
Apple Worldwide Developers Conference Kicks Off June 2 - czr80
http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2014/04/03Apple-Worldwide-Developers-Conference-Kicks-Off-June-2-at-Moscone-West-in-San-Francisco.html
======
Tloewald
It seems to me the hint is in all the different sized squares. iOS is going
variable screen resolution (which it already supports, only no-one really
cares). Mac OS X is probably going to let you treat any display like a Retina
display (this kind of capability is already everywhere, but only available in
certain contexts, e.g. when mirroring to a different resolution display).
Between TVs, cars, 4K, big iPhones, and so on, Apple has to bite the bullet
and just support arbitrary screen sizes.

Incidentally, has anyone noticed that Apple's push towards simple geometric UI
design in iOS7 has simultaneously reduced application sizes (less need for
giant bitmaps), improved performance and battery life, and paved the way for
more flexible screen resolutions.

This also likely means we're finally going to see the Apple TV as a games
console. This similarly means that third party TV apps will probably appear
(and thus we'll get CBS, Showtime, etc. on the Apple TV itself). (

Obviously Amazon has beaten Apple to the punch, but I suspect the Apple
console might have quite a decent launch lineup.

~~~
jamesrom
I think you are drawing way too many conclusions from the rounded square
(i.e., the app icon) motif used every year for WWDC since the iPhone.

~~~
Tloewald
Of course it's more than possible that I'm jumping to wishful conclusions! But
in previous years they either showed app icons, or any difference in icon size
could be attributed to distance (i.e. the implication being the icons were all
the same size, but different distances away).

Anyway, we'll know soon enough.

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cstuder
"The opportunity to buy tickets to WWDC 2014 will be offered by random
selection. Register by Monday, April 7 at 10:00 a.m. PDT for your chance to
attend. We will let you know your status by email on Monday, April 7 at 5:00
p.m. PDT."

([https://developer.apple.com/wwdc/tickets/](https://developer.apple.com/wwdc/tickets/))

~~~
CodeWithCoffee
This is a lot better than the conference selling out in 2 minutes like last
year.

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c1sc0
Seems like this one is going to make it to the frontpage. Recap of relevant
links:

Press Release: [http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2014/04/03Apple-Worldwide-
De...](http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2014/04/03Apple-Worldwide-Developers-
Conference-Kicks-Off-June-2-at-Moscone-West-in-San-Francisco.html)

Direct link to register page:
[https://developer.apple.com/wwdc/tickets/](https://developer.apple.com/wwdc/tickets/)

Info for company account holders: it seems like every Apple ID associated with
your company account can enter the lottery separately.

~~~
c1sc0
Confirmed: tickets can be transferred among team members. So if you have a
company account it's time to promote everyone in your company to developer
status ...

Quote from
[https://developer.apple.com/wwdc/more/](https://developer.apple.com/wwdc/more/):
"Tickets may not be sold, resold, bartered, auctioned, or transferred in any
way. As an exception to the foregoing, requests to transfer tickets among
eligible team members may be submitted to Apple for consideration at
wwdc@apple.com. Apple reserves the right to reject any transfer requests."

~~~
Osmium
Not sure if it's too late for that; the notice said you needed to be a
registered developer at the time of the WWDC announcement?

Incidentally (and off-topic; apologies), does anyone know if you can sign Mac
apps, e.g. to distribute outside of the app store, with an iOS developer
account? I'd like to sign up for one of the developer programmes and can't
justify spending money on both right now. I'm not sure why Apple has two
separate developer programmes anyway...

~~~
chrisBob
The biggest advantage seems to be in the iOS account. You can test and even
distribute Mac programs with out being a member, but for iOS you can't even
test on your own device with out an account. You don't need a Mac account
unless you want to sell in the Mac App Store

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k-mcgrady
If they're doing random selection maybe they could lower the price of the
ticket a bit. Hard sell for an indie dev especially when flights are
accommodation are factored in. Around £3000 total not including daily expenses
(transport, food etc).

~~~
ary
The upside is that you see far fewer people attending who aren't developers or
aren't serious about Apple's platforms. Google I/O, for example, has had
quality issues (with both the sessions and attendees) due to how inexpensive
it was and the expectation of a giveaway to offset the price of admission.

~~~
svas
That said, Apple's "return" compensation in terms of giveaway gifts and the
like is a bit... stingy. Especially given how unbelievable Apple's profits
have been of late.

WWDC giveaway: A $40 jacket that says "14" on it. Google I/O giveaway: $1449
Chromebook pixel.

So much for loyalty.

~~~
ghshephard
The entire idea is to _not_ provide any "gifts" and "devices" to people
attending, so the _only_ reason they are attending is for quality 1:1 time
with the Apple engineers plus the opportunity to socialize with your fellow
Apple developers. The actual sessions are available on video, so you don't
need to attend for those. Viewed from this perspective, lack of giveaways is a
very deliberate and desirable feature of the WWDC.

~~~
svas
That makes sense. I can certainly see how giving away freebies is not the way
to attract serious developers, and can be distracting.

------
supercoder
I think the value of (attending) WWDC has become far too overrated.

With all the sessions, resources, and keynotes being make available online
almost immediately , while a fun week, is hard to justify from a business
perspective.

~~~
atonse
For me the value wasn't just the sessions, but really being immersed in this
ecosystem for a few days without work distractions, and networking.

But now I can watch session videos online, and have found a lot of value in
networking at local Cocoa groups instead. So in that sense, the value is
diluted.

But the real gem of WWDC IMO is getting one-on-one time with Apple Engineers.
If you are actually working on apps and are stuck somewhere, these can be a
real boon.

~~~
mikeho1999
Absolutely.

I was building an enterprise app doing multiple simultaneous asynchronous HTTP
calls, but was running into issues where certain connections would just die
outright. The problem was that the dying connections seemed non-deterministic,
which obviously made it very difficult to debug.

I spent most of the week before WWDC trying to debug the issue (to no avail),
but since WWDC was coming up (and since I was already registered), I made sure
to set aside some time to go to the Framework labs to see if I can get some
help.

I went the first day it was open... and was able to talk to the Apple engineer
who actually _built_ the Foundation httpClient class. I sat down with him for
about 20 min, where we actually went over my code, and he was able to explain
what I was doing incorrectly.

20 minutes. And it was fixed.

I probably would've had to spend at least another week banging my head against
a wall, and even then, it might not have gotten fixed correctly.

Given any reasonable hourly rate, that single one-on-one alone already paid
for the entire conference.

IMO, if you're going to just hobnob and go to the keynote and sessions, then
yes, your money is probably going to be better spent elsewhere, especially
since all the sessions _are_ available online, _and_ because most of the
after-parties and networking events all throughout SF/SOMA don't require you
to register for WWDC.

But if you have projects you are _actively_ working on and are encountering
issues or anticipate that you will be encountering issues that will be time
consuming to debug on your own, then if you spend some or most of your time in
the labs, WWDC is absolutely invaluable.

~~~
k-mcgrady
>> "But if you have projects you are actively working on and are encountering
issues or anticipate that you will be encountering issues that will be time
consuming to debug on your own, then if you spend some or most of your time in
the labs, WWDC is absolutely invaluable."

I don't disagree BUT for this to make sense you have to have a major bug in
your app you're having trouble solving and have that happen at the same time
WWDC takes place.

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unfunco
See also:
[https://developer.apple.com/wwdc/](https://developer.apple.com/wwdc/)

There is often a subtle clue in the invite images as to what might be
announced.

~~~
arrrg
The shape of app icons has been dominating WWDC invites for a long time. They
were a central design element going back to 2009 (refer to supercoder’s
comment for a picture).

First they showed actual icons of apps (2009, 2010, 2011), in the last two
years and this year they showed more stylised app icons (2012, 2013, 2014).
The goes back to even before Forestall was fired/left. It’s always differently
coloured app icons. Last year they were overlaid and angled, the year before
that they were also overlaid, angled and in different sizes. This year they
are only in different sizes.

All you could glean from last years invite was a slight shift in design
aesthetic, but that change has already happened (and this years invite is in
the same style as last years) so there is no new information in this invite.

All this tells you is that WWDC will be all about apps. As it has been for at
least half a decade now. I don’t think whoever designed this even know about
the new iPhone hardware.

~~~
jamesrom
Exactly, it's usually only the press invites for Apple Special Events that
have a glimpse of what might be unveiled.

------
Eleutheria
They cracked it.

It's about presence. The iWatch.

Enter your room, lights go on, leave, lights off. Get on your car, maps
automatically on, iPhone goes hands free. Siri will be with you at all times,
no need to take her out of your pocket.

But most importantly...

Payments, small purchases, worldwide. From gas stations, grocery shops, fast-
food chains. One billion iWatches will be used for payments in the next five
years.

Apple is betting the house on it.

How do I know it? The competition is ramping up their job listings for
e-commerce specialists. Exactly where the money is, a strong competitor in the
monopoly arena of credit cards.

I, for one, welcome our new payment overlords.

In my wrist.

------
taiki
Casey Liss predicted this last night on the live broadcast of ATP.

Now he's just going to look silly when the episode drops friday.

------
rsync
And so, for the third straight year, retina MBA or GTFO.

------
prawks
Last paragraph:

 _Apple designs Macs, the best personal computers in the world,_

Never noticed their PR lines like that. A little extreme?

~~~
smackfu
Here's a good blog post on how that has changed over the years:
[http://www.512pixels.net/blog/2014/01/apple-
boilerplate](http://www.512pixels.net/blog/2014/01/apple-boilerplate)

And here's Microsoft's version:

"Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in
software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their
full potential."

No one is going to be humble in their own press releases.

------
kyro
If they don't unveil a larger iPhone, I'm going to buy a Galaxy the second
that conference is over. They've been so far behind the curve with respects to
screen size -- almost every other major contender is shipping larger screens.
The norm has changed.

~~~
potatolicious
Should warm up the credit card then - hardware announcements haven't been made
at WWDC for a long time. All iPhone announcements are in September.

~~~
kyro
The iPhone 4 was announced at WWDC, so I'm a little hopeful.

~~~
eddieroger
Four years ago. The only product announcement since was the Mac Pro last year,
and it was a teaser. This isn't a consumer or device focused event, so big
product announcements like that are unlikely, with exceptions being where they
influence development. Obviously a bigger iPhone will require new development,
but I wouldn't expect a full-fledged unveiling.

~~~
potatolicious
Even if they do intend on a changing the screen size, they're not going to let
the cat out of the bag at WWDC.

When the iPhone 5 changed the screen size, we heard nothing from Apple besides
a very oblique "we have AutoLayout now, use AutoLayout!", which wasn't
anywhere close to conclusive about anything.

The push on AutoLayout since iPhone 5 probably also means even less chance
Apple will be forced to admit anything during WWDC.

~~~
eddieroger
Fair enough. There's still a fair amount of AutoLayout magic I don't
understand, but it has made my life a little easier. I also really didn't
expect them to show anything, and it drives me nuts how blown out of
proportion WWDC has become. It's a terrible day when developers can't get
access to engineers and training because executives and the press want a
front-row seat to the Keynote bail by Tuesday.

