
Apple will host WWDC virtually, beginning June 22 - jmsflknr
https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2020/05/apple-to-host-virtual-worldwide-developers-conference-beginning-june-22/
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ogre_codes
For many of us, this could be better than ever since instead of being a
conference focused on attendees and shared with the rest of us, it'll be
designed for sharing on the web. Be really curious to see how it pans out.

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hyperbovine
I go to academic conferences, not industry ones, but I find the big annual
meetings to be exhausting, unproductive, and incredibly wasteful. I for one
will be happy to see them go, if that's what ends up happening.

~~~
RandallBrown
WWDC is exhausting and incredibly wasteful, but it's very productive.
Especially if you make use of the labs where they'll actually help you with
your code.

I've also found that I learned a LOT more about new operating system features
when I was attending the conference vs picking and choosing the videos to
watch from home.

It's also a great way to network and meet up with old friends. I've had a lot
of fun the couple times I went to WWDC. I would be sad to see it go, but it
wouldn't be the end of the world.

~~~
coldcode
Yeah the labs were the only benefit any more, otherwise its lots of standing
in lines. I went to the "first" WWDC (not called it yet) back in 1986; no
mobile devices, so everyone was forced to, gasp, talk with each other. It was
tons of fun to hear what other devs were doing, you could learn while standing
in line! Plus Apple served us real food, and took us out on trips (in 1986 the
whole conference went out on a boat in SF harbor). Last time I went (right
before the switch back to San Jose) everyone was looking at their phones or
MacBooks and working. It was much harder to engage people in talking.

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aaronbrethorst
This is the most 'Apple' statement I've ever read in a press release from
Apple: _WWDC20 will be our biggest yet, bringing together our global developer
community of more than 23 million in an unprecedented way for a week in June
to learn about the future of Apple platforms_

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rvz
To be fair, 2010 had the word 'innovation' as the buzzword. For 2020, it is
now 'unprecedented' which is quite accurate since the yearly pilgrimage to the
Apple Park is cancelled this year.

~~~
saagarjha
Only scholarship winners have been able to visit Apple Park, and even that
only recently.

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underdeserver
With the event being online, networking (in the meatspace sense) and
socializing is more or less out. The only other real benefit of WWDC is the
workshops, so that's the big question - how do you set up a workshop, with
actual back-and-forth with Apple engineers, when you have 23 million people?

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5cott0
>The only other real benefit of WWDC is the workshops

I get tons of mileage out of WWDC session videos to this day. Oftentimes
poorly documented framework apis are only ever explained in any level of
detail in the WWDC videos and examples from whatever particular year it was
introduced in.

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underdeserver
I wasn't clear - I meant the real benefit of attending WWDC in real time, as
opposed to just watching the session videos online later.

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salimmadjd
Curious if there will be any headline announcements. Anyone wants to guesses
from that one image in the release what’s Apple key updates might be? Outside
of iOS, macOS?

There were a lot of speculations with iPhone 11 about Apple’s new U1 chip and
what it planned to do with UWB technology. The Apple “tile” was never
released. Then there is the new lidar in iPad.

I’m curious if we’ll see some new AR update that combines all these into an
integrated experience.

If there was a time to go big on AR or VR, this lockdown times would be the
best time, at least to grab the imaginations of millions locked down in homes.

~~~
rudedogg
A credible leak has been that Xcode is coming to iPad (and iOS?). Not sure how
I feel about it, I'd prefer more time be spent improving it for Mac use
(where, in my opinion, 99% of developers will do their work anyway).

My guesses from the software side:

\- A new game framework, or a massive overhaul to SceneKit. It hasn't seen
much love lately, and RealityComposer has a really nice API, but is only for
AR. Something new is needed or SceneKit is dead IMO.

\- SwiftUI will probably see a massive amount of changes. For new controls I
think we'll see a collection view and color picker. Hopefully a lot more -
it's nice but has a lot of rough edges/hacks currently.

~~~
outworlder
> A credible leak has been that Xcode is coming to iPad (and iOS?). Not sure
> how I feel about it, I'd prefer more time be spend on improving it for Mac
> use (where, in my opinion, 99% of developers will do their work anyway).

This would be a good step into making the iPad an actual productivity device.

~~~
cactus2093
If they also added a linux VM on the iPad, that would be the real game changer
for being able to do programming on it IMO.

~~~
walterbell
Anyone heard of a Hypervisor API being added to iOS?

~~~
saagarjha
Not sure of an API, but rumors point to a new ARM chip with EL2, although it’s
probably destined for Macs.

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gokhan
Microsoft's Build is also free and online.

[https://mybuild.microsoft.com/](https://mybuild.microsoft.com/)

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BigBalli
I used to attend WWDC ever since the iPhone was announced. These past years,
given all the content was available immediately online, I didn't see the point
in attending in person (unless for some reason you needed office hours to
figure something out). I've been seeing more like a badge of honor for fresh
devs.

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pkaye
I wonder if they will keep doing it online in the future. Imagine the impact
to all the workers who facilitate these conferences, local hotels,
restaurants, etc.

~~~
philwelch
Those jobs aren’t coming back for awhile yet, regardless.

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mjayhn
So are these rumors about apple coming out with a PAAS/workload system that
I've been hearing for 2-3 years starting to turn true? They've started hiring
a lot of kubernetes engineers and afaik they were a mesosphere shop until
evidently recently (judging by the hires I'm seeing).

Curious to see if they contribute upstream.

~~~
hinkley
I have heard a number of people complain about the cross-compilation situation
with the OS X/iOS ecosystem. The solution everyone wants is for Apple to
support Windows or Linux (honestly that sounds like it would be a shorter put)
as first class citizens in their tool chain.

But I could also see Apple providing hardware by the day or month in a data
center. They would have to reintroduce the X server for that, though.

Rather than go full X Server, a little tweak to the Mac Pro would make it fit
in a 6u rack slot on its side. It's millimeters too wide for that, and the
cover is wrong. I wonder if a different skin could do it...

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selykg
Scroll down here:

[https://www.apple.com/mac-pro/](https://www.apple.com/mac-pro/)

There's a rack mount option for the Mac Pro.

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hinkley
How did I miss _that_ news? Guess that explains the dimensions.

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ilyas121
Does this mean free virtual workshops, or is that just for people who bought
tickets?

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GavinAnderegg
Apple hasn't put tickets up for sale, and they mention in the article that
WWDC will be "free for all developers". I'm assuming there will be some answer
to one-on-one reviews, though. Perhaps if you've got a paid Apple developer
account, you might be able to put in a request to connect with someone?

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5cott0
Rumor has it Apple is launching MaskKit, the framework for customizing Animoji
surgical masks.

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futguy11
How much are they going to charge? :)

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gregkerzhner
Free for "all developers". Its free, but you better have paid your annual 99
dollars.

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danpalmer
You only pay $99 to publish on the App Store.

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DonHopkins
And you no longer have to send your registration in by fax! ;)

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vulcan01
But you still have to be 18 :(

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saagarjha
My mom still gets empty app sales reports to this day…

