In my tongue-in-cheek article about WWDC, I made some predictions about what would happen. I thought I’d go six-for-six, but Apple didn’t take down its store, so I got that one wrong. I was dead right, though, on the other points. Apple’s shares slumped for no good reasons, analysts crowed, idiots were disappointed at Apple’s updates and Lion features were dismissed as lightweight changes.

The most obvious prediction I made, though, was this one:

Also, iOS 5 will in some way include features that bear a little resemblance to things Android can already do. This will cause an Android-user smugness overload on the internet, countered by an Apple fan-boy whinealanche that will cause almost half of the internet to CATCH FIRE.

Sure enough, iOS 5 now contains a notifications system that isn’t complete shit and bears a passing resemblance to the one in Android. Boo-fucking-hoo, tech fans and pundits. This isn’t the first time Apple’s ‘innovated’ by looking around and filtering ideas through Cupertino’s Apple-o-tron, and it won’t be the last. Besides, remember how Android looked before the iPhone appeared? Yeah, that.

My favourite response, though, comes from the Microsoft mob, such as Tom Warren at WinRumors. He quotes some tweets by Microsoft’s Joe Belfiore, Director of the Windows Phone program, and mentions the similarities between Windows Phone 7 and the upcoming iOS 5. Now, I like Windows Phone 7 a lot, and it’s the first time in a long while Microsoft’s dared to do something really different. If the company had any sense, Windows Phone 7 would be renamed and used as the basis for Microsoft tablets, rather than the Ballmer Machine forcing Windows-with-a-skin into such devices.

Looking deeper, though, Warren’s list of similarities is a real mixed bag, some of which is a stretch, to say the least.

Apple has built a notification center into iOS 5 that’s very similar to Google’s Android operating system. The notifications are now displayed at the top of iOS and can easily be dismissed in a similar way to how Windows Phone 7 operates.

In this case, Apple has clearly created something that mirrors what’s working elsewhere. It’s an exaggeration to suggest this is a copy of anything Microsoft has done, though, given that the notifications have aspects of Android and webOS, in terms of form and function.

Apple has now built a split ergonomic keyboard into iOS 5. The feature is eerily similar to an identical keyboard that Microsoft revealed in Windows 8 recently.

I never realised Microsoft invented split keyboards. All of the virtual and hardware ones I’ve seen for years must have been figments of my imagination. (Commenter Ryan also points towards this site that showed the concept on an iPad.)

Apple has integrated Twitter straight into iOS 5. You can tweet directly from Safari, Photos, Camera, YouTube or Maps. Microsoft is also building in Twitter integration deep into Windows Phone Mango, the company has yet to demonstrate exactly how this will work however.

So Apple’s ‘copied’ a feature that Microsoft has announced but hasn’t demonstrated yet? Uh-huh, got it.

Apple revealed its own background download service for Newsstand. The new feature lets magazines and newspaper app subscriptions download automatically. Windows Phone Mango also includes a similar service that application developers can build into their apps.

Background downloads? Man, never heard of those before.

Apple introduced iMessage on Monday. You can send unlimited text messages via Wi-Fi or 3G from the iPad, iPhone or iPod Touch to anyone who has an iDevice. Windows Phone Mango has also introduced deeper integration of messaging services directly into the operating system.

Messaging services? Man, never heard of those before. (And, for the record, iMessage is one of the things I sincerely wish Apple hadn’t announced. It already has too many messaging services, and none of them have enough reach. If Apple really wants to do messaging, it shouldn’t be restricting people to talking to friends that only own Apple kit. FaceTime should be open. Text chatting—regardless of the system used—should work with as many protocols as possible, including Facebook.)

Jobs also unveiled the ability for iOS to automatically upload pictures take from iOS devices. The pictures go into Apple’s iCloud system and are available for viewing online or on other devices. Windows Phone 7 also has an identical feature and uploads the pictures to Windows Live SkyDrive

I’m not really familiar with how Windows Live SkyDrive works, so I’ll have to give Warren the benefit of the doubt on this one. To my mind, Dropbox is the system that iOS’s cloud stuff mostly apes, although iCloud in theory has a much more ‘Apple’ approach, removing complexity even further from the equation.

iOS device owners can now wirelessly sync their device over wi-fi to a Mac or PC. As long as the iOS device is connected to a power source, it automatically syncs and backs up any new content to iTunes. Windows Phone 7 also has an identical feature with the Zune client.

Wi-Fi sync is something iOS owners have been banging on about ever since there were things you could sync with iOS devices—in fact, before iOS was even called iOS. This isn’t something Apple has copied, this is something Apple’s finally got around to doing right, rather than ‘first’. See also: multitasking and copy and paste.

Apple has also changed the way the camera works. The volume + button now works as a hardware camera button

Just like on cameras with hardware buttons, which I’m fairly sure have been around for a while now. *checks Wikipedia* Yup. Turns out cameras have existed for at least a few years now.

and there’s even a lock screen shortcut to quickly allow iPhone users to take pictures. Both are identical features of Windows Phone 7.

I’ll give Warren this one.

I think any pundit or commentator would be crazy to insist that Company A doesn’t borrow or get inspired by whatever Company B is doing. What gets me is the hysteria regarding Apple in this regard. While Apple does slip sometimes in keynotes with its “we’re doing this first” shtick, this is rare; Apple typically goes for the “we’re not first, but we’re doing this best” angle. Even then, Apple’s not always right, but it is more often than its competitors. All I hope is that if Belfiore really is “flattered“, he and his team take Apple’s advances with iOS 5 to really kick Windows Phone 7 into gear and to another level. And the same goes for everyone involved with Android and webOS. Innovate, borrow, rework, recreate, redesign, until you have something that’s better than you could have imagined. If everyone does this, the smartphone and tablet market is going to be so much more exciting over the coming years than the desktop race ever was.

Through an unnamed source*, I have put together a list of sure-fire predictions for the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) 2011 keynote and its knock-on effects for Apple and the tech industry.

• Mac OS X 10.7 (Lion) will be demoed further. Apple pundits will bitch and complain about how the new features are rubbish, pointless, stupid and smell a bit of wee. These same pundits will then be writing up features and tutorials about how UNICORN AMAZING said features are, approximately fourteen seconds after they’ve had a chance to play with them themselves.
• iOS 5 will be revealed, with a number of features that improve Apple’s mobile platform immeasurably. However, because Apple won’t include features that tech pundits want, iOS 5 will be widely slammed, despite appealing more to consumers. Also, iOS 5 will in some way include features that bear a little resemblance to things Android can already do. This will cause an Android-user smugness overload on the internet, countered by an Apple fan-boy whinealanche that will cause almost half of the internet to CATCH FIRE.
• Analysts will react to the keynote by claiming their predictions, which were almost the exact opposite of what was revealed, were in fact the same as what was revealed, and will happily continue making up bullshit and getting paid for it. Forever.
• Apple is doomed will be a common theme, due to the company missing out the one thing a prominent tech pundit wanted to see in Lion or iOS 5, and also for not releasing devices that the competition are making but that themselves will in the long run be doomed to failure. Apple, naturally, will only remain doomed in the press, while making more money every second than you could stuff down your pants, even if you have really big, baggy pants.
• Apple will take down its entire store, just to fuck with people’s heads. With any luck, it will come back up, with only a single price-change to one product: the price of the Digital AV Adapter, down by a single Euro, and only in the Belgian store.
• Most people will be disappointed with whatever Apple announces, because most people believe the hype and don’t appreciate how stunning the technology we have is, and even how fantastic the incremental updates we’re getting are. As this YouTube video says, everything’s amazing and nobody’s happy. START BEING HAPPY. NOW.

Reckon I’ll be six-for-six this year.

* My brain, which doesn’t have a name, and is therefore thoroughly jealous of my kneecaps, Arthur and Gerald.

Regular readers of Revert to Saved may remember that I’m Contributing Editor to Future Publishing’s rather fab Tap! magazine. The title is dedicated to iPhone, iPad and the iPod touch, and I’m responsible for its games section. For issue 5, editor Christopher Phin tasked me with writing a cover feature about iOS gaming, covering the best available games, what games designers think about the platform, exploring kit, and offering the odd nod to retro-gaming. Designer Chris Hedley then created one of the best covers I’ve seen on a consumer tech mag, featuring a ton of iOS gaming characters.

The magazine of course also includes all the usual iOS news, reviews, tutorials, features and columns. If you’re a UK subscriber, you should get your copy within the next couple of days (if it’s not already arrived). Alternatively, the magazine should be on newsstands (WHSmith, Tesco and other stores) some time during the next week.

Charlie Brooker, in his latest piece for The Guardian:

Look at the App Store. Read the reviews of novelty games costing 59p. Lots of slaggings – which is fair enough when you’re actively warning other users not to bother shelling out for something substandard. But they often don’t stop there. In some cases, people insist the developers should be jailed for fraud, just because there weren’t enough levels for their liking. I once read an absolutely scathing one-star review in which the author bitterly complained that a game had only kept them entertained for four hours.

FOUR HOURS? FOR 59P? AND YOU’RE ANGRY ENOUGH TO WRITE AN ESSAY ABOUT IT? ON YOUR EXPENSIVE IPHONE? HAVE YOU LOST YOUR MIND?

He says this is human nature, with technology having left us hopelessly spoiled. I say people should get a sense of perspective, because their incessant moaning about App Store games is ridiculous. I wonder how many of these idiots whining about a good 59p game that provides four hours of entertainment have ever bought a game on another platform (such as the Nintendo DS, with its carts costing 15 quid a pop or more), or back in the days where you took a punt on an Amiga game for 25 quid. Even in the mid-1980s, the era of the C64 and ZX Spectrum, the absolute cheapest games were £1.99, came on cassette, and were—proportionately speaking—often as bad as the worst 59p iPhone ‘specials’, with the odd gem randomly lurking in the mix.

Four hours of fun gameplay for 59p isn’t something to complain about—it’s something that should be celebrated.

Peter Burrows, reporting for BusinessWeek, on Nokia CEO Stephen Elop addressing 2000 employees:

For a moment, Elop, 47, lays into the complacency he sees settling over the company. When he asks how many people in the crowd use an iPhone or Android device, few hands go up. “That upsets me—not because some of you are using iPhones, but because only a small number of people are using iPhones. I’d rather people have the intellectual curiosity to understand what we’re up against.”

He’s absolutely right. And this is something of a contrast to Ballmer’s iPhone snatch/pretend stomp a while back, reported by the Wall Street Journal. Mind you, it’s also a change of heart for Elop himself. From the WSJ article:

Stephen Elop, president of Microsoft’s business division, used Apple products before Mr. Ballmer lured him to Microsoft in early 2008. But at a meeting of Microsoft sales representatives after joining, Mr. Elop placed his personal iPhone into an industrial-strength blender and destroyed it

Yup. That’s a great way of figuring out how to beat the competition: see if its products will blend. At least Elop’s grown up a bit—the question now is whether Ballmer will too.