Developers of MacOS X software got a bit of a thumb in the eye from Apple this week with the announcement of WWDC 2010.

When the company gave the outline for the June event, it also shed light on the Apple Design Awards conference that will be taking place during the show. The awards recognise excellence in programming from developers of Apple's platforms, such as the iPhone OS and the Mac OS.

Well, at least they used to. At this year's conference, there will be no category for MacOS X software.

A minor deal all in all, but companies that have long crafted code for OS X have to be more than a bit miffed. After all, the operating system has long been the chief selling point for Apple's highly lucrative Macintosh computer lines, and without applications to run on it, what good is the OS?

It's no secret that since the original iPhone, Apple has been focusing on developing the OS and ecosystem for its handhelds, and it's obvious that developers have been willing to write for the iPhone OS, but c'mon Apple, not even a little love for the MacOS?

Apple has announced the dates of its annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) and the sessions that will accompany the five technology tracks the event covers each year.

The WWDC is scheduled for 7-11 June in San Francisco and will include the first ever iPad developer sessions, Apple said.

Other sessions will include hands-on working labs for the iPhone OS 4 and for the Mac OS X core.

"This year's WWDC offers developers in-depth sessions and hands-on working labs to learn more about iPhone OS 4, the world's most advanced mobile operating system," said Scott Forstall, Apple's iPhone Software senior vice president.

"WWDC provides a unique opportunity for developers to work side-by-side with Apple engineers and interface designers to make their iPhone and iPad apps even better."

The five tracks this year are: Application Frameworks; Internet and Web; Graphics and Media; Developer Tools; and Core OS.

By now the name Gray Powell is well known in the tech world. Powell is the unfortunate young man who went out for a night of drinking and ended up leaving his experimental 4th generation iPhone at the bar.

We all know what happened next - the phone was found and eventually sold off to gadget blog Gizmodo for $5,000. In the aftermath, Powell has become something of an unfortunate celebrity and a cautionary tale to tech giants worldwide.

Everyone from Powell's family to V3.co.uk sister site The INQUIRER to the blog that bought the lost phone have come out in his defence and lobbied Apple to spare him his job. CBS even went so far as to label him a "cult hero".

While I deeply sympathise with Mr Powell and wish him and his family the best, I have to say that's complete bunk. From a business point of view he absolutely should be fired.

The fact is that his carelessness put tens of millions of dollars of Apple research and development at risk. There is absolutely no excuse for that.

Sure, most all of us have lost a phone, or wallet, or set of keys somewhere, particularly after a night at the bar. But we don't do it with a highly valuable prototype of one of the most sought-after gadgets on the planet.

Imagine for a moment what could have happened if the person who discovered the lost iPhone had instead decided to sell it to someone like Google or Palm or a shady knock-off phone builder. The consequences for Apple could have been devastating.

Imagine if someone at Barclay's got hammered and left a file on the table outlining the company's future investment plans. Or if a Mercedes engineer had a late night and left a concept car sitting out in front of company headquarters. Instant termination, right? Heck, I know that if I staggered home from the bar, logged into my computer and changed the top articles on V3.co.uk to dirty limericks I would be heading straight to the unemployment office as soon as my hangover subsided.

So it didn't turn into a huge loss for the company and in the end people had a good chuckle. But from Apple's standpoint it is no laughing matter, and should be cause for a serious re-think of how its devices are tested.

Again, I hope Gray Powell learns a valuable lesson and goes on to big things at Apple or elsewhere in his career. But if I'm down on Infinite Loop handling this matter, the guy was fired a week ago.

More details have been coming out about the new iPhone prototype that was found in a Bay Area bar.

As it turns out, before being lost the phone was in the care of an Apple employee who was out at a local bar. At some point the phone was lost and later found by someone else.

From there, the person in possession of the phone apparently tried to contact Apple and return the phone (which by now had been remotely disabled.) After getting nowhere with Apple customer service, the person then turned to Gizmodo, who paid $5,000 for the device.

From there, the story ran, the engineer who lost the iPhone was outed as a 27-year-old Apple software engineer, and following a letter from Apple's attorneys, the site handed over the phone.

First a brief discussion on the issue of ethics. I will say that V3.co.uk does not pay sources for news, and we never have. For us, and most other news publications and services, that is a fundamental ethics violation and grounds for instant termination.

That said, Gizmodo is a blog and not a news service. They're in a highly competitive arena and make no pretences to being bound to the same sort of ethical standards as news media. What they do to obtain their news is up to them, and it's not up to news services to dictate the ethics of independent bloggers.

It's also worth noting that even within the news industry ethics can vary. European publications often allow vendors to pay for trips to events, something most US publications do not consider acceptable. Meanwhile, European reporters often accuse their US counterparts of not grilling companies enough on important news for fear of losing access.

Even the largest and most reputable publications will look the other way or fail to mention when an exclusive story is offered by an executive or investor looking to float a "weather balloon" and test the market response to planned projects. How often do you see "persons familiar with the matter" cited rather than "persons with a direct monetary interest in the matter?"

That's not to say that I think paying for the device was ethical. It's just to say that every site, service, paper, magazine and blog has its own standards. Gizmodo openly and readily admitted its actions, so ultimately the readers will decide.

Now, back to the story itself. Some people have criticised the decision to out the engineer who lost the iPhone. Again, not necessarily something I would have done, but at this point publicity in the blogosphere is the least of this guy's problems. If he hasn't already been fired from Apple, he's severely limited his long-term prospects with the company. Apple is notoriously strict about product leaks, and even if this guy isn't the first to lose his phone in a bar, the company won't let losing a highly-valuable piece of experimental equipment go unpunished. Blog disclosures or not, the engineer is likely polishing his CV.

Legal action from Apple? Doubtful. The guy who found the phone attempted to return it. Gizmodo did return it, and California's rules on handling lost property along with shield laws for journalists would make pursuing the case more trouble than it's worth for Apple.

Gizmodo likely won't get invited to any Apple events for a while, but it's not like they were getting special access to begin with.

Now to put everything back in perspective: in the long run, this isn't going to be big news. Apple is going to unveil the new iPhone in June and pretend this whole thing never happened (aside from a quick joke by Steve Jobs at the unveiling, perhaps). The blogs and news sites will continue on with their usual coverage, and hopefully this poor engineer who lost the iPhone will be able to move on with his life and career.

Meanwhile, a bar fly in Redwood City has enough cash to cover his tab for a good long time.

There's a pretty good chance someone just became a former Apple employee today after photos of the new iPhone surfaced.

Gadget blog Gizmodo says that it got the prototype handset from a bar in Redwood City, where the device was found more than a week ago. The site wasn't able to actually get past the boot screen, so hardware specs couldn't be confirmed.

Still, going from what they could figure out some interesting details were uncovered.

The most noticeable change is a case redesign. The old rounded back has been replaced with a flat, rectangular casing. The volume buttons have been redesigned and the SIM slot is said to have been moved to the side of the case. The aluminum band and touchscreen design remain, though Gizmodo believes that the screen resolution will be higher.

Users clamoring for a front-facing camera will not be disappointed, as the iPhone looks to sport a camera on both sides of the phone. The battery is also said to be slightly larger, indicating a longer life.

Could be interesting to see how Apple handles this in the coming weeks. The company has already reportedly reserved space in San Francisco for late June, and is also reportedly very interested in getting its lost prototype back. Whoever found and handed the device over to a news blog might be in Apple's legal crosshairs, and the Apple employee that lost it is most certainly going to encounter the wrath of Jobs.

Earlier today Dan 'Fake Steve Jobs' Lyons took to the stage at the SugarCon user conference in San Francisco. While you can read the article on the keynote at V3.co.uk, there was plenty of other great stuff that for one reason or another didn't make it into the final article but is still very much worth sharing. So here are a few snippets from the presentation:

On the hype surrounding the 2007 iPhone release and recent iPad releases:

If you buy a product and the sales staff all line up and cheer, you probably didn't get a good deal. That's my biggest fear when I buy a new car; that the salesmen all cheer.

On the huge public reaction to Fake Steve's 'Operation Chokehold' campaign to clog AT&T's 3G network and encourage the company to improve its infrastructure:

I thought oh my god, I'm losing my job and going to jail. I'm just sitting at home in my pajamas doing this shit. It was just mental.

On the recent revelation of iPhone OS 4.0 with its stricter controls, along with Apple's iAds mobile advertising service and what it will mean to users:

This is Steve's dream, he's got 360 degree control. Now it's not just a walled garden, it's a walled garden splattered with shitty ads.

On why he loves playing the Fake Steve persona:

It's because often I get to tell the truth. In the media, we're well paid professional liars. Then Newsweek ended up hiring me, which I still can't believe.

A few other tidbits:

While Lyons was working at Forbes and writing the Fake Steve blog incognito, the publisher of Forbes was one of the most enthusiastic hunters of the blog's author, at one point even offering a reward for the identity of Fake Steve. Lyons eventually struck an advertising deal with the company before he was revealed by The New York Times.

As one might expect, Lyons is not in the good graces of Steve Jobs or Apple. At one point, he even stopped his presentation and offered a few choice words for any Apple employees in attendance.

A new TV show based on the blog is in the works. Lyons will be working with Borat director Larry Charles to create the series about the exploits of a fictional Silicon Valley executive based not only on Steve Jobs, but on other tech icons such as Larry Ellison.

Lyons has long described Apple's corporate culture as "the church of Scientology gets into the consumer electronics business". But that analogy has recently been updated: Lyons now describes the company as "Tony Soprano running Disneyland".

By this time tomorrow, we should have a pretty good idea about what the new iPhone OS will look and feel like. The rumours are flying all over the place, but let's address two of the most commonly reported upcoming features.

First is multitasking. By far the most talked-about and most-desired of the rumoured features, Apple is reportedly preparing to allow iPhone users to run multiple applications on the device at once. This is actually something that the iPhone has been able to do for some time. If you were to jailbreak your iPhone and accept the risks that come with that, you can already run two or more applications at once.

But Apple has until now not allowed it. Some have suggested that the reason for this is security. When you limit activity to one application at a time, it's pretty much impossible for a malicious program to run in the background without the user knowing. Also cited was battery life. Running multiple apps means more work for the antenna, memory and processor, meaning more drain on the battery. Additionally, the wireless carriers were likely less than thrilled with the idea of even more traffic while they were still building up their networks to accommodate the iPhone.

The second rumoured new feature is something that users will be less enthused about, but developers might perk up over; an ad network. Earlier this year, Apple purchased mobile ad vendor Quattro Wireless. Now the word is that the acquired firm will be turned into an advertising platform for the iPhone OS that developers can use within their Apps.

Interestingly, this might also be good news for Apple's newest rival in the smartphone space. Google is facing anti-trust accusations over its attempt to buy another mobile ad platform in AdMob. If Apple can launch an add service, Google hopes to use it as evidence in its case.