Reprinted from TidBITS#1069/28-Mar-2011 with permission. Copyright (C) 2011, TidBITS. All rights reserved. http://www.tidbits.com/ ExtraBITS for 28 March 2011 --------------------------- by TidBITS Staff article link: Several important conferences have announced dates, a major Apple executive is leaving, Apple has made it possible to donate to the Japanese relief efforts via iTunes, and we point to a New York Times article that muses about how phone calls no longer have the role they once did. Read on! **WWDC 2011 Scheduled for June 6-10 in San Francisco** -- Apple has announced that the company’s 2011 Worldwide Developer Conference will be held June 6th through 10th at Moscone West in San Francisco. Conference passes cost $1,599, but no more are available since the conference sold out in the first day. Read/post comments **MacTech Conference 2011 Scheduled for November 2-4 in LA** -- While WWDC is aimed primarily at developers and provides the Apple party line, those interested in an independent approach should look at the 2011 MacTech Conference, scheduled for November 2nd through 4th in Los Angeles. The hotel-based MacTech Conference offers two tracks, one focused on IT topics, the other on Mac and iOS development. Conference registration costs $999, but a limited number of early-bird slots are available for $799. Read/post comments **Bertrand Serlet Leaving Apple** -- Apple’s senior vice president of Mac Software Engineering, Bertrand Serlet, will be leaving Apple, to be replaced by Craig Federighi, vice president of Mac Software Engineering. Federighi, an alumnus of NeXT like Serlet, has spent the last two years managing the Mac OS software engineering group. Serlet said, “Craig has done a great job managing the Mac OS team for the past two years, Lion is a great release and the transition should be seamless.” Read/post comments **Is the Phone Call Going Away?** -- This piece in the New York Times resonated, since we always schedule staff calls (which mostly take place via Skype) ahead of time, and even off-the-cuff calls are confirmed first via iChat. Phone calls out of the blue are usually pre-announced by caller ID, and most of those that aren’t tend to be from telemarketers. We approve — phone calls should request your attention and respect your schedule, not demand that you drop everything for an unknown reason. Read/post comments **Donate to Japan Relief Effort through iTunes** -- To make it easier for people to help the relief efforts in Japan, Apple has set up a page on the iTunes Store to accept donations. 100 percent of all donations will go directly to the American Red Cross. Read/post comments $$ This is TidBITS, a free weekly technology newsletter providing timely news, insightful analysis, and in-depth reviews to the Macintosh and Internet communities. Feel free to forward to friends; better still, please ask them to subscribe! Non-profit, non-commercial publications and Web sites may reprint or link to articles if full credit is given. Others please contact us. We do not guarantee accuracy of articles. Caveat lector. Publication, product, and company names may be registered trademarks of their companies. TidBITS ISSN 1090-7017. Copyright 2011 TidBITS: Reuse governed by Creative Commons license. Contact us at: License terms: Full text search: Subscriptions: Account help: .