Portable News
PB Zone
iBook News
iBook Zone
Forum
MacDebate.com
Mac OS X
X Appeal
Quotes
WWDC 2003: Day 2
by Jeff Szuhay
<jeff@szuhay.org>
June 24, 2003
|
Quick table of contents |
The Day After
I was completely exhausted from the previous day's events. So much so that I couldn't drag myself out of bed until much later than I wanted. I sorta wish WWDC wouldn't start until 10:00am (and push everything back by an hour or so). But, I take relief in this from the fact that Apple is producing DVDs of the conference. These are very useful to see the sessions you missed.
Fortunately, it was a ravishingly beautiful day; this provided the motivation to drag myself out of bed and get the day going. When I finally got to the convention, it was too early for lunch but too late to really get anything out of the remaining sessions, so I plugged into the network in the cafe area to file my day's report.
On the way, I stopped at the Iconfactory booth and spoke to Corey Marion, as I will need some good looking icons for my dance animation app. This was motivated by the advice of John Geleynse, Apples Human Interface evangelist. A good, clean icon is yet another touch that sets your app apart.
An Experience of iChatAV & iSight
While I was writing up my report, a guy next to me (didn't get his name) was calling a bunch of his colleagues and friends and talking with them over iChatAV and his new iSight. They were using other DV cams but they downloaded iChatAV. Wow! That is a cool little gadget; both voice and video worked very well. Set up was a breese. Very low latency. I do believe this will change the way a _lot_ of people work and live. I know I want to get one for my wife so we can talk when I travel.
The Newton 2001
I was moving kind of slow today so I got to lunch late, a bag lunch but very tasty. I sat down with a couple of guys (again I didn't get their names), one from a manufacturing plant, another from a hard drive maker. They were discussing noise comparisons of IBM drives versus other makers.
A bit later on, the guy pulled out a Newton 2001 MessagePad. I guess it was made in 1997. Once again, I was impressed with the design of that thing. He showed off the handwriting recognition which is still one of the best around. (I haven't yet tried Ink technology in OS X). If only it had a color screen, airport (drivers), iSynch and other stuff -- it would make a wonderful companion to my PowerBook with its now much larger screen. When the Newton was made, laptop screen where _much_ smaller than today, a scant 6 years ago.
After eating and before going up for the afternoon sessions, I visited the Quicktime Developer Lab. This was extremely valuable because it helped to put into perspective some nagging issues I'd had with various parts of QuickTime. My app will use QuickTime but exactly how and when was pretty much resolved from my discussions here.
I then popped over the DTS Lounge where a takedown demonstration of a PowerMac G5 was given. These machines are awesome. I was surprised at how quiet the thing is.
Afternoon Sessions/Design Awards
In the afternoon sessions, I focused pretty much on XCode and QuickTime sessions. Nothing earth shattering here; just more details on new stuff. There more I see XCode, I don't think I'm going to want to use ProjectBuilder at all.
This is the first time I've been to the Design Awards. And this year, with the inclusion of QuickTime Live! there were also QuickTime awards. I'm sorry that I've missed this event becauser there were a bunch of cool apps which won. Here, again, I recommend that if you want more details to go to MacSurfer for the news details or press releases.
In fact, I realized that the coolest thing I've seen so far is not one single thing... but the culimination of finishing touches in Panther, epitomized by the new finder, that have worked their way through all parts of the system. By the way, if you don't like the new Finder, there is a title bar button that eliminated the toolbar stuff and gives a very, very simple content view. Nice.
Oddly, today I haven't seen many people I've met but, then, I wasn't feeling very socialable. Anyway, my eyesight isn't that great; I tend not to recognize people's faces that well (until I get to learn their movement mannerisms), so if you see me, I'd appreciate it if you just walk up and say "hi." I'm not ignoring you -- I just can't see. No subtlety required, here.
G5s and Recovery
After the Awards Ceremony, I stopped into the G5 compatibility Lab. This is a roomful of the new G5s. Again, I was surprised at how quiet it was in this area (the rest of the hall was vacant so it was a better test of the overall noise). I guess 35 dB is not that much after all.
With nothing more to do and not having run into previous acquaintance, I decide to go back to my hotel room and attempt to fully recover from yesterday. On the way, however, I had some great lamb chops at John's Cafe (I think).
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
