WWDC 2000

The high point of all three annual events is Steve Jobs' keynote speech, which is generally when new products are announced and new features demonstrated.

This year's WWDC keynote was a bit disappointing. Mainly because it's the first time in a while that a Steve keynote hasn't involved unveiling of new hardware. Many things have been rumored to be in the works; apparently none of them have come to pass. No, I have no idea if any rumors are true; I don't work in hardware, no one tells me about these things, and if they did I certainly wouldn't announce it here! (smile) I just read Mac OS Rumors like the rest of you.

The keynote was primarily devoted to Mac OS X, which is scheduled to ship in January. Steve showed off many features of Developer Preview 4, which was made available yesterday, but most of which he'd previously shown at MacWorld SF in January. He did demonstrate some features which have been modified due to developer feedback. There were also many demos of software which is being ported to Mac OS X, and it appears that many people are genuinely excited about the opportunities the OS will afford developers. Despite some of the complaints (some justified) I hear about the previews we've released so far, what I've said before I think still stands: If we deliver a system which is easy to use, is fast, and has applications that run on it, then I think it will succeed. As Steve might say, "Pretty cool!"

(By the way, I will say that I've used Internet Explorer 5 on Mac OS X and it really works!)

Oh, and those of you who have been frustrated with the QuickTime 4 user interface (including myself), it appears that QuickTime 5 will revise the interface in several positive ways. Woo-hoo!

Also, in a coup for my own group, there was a WebObjects demo in the keynote, and the announcement that the cost of WebObjects is being dropped from tens of thousands of dollars for a full deployment license to $699. It seems that WebObjects has been one of the most popular subjects at WWDC, and our presentations last year were filled beyond the limit (apparently the fire marshal threatened to shut us down at one point due to too many people in the room). So there are many more sessions this year, and a dedicated lab for users to come try it out and ask questions. I went by one session late this afternoon and it was full, and the overflow room (with video feed) was also nearly full.

Here's plenty more news from WWDC.

I spent all of yesterday and some of today at the conference. The panels are somewhat interesting, although not really geared towards me, since I don't have much Mac OS 9 (or earlier) development experience, and I can get all the Mac OS X information I want at work almost on demand. But it's interesting to see how things are presented to customers. And it's pretty neat to see all the iGeeks wandering around. This is apparently the largest WWDC ever, in terms of attendance. I remember seeing photos from two years ago and attending last year and thinking that Apple was trying to get the faithful few enthusiastic, keep people in the fold and assure them that Apple has a real future. This year, on top of Apple's improving sales and margins, and the huge attendance, it really feelslike Apple's future is ever brighter. It's cool.

Remind me again why people bother to use Windows?

Anyway, a day and a half of WWDC seems like enough for the moment. I'll probably spend tomorrow (gasp!) working.

After the conference yesterday, Tom and I met up with other-Ben (who may soon be just plain Ben since Ben-prime is leaving our group for another group in the company) and we went to Outback Steakhouse for dinner. I must admit that their onion bloom is pretty yummy! But then, battered-and-deep-fried food usually is. The waitress seemed rather flirtatious, which was kind of weird. Tom kept giving me shit about it, but then he'd had three beers by that point so Ben and I were able to make fun of him.

In other meaningless work-related news, apparently my cow-orker Ray has been reading my journal. My comment: "You must really have been bored!"