

WWDC2014 - pohl
https://developer.apple.com/wwdc

======
gotoblob
What do you get for the ticket fee? Do they give away free things like Google
I/O? Will you build lasting networks of app developers? I wouldn't blame
anyone for going just for the experience but I probably can't afford it for
that alone.

~~~
mikestew
What you used to get (so you have a basis of comparison): 1\. Attend the
sessions well before the videos come out. 2\. Q&A after a session. 3\. The
only way to see the keynote. 4\. Cheap jacket (backpacks, too, as I recall).

What you get now: 1\. Session vids come out same day or very soon after. 2\.
No more Q&A. 3\. Keynote is live streamed. 4\. Same cheap jacket, just a
different number (representing the year) on the back.

What you've always had, and will continue to get: 1\. Access to the labs. Good
if you have a problem that can't be answered in any other manner. 2\.
Networking with other devs over lunch and after-conference events.

If you don't need the labs, and aren't going to be all that social, save
yourself $1600.

(EDIT: don't know who's downvoting you for asking a reasonable question. Have
an upvote to offset it.)

~~~
arrrg
Seems pretty simple, actually. Apple has stripped away anything away that
might not be the best incentive to go to WWDC (both from your perspective as
well as the perspective of Apple who only have limited spaces). The talks and
keynote should never be a reason to go there since we have the technology to
spread that to everyone without any loss in the process. Also, no silly
valuable presents to reward participating for no reason in particular.

So only go if you have substantial and important questions to ask to help you
solve some problem – and, as always (and unavoidably) with any conference, for
networking. The cost is there to further encourage you not to waste that
opportunity.

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andymoe
Finally a lottery. Hope this works out better for everyone. See you there...
Maybe.

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spicyj
Approximately a dupe of
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7522433](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7522433).

~~~
dang
So it is. Thank you.

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kbar13
I'm curious to see what new stuff Apple has to offer.

I'm not entirely sure why pretty much every piece of Apple marketing these
days involve short, staccato sentences of incomplete "sentences", but it's
really annoying.

In addition, text as images ,_,

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frankus
I went ahead and booked a hotel with a reasonable cancellation policy, which
is probably a good idea if you want to end up close to the event.

~~~
Jtsummers
For some places you may be able to transfer that room to someone else without
having to pay any cancellation fees. I've looked at doing that for conventions
in the past where I wasn't 100% certain I was going to go, but somehow managed
to get into a good hotel for cheap with the housing block.

EDIT: An example of how to deal with this. Say you can't go, but know someone
who can. Coordinate with the individual to contact the hotel. Tell the hotel
reservation manager that you're wanting to transfer the reservation to another
name/CC. Have the second person contact them (likely need your reservation #
that you originally got) and give the hotel the info (like CC, name, address).
You can contact the hotel afterwards to confirm that the transfer has occurred
and that you're no longer on the hook for the room.

This is also a useful trick for getting out of leases early. They transfer the
lease to the new person's name and you don't have to break it.

~~~
protomyth
"For some places you may be able to transfer that room to someone else without
having to pay any cancellation fees."

Perhaps when the actual lottery occurs we could have a thread to do that.

~~~
Jtsummers
That'd be a good idea. I've never (and won't again, not an Apple dev) attended
one of these, are there official forums? Housing block for the hotels near the
conference? If there's an official housing block it maybe easier, there should
be a group managing it that you can contact directly. If you need a room, get
put on a waitlist, if you have a room they'll offer it to those on the
waitlist. Official forums or very popular industry forums would be great
places to host this discussion because it'd have the greatest chance of
reaching the audience that needs the rooms. (And HN would likely count as a
popular enough forum, but with no subforum concept it'd last a day or two and
then fall off the front page.)

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Eleutheria
iWatch is coming. My bet is on it.

They will showcase the platform to develop apps for the iWatch.

~~~
dangero
Since phones have clocks on them isn't a watch really just a fashion accessory
now? What makes it more likely than any other wearable computer? I guess I'm
just not sure if watches are a big enough market for Apple. They seem kind of
niche now because I bet if you polled people who have iPhones there's only a
small percentage that want to bling the brand on their wrist like that.

My parents for example both have iPhones, but neither of them would wear a
watch unless it really had some extra special usefulness. What is the killer
feature? I feel like the Pebble has proven that the killer feature is not that
obvious because a lot of Pebble users say they stopped wearing it.

~~~
teej
I wear a Fitbit. I feel like I was incepted in to wearing a watch - I never
wore one before. I thought I was buying a device that tracked my daily fitness
but what I ended up with was a watch that has to be recharged weekly and tells
my friends how lazy I've been.

I imagine Apple will take a similar life-data approach, especially with the
rumors around Healthbook ([http://9to5mac.com/2014/03/17/this-is-healthbook-
apples-firs...](http://9to5mac.com/2014/03/17/this-is-healthbook-apples-first-
major-step-into-health-fitness-tracking/)).

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unicornporn
12" Retina MacBook Air pretty please?

