This year’s keynote at Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference is expected to bring some major announcements. I followed the 23rd WWDC2012 Keynote on Twitter and on a couple of LiveBlogs (all cited at the end). Hereby are my notes and comments.

Bloggers need technology to write, and I’m no exception. You can blame on my Engineer background, I don’t care, I can’t get sick of HighTech gadgets. And nothing could show it best than the expectation around the 23rd Apple’s World Wilde Developers Conference, WWDC.

Yes, is still awkward not hear Steve Jobs announcing beautiful gizmos futuristic features.

Nevertheless, the 5000 WWDC offered tickets sold out in a incredible 1h and 43min (last year took 10h). Apple do not pre-announce when tickets are sold, so people pay close attention to get one before they sell out. Sold for US$1599 each (in 2011 and 12) they’re non-transferable now, so no scalpers selling them for several thousand dollars as last year on eBay. Also new this year, Apple lowered the age requirement for attendance from 18 years old to 13! It doesn’t justify the frenzy in the waiting hours nor the audience cheering and lusting after a new device, as there were more than 1000 Apple Engineers and many other developers over 18yo at the developer conference today.

This year’s keynote at Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference was expected to bring some major announcements. The new MacBook Pro is super thin, slick, neat and has big battery! It was built to an entirely new approach the amazing new display, and quieter! To be honest, I’m impressed how everything went well today. Apple boys handled pretty good in there showing off its new-generation MacBooks and the iOS 6 as the best mobile operating system. Not to mention a new Maps app and Facebook integration.

Yeah.. In spite of the few surprises and nothing to say about Apple TV, GPS as we know it is done and Google will be sleepless for a good time now on. Sounds like quite a big deal to me.

App Store in numbers, reveled by Tim Cook today:

(There is no need to say his iPhone was helping him navigating on the presentation)

Over 400 million accounts of the app store with 650.000 apps available today (580.000 apps just a few months ago!), of those 225.000 specifically designed for iPad.

Cook claims App Store is the store with largest number of credit cards, and that made me wonder what about Amazon and where is position comparing this number.

Tim Cook states that 30 million downloads have been made on the app store, and over $5 billion paid to developers.

There are 32 new countries coming to the app store. That takes the total to 155 countries!

* Note from one Tweet on the floor: “You can probably get the message that Apple is trying to spread here: hardcore developer evangelism.”

> New MacBook Air:

Third generation Intel Ivy Bridge CPUs (upto 2.0 GHz i7), upto 8 GB RAM, 512 GB SSD, 60% faster graphics, FaceTime camera 720p. USB 3.0 makes an appearance on a Mac!

* Note from one Tweet on the floor: “Schiller takes a dig at ‘Ultrabooks’, calling them MacBook Air copy cats.”

11-inch pricing starts $999 goes up to $1099 and 13-inch pricing starts $1199, goes up to $1499.

Shipping starts today!

> New Macbook Pro:

It is like a Macbook Air mated with a Macbook Pro with new graphics with Nvidia GeForce GT 650m graphics. Ivy Bridge update.. 2.7GHz, turboboost up to 3.7GHz. 13 inch. 2.5 GHz i5. SMAE PRICE! USB 3.0 on Pro too..

* Note from one Tweet on the floor: “We weren’t expecting any radical new displays, so no ‘retina’ in the Air no surprise.”

Pricing for 13-inch and 15-inch starts $1200, $1500 respectively (Similar to current pricing..). MacBook Pro Shipping today.

> Next generation MacBook Pro It is a new series, a new model was showed.

Tagline for the Next Generation MacBook Pro “The most beautiful computer we have ever made” with a new display, thinner, lighter.. says Apple design guru Jonny Ive, “It’s thinner than my finger!” with 0.71-inch thin, Under 4.5 pounds, is the Lightest Pro ever.

* Rumours are true: Retina with 15.4″ display, 2880×1800 resolution. Bets have been won and lost around the world on that statement. Schiller just called the new MBP display “Retina”.

World’s highest resolution display notebook with Reduced glare… some kind of glossy display. Updated OS for new display. All stock apps have been updated to support Retina. Aperture, Final Cut Pro have been updated as well. Final Cut video window is 1080p. New version of AutoCAD. Adobe is working on updated version of Photoshop. Diablo III being created as well for MAC. Autodesk has a new AutoCAD in pipeline as well.

* Note from one Tweet on the floor: “Incredible! A full-HD video on screen at 100% and there’s plenty of room for other stuff. ON A 15.4″ LAPTOP!”

Kepler GT 650M graphics. Internal Flash up to 768 GB . Seven hours of battery life, up to 30 days of standby.

* Note from one Tweet on the floor: “MagSafe has been mad thinner.”

New Thunderbolt accessories. Two Thunderbolt ports on-board as well. FireWire 800 and Gigabit Ethernet. Multitouch touchpad and backlit keyboard.

The resultant product is claiming to be more efficient. New insight on display, it is built in unibody lid, no separate glass cover. New thermal system makes the laptop quieter. The crowd seems to like that one. Apple is calling it “The very best computer for today and the future.” Claims to be environment friendly.

$2199 is the starting price for 2.3GHz quad core, 8GB RAM, and 256GB Flash storage.

* Note from one Tweet on the floor: “An incredible laptop, incredible price tag”

It is shipping starting today.

> OS X

Craig Federrichi announced the new Mountain Lion. He says that Mac userbase is 66 million users now and Graph between Windows 7 and OS X.

* Note from one Tweet on the floor: “Let’s face it, Windows clearly losing out.”

It is available for 19.99 USD, that is $10 cheaper than Lion and One purchase, upgrade all you macs.

Today is a developer preview for it. Get ready for Mountain Lion, is coming next month.

125 Million iCloud users and they are bringing it to the new Mountain Lion. Direct support for the Mountain Lion inbuilt.

Apple introduces three apps for iCloud in Mountain Lion:

– Integration between your documents and iCloud – called “Documents in the Cloud”.

– Messages, Reminders and Notes.

– Launching pages shows what you have in the cloud.

With new iCloud supported Messages app, you can respond right on your MAC. Preview can show all your PDFs stored in the cloud. Craig shows off drag and drop to the cloud for documents, a demo of Reminders, Notes and Messages apps.

New Notification Center about to be mentioned:

– Apple creates Growl, Banners and Alerts for getting the user’s attention.

– Dictation built in and works everywhere, surprisingly, even in Microsoft Word.

– You can now share from the app and the home page, the feature applies across apps.

* Note from one Tweet on the floor: “This notification system in Mac OS X won’t amuse Growl developers the least bit.”

> new Safari:

– Boasts of a Unified smart search field, just like Chrome. “It is the fastest on the planet”

– New tabview – iCloud Tabs – it syncs your devices.

– New scrolling system, “It is smooth and lightening fast”

– Zooming out lets you see all your livetabs.

– Multi-touch lets you zoom in and out of a webpage.

– You can summon a tweet sheet in the notification center.

– New feature called Power Nap. Your Mac will now update itself and sync itself when it is offline. Automatically refreshes data, silent, power efficient. Works with MacBook Airs and the new MBP. When it is charging, it will backup itself.

– AirPlay Mirroring is Up. “We also support sending audio on AirPlay-enabled stereo systems”.

> Game Center:

– It supports gaming across platforms(Craig Federighi showed the Mac screen and Apple TV side by side).

– Racer OS X is out (In a racing outfit, they were competing in a new game – CSR Racing). The game was originally intended for iOS only, but developers have ported it on Mac as well. Racer OS X has won the race and rolls out of the stage.

200 new features being shown on screen.

New features added for China. Include Chinese dictionary, support for Baidu in Safari, eight new fonts and support for Chinese social networks.

> iOS

365 millions iOS devices sold through March. 80% of the customers are on iOS 5.

84 of the top 100 apps are pushing notifications, 1.5 trillion push notifications.

140 million iMessage users, 150 billion messages sent.

Twitter direct integration in iOS 5. Twitter has seen 3x growth in iOS users since then.

Over 130 million users using Game Center.

“More than 75% of our customers check the ‘very satisfied’ box, and our competition has less than 50%”

200 new features in iOS 6, significant improvement to Siri and location features.

Apple has formed a partnership with Yelp. Partnered with OpenTable (can tap here to make reservations). Siri can now tell about Movies also with Rotten tomatoes integration. Siri learns to launch apps as well. “Eyes Free” will integrate Siri in your car. Apple working with car manufacturers to include a button on steering wheel that will bring up Siri, for safe driving. BMW, GM, Jaguar and many others are already committed to doing so in the next 12 months. Sounds like a big move to me!

More languages added as, Adding Korean, Mandarin, Cantonese, Italian and French ‘tuned for Canada’ (<-what!?!).

Local search goes global. Apple extend Siri’s local search product, even in China.

Siri being brought to iPad, but only on new iPads coming out in March, not old ones.

As expected, Facebook Integration into OS6. Tap to post to Twitter and Facebook built into notification center. You can post pics from Photos, sites from Safari and Location from Maps ..all to Facebook. There is an API also, so developers can integrate Facebook in their apps too. Integration of Facebook with Apple’s iStore and Contact syncing as well. Same integration brought to Mac.

> Phone app:

– Users can reply with a automated button of choice such as “Call me in an hour”.

– There is new control for an incoming call, slide that up and you can get reminded later or send a message back.

– Another new feature, Do Not Disturb, It won’t light up the screen or make a sound. Push notifications will be muted and screen won’t light up, when Do Not Disturb is on.

– You can also screen phone calls, allowing some and blocking others.

– In iOS 6 Apple is enabling Facetime over cellular. Unifying your phone number and Apple ID now! If someone calls you on your phone number for Facetime, you can answer it on your iPad or Mac.

Safari

– iCloud tabs feature comes to phone in offline reading list.

– You can upload photos quick and easily to sites like Shutterfly. Fullscreen support in landscape mode. Photo Stream up now – Shared Photo Streams. ” Just choose your photos, choose your friend and share away!” (It seems a bit like Apple’s own variation of a Facebook.) Friends can comment on these shared photos.

– New feature – VIP in Messages. Star appears. You can pull to refresh messages.

– Now, there is an easy way to insert photos, video is compose window, also open password protected Office Docs on iOS.

– Passbook – The way to get all your passes in one place. You can also organize your passes.

– Airline tickets, movie tickets, every other ticket – all categorized in one place! The cards are live and your boarding pass information will get updated if there is a change. (Not a word on complete support for Airlines, seems like is only for United right now.)

– Geolocate will pull up your card when you’re nearby a store. Like when you get to your local Starbucks.

– Guided Access, New accessibility options to help disabled community.

– Single-app mode to keep students from exiting from a test app. Museums can keep apps locked into their display apps.

– New mapping solution (the most anticipated new iOS feature) from ground up with 3D maps not just for US, worldwide maps. Already include 100 million business listings. More than 90% of iPhone owners use Google Maps, and Apple finally shows a new maps app… wondering what Google has to say about it.

Apple building traffic service with incident listings, it is crowd-sourced, built in turn by turn navigation in the new system of maps. New quick route feature and, obviously, integration with Siri. Traffic is monitored in real time with ETA updated dynamically. “You can ask questions like where can I get gas.” (just love this one!! ->) When kids ask “Are we there yet”, Siri will tell us to “relax, we will be there in X min.”

There is a 3D flyover view of cities, similar to what Google announced last week, vector-based maps, quick rotating, zooming in and out. Satellite view also for Maps, renders details in real time, Siri gives you directions in turn-by-turn navigation. (<-Is that a GPS killer, or it’s just me?)

– Game Center challenges. New privacy controls, redesigned stores for the new iOS 6. Made for iPhone hearing aids in pipeline.

– New “Lost mode” for finding iPhone. If you lose your phone, you can send a number using a tap and the person can call back that number. If they so wish of course.

– New signatures coming for personal vs work email accounts.

– All the Chinese market feature are coming to iOS as well.

– Ships this fall, supports 3GS and up, 2nd generation iPads and newer and 4th gen-iPod Touch

Tim Cook returns to stage for a wrap up and says that MacBook Pro with Retina is the most advanced Mac they have ever built:

_”Only Apple could make such amazing hardware software and services. They are perfect examples of what Apple does best”.

** Top Twitters:

– iOS 6 will add 200 new features to world’s best mobile operating system – Cook

– Just in case you didn’t notice, both MacBook Airs got a $100 price-cut and the MacBook Pro will be the same price.

– Mountain Lion ($19.99) will be even cheaper than Lion ($29.99).

– New iOS is attempting to make the computer act more like a phone. No word of Siri for Mac.

– FaceTime is now available through cellular networks, not just over WiFi (do we need to review our WiFi data plans??).

– Apple kills its 17-inch MacBook Pro, though oddly it didn’t mention it at WWDC (and no word of it in the Press Release). Over an hour into the keynote, no sign of Mac Pros 17″. Silent update or dead?

– I’m impressed! #Apple guys did well today -can’t wait 2put my hands on new #MacBook But see Tim Cook photo #WWDC is still strange #feelbeige

– And that’s a wrap! Apple Store still down, at the end of the Conference, so not sure whatever happened to the Mac Pros.

15″ MBP with Retina display: Intel Core i7 3820QM, 16 GB of RAM, 768 GB SSD (without the recommended $350 AppleCare):

$3750 in the United States

$4250 in Australia

$4700 in UK/Europe

$8000 in Brazil (-> que tal..?? simpatico, não..??)

* Tweet on the floor: NDTV Correspondent and WSJ Live Blog

* On-line survey in real time: developer.apple.com/wwdc and forbes.com