Click on thumbnail to view (Photos: Grace Chng, Digital Life)

By Grace Chng, In San Francisco

With Apple pulling out of the Macworld exhibition event from January next year, the WWDC is slated to be the key new platform where Apple will likely make new product announcements.

It did it this week with the expected announcement of the iPhone 3GS (S for speed), the new iPhone 3.0 software and the new version of the new Mac OS X called Snow Leopard.

Queuing for the conference which is a top priority for Apple developers, started as early as on Sunday evening when the first person arrived at 5.30pm. The idea is that the first in the queue means you'll get to sit up front where you'll be able to see the brand of sneakers the on-stage speakers will be wearing.

Others joined him after that. Singapore's developers, about 10 of them including several first-timers, also joined in the queue. Wilson Cuaca, founder of Xsago, lined up at 5am in the morning. Joanne Chia, general manager of elchemi education (correct lower case sp), joined him at 6am and the others joined them soon after.

Said Sunny Goh, studio head of Personae Studios, said: "Late comers usually would find all the seats in the main hall taken up and they would end in another room where they would watch the keynote presentation via closed circuit TV. It's not the same, no atmosphere at all. So we queued early just to be sure we got seats in the main hall."

Software developers are key to Apple's ecosystem. Each pays about US$1000 each to interact with Apple engineers - there are 1000 on-site - gain insights into future development and find out how to better leverage on Apple software and hardware.

They are also fed with Starbucks coffee, scones and muffins for breakfast and sandwiches and wraps for lunch as well as biscuits and fruits for tea.

So what did they find out at the 2.5 hour long keynote address?

Search for the keyword, Apple and/or WWDC, and you'll get a list of the new products and features announced on Monday. Here are the highlights:

• New 13" inch Macbook Pro, reduces the current Macbook product line to one made up of the white polycarbonate computer.
• iPhone 3GS, a faster and more powerful cellphone with sparkling features but also some also rans given a breath of fresh air
• Snow Leopard, the latest Mac OS X software
• iPhone 3.0 software.

One thing that many people half expected was the appearance of Steve Jobs. While there's a sighting of a lookalike Steve, there was just a realisation that he is not going to show, not until he is well and ready which is end July.