007 and businesses of any size will find it easier to integrate Macs into their organization.

Every Mac includes innovative features and technologies for users with special needs, and Snow Leopard adds groundbreaking new features that make the Mac experience even more accessible to those with a vision impairment. Apple's Multi-Touch™ trackpad is now integrated with the VoiceOver screen reader so users can hear and navigate different parts of a window or the desktop by moving a single finger around the trackpad as if it were the screen. Snow Leopard also introduces built-in support for wireless bluetooth braille displays and the connection of multiple braille displays simultaneously to one Mac.

Pricing & Availability
Mac OS X version 10.6 Snow Leopard will be available as an upgrade to Mac OS X version 10.5 Leopard in September 2009 through the Apple Store® (www.apple.com), Apple's retail stores and Apple Authorized Resellers. The Snow Leopard single user license will be available for a suggested retail price of $29 (US) and the Snow Leopard Family Pack, a single household, five-user license, will be available for a suggested price of $49 (US). For Tiger® users with an Intel-based Mac, the Mac Box Set includes Mac OS X Snow Leopard, iLife® '09 and iWork® '09 and will be available for a suggested price of $169 (US) and a Family Pack is available for a suggested price of $229 (US).

The Mac OS X Snow Leopard Up-To-Date upgrade package is available to all customers who purchased a qualifying new Mac system from Apple or an Apple Authorized Reseller between June 8, 2009 and the end of the program on December 26, 2009, for a product plus shipping and handling fee of $9.95 (US). Users must request their Up-To-Date upgrade within 90 days of purchase or by December 26, 2009, whichever comes first. For more information please visit www.apple.com/macosx/uptodate. Snow Leopard requires a minimum of 1GB of RAM and is designed to run on any Mac computer with an Intel processor. Full system requirements can be found at www.apple.com/macosx/techspecs.

*Testing conducted by Apple in May 2009 comparing prerelease Mac OS X Snow Leopard v10.6 with shipping Mac OS X Leopard v10.5.7 using shipping MacBook® 2.0 GHz systems with 2GB of RAM and NVIDIA GeForce 9400M (256MB) and shipping generation iMac® 2.66 GHz systems with 2GB of RAM and NVIDIA GeForce 9400M (256MB).

**Testing conducted by Apple in May 2009 comparing 64-bit Safari 4 to 32-bit Safari 4 on prerelease Mac OS X Snow Leopard v10.6. Performance will vary based on system configuration, network connection and other factors. All testing conducted on an iMac 2.8 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo system running Mac OS X Snow Leopard, with 2GB of RAM. JavaScript benchmark based on the SunSpider JavaScript Performance test.

Apple ignited the personal computer revolution in the 1970s with the Apple II and reinvented the personal computer in the 1980s with the Macintosh. Today, Apple continues to lead the industry in innovation with its award-winning computers, OS X operating system and iLife and professional applications. Apple is also spearheading the digital media revolution with its iPod portable music and video players and iTunes online store, and has entered the mobile phone market with its revolutionary iPhone.

© 2009 Apple Inc. All rights reserved. Apple, the Apple logo, Mac, Mac OS, Macintosh, Snow Leopard, Finder, Time Machine, Safari, QuickTime, MobileMe, iTunes, iCal, iChat, Spotlight, Multi-Touch, Apple Store, Tiger, iLife, iWork, MacBook and iMac are trademarks of Apple. Other company and product names may be trademarks of their respective owners.

What does S stand for? Don't ask. He doesn't have a clue. What he does think he has a clue about is pretty much everything else that will pop out of Apple execs' mouths at WWDC this week.

The iPhone 3GS:

I expect Apple to announce updated iPhones with significantly faster processors, twice the RAM, and twice the storage. I expected prices to remain the same as the current lineup: $199/299 for 16/32 GB, respectively. The video camera is going to be a major selling point.

Lower-priced iPhones:

I believe this is true, and the new price will be $99. But since I expect the new top-of-the-line iPhone 3GS to start at $199, that means the $99 iPhone must be something else. I see two possibilities: (a) a new device, something that is to the iPhone what the iPod Mini was to the original iPod; or (b) the existing 8 GB iPhone 3G, unchanged but reduced in price.

And an iPhone nano might round out the three tiered line some day, but not tomorrow.

"Marble":

While I am convinced that "Marble" is a real design project at Apple, I no longer believe it is slated for Snow Leopard. A new visual appearance isn't something Apple can spring on third-party developers at the last moment. If they plan to ship Snow Leopard soon - say, by the end of August - that just isn't enough time to allow developers to update their software to look good under a new UI theme.

Oh, and that about tablet thing... Gruber seems to think it exists in some shape or form, but don't expect it tomorrow. Like the rest of these predictions, that sounds pretty safe. [Daring Fireball]

The list provides tips for effective line camping as well as survival gadgets—in short, everything you need (outside of a fierce will and determination) to emerge victorious from a highly anticipated product launch. Speaking of that, these techniques will also be helpful in the likely event that a 2009 version of the iPhone 3G is launched sometime after the kickoff of WWDC on June 8th. [Line Camping Tips]

The article goes on to state that the move could dramatically increase Apple's smartphone marketshare and production of the new devices is thought to begin in July. But AppleInsider is skeptical of these claims, pointing out that the analyst in question, Kathryn Huberty, has a poor track record Apple predictions. I guess we'll have to wait and see, but this does seem to fall in line with recent 4GB iPhone rumors. [FT via AppleInsider]

Unfortunately for Palm, Apple has both a new iPhone operating system and new iPhone hardware coming, likely available within a month, that could obviate many of these advantages.

AND

I'd note that the new iPhone to be unveiled next week will have lots of added features that could alter those calculations.

It's not like everybody didn't already know that new iPhone hardware was coming soon, but for Mossberg to say it in a review, it's all but certain. One, he doesn't just make things up. Two, he has that special relationship with Apple we talked about earlier that lets him get seated at Apple events early, with the VIPs. It's safe to say he knows what he's talking about. [WSJ Pre Review via Dave Zatz's Observant Twitter - Image Credit]

And our own Palm Pre review

My guess is that it's a sharky comment about Palm Pre and all the competition. While they are starting up now, Apple is about to launch their third generation and have a mature development platform with a strong third-party market, which puts them way ahead of the game.

My inner fanboy—who wears Apple underpants and only has a large bed and an original Mac on his otherwise empty bedroom—hopes the "light-years" is a reference to Star Trek and iPhone OS-based tablet computers. [Flickr via MacRumors]

The best post on the subject is from John Paslkdjclkjdcski (just kidding, dude—P-A-C-Z-K-O-W-S-K-I) at AllThingsD, who quotes Apple-whore analyst Gene Munster who says it's an absolute "nope," then updates the story with a quote from another equally non-Apple-employed person saying it's likely.

The reasons are both valid: No, because Apple will wait for the return of Jobs to unveil sweet goodies; and yes, because if new iPhone has new programming requirements, they'll want to spring them on developers at a developers conference. Pacz himself seems to lean towards "yes," since WWDC is Apple's biggest scheduled attraction of the year. I'm leaning toward "hrmmaybeletsjustseecantsayforsurewhateveryeahsoundsgood." What's your call? [AllThingsD]