WWDC 2010 Post Mortem

WWDC. The Dubdub. Christmas in June.

If you've followed this blog for any length of time, you know Apple's annual developer conference is my absolute favorite week of the year, and it just seems to get better every year. For the days leading up to leaving for San Francisco, I'm like a kid on Christmas eve. I can't sleep from excitement and the time passes way too slowly.

Every year, there are less "must-see" technical sessions for me, personally. That was especially true this year because something like 60% of the attendees were first timers who haven't shipped their first app yet and the session schedule was designed accordingly, with quite a few beginner and intermediate level sessions. But WWDC is so much more than the sessions (and those come out on video anyway). Your first year or two attending, it's all about the sessions, but by this point for me, it's about the sessions that focus on new technologies, labs and, most importantly, a chance to catch up with people I only see once or twice a year. Well, it wasn't just new technology sessions. For obvious reasons, I also attended all of the OpenGL ES sessions this year, and they were great. They were much deeper technically than last year, and were much more focused on the OpenGL ES 2.0 programmable pipeline.

Even thought it was the same number of attendees as the last two years (5,200 attendees plus the various engineers and other staff), this year felt way busier than past years. Lines to get into sessions were often very long, and many sessions filled up. Some even filled up an overflow room. Although we've seen long lines for sessions going back to the introduction of the iPhone, it's never been like this year. Last year, for example, for the State of the Union addresses, I meandered into the overflow room ten minutes late and found a seat in one of several empty rows. This year, I sat on the floor of the overflow room for the overflow rooms. I guess that's good - people were serious about learning this year.

One negative aspect of the massive influx of newbs this year was a certain loss of etiquette. I've always been super impressed by the way my fellow WWDC geeks treat the staff and the facilities. I've never seen garbage left around or more than isolated cases of people being rude to the catering or cleaning staff. This year, unfortunately, that respect was somewhat lacking. During the keynote line, hundreds of people just left their litter laying around on the floor. It was really disgusting and I was embarrassed at that moment to be part of the group. And it didn't end with the keynote line, either, unfortunately. I saw many examples of people not bothering to pick up after themselves, or being rude to the staff. Even a few instance of people being rude to Apple engineers who were trying to help them with problems. I almost feel like I need to add a few items to my annual first timer's guide with things I had assumed any decent person would already know, like throw out your garbage, treat people with respect, and be nice to people who are trying to help you.

Let's be better next year, okay? Almost everybody I met or talked to seemed like super people, so I'm hoping this was just a one-time anomaly. I really, really would like it to be an isolated occurrence. Enough said on that topic.

Although the new iPhone 4 was the belle of the keynote ball, the real buzz at WWDC this year, as you probably know by now, was Xcode 4. For the first time in history, Apple has released the session videos to all registered developers for free, so if you haven't done so yet, you should go watch the Developer Tools State of the Union and the handful of Xcode 4 sessions. Apple's Developer Tools teams have been working really hard for quite a long time on this upcoming release, and even in the early preview state it's in, I already wish I could use it full-time. Fortunately, the Xcode team foresaw this and they made the project file format 100% backwards and forwards compatible between Xcode 3 and Xcode 4, so I can work in Xcode 4 then switch to Xcode 3 to do my ad hoc and release builds.

Honestly, one of my favorite parts of this particular WWDC was having the opportunity to buy a few rounds of drinks for some of the engineers who worked on Xcode 4. I'm not sure if those engineers have forgiven me yet, so I'm not going to call them out by name, but it's important to me during WWDC to show my appreciation to as many as I can of the people who make all the cool stuff I work with everyday. Steve Jobs gets a lot of credit, and rightly so, but he doesn't do it alone. It was really nice to see him call out some of the people who worked on iPhone 4 and iOS 4 during the keynote, but there are a lot of unsung heroes working at Apple, and most of them don't get a lot of recognition for teh awesome they bring. WWDC is the one week a year where we get to show our appreciation in person.

The User Experience lab appeared to be the biggest hit among the labs this year. Each morning, within minutes of the Moscone West doors opening up, there was a long line extending around the corner waiting for the UX lab to open. People waited in line literally for hours to get a UX review. I guess word got out this year about how good those reviews were. I know I saw several people raving about them last year. In general, I think people have really started to grok the fact that the labs represent an incredible opportunity to get questions answered by the people who really know the answers. If you're having a problem or an issue with a certain part of the system, likely you can find someone who actually works on that part of the system to answer your questions.

As for MartianCraft, we gave out all of our away team shirts pretty quickly this year. Sorry to those who wanted one but didn't get one. We way underestimated demand for the shirts and just didn't have enough with us to give them to everyone who wanted one. We'll be better prepared next year, and we're looking into making the shirts available online for anybody who's interested, but that probably won't happen until we've dug ourselves out from the hole that got created as a result of all three of us not working for a week.

Read more »

Grand Slam!

Apple has set a new record for WWDC video avialability this year, getting them out not even a week after the event ended. Amazing.

Even more amazing, they're not selling them this year. Registered developers can access them for free. Want to know what all the fuss is about with Xcode 4? Go watch the videos.

Read more »

WWDC 10 Update

Well, we're well into the second day at WWDC and it is, as always, amazing, exhilarating, exhausting and, most of all, fun.

Unfortunately, there's not a heck of a lot that I can report on. Other than the keynote yesterday, which was heavily covered by both liveblogs and technical media. The iPhone 4 looks amazing. I haven't seen it myself, but I've talked to several people who have and without exception they just gush over the it, especially the screen.

But there's stuff going on here that's got me so much more excited than even the new phone. A lot of really smart people at Apple have been working very, very hard to give developers some really cool stuff and I just wish I could share it, because they really wowed me and many others I've talked to.

It's an exciting time to be an iPhone iOS developer.

Update: Okay, it's Xcode 4, it's not available to non-attendees, but it has been announced, so I can say what it is that has wowed us. Apple has completely revamped the developer tools with a new workflow. The current beta is still unfinished, but it's extremely impressive.

Read more »

MartianCraft Away Team

This is a teaser photo of part of the MartianCraft T-shirt that Rob designed for WWDC. We've got a small assortment of these to give away at WWDC. We haven't yet figured out how we're going to decide who gets to be red-shirts on our Away Team, but we'll get it figured out before Monday, and hopefully it won't require you to embarrass yourself too badly.

I'll post some more pictures as we get closer to WWDC.

Read more »

Almost WWDC

Well, it's the Thursday before WWDC and, as always, I'm swamped yet super-excited. The Pre-WWDC Pilgrimage is all planned. If you expressed interest, you should have received an e-mail with the details about how to pay if you want to take the bus.

I shy away from making predictions before big events because I don't have any inside information and I'm likely to be more wrong than right with anything but the safest predictions (like a new model iPhone being announced). However, I do think there's something big this year that hasn't leaked yet. Something completely unexpected. Chances are, if there is, it will leak the night before the keynote. The number of people who find out about new projects increases exponentially in the 24 hours leading up to the actual presentation, and leaks become nearly impossible to prevent at that point, but I have a gut feeling there's something we haven't heard about yet, but I haven't the foggiest idea what it might be.

Of course, I think a new iPhone model is almost a foregone conclusion, and perhaps some moderate hardware refreshes on the Mac side, though I think the focus of this WWDC is clearly going to be the iPhone OS. We might see a price drop, speed bump, or something similar on the Mac side, but I don't think we're going to see any Mac line completely refreshed or much time devoted to the Mac in the keynote. It's within the realm of possibility that the Mac Mini, which is sorely overdue, or the Mac Pro, which is also sorely overdue, to get revamped, but probably not. I expect Steve to spend a fair amount of time giving us details about how many iPhones and iPads have been sold, how many applications have been downloaded, and whatnot. I expect to hear more about GameCenter and to see some silly montage about some developer's success story with the App Store.

I've seen rumors about a iPhone OS-based AppleTV. Maybe. Steve's comments at D8 might have been the sort of mis-direction he's known for, and the AppleTV is definitely in need of a refresh if it's going to continue being sold, but I think Steve was telling the truth about the subsidized TV box market, so if there is an AppleTV refresh, it's going to be combined with something else: a partnership, new business model, or something that will make it a viable, profitable product.

Steve will almost certainly have us watch a new commercial, either for the new iPhone or some other new product. If he's really excited about it, he'll make us watch it twice.

For the most part, I really don't care what gets announced. The incredible interest in the iPad and growth of the iPhone as a platform already provide me with more to explore than I have time for. I'm looking forward to sitting in the RDF on Monday with 6,000 other Apple geeks. It's an extraordinary experience watching Jobs work, especially in person. He's a master showman, and my only complaint about the last few Stevenotes has been all the time he's given to third party developers who lack his presentation skills. I really do hope there's more Steve and less awkward third-party developers on stage this year, though I suspect the format will be similar to previous years.

Last year, I didn't do the Keynote line-thing. I visited with people in the line much of the morning because I was still on East Coast time, but then I went back to my hotel and had breakfast, then went back over to Moscone West just before 10:00. This year, however, I'm going to do the early-morning geeky wait-in-line thing. My fellow Martian Rob is attending his first WWDC and I feel like the line is something you have to do your first time, and I don't him to do it alone. Besides, it is fun. And, hey, maybe there will be strippers again, because strippers never seem out of place at a developer conference, especially walking around at 6:00 in the morning in 55° weather wearing bikinis and high heels, right?

If you're going to WWDC and want to say hi, the best way to find me is to follow me on Twitter. I spend most of the day at Moscone West and am pretty easy to find. If I'm not in a session, I usually park at a table to work and tweet my whereabouts.

Read more »

Pre-WWDC Pilgrimage Sign-Up

If you think you're interested in traveling from Downtown San Francisco to One Infinite Loop, Cupertino on Saturday Sunday, June 6th to go to Apple's Company Store, or if you live in the area and just want to join us for lunch, please fill out this questionnaire. This does not obligate you to attend, it just will help us make sure that everybody who wants to go down, has a chance.

If there aren't enough drivers to carpool, we may look at what it would cost to charter a bus or van. We will notify everyone before we do so with the cost so people can decide if it's worth it. Hopefully, we'll be able to get everyone down without the hassle though.

Please do spread the word on your blogs and over Twitter so we can include everyone who wants to be included.

Read more »

WWDC Trip to Cupertino Update

There has been quite a lot of interest shown in traveling down to One Infinite Loop to go to the Company Store on the Sunday before WWDC. I'm going to put something together this weekend to serve as a "signup sheet". I'm going to solicit information about who has cars and how many spare seats there are, what time people are arriving, etc. We'll give people a few days to sign up, then we'll formulate a plan for getting as many people down there as we possibly can.

Read more »

Pre-WWDC Cupertino Trip

There's been a bunch of discussion over Twitter today about getting down to One Infinite Loop on Sunday, June 6th, the day before WWDC starts. Typically, The Company Store (Apple's on-campus store, open to the public) is open that day even though they are not usually open on the weekends. I called the store this morning, and they are going to be open again this year from noon to 5:00pm.

It is not possible to get all the way from San Francisco to Apple's Corporate HQ completely on public transit, so the logistics could be a little daunting, but one possibility would be to charter a bus down. In the long run, it might save some money while being faster and more comfortable.

Chime in in the comment section if you're interested in going from downtown San Francisco down to Cupertino on Sunday, June 6th and don't have a way to get there yet. If there's enough interest, I'll look into what it would cost to get arrange transportation based on the number of interested people.

The other option would be to set up a big carpool.

Read more »

HTML Party List

Geoff Pado has created a small web app for keeping track of the WWDC parties this year. If you've got a party, social hour, birds-of-a-feather gathering, meet-up, or anything else you'd like listed, tweet them to Geoff.

Edit: Instead of tweeting new parties, there's now an submission form you should use instead.

Read more »

Another Record WWDC Sellout

You've probably already heard that my Twitter joke of pretending WWDC had sold out was ruined today by it actually selling out - after only eight days. Last year it sold in in just about a month, of course it was announced considerably earlier last year, but I still thought the higher ticket prices this year would slow it down a touch.

Actually, apparently, I didn't. On the day WWDC was announced, I made an off-hand, joking prediction of May 6 as the sellout day. Go me! Might just be the first Apple prediction I've gotten perfectly right.

Read more »

WWDC First Time Guide, 2010 Edition

Today, WWDC was announced. It's never been announced this late, so there's not a lot of time to prepare. On the other hand, there's a lot less time to wait. Because of the iPad, I'm expecting there to be a fair number of first timers at WWDC again this year, so I thought it was worth updating and re-posting my WWDC First Time Guide from last year.

Again, WWDC is different every year, so don't take anything written here as gospel, but hopefully these may help some of you.

Updated May 5th with two additional recommendations taken from the comments.

1. Arrive on Sunday or Earlier. Registration is usually open most of the day on Sunday. You really, really want to get your badge, bag, and t-shirt on Sunday. The line for the keynote will start forming many hours before the doors to Moscone West open up on Monday. If you do not have your badge, you will almost certainly end up in an overflow room for the Keynote and may miss part of it. Even if you don't care about being in the main room, there's still a lot going on on Sunday, and you don't want to deal with the badge process on Monday.


2. Do not lose your badge. If you lose it, you are done. You will spend your time crying on the short steps in front of Moscone West while you watch everyone else go in to get edumacated. Sure, you'll still be able to attend the after-hours and unofficial goings-on (except the Thursday night party, which is usually a blast), but you'll miss out on the really important stuff. No amount of begging or pleading will get you a replacement badge, and since they're likely to sell out, no amount of money will get you another one, either. And that would suck. Treat it like gold. When I'm not in Moscone West or somewhere else where I need the badge, I put it in my backpack, clipped to my backpack's keyper (the little hook designed to hold your keys so they don't get lost in the bottom of your bag). Yes, there have been isolated stories of people managing to convince a sympathetic conference worker to print them a new badge, but don't expect it. They're not supposed to, and most won't.


3. Eat your fill. They will feed you two meals a day, you're on your own for dinner. Breakfast starts a half-hour before the first session, and it's probably going to be a continental breakfast - fruit, pastries, juice, coffee, donuts, toast, and those round dinner rolls that Californians think are bagels, but really aren't. If you're diabetic, need to eat gluten-free, or are an early riser, you'll probably want to eat before-hand. Lunch used to be (IIRC) a hot lunch, but two or three years ago they switched to boxed lunches. They are pretty good as far as boxed lunches go, but they are boxed lunches. A lot of people complain about them and choose to go to a nearby restaurant during the lunch break, which is pretty long - at least 90 minutes.


4. Party hard (not that you have a choice). There are lots of official and unofficial events in the evening. There's usually a CocoaHeads meeting at the Apple Store. It fills up crazy fast, so go early if you go. It's usually competing with several other parties, but it starts earlier than most events and finishes early enough for people to go to other parties when it's done. Best bet is to follow as many iPhone and Mac devs on Twitter that you can - the unofficial gatherings happen at various places downtown, often starting with a few "seed crystal" developers stopping for a drink and tweeting their whereabouts. The unofficial, spontaneous gatherings can be really fun and a great opportunity. The parties often start before WWDC - there are usually a few on Sunday, and there have been ones as early as Saturday before. The Harlot at 111 Minna is a common place for official parties, as are Jillians in the Metreon, and the Thirsty Bear on Howard. For informal gatherings, Eddie Rickenbockers, the Chieftan, the House of Shields, and pretty much any other bar within stumbling distance of Moscone West. As we get closer, there will be lists and calendars devoted to all the events and parties. Some are invite-only, but many are first-come, first-serve. Although there's a lot of drinking going on, these are worth attending even if you don't drink. Great people, great conversations... good times.
   
   At some point, one or more lists will pop up to track the official parties, gatherings, meet-ups, and BOF (birds of a feather meetings - meet-ups for people interested in a particular subject).


5. Take good notes. You are going to be drinking knowledge from a firehose there. The information will come at you fast and furious. As an attendee, you will get all the session videos on ADC on iTunes, but it takes a little while before they become available, so the things you need to know now, write down. Last year, the videos took less than a month to come out, so hopefully they will be just as fast this year, but even so, make sure you write down the information you need immediately.


6. Buy SubEthaEdit Last year, people started taking communal notes using SubEthaEdit, an awesome collaborative note-taking tool, and it worked out really, really well. My notes from last year are ten times better than from previous years. With SubEthaEdit, you don't have to type fast enough to catch every detail. Instead, the audience works as a team and everybody gets great notes. SubEthaEdit pays for itself in one WWDC, especially considering you can see notes being taken in other sessions, not just your own. Note: I've been informed that Panic's Coda is also compatible with SubEthaEdit's colaborative note taking


7. Labs rule. If you're having a problem, find an appropriate lab. One of the concierges at any of the labs can tell you exactly which teams and/or which Apple employees will be at which labs when. If you're having an audio problem, you can easily stalk the Core Audio team until they beat the information into your skull, for example (that example is from personal experience - those guys are awesome, by the way). It's unstructured, hands-on time with the people who write the frameworks and applications. People start remembering the labs later in the week it seems, but early on, you can often get an engineer all to yourself.


8. Buddy up, divide and conquer There will be at least a few times when you want to be at more than one presentation at the same time. Find someone who's attending one and go to the other (Twitter is a good way to find people), then share your notes.


9. Make sure to sleep on the plane. You won't get many other chances once you get there. Everybody is ragged by Friday, some of us even earlier. Everyone remains surprisingly polite given how sleep-deprived and/or hungover people are.


10. Thank your hosts. The folks at Apple - the engineers and evangelists who give the presentations and staff the labs, kill themselves for months to make WWDC such a great event. So, do your mother proud and remember your manners. Say thank you when someone helps you, or even if they don't. And if you see one of them at an after hours event, it's quite alright to buy them a beer to say thanks.


11. Remember you're under NDA. This one is hard, especially for me. We see so much exciting amazing stuff that week that it's natural to want to tweet it, blog it, or even tell the guy handing out advertisements for strip joints on the corner all about it. Don't. Everything, from morning to night except the Keynote and the Thursday night party are under NDA.


12. Brown Bag it. Most days there are "brown bag" sessions. These are speakers not from Apple who give entertaining, enlightening, or inspiring talks at lunchtime. Check the schedule, some of them are bound to be well worth your time.


13. Monday, Monday I don't know what to say about Monday. Last year, people started lining up at midnight the night before (again). I'm typically on East coast time and usually walk over around 4:15 to see what's going on. Two years ago, I stayed and became an insane person myself and did the whole line thing. Last year, I visited for a while and then went and had breakfast. If you're not in line early, you will still see the keynote, though you may be in an overflow room watching it on a big video screen. If you straggle too much, they may start before you get in the room (happened to me last year).
    
    Waiting in line is not really my thing, but you do get to talk to a lot of very cool people while waiting in line, and there is a sense of camaraderie that develops when you do something silly with other people like that. Some people probably want me to suggest what time to get in line. I have no idea. Most people will get into the main room to see the Keynote. There will be some people diverted to an overflow room, but because the number of attendees is relatively low and the Presidio (the keynote room) is so big, it's a tiny percentage who have to go to the overflow rooms (maybe the last 1,500 or so). On the other hand, you'll actually get a better view in the overflow rooms unless you get there crazy early - you'll get to watch it in real time on huge screens and you'll get to see what's happening better than the people at the back of the Presidio. So, go when you want to. If you want to get up early and go be one of the "crazy ones", cool! If you want to get up later, you'll still get to see the keynote sitting in a comfy room with other geeks.


14. Park it once in a while There will be time between sessions, and maybe even one or two slots that have nothing you're interested in. Or, you might find yourself just too tired to take in the inner workings of some technology. In that case, there are several lounges around where you can crash in a bean bag chair, comfy chair, or moderately-comfy chair. There is good wi-fi throughout the building and crazy-fast wired connections and outlets in various spots on all floors. So, find a spot, tweet your location, and zone out for a little while or do some coding. You never know who you might end up talking with. If you move around too much, well, let's just say a moving target is harder to hit than a stationary one.


15. Twitter is invaluable, but don't expect it to stay up during the keynote. There's really no better way to hook up with people you didn't travel with than Twitter. Two years ago, we overwhelmed twitter during the keynote. Last year it fared okay, though there were some delays and hiccups.


16. It's okay to leave. Don't worry if a few minutes into a session you decide that you've made a horrible mistake and it's too boring/advanced/simple/etc. Just get up and leave quietly and wander to a different session. Nobody is going to be offended if you leave politely and without causing a disturbance.


17. Bring proof of age on Thursday night. The official party is always on Thursday night, and it's always a blast. There's good food, good drink, great company, and usually a pretty good band. It was the Cake last year, Bare Naked Ladies the year before. They are pretty strict about making sure only people who are over 21 get alcohol. So, if you want to have a drink or five on Thursday, don't leave your license or passport in your hotel room.


18. It's okay to take breaks. Your first time, you're going to be tempted to go to every session you possibly can. Somewhere around Wednesday or Thursday, though, that effort combined with lack of sleep, is going to take its toll on you. If you're too tired or overwhelmed to process information, it's okay to hole up on a couch or at a table instead of going to a session, or even to go back to your hotel (you did get a close one, right?). In fact, it's a darn good idea to map out a few "sacrificial" time slots that won't feel bad about missing just in case you need a break. You don't want to burn out and then miss something you are really interested in. And some of the best, more advanced sessions fall at the end of the week, so don't shoot your whole wad early in the week.


19. Get a close hotel If at all possible, try and get a hotel within two block and definitely not more than five blocks away from Moscone West. Five blocks doesn't seem like a lot, but it can become quite a hassle, especially if you're South of Moscone West because you'll be climbing up a pretty decent hill in one direction.


20. Official Evening Events In addition to the Thursday night Beer Bash, there are other official activities in the evening that are very entertaining and usually happen in the early evening before the parties really get going. The two stalwarts are the Apple Design Awards and Stump the Chumps, which is an Apple trivia game-show like event with notable tech luminaries and former Apple employees. Lots of sharp wits and deep knowledge of Apple make for some good entertainment. There used to also be a Monday night reception and cocktail hour, but if memory serves, it didn't happen last year.


21. Take the BART If you're flying into either SFO or OAK and are staying near Moscone West (or near any BART station) there's really no reason to bother with renting a car or taking a cab from the airport. Just get off at the Powell Street station and walk up 4th street. Moscone West will be four blocks up the hill on your right.


22. Bring a Sweatshirt or Jacket A lot of first-timers assume that it's California in the summer so it's going to be hot. Well, it could be, during the middle of the day, but look up Mark Twain's quote about San Francisco in the summer. It can be downright cold in San Francisco in the summer time, especially in the evenings and early morning. Bring a sweatshirt or light jacket, and wear layers because the temperature differential over the course of the day can be forty or fifty degrees.


23. Sample Code Many sessions will have sample code, usually downloadable from the schedule or class descriptions web pages. The sample code will stay up for a while, but will not stay around forever, so it's a good idea to download any code samples you want as soon as you can. Edit: It looks like starting with 2009, you can get to the old source code for years you attended by logging in to ADC on iTunes.

Have more suggestions for first-timers? Add them to the comments.

Read more »

WWDC 2009 Videos Available for Purchase

Apple is now offering the videos from WWDC 2009 for sale for none-attendees.

I've had several people ask me if they should buy these videos or ask if they "are worth it".

I've held off responding to those inquiries so far, not to be rude, but because I wanted to make sure that I was careful about my recommendation. You see, I find this a difficult question to answer for someone else. If I hadn't gone to WWDC, I would buy them without hesitation. It's hours and hours of information ranging from beginner level to advanced, with a considerable amount of information about what's been newly added and what's coming in future releases.

Your situations may not be the same as mine. As a full-time writer and programmer working only with Apple technologies, it's really important that I stay on top of things. I need to be aware of what's available as well as what's coming down the pipeline. For many independent Mac and iPhone developers, those things are equally important so they can adjust their product roadmap appropriately. For me, and I would guess for many independent developers, the answer really would be "can you afford not to". As a business expense, $300 or $500 isn't very much.

For a casual developer, however, someone with one or two iPhone applications in the store, the equation becomes more a question of can you afford them. $300 per track, or $500 for both is very reasonable for the amount of information contained in the videos and slides, but whether it's worth it for you will depend on your own financial situation and whether you need or can use that information. I don't want to give a recommendation that causes anyone to spend money they don't have or can't afford.

Are the videos great? Yes, most of them are really great. Are they fairly priced? Yes. Should you buy them?



I'm going to have to leave that last one to you, sorry.

Read more »

Upgrading etc.

Sorry for the quiet week. Been suffering from the post-WWDC blues, a combination of being massively behind on my workload and massively tired.

I have updated several of my iPhone projects that don't work after upgrading to 3.0 so that they do, including a completely new version of the OpenGL ES Xcode template. The only problem is, I did all the udpating on a pre-release version of Xcode under Snow Leopard. I need to find some time to install the release version of SDK3 and "downgrade" the Xcode projects before I can post them without violating the NDA.

The next two installments of the OpenGL ES from the Ground Up series are, tentatively, drawing text and hit testing, although I may push those off and insert a OpenGL ES 2.0-specific posting in there first, because I know a lot of people are interested in the ES 2. stuff. Perhaps I'll write an introduction to shaders as my next one. In any case, I'm unlikely to get another OpenGL ES posting done until I've got a few more chapters under my belt, so probably two weeks or so.

In completely unrelated news, the inimitable Wil Shipley tweeted about an interesting blog post by somebody from the Microsoft camp today.

I can only assume this is the latest in their recent ham-fisted campaign to win back marketshare for their products. Other parts of it include a page of outright silly assertions labeled as "facts" and a $10,000 bribe to use IE8.

In this blog post, Guy Claperton insinuates that the twitterverse burst into flames over problems with the iPhone OS 3.0 upgrade. Now, it may be a little immodest to say this, but I think I probably have my finger a little closer to the pulse of the iPhone community than a "freelance journalist" who specializes in small business who is on Microsoft's payroll, and I didn't witness anything close to a meltdown from the 3.0 rollout. There were a few complaints here and there, sure, but that's to be expected with a major OS upgrade, and make no mistake, this was a major upgrade, and it's been only one year since 2.0, so that's pretty impressive. How long did Vista take, again?

Guy then goes on to insinuate that Microsoft users are smarter because they don't upgrade immediately.

How's that again? Really? I don't think I've seen a more blatant form of apologism out of anybody ever, including Microsoft. Right, people didn't upgrade to Vista because they were responsible and cautious.

Bullshit.

People didn't upgrade to Vista because it was a huge flaming pile of dog shit, and instead of fixing it, Microsoft spent millions justifying and defending it, essentially telling their customers they were wrong in the process. Advertising can do a lot, but it can't force people to buy dog shit that is currently on fire. Corporations didn't upgrade to Vista because it was expensive, required hardware upgrades, in many cases also required software upgrades, and offered no compelling new features.

Guy writes off "twitter going crazy for a few hours" to the "fan mentality".

Wow. Yeah, Microsoft doesn't want fans. Seriously, do Microsoft bloggers believe the stuff they write, or are they given an agenda from Marketing and then have to craft something that fits it, like some eighth-grade homework assignment, only in hell?

The fact is, fans are an indication that a company is doing something right. Every company has their fan-boys (and girls) - people who love that company regardless of what they do. But a critical mass of true fans - people who love a company's products so much they wait in line for them - is what companies strive for. It's an indication of success, and there's just no way to spin that to make it look bad.

The 3.0 SDK offered some very neat and very desired new functionality. People wanted the upgrade. Plus, the upgrade was free except for iPod Touch users, for whom it cost a small amount (about $10, if I remember correctly). A few upgrade glitches does not a Vista make, and it's hard to imagine that iPhone OS 3.0 could be labelled anything other than a success.

In related news, I am NOT standing in line for a 3Gs today, as much as I'd like to be. I'm being responsible and waiting for my next royalty check before upgrading my phone. This has been a crazy month for finances, between WWDC, a problem with my wife's car that set us back well over $1k. Also, our clothes dryer blew, our dishwasher blew, and a huge silver maple in our backyard fell down. Because of the latter, we had to hire first an arborist to asses the situation, then a tree removal company to come remove the fallen tree from our neighbor's yard, and then to remove a few other standing trees that posed similar threat of falling. Plus, my wife is taking my daughters on a weeklong trip to Florida to celebrate their birthdays.

So, as you're playing with your new iPhone 3Gs with all its wonderful features, extra memory, and extra speed, please think of me sitting at my desk working with my first generation iPhone.

Read more »

An Amazing WWDC

Well, WWDC ended yesterday. I'm a little sad about that, though I am looking forward to getting home to my wife and kids. I miss them quite a lot. I find it hard to believe that I used to travel as much as I did. I'm not sure how I handled doing that as long as I did.

Right now, I'm waiting at my hotel in San Francisco until it's time to go to the airport. My brain's not yet quite awake enough to write code, so I thought I'd finally get around to doing a short post about the week. I had the best intentions of doing some status updates during the week, but time was a scarce commodity this week, and many of the nights I got less than four hours sleep (something that used to be much easier for me).

I have very few complaints about this year's show. There were a few sessions that were, in my mind, mislabeled a bit as to their target audience (high level sessions being marked as "Expert", for example). The name badges were also printed in 14-point font so that they couldn't be easily read, But those were tiny blips in an absolutely great week. I doubt that many Apple folks read my blog, but for any of you who might stumble across it, thank you all so much for this past week. I know you all kill yourselves for the months leading up to WWDC. I certainly appreciate the effort you put in, and so does most everybody I talked to this week.

Even if the content hadn't been so great, this week would still have been one amazing week. Thanks to the extraordinary power of the intertubes, most especially the power of Twitter, I was able to meet an awful lot of my wife calls my "imaginary friends" - people that I have interacted with only on the internet. I also met an awful lot of new people.

This week was very special for me personally because it represents the completion of a very long-held goal of becoming a part of the Mac (and now iPhone) developer community. For years, Cocoa was my hobby, done as my work and personal obligations allowed. While I had written for MacTech and participated on and off in the Cocoa-Dev mailing list for years, I was alway on the sidelines and never felt like I was truly a part of the community. I think I can safely say that I have achieved my goal, and it feels good.

It has struck me for years that in the Mac development community there is a very low asshole ratio. Almost everybody is nice. I mean, direct competitors not only get along, they often even consider each other friends. People are relatively unselfish and are happy to help others, regardless of skill level. The iPhone dev community seems to have picked up on this trend, something that I'm very glad about.

And as weird as it sounds, though the people here this week came from many different places and different backgrounds, there was a sense of camaraderie and friendship that's hard to explain or imagine.

Though most of what I learned this last week is under NDA, I can tell you that some (not all, but some) of the information will fall out of NDA on June 17th which is only a few days away. At very least, I plan to update my OpenGL ES template for 3.0 (already done, it just can't be posted until 3.0 GM is released to the public) as well as updated versions of the projects that accompany the OpenGL ES articles. I've also got two more OpenGL ES articles in the pipeline, though it may be quite some time before I can get them done. I'm very behind on some writing projects thanks to this week and have to give that work priority.

Let's see... this is a little bit of a rambly posting, and I apologize. It takes a few days for my brain to recover after WWDC. I didn't take many pictures this week, but I'll finish off by sharing just a couple of things I did shoot.

The first truly odd thing of the week was the fact that a porn producer targeting the iPhone platform paid a bunch of girls to circle Moscone West wearing bikinis while advertising a website and a soi-disant "launch party". For the benefit of those who weren't there, or who got in line early, here is some video (don't play if watching bikini girls yelling "iPorn" is not appropriate where you are):



I'm hardly a prude and do not typically object to seeing attractive young women in very little clothing, but I do have to say this whole thing struck me as odd and somewhat out of place. I can understand the thought process behind this - there were going to be 6,000 geeks in one place, the vast majority of which were young men. But... it just seemed like a bad fit. And though this is probably an indication that I'm getting old, my first thought was to honestly feel bad for the young women. It was so not bikini weather that morning. They were however, as one commenter on YouTube put it, "troopers" about the whole situation. I can't imagine it's easy to be excited about freezing your ass off for money.

Here's another odd, yet wonderful thing from the week for me: I got to meet one of Apple's co-founders: Woz.



For those of you who haven't met us, I'm on the left, Dave Mark is on the right. And though I look drunk in that shot, it was taken just as we arrived and I hadn't actually started drinking yet. Oh, well.

Woz (in the middle of course) was just as nice as I've always heard. Having learned to program on a machine that he designed and for which he wrote much of the operating system, it was really something to get to meet him.

Well, time to pack so I can make the long journey back to my home. Save travels to everyone on their way home.

Read more »

New iPhone 3 GS: guided tour

The new iPhone is out: runs applications faster (about twice as fast), connects to broadband faster (HSDPA), 3.2 MP camera and does video.
Tell us which applications you use and would like to see. SV

iPhone 3 GS guided tour


Apple WWDC 2009 Keynote address

Read more »

Yet Another Post for WWDC First-Timer's

Brent Simmons of NewNewsWire fame has a fine blog posting full of information for WWDC first timers. I'm not a coffee drinker, so can't really comment on his statements with regard to that particular beverage, but in general, if you have a caffeinated beverage of choice, you probably want to arrange to get some and bring it with you. There are beverages provided, but not necessarily when you'll need them or in sufficient quantity to ensure you'll get one.

I do find it odd that Brent recommends Denny's for late-night after-booze dining but lambasts the Moscone food as "awful". The food at Moscone West is far from stellar, but it's considerably better than the nearby Denny's. Then again, we all have different standards when we're sober then when we're three sheets to the wind and I've ended up there on more than one occasion myself, so...,

Personally, I never found the Moscone food to be that bad and lunchtime can be a great time for visiting the labs without having to give up a session.

Read more »

T-Minus Sixteen Hours

Okay, I'm all checked in for my early morning flight tomorrow and I am greatly looking forward to WWDC this year.

If you see me, please stop and say "hi!". I'll be very easy to find on Tuesday, as I'll be the guy wearing an amazing Three Wolf T-Shirt :) The other days, well, I'll tweet my location periodically. I rarely leave Moscone West during the days and am going to try and get to as many of the after-hour parties and gatherings as I can.

I have not yet decided what I'm going to do about the keynote. Most likely I will play it by ear. I don't think I want to kill myself to get over to Moscone West really early in the morning, but I'll still be on Eastern time, so may just be up anyway. That's what happened last year - I found myself wide awake at 4:00am without much to do. If I'm awake early, I'll be among the crazy ones. If I'm not, then i'll be one of the lazy ones in the overflow room. Either is fine with me.

I am not making predictions this year. With the exception of the obvious ones (like new iPhone hardware this year), I don't have a very good track record at guessing what will come out of Cupertino, so I'm just going to mostly stay out of the fray.

But I don't think we're going to see a tablet or a non-AT&T phone. I will go so far as that. I think both are possibilities and neither would send me reeling in disbelief if announced, but I'm betting against either being announced on Monday. The time doesn't feel right.

Read more »

WWDC Signage

The Unofficial Apple Blog posted pictures showing that signage for WWDC has already started going up at Moscone West. Excited much? I am.

Read more »

WWDC Cocoaheads

Here is the official announcement for the WWDC Cocoaheads at the Stockton Street Apple Store on Wednesday. Make sure you check out the bitchin' poster while you're there.

Read more »

Another List for WWDC First-Timers

Attending WWDC for the first time is sort of like getting a diagnosis from a doctor: it's a good idea to get second opinions because not everybody has the same experiences. Here's another list of suggestions for first time attendees from Mac and iPhone developer Jiva DeVoe.

Read more »