Keynote bingo is one of the essential accompaniments to a Steve Jobs keynote speech. Twice a year, once at Macworld in January and once at the WWDC, they pop up across the internet. And twice a year they immediately get forgotten. In the run up to this year's WWDC we thought we'd take a look at the successes and failures of previous year' bingo cards and decide on the likelihood of the squares on the latest play-along PDF.
There are plenty to choose from, but the unofficial official Keynote bingo is the one from Ars Technica's John Siracusa. If you doubt his geek credentials, just take a look at his monstrous review of Mac OS X Leopard, which runs to 17 pages.
WWDC 2006
The 2006 WWDC was when the Power PC Mac died. The Mac Pro was introduced, superseding the PowerMac and we got our first glimpse at OS X 10.5 Leopard. The Ars bingo card above missed out on a lot of what was announced, but it also scored a few hits. The Mac Pro. The Quad Core Mac Pro. But there were no iPods announced (it is a developer conference after all), no iPhone and no "One more thing".
Look again, though, and you'll see it is an oddly prescient selection. Many of the predictions came true later: The iPhone, of course; a movie rental service, a new Nano and kind of a new Finder in Leopard. And of course there are some that look like they may never come true: IPods with cameras? Biggest disappointment: No "Boom!"
WWDC 2007
The bingo card didn't foresee the slew of dull games demoed at the beginning of the 2007 Stevenote. It did, though, get "New look in Leopard", "Leopard release date", "Leopard $129" and "New Finder" (which was announced to huge applause). The biggest disappointment, though, was the lack of a real iPhone SDK. Some developers were insulted when Steve announced the solution: Web apps. And the one big prediction, which failed to come true for another six months, was the "MacBook Thin".
The highlights? A "Boom", and the inevitable dig at Microsoft in the form of John Hodgman impersonating Steve Jobs "Vista is performing so well -- it sold tens of dozens of copies".
WWDC 2008
Hmm. Something looks familiar about that logo.
In his prelude to this year's WWDC Bingo, Siracusa points out the problems in coming up with new squares:
in the past decade or so, Apple has fulfilled almost every long-standing product fantasy.
And it's true. One could even argue (and I think Siracusa does) that the iPhone is the descendent of the Newton. A new 3G iPhone is the only (almost) certainty on the card (apart from the "Boom", that is), but the others have some strong rumor behind them: iPhone colors (possibly black and white), a new MacBook Pro (fingers crossed, I have the money ready) and Mobile Me (you'll like the name eventually).
One thing that stands out on Siracusa's new card, though, are a few stubborn carry overs from previous years. A resolution independent UI and the ZFS file system have both made earlier outings. We suggest that Siracusa sticks with them. One day they'll come true. Head over to Ars to grab the PDF, and while you're there, download the companion poster, print it and use it to decorate the halls of the Moscone center.
WWDC 2008 keynote bingo [Ars Technica]
