0:00:00Hello and welcome to Developing Perspective. Developing Perspective is a podcast discussing
0:00:05news of note in iOS, Apple, and the like. I'm your host, David Smith. I'm an independent
0:00:10iOS developer based in Herndon, Virginia. This is show number 37. And today we're going
0:00:15to be talking about WWDC. All right, if you're new to the development community, you may
0:00:21not know what WWDC is, but for everyone else, it's probably one of the highlights of the
0:00:26So WWDC is the annual Apple Developers Conference. It's been going on for years and years and years.
0:00:33I mean, if you look at all these great old videos of Steve Jobs and other famous Apple people talking at WWDC,
0:00:41the conference used to be something very different than it is today.
0:00:45And from talking to a lot of seasoned Apple developers, the big change was when the iPhone was launched,
0:00:52or specifically when the iOS SDK was launched, back then it was the iPhone SDK.
0:00:57And so, back in the day, they used to have a party back at one infinite loop,
0:01:02and they'd bus everyone over there, and it was a much smaller group.
0:01:07There just weren't that many people who developed for the Mac,
0:01:10and so Apple was able to give them a much more personal treatment.
0:01:13At this point, it's kind of in some ways the opposite.
0:01:17The annual developers conference is now incredibly over-subscribed.
0:01:21There's just so many people who make iPhone apps, who even are starting to get into the Mac with Mac App Store, things like that.
0:01:29It's kind of a totally different beast. It's thousands and thousands of people completely packing out
0:01:35Oskoni West, which is where it's held every year in San Francisco.
0:01:40And last year it sold out in a few hours. Who knows what it's going to do this year,
0:01:45to a little later, but it's a pretty good time.
0:01:49I've heard from a lot of people that, you know,
0:01:53everyone wants to go, and there's some people who are considering going for
0:01:57just the
0:01:59sort of, I guess, the social part of it, of just being in San Francisco
0:02:03for that year, or for that week, and just sort of hanging out with people.
0:02:07There's nothing to be said for that, but I guess this podcast and myself
0:02:11is kind of coming at it from a developer
0:02:14um... slant and i think there is
0:02:17there's something to serve right about going to w_w_d_c_ about going in sitting
0:02:22down
0:02:23in a room with your peers listening
0:02:26uh... directly to apple engineers tell you about whatever the latest and
0:02:29greatest is
0:02:30explaining in ways that you
0:02:32served never would get otherwise
0:02:34uh... sir
0:02:35technology going to labs just hang out
0:02:38going to things like the ADA's, the Apple Design Awards, going to Stump the Experts.
0:02:44The thing that I always remember when I went...so I've been going to WWDC for...
0:02:49let's see, I think I've done three in the past, so hopefully this year it will be my fourth.
0:02:55And I remember the thing that's interesting is it is
0:02:59surprisingly motivating, it is surprisingly
0:03:02kind of engaging to sit down
0:03:06and spend a week just thinking about technology, thinking about the platforms and the frameworks
0:03:13and the things that we use on a day-to-day basis, and to think how I can be better at
0:03:19developing for them, to think how can I, sort of, what kind of new apps can I write, what
0:03:26kind of all those kinds of questions that you tend to kind of put to the side of your
0:03:31mind when you're stuck in the place of, "I need to build something. I need to make this
0:03:36this work. It's all about shipping to transition from that to, it's all about what ifs. It's
0:03:46what's possible. What could I do?
0:03:49And so I remember the first time I went there, it was just crazy. I'd go to the sessions
0:03:56all day, and at this point I didn't really know anyone in the community, so I didn't
0:03:59go much in the way of parties or things. And I just went back to my hotel room and I just
0:04:03code for hours and then go to sleep and wake up and go to coding lectures
0:04:08and then go home and code. It was a surprisingly motivating thing to just be
0:04:13sitting there and have a week with permission to do nothing
0:04:18commercial in that sense of, "I'm not trying to write code that I'm shipping.
0:04:23It's like, 'Whoa, I saw that cool thing today. I want to go play with that.
0:04:26I want to download and install that.'"
0:04:29So as a bit of a side note, I always recommend if you're going to WWDC,
0:04:30bring a machine that you can code on, you know, don't just bring your iPad and be like,
0:04:33"Oh, it'll be fine."
0:04:34Maybe if you're a developer, you're going to want to have a computer that you can play
0:04:37with stuff, you can download the latest SDKs that are almost certainly going to be launched,
0:04:41and so on.
0:04:42So anyways, talking about this, this year's WWDC, I mean, there's an incredible amount
0:04:48of anxiety, and I imagine lost productivity surrounding it, because the announcement of
0:04:56it and the sales of tickets is a little bit later than it usually is.
0:05:01There's a friend of mine, Scott McAllister, who's been running a count and I think we're up to
0:05:07something likely like 48 days till the event, depending on when you guess the event's going to be.
0:05:13And that's a little on the low side. Usually they've given us a bit more warning than that, but you never
0:05:19know why Apple hasn't or what their reasons are. But either way, we don't know when it is.
0:05:24And so we all spend all day going to developer.apple.com/wwdc, hoping that we haven't missed it, that when it goes on sale, we're going to all rush in credit cards afire and be buying tickets.
0:05:39So it's kind of funny, I mean it's all kinds of alert systems and things we have in place.
0:05:44I mean I've even gotten to the extent now, I have written a custom monitoring
0:05:48system that is constantly checking that website, developer.apple.com/wwdc,
0:05:54and looking for changes, looking for announcement related kind of things,
0:05:59that sends me a text message if that page ever changes, which is kind of crazy in some ways.
0:06:04But it's a little bit crazy in one regard, but it's a little bit crazy.
0:06:09But if this is your profession, going and sharpening your tools in the one time of the year, it's pretty worthwhile.
0:06:14The other thing that's interesting, I've talked to some people and they say, "Well, it's expensive."
0:06:26And they put out the videos for free a couple weeks later.
0:06:31And I'd say that's absolutely true.
0:06:35And if you can't afford to go to WWDC, then you can't afford to go to WWDC.
0:06:37I mean, it's a pretty sizable investment.
0:06:42It's $3,000 or $4,000 probably when all is said and done
0:06:44for the ticket, the flight, the hotel,
0:06:47living expenses while you're there, et cetera.
0:06:49And if you can't afford that, you can't afford that.
0:06:52When I started out, I went before my apps were
0:06:56sort of making enough money for it to make sense,
0:07:01which is a little bit of a silly thing to say.
0:07:04But at that point, I was making much less than
0:07:07than would ever be considered making a living from my apps. But I went to WWDC because it
0:07:12made me a better developer. It made me kind of excited about Apple in new ways. It made
0:07:17me understand a lot of things that I wouldn't have otherwise. And I don't know about you,
0:07:22but it takes a very special kind of a person to be able to be disciplined enough to sit
0:07:28and watch the WWDC videos all the way through kind of consistently in doing that, versus
0:07:35you know, when they're on a schedule and you can kind of sit there and you just go from
0:07:39session to session and kind of have it poured at you rather than having to go and find it.
0:07:45And if you're the person who can do that, then great. But I mean, I know for me, it
0:07:48would be difficult for me to do that, but I know it's good for me to do.
0:07:51Let's see, what other things should I talk about with WWDC? I think I'll talk a little
0:07:58bit about the sort of the process once you're there, just in case you're kind of wondering
0:08:05what it's like to go to WVDC, what it's, you know, kind of what to expect, and specifically
0:08:11talking about a little bit of how that may impact your hotel and flight arrangements
0:08:17and things like that.
0:08:18And this is of course based on pre-past years WVDCs.
0:08:22You never know what this year will take.
0:08:26But you know, it's based on going for three years, and it seems it's been pretty consistent
0:08:30all three years, so hopefully this is applicable.
0:08:33So typically what happens is sometime over the weekend you'll fly in.
0:08:38So the conference is Monday to Friday. Sometime that weekend prior, you want to fly into San Francisco.
0:08:43The conference starts technically, I think it's 10 a.m. usually on Monday morning is when the keynote starts.
0:08:49But typically you're going to want to be in the night before.
0:08:56You're probably not going to want to unless you live locally.
0:08:59Maybe if you live in L.A. or something, getting in Monday morning may work.
0:09:01but typically you're going to want to be in at least
0:09:06Sunday night for two reasons.
0:09:09One is you're going to want to get your badge
0:09:11probably on Sunday afternoon.
0:09:14They usually allow you to pick up your conference badge
0:09:16and registration packet and all that.
0:09:18Like midday on Sunday, something like that.
0:09:22Which is a good thing to do because on Monday morning
0:09:25there's usually a big, big line for the keynote,
0:09:28for the big announcement keynote.
0:09:28I'm not sure if it'll be different this year.
0:09:30I think it'll probably be about the same as previous years,
0:09:34even though it won't be a Steve Jobs keynote.
0:09:37It's kind of sad in many ways, but this is the first WWDC
0:09:41without Steve, or where Steve--
0:09:45it's not possible for Steve to be there.
0:09:47He hasn't been-- there's been a couple that he's
0:09:49missed over the years, but he--
0:09:53I remember last year, the Lions, to get in,
0:09:56start the night before.
0:09:57sometime on Sunday night someone will be in line to get in.
0:10:02This year I'm not sure I'll queue quite as early as I did in the years gone past.
0:10:06It's interesting and fun to be in the
0:10:10keynote room, but I don't think I quite have the same urgency as when it was, you know,
0:10:14Steve Jobs was doing the keynote and
0:10:18you never knew if it was going to be his last, and it turned out last year it was.
0:10:22So that was kind of special. But anyway, so
0:10:26So when I get there early in the weekend, I think this year I'm probably going to arrive
0:10:30Saturday morning, just because I find the weekend is an especially good time to catch
0:10:34up with friends and do a little bit of light socializing in a way that's not kind of rushed
0:10:43or in a more formal kind of socialization environment.
0:10:48So it's nice to arrive Saturday and just hang out, get over jet lag, all those kinds of
0:10:52things.
0:10:53And then during the week, they'll do the keynotes Monday morning.
0:10:58They'll get up early and get in line, or if you get up late, you'll always get to see it usually.
0:11:03They'll just put you in an overflow room and you'll watch it on a big TV.
0:11:09Which is nice, but not quite as nice.
0:11:13And then after that, the keynotes all have a morning.
0:11:18They do a lunch.
0:11:18The food at WWDC, you always get a lunch and they have sort of bagels and pastries in the mornings.
0:11:23The food's alright. It's not great.
0:11:27It's kind of what you'd expect. It's kind of mass-produced, packaged sandwiches.
0:11:31And so you're saying a sandwich and a bit of coleslaw or a sandwich and a bit of this or that.
0:11:36I mean, it's fine. You often end up more for a social thing, going
0:11:41out to lunch with some people across the street or things. I mean, it just kind of varies.
0:11:45Often I'd say I probably eat their lunch three out of five days, just because it's convenient.
0:11:50There's often lunchtime sessions and things going on that I don't want to miss, so it's easier just to run
0:11:57downstairs, grab a box of food and go upstairs again.
0:12:01And then during the Monday afternoon, they do what they call the state of the unions, where the morning,
0:12:05the keynote is all about Apple's products and marketing and their message to the world.
0:12:12The afternoon is Apple's message to developers.
0:12:17They're talking about what they're doing, why they're doing it,
0:12:19and those are absolute don't-miss things.
0:12:23Because they set the tone and give you the big picture
0:12:26of why Apple's doing the rest of the things you'll be learning about the rest of the week.
0:12:30And so that's Monday, and then you go home.
0:12:35Usually you've been up pretty early from waiting in line,
0:12:37so it's a pretty quiet day.
0:12:37And then the schedule for the rest of the week is pretty much the same.
0:12:39There's sort of sessions like usually nine to five.
0:12:42There's often a lunchtime speaker who's doing something cool.
0:12:46There's a guy from Pixar who usually comes and things like that.
0:12:50In the evening, there's, I think, pretty much every night, except for Monday night,
0:12:54there's usually something.
0:12:55There's the Apple design awards, which I think is typically on Tuesday.
0:13:00Stump the experts, which is just kind of like a fun game show ish.
0:13:05just fun event that the engineers put on.
0:13:10Thursday nights at the Bash, which is just a big party in a park across the street.
0:13:15And that's basically the week.
0:13:20And then you go from session to session throughout the week.
0:13:22The sessions are
0:13:25as you'd expect.
0:13:28There's Apple developers talking about various frameworks,
0:13:30technologies, platforms.
0:13:32The labs are open throughout the day. Labs are essentially where you can go and talk to the engineers about specific problems, issues, things that you're having trouble with.
0:13:37There's one particular lab that everyone strives to get into and is often pretty tricky, which is the UI Design lab, where you'll go and talk to UI designers from Apple, which has great feedback on your applications to make them better.
0:13:45Sign up for that as early as you can. It's very hard to get a slot for.
0:13:57But if you can, it's awesome.
0:13:58So definitely try that. And then sometime on Friday afternoon it wraps up.
0:14:02Usually I take the Red Eye home on Friday. There's not much to do
0:14:06after WWDC and I think people are usually pretty toast.
0:14:10It's not like hanging around too late into the weekend
0:14:14unless you're wanting to explore San Francisco and stuff.
0:14:18It just doesn't make sense. But anyway, hopefully that gives you some context for WWDC.
0:14:22I usually stay at the Pickwick. This year I probably stay at the Moser.
0:14:26But there's a lot of little hotels nearby which work out pretty well.
0:14:30Anyway, so that's sort of WWDC, a few thoughts. Hope you like it.
0:14:34As always, if you like the show, tell a friend, hit me up on Twitter.
0:14:38I'm @_davidsmith. Otherwise, have a good week, happy coding.
0:14:42And I hope WWDC goes on sale this week and I get a ticket. Hope to see you there. Bye.
0:14:47[ Silence ]
0:14:59[ Silence ]