WWDC News

WWDC 2003 has brought some welcome news on Panther, namely:

• Applications/Safari goes gold today (I hope they got the "new tab on URL open" thing implemented properly this time)
• Mail will finally get message threading (and a faster UI).
• A FileVault feature to encrypt the user filesystem
• Fast User switching (Windows-like, but without ties to Remote Desktop)
• A font previewer (I spent some hours yesterday trying to find a decent freeware one, so this is a nice touch for me...)
• Xcode, a heavily revamped development environment
• Built-in X11 and IPSec

Other stuff (not so interesting personally):

• Exposé, a neat (but as yet unproven) desktop navigation metaphor (no mention of "piles", BTW)
• The awesome new PowerMacs with G5 CPUs (yeah, OK, the megahertz charade continues - bigger, faster, better, hideously expensive... I want one.)
• iChat gets video support (and a very neatly designed hardware buddy called the iSight)
• iDisks can now be synchronized to several Macs.
• We get fax support. Yay. Yawn.

Not-so-good news:

• Panther will be a paid upgrade ($129)
• No mention of 802.1x support (it's not a flashy feature, so Steve probably skipped it)

Daring Fireball has a better summary, if you're in a hurry. :)

The new David Fonseca site is online, thanks to all the hard work Filipe Carvalho did these past weeks. OK, so he wasn't alone, but he's the only one I know.

Windows Mobile 2003 for Pocket PC is now out. The only relevant features as far as I'm concerned are better VPN and Wi-Fi support (including an 802.1x supplicant). Here are a few screenshots I snagged of the new connection and Wi-Fi UIs:

There are a couple new iPAQs out, too - the 2210 and the 5550: