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News.blog: WWDC set to be big for Apple

Apple released Leopard, Mac OS X 10.5, last October after a delay needed to make sure the iPhone arrived on time. At the time, Jobs told The New York Times that he wants Apple to stick to an operating-system deployment cycle of 12 to 18 months.

TUAW's report says Apple could be eyeing a Macworld 2009 release for Mac OS X 10.6, which would certainly nestle within that time frame. Microsoft recently said it wants to get the next version of Windows out by the end of 2009.

Another interesting part of that report is the notion that 10.6 will be an Intel-only release. Users of older Macs running PowerPC chips were able to upgrade to Leopard, but the report suggests that Apple will drop PowerPC support with the next release.

Apple will likely spend a healthy portion of Jobs' keynote discussing Mac OS X, but it remains to be seen how much of a peek we'll get at the next version. One question on the minds of many Apple users: after which big cat will Apple choose to name the next release?

Ars Technica's Infinite Loop reported on Wednesday that 'Snow Leopard' was the name slated for the next version, which sounds like it could be somewhat confusing, given the fact that the current version is called Leopard. In a poll on TUAW's site, 'Cougar' was in the lead.

The third leg of the WWDC presentation could involve Apple's .Mac service. There have been a number of recent signs that Apple is rethinking its presence on the Internet, with new domain names being snapped up by the company and code strings in the iPhone SDK suggesting that a new name is on tap.

One interesting thing to watch for concerning any new version of .Mac is how much of the service Apple keeps in-house, as opposed to bringing a Web-savvy partner like Google into the mix. The .Mac service is a good idea, but it isn't widely used among Mac users due to issues with its stability, feature list and price tag.

Any or all of those objections could change, if Apple transfers the back end of the service to a huge Internet services provider like Google, and uses the service to bring Macs and iPhones together in interesting ways.

As usual, Apple is very tight-lipped about what may or may not be arriving during this year's WWDC. The latest iPhone may or may not be ready for an actual release on the first day of the show, but expect the topic to be the highlight of the day's announcements.

CNET.co.uk will be covering the keynote, so stay tuned to see what's actually been announced.