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WWDC 2003: Day 1
by Jeff Szuhay
<jeff@szuhay.org>
June 23, 2003
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Quick table of contents |
Before the Stevenote
On the way to Moscone, about a 5 block walk for me, I met a couple of Apple developers, one of whom I met several years before at MacHack.
As before, no one was allowed in the hall before 10:00. So everyone was kind of herded about in a large mass. I met up with Geral Bristow again who was already talking to Greg, a web designer from LA. I kind of ribbed him about LA and the discussion inevitably turned to the movie industry. In a group next to us was Rich Siegel, the guy behind Bare Bones Software and BBEdit. I took a moment to just reach over and quickly thank him for making such great software (I'm writing these reports with BBEdit).
The Stevenote
The PowerBook Zone has all the high points of the keynote speech so I won't rehash that here. Overall, however, the tenor of this keynote was much more relaxed than I remember of others. Steve often poked fun at himself and some of the foibles of Apple. Maybe he took a lesson from Martha Stewart (that woman has _no_ sense of humor), or maybe they are now after 3 years basking in the achievement of the fit and finish of Panther. I don't know.
The keynote was a blast. I was completely blown away at least 5 times, with Panther, the new Finder, Expose, iChatAV, iSight, XCode, and the new G5.
As Steve was describing iSight, I was thinking "if they price that right I'm gonna get one NOW..." When he announced the price of $149 (it's an extremely cool device) I knew I was going to buy one here. And then when he announced every here was going to get one for free, I was just flabbergasted.
Post-traumatic shock/lunch
As always, after a Stevenote, I walk out of them dizzy -- from the excitement of thinking about how my Macintosh experience will change for the better with the new announcements. We don't need no stinkin' dancing monkeys on stage; Steve is one class act. If you haven't seen one of his keynotes live, you are really missing something.
In fact, I just had to stand out in the foyer for a while before I could focus on other stuff for awhile. I left Greg and Gerald and meandered about trying to get an Airport connection. Apparently (a) there are not enough Airport Extreme stations around and (b) I heard something about a problem with the DHCP server. While I am wandering about, everyone is chatting about the keynote and all are very excited about the new stuff. It's like all the stuff that's been bugging people about OS X has gotten the full attention of Apple and they fixed it. (I know this is premature, but you just have to see the overall consistency and thoughtfullness that appeared in what was shown). Run, don't walk, to get Panther. Even at $129 I believe it will be well worth it.
I finally made my way down to the 1st floor where I cruised the exhibitor booths. There I met up with Mark Lilback of Runtime Labs. I then had lunch and then went over to one of the tables with a land-line connection to file my report. During that time, I talked with some Quark developers from Indian, and a couple of German students (one a Ph.D. candidate, the other undergraduate). Since I teach part-time at Point Park College in Pittsburgh, we discussed teaching Cocoa in the university and how to justify even the teaching of such a course. That one definitely deserves a follow-up
Day 1 Sessions
The first session was "Mac OS X State of the Union." This was essentially a very funny, entertaining sales pitch for the new features of OS X. It was mostly a rehash of the keynote but it went into a bit more depth.
The next session was a development tools overview. Again a more in depth review of the keynote. XCode is a very welcome enhancement/replacement for ProjectBuilder and most of its capabilities are astounding. I've got to be careful about what I discuss here as most of it is under non-disclosure. I would strongly recommend that for more info to go to Apple's website or just watch MacSurfer and watch for announcements/reviews/etc. MacSurfer is the "one stop" page for Macintosh enthusiasts.
Afterward, I went to Godfrey DiGiorgio (sic) to tell him that first, he was right about the keynote and to thank him for the great new stuff in XCode. Once you see it, I don't think you'll ever want to look at ProjectBuilder again.
For the last session of the day, I attended "Deliver a Complete Mac OS X User Experience." While another sales pitch for the new features and guidelines of Panther, this was definitely worthwhile. During the show, several poorly designed dialogs were re-worked into much nicer OS X compliant dialogs. This ended early, so I bopped over to the end of the "AppleScript Update" session for its conclusion and Q&A. There, I found Mike Rossetti, former project lead of MacApp. I was relieved that he's now at Intuit.
ADC Reception
After the last session, a reception sponsored by ADC with Hor 'dourves and wine/beer. I just generally mulled about and met up with some other developers I'd met at prior events. After a couple of beers, I sat down and played with my iSight. Man, this is one cool little camera. Giving away 4,000 of them was a stroke of genius. I, myself, will encourage 3 others in my family to also get one. And apparently, they are already in stores. I didn't get to hook it up though, becuase my Pismo (500MHz G3) does not meet the minimum requirements for video. Darn. oh,well; either a G4 upgrade or a new PowerBook is definitely in order.
Throughout the day I've come across people I've met from previous events. This is definitely a cool thing. I have a sense of being in the Mac developer community -- a group that I am proud to be a part.
The Thirsty Bear
After the ADC Reception, I went with Gerals Bristow, my "Aussie" connection (pronounced "Ozzie") down the street to a microbrew/pub named the Thirsty Bear. On the way, we met another Aussie and I tried to quickly learn out to speak Australian. No luck there. Anyway it didn't matter because they had a name list of official Aussies. Still, I was welcomed into the party.
The Aussies know how party. I had a great time hanging out, telling jokes, and just enjoying the view.
Afterwards, I went back to my room to install Panther. I did so on a new partition -- mostly because its a developer preview and, based on past experience, there are no guarantees to its stability. Nevertheless, it appears stable and fast. I very quickly fell in love with the new finder and Expose. Thank you, Apple. You really are listening. Panther is going to be a big hit.
At about this time (2:00 am) I just ran out of steam and crashed.
Have a question or comment? I appreciate your feedback
Published by Doug B. Landry and contributing staff. Trademarks of Apple Computer, Inc., and others reserved. ©2003 Delta Design. Publishing headquarters is located in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Index version 1.1.2
