Apple Mac HQ

I’m not sure when this happened (edit: some research leads to December 14th), but I noticed today that the Macworld website has received a refresh. Macworld was last redesigned in 2003, before Intel, iPhone, Tiger, Leopard, and more. As is fashionable recently, you’ll notice the word “Beta” in the new Macworld header image.

Old Design

Some of the new features include voting buttons on every story. The voting feature will float the most popular stories to the top of the “Top User Rated” tab on the home page. Also changed is that comments are now seen on the same page as the story. Previously the comments were kept in the forum which was tucked away from the story itself. The Playlist website has been folded back into Macworld as well.

New Design

I can’t be certain, but it looks like less content is displayed on the new home page. The new design is certainly in line with current design trends too. My first impression is to give it a thumbs up.

According to a recent BusinessWeek article, “sources familiar with the company’s plans” says that Apple will release an iPhone SDK in 2008. The article sites Macworld as the logical release date for the SDK. The article goes into a little detail about currently getting applications to run on the iPhone and the “cat and mouse” game between Apple and hackers. The SDK has long been rumored to be in existence to the iPhone development team inside Apple. After all, the applications currently on the iPhone didn’t just appear in Cupertino, CA one day.

[Via MBW]

Update: It’s been confirmed by Apple that the SDK will be released in February.

If you’re a fan of CSSEdit or DeskShade, you could get into MacWorld 2008 for free. The developer of those applications won a booth at MacWorld as part of the Apple Design Award for CSSEdit, but he is unable to make it to San Francisco in January. He’s looking for someone to take his place and it could be you. Read his blog post for more information.