The biggest news from Apple’s WWDC had nothing to do with OS X Leopard or the iPhone. It was about web development. Apple has released a build of Safari for Windows which should lead to more Mac/iPhone-friendly experiences on the web. They are also encouraging iPhone development via webapps. That is somewhat lame for iPhone users but, in my mind a good thing for the web development community.
Even bigger yet not announced was the redesign of apple.com. The website ran 7+ strong years off of the aqua tabs but has now gone full-fledge 1024px-wide, full web standards support (solid) and a spotlight-like search tool. Also worth noting is the user experience friendly footer, featuring cookie-crumb navigation and a mini site-map.
Curious, however, that .Mac is not only missing from the top navigation - the link is present, yet inactive on the footer sitemap. The .Mac website still exists, updated with the new header nav, can can be reached from the ‘Mac’ section of the website although it’s not very obvious.
If Jobs felt it was important enough to mention a .Mac feature in his keynote, as if everyone (who owns multiple macs) needs it, why bury it on the website? Why keep the site up but not link to it? Did a .Mac announcement get snubbed at the last minute?
My .Mac renewal is coming up in a couple of weeks and I figured I would know after WWDC if it would be worth keeping.
It’s not. Hello Google Apps + Flickr.
I was just listening to Beastie Boys - Electric Worm