This is going to be interesting. There's actually a lot more value in just running a virtual conference like this, because they can now involve so many millions of people who wouldn't have been able to attend otherwise. Both Apple's and AWS conference would benefit quite a bit from having all the content online and searchable at leisure.
There is that face to face element being lost, but really they should offer more accessible developer evangelists or support staff to everyone anyway.
It turns it into a different thing. Would-be attendees lose a lot of value - at least for me, the bulk of the point of conferences is the other attendees, not the scheduled events.
I'm thinking that Apple will try to do something a bit different besides just live streaming the conference talks. I agree that being there in person is of great value, but Apple may try to make it more dynamic. Like live Q&A sessions with Apple engineers direct from "classrooms" on the Apple campus. This could make attendees feel like they're having a 1 on 1 conversation rather than one person in a sea of developers.
They have a few videos going back as far as 2012, but not all. There was a great (and still relevant) 2014 video I want to see again but they've taken down most of the videos from that era. Compare:
I am maybe the only one opening that page, expecting to see a good design and then looked twice to the header image trying to find some hidden beauty but couldnt?
I am not a designer but somehow this header image is not what I would have expected from Apple in the last years. Is it a statement of some kind or a deign trends that I am missing?
I think it's supposed to look like a laptop lid, presumably open because you are sitting somewhere teleconferencing. It definitely hasn't had the love put into it that most of their conference announcement art has, I would not be surprised if it was thrown together quickly over the past day or two as they decided to do this...
> The App Store is the world’s safest and most vibrant app marketplace
Anyone else love how no company can tell you “hey we don’t distribute through the App Store, you’ll have to sideload and run this totally closed binary blob with 0 third party auditing to use our product”?
I’m always seeing people on HN complaint that Apple doesn’t allow sideloading. I think it’s brilliant.
I can appreciate how safe iOS is, I think that’s a great default stance. It’s actually one of the reasons I’m in the apple ecosystem after hacking around on Android for years. In our sad reality of apps being more worried about monetizing then about respecting the user, it’s nice to know iOS has my back. But I really find the lack of being allowed to sideload apps frustrating and limiting. Sure, make me jump through hoops, but don’t tell me I can’t do it at all. Apple’s policy might be fine in the bass majority of contacts, but there are in fact situations where a user should be able to say “I understand your concern, but I know what I’m doing, and I want to do this for whatever personal reason”
There are plenty of things you can’t do for reasons beyond safety. I can’t easily load emulation apps for example. Apple doesn’t allow it because of copyright concerns, and there’s no way around that. There are apps that Apple doesn’t allow for business reasons.
And regardless, apps which use system APIs can absolutely be dangerous, but they can also be super useful or interesting or fun, and I should be allowed to make my own judgments rather than simply being told I’m not allowed to try something that might potentially possibly be dangerous.
The problem is that the second you add that escape hole, every company that wants to do shady things can ask their users to use it. To me it's analogous to asking for backdoors in software: "Please just let me get around the security procedures you've set in place. I promise I'll only use it for good and nobody ever will use it for anything malicious"
On the contrary, macOS proves that you can implement security measures like code signing and granular app permissions without forcing developers to give Apple 30% of their revenues.
You can absolutely implement all the security features of a centralized app store without running your own monopoly software store. The security features of the app store are independent from the business model.
Basically any desktop Linux distribution will show you how trusted software repositories can work in practice.
Or the silver/black split could represent their consumer/professional split, as in the color of the Apple stickers and keyboard/mouse that come with the consumer/professional Macintoshes.
You really can't accurately guess what the symbolism in Apple's WWDC banners might mean. It's intentionally too vague to decode.
I know it's a running joke about how Apple tends to exaggerate in their marketing speak... but the way how they're trying to sell this as "all new, innovative way of presenting a conference" without mention of current crisis is a bit distasteful :/
“The current health situation has required that we create a new WWDC 2020 format that delivers a full program with an online keynote and sessions, offering a great learning experience for our entire developer community, all around the world. We will be sharing all of the details in the weeks ahead.”
