[HN Gopher] Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference is back in i...
       ___________________________________________________________________
        
       Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference is back in its all-online
       format
        
       Author : todsacerdoti
       Score  : 220 points
       Date   : 2021-03-30 13:05 UTC (9 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.apple.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.apple.com)
        
       | soapdog wrote:
       | I think I'm the minority that really values in-person events. The
       | best experiences for me didn't happened by watching the talks and
       | sessions, but in casual conversations in the corridors and common
       | areas. This is very hard to replicate with online events.
        
         | m3kw9 wrote:
         | The casual talks and connections made when lining up can be
         | great, but it feels oddly inefficient. However is hard to make
         | that connection virtually even if apple did something online to
         | help this
        
           | ghaff wrote:
           | >even if apple did something online to help this
           | 
           | I've been pretty involved with online events over the past
           | year. The formal part of the conferences have gone pretty
           | well. (TBH, even when I'm attending a big event physically
           | I'll often watch the keynotes streaming rather than cram into
           | a conference center with thousands of my closest friends.)
           | But chat, virtual booths, and any sort of attempt at
           | serendipity have mostly been big fat failures.
        
         | mucholove wrote:
         | I love in person events.
         | 
         | Online events give me loads of fatigue. In-person events
         | energize me. The backroom conversations are why they're great.
         | 
         | At the beginning I was always into the speakers. Later I
         | realized they were really a gimmick to bring us together.
         | 
         | Clubhouse captures some of this in person magic. There was also
         | a book club that was pretty good. Slate I think it's called.
         | 
         | Let's hope Apple can capture this. :)
        
           | fnordpiglet wrote:
           | This is the one thing technology can't solve in the
           | discussion - humans are different. I find conferences
           | intensely draining. I love people but I don't like crowds - I
           | grew up in the remote mountains. But I realize I'm not
           | everyone and I recognize that hybrid events and work places
           | are probably the best way to ensure everyone gets to work and
           | participate in the way they feel most effective. I am glad
           | that the extrovert hegemony has been cracked this year, but I
           | also realize as humans we should figure out how to assemble
           | and collaborate in a way that is most comfortable for
           | everyone, then everyone will get so much more out of the
           | interaction.
        
           | Razengan wrote:
           | > _Online events give me loads of fatigue. In-person events
           | energize me._
           | 
           | Completely opposite for me, and I bet other introverts or
           | people with social anxiety/low social mana.
        
             | 0xffff2 wrote:
             | Speak for yourself. I'm not so much an introvert as a near-
             | total loner. I find in-person conferences incredibly
             | interesting and valuable for the ability to spend a week
             | nerding out on technical topics with new people. Online
             | conferences do absolutely nothing for me.
        
               | skeeter2020 wrote:
               | I've described them as a geek spa or fantasy nerd camp.
               | It doesn't have much to do with the act of delivering
               | talks in-person on online; that's the the mechanism for a
               | very special type of social interaction that is hard (or
               | impossible) to replicate online.
        
             | Workaccount2 wrote:
             | Small talk and the like is tiring, but getting to talk
             | about your pet project with others who grasp it's depth is
             | a rare and exciting thing, and there is no denying that in
             | person communication flows the best.
        
             | y2bd wrote:
             | Another socially anxious introvert here. I miss in person
             | events so much, digital conventions don't compare even
             | remotely (please don't talk to me though).
        
         | grishka wrote:
         | An online conference for me is as good as a lack of a
         | conference. This "like real thing except you stay home" doesn't
         | work. At an IRL conference, you're able to focus on a talk much
         | easier than when it's an online stream. And as others said, the
         | networking and the overall atmosphere are of extreme
         | importance.
        
         | johannes1234321 wrote:
         | As a presenter I prefer in-person events by far. Virtual events
         | are so much speaking into the void with no feedback. Sometimes
         | not even certainty whether connection or such might have been
         | broken. Audience helps to see if jokes work and if audience
         | keeps up or is getting bored as i go too slow. Also in a
         | virtual event there is the risk of preproduction a talk, with
         | artificial perfection.
         | 
         | As an participant for me the "hallway track" often is the most
         | interesting, where I get into random discussions and run into
         | people In otherwise rarely meet.
        
           | heisenzombie wrote:
           | How about pre-prepared video talks that are available online
           | and then a dedicated "hallway track" in person meetup
           | straight after for Q&A, labs, impromptu discussions, tiny
           | quiches and all that stuff.
        
           | ghaff wrote:
           | Out of necessity, I've gotten better at recording videos over
           | the past year. _Certain_ things are easier with video; I
           | basically have a teleprompter in some form. But, yeah, I 'd
           | much rather talk to a live audience.
        
           | fnordpiglet wrote:
           | I feel like these issues are caused by a lack of
           | sophistication on the part of the conference organizer.
           | Everyone has cameras and microphones bristling on their
           | spyware sensor packs in their pocket let alone their
           | computers. If you can't see and interact with your audience,
           | that's just a failure of integrating all those devices in a
           | way you can benefit from. It feels like as an engineer we
           | should be leaning into the challenges the situation presents
           | and finding clever solutions. Maybe emitting earth ending
           | emissions to move your sack of mostly water to physically
           | collocate so you can see the actual photons reflecting off
           | someone's face rather than a high fidelity reproduction just
           | feels wasteful, no? These are legit gripes but they also
           | don't feel like a P=NP problem
        
             | kergonath wrote:
             | Do you have any idea what an audience of 50 people "giving
             | feedback" on Zoom look like? You cannot play with the
             | audience because half of them are mute, there is a constant
             | lag between the moment you say anything and the moment you
             | get their response, there's always the arsehole with a
             | microphone too loud, or the idiot with an echo.
             | 
             | Presenting remotely in real-time is a pain in the arse, and
             | sucks everything that's enjoyable out of making
             | presentations.
        
               | ghaff wrote:
               | I've just been pre-recording videos for external events.
               | This has some advantages relative to doing it live.
               | 
               | - I can do some different things when I record and edit
               | such as inserting clips that aren't just a slide and me
               | as a talking head. (Though having a thumbnail of the
               | speaker is a practice I hope we keep versus just talking
               | to a full screen slide.)
               | 
               | - Reduce the likelihood of network-related or other
               | issues at my end.
               | 
               | - Can interact with an audience in real-time in chat.
               | 
               | - Can redo sections that don't come out well.
        
               | fnordpiglet wrote:
               | Maybe zoom isn't the best tool for the job? Just because
               | it was the tool laying around when a global natural
               | disaster forces us into isolation for a year and a half
               | doesn't mean it was a tool purpose built for these
               | situations based on extensive global experiences.
               | 
               | Sounds like a case of "I don't like the tools so
               | therefore the domain must be insurmountable," which tells
               | me it's ripe for some very clever people with some strong
               | experience and opinions on how to organize online
               | conferences and workshops to make a fortune.
        
               | johannes1234321 wrote:
               | There are great tool trying to do virtual gatherings.
               | 
               | However there will always be a difference between a crowd
               | in a room and a digital representation. There's lots of
               | subtle stuff in a room (are they all looking forward or
               | are the talking to their neighbor?) Which are hard to
               | translate. Especially if people switch of camera&mic etc.
               | while watching without any interest in sharing.
               | 
               | The Chaos Computer Club did a quite good "hallway track"
               | for the rC3 event https://links.rc3.world/
               | 
               | Companies like https://mingle.cloud try to do virtual
               | event platforms as a business.
               | 
               | Things improve, but it's always gonna be different.
               | 
               | And yes, for.some events it's good enough, for others
               | it's even a better replacement. But some things work
               | better human to human
        
             | toyg wrote:
             | The problem is that the "lack of tools" is just too big to
             | overcome. If all your sound comes off a pair of speakers,
             | there is no realistic chance to reproduce the depth and
             | complexity of a real room, where you can perceive
             | immediately which sounds to prioritise. You'd need a full
             | surround system, _then_ you'd need a webconf instrument
             | that can interact with it properly, _then_ you'd need the
             | equivalent for vision - a single screen is just too small
             | and depth perception is nil. And you can't really get there
             | incrementally - it will continue to suck hard until you
             | have _every_ element sorted out. And of course there will
             | always be "i can't hear you now, can you hear me? Oh, she's
             | disconnec-- 'I'm here everybody, sorry Jerry, what were you
             | saying?' - I was saying that -- 'I can't hear you Jerry!' "
             | etc etc
        
         | [deleted]
        
         | dev_tty01 wrote:
         | I get that, provided you can actually get a ticket. For the
         | vast majority of developers who can't get there, the online
         | format provided much better talks than the on-stage versions
         | that remote devs usually see.
        
         | jacob420dad wrote:
         | Minority?!
        
           | ghaff wrote:
           | I don't think it's a minority but you will see variations on
           | several themes whenever the subject of conferences comes up:
           | 
           | - It's a boondoggle and I'd never approve the expense (OK
           | they are but not just a boondoggle :-))
           | 
           | - It's inefficient
           | 
           | - I'm an introvert
           | 
           | I don't agree but those are opinions.
        
         | plorkyeran wrote:
         | I like the idea of in-person events, but I was never able to
         | get a pass and so missed out on all of the actual value outside
         | of the short windows I was able to borrow someone else's. The
         | online-only format has been a significant improvement for me as
         | a result as some of that valuable side-chatter has moved to
         | places I'm not excluded from.
        
         | skeeter2020 wrote:
         | I haven't been to an in-person event that didn't record all
         | sessions in more than a decade, so from my perspective you get
         | the huge value of hallway interaction and face-to-face
         | components, plus end up watching the good and most impactful
         | videos online anyways. Online social events are neither social
         | or eventful, so I can't wait to get back to in-person.
        
         | bjohnson225 wrote:
         | WWDC is different from a typical conference. The vast majority
         | of viewers for them will be online regardless, so it would make
         | total sense for Apple to optimise for the online audience (and
         | after all, the keynote is basically a piece of marketing), but
         | I don't think that indicates anything for a standard
         | conference.
         | 
         | Personally, as someone who now happily works remote 100% of the
         | time, I would be more inclined to attend a local in-person
         | conference than ever before.
        
         | breck wrote:
         | The knowledge and initial introductions in online events can
         | lead to hugely positive outcomes in the future, so in terms of
         | ROI I think online events are probably far superior, but when I
         | think to my top 100 memorable experiences I've had at events,
         | not a single one of them took place online. Sure, I've met
         | plenty of people that I later became friends/collaborators with
         | in person, but all the memorable stuff happens later in person.
         | 
         | Just a few recent off the top of my head:
         | 
         | - Paddleboard breakouts at East Meets West
         | 
         | - Asking Vinod a question about next-gen registers at Program
         | Synthesis Conference
         | 
         | - Animated discussion about cpu design over beers post
         | conference in SF
         | 
         | - Talking to a startup about IOT management on the roof of an
         | Accel event
         | 
         | And some ones from 10+ years ago:
         | 
         | - When I was a college student sitting on a folding chair and
         | chatting with a nice woman about the startups pitching at
         | TechCrunch40 (turned out to be M Mayer)
         | 
         | - Drew pitching me on Dropbox before launch in Cambridge
         | (boring, I thought)
         | 
         | - Nate pitching me AirBedAndBreakfast in Mountain View (loved
         | the idea from the get go)
         | 
         | The only things that have come close to being memorable online
         | were some recent Teamflow ice breaker type events we did at Our
         | World in Data around the virtual campfire.
        
           | fnordpiglet wrote:
           | > - Paddleboard breakouts at East Meets West
           | 
           | Can be done as online gaming events
           | 
           | > - Asking Vinod a question about next-gen registers at
           | Program Synthesis Conference
           | 
           | Can be done using a microphone and camera attached to your
           | device
           | 
           | > - Animated discussion about cpu design over beers post
           | conference in SF
           | 
           | Animated conversations can be done via microphone and video
           | 
           | > - Talking to a startup about IOT management on the roof of
           | an Accel event
           | 
           | Can be done as a vendor breakout with a virtual background of
           | a roof
           | 
           | > - When I was a college student sitting on a folding chair
           | and chatting with a nice woman about the startups pitching at
           | TechCrunch40 (turned out to be M Mayer)
           | 
           | You can always sit in a folding chair and chat with M Mayer
           | in a slack room for the breakout
           | 
           | > - Drew pitching me on Dropbox before launch in Cambridge
           | (boring, I thought)
           | 
           | Drew also has a microphone and camera I bet, but it probably
           | won't make him less boring
           | 
           | > - Nate pitching me AirBedAndBreakfast in Mountain View
           | (loved the idea from the get go)
           | 
           | Who would ever want to actually go to Mountain View? (N.b., I
           | lived there for many years)
        
             | alain94040 wrote:
             | You are missing the point, none of those chance meetings
             | would have happened if they had to be scheduled online.
        
               | fnordpiglet wrote:
               | You're missing the point that that doesn't mean they
               | can't, it just means you didn't get exposed to the
               | opportunities to have them. I certainly have had similar
               | online experiences and probably more - my entire early
               | career was built off of irc relationships, and my most
               | substantial network that has been the most stable over
               | time is built in Usenet and irc relationships. Just
               | because your experiences in life differ doesn't mean it's
               | the only path.
        
             | breck wrote:
             | These are all extremely good points and I've completely
             | changed my mind, except for the last one. I highly
             | recommend an in person trip to Mountain View if you haven't
             | experienced the joy of visiting a place where even the
             | student drivers are in Teslas.
        
         | eddieroger wrote:
         | I enjoyed that part the year I got to go to WWDC, but the
         | reality of the event is that's the most exclusive part given
         | how few people are able to attend, and I'd gladly trade that
         | for the ability to go without fear of the ticket lottery, and
         | saving the money on travel, lodging and food isn't bad either.
         | For local meetups, I definitely want to get back to in-person,
         | but equally welcome an online WWDC for the foreseeable future.
        
         | Shivetya wrote:
         | I love them but let me be honest, West coast US events don't
         | work for me or many others and focusing on an online event
         | opens it up to far more people.
         | 
         | However I see the benefit for having a local audience for those
         | who can make it there but we are still a year off before travel
         | resumes to normal levels if not 2023. However being such world
         | wide company perhaps they will in the future have similar
         | events or simultaneous events across the world.
        
           | dev_tty01 wrote:
           | It would be cool to have satellite mini-conferences around
           | the world for the purpose of getting devs access to Apple
           | engineers. It could be an adjunct to the formal online
           | presentations that we all see.
        
             | Razengan wrote:
             | > _for the purpose of getting devs access to Apple
             | engineers._
             | 
             | How about just getting engineers to occasionally
             | participate on their own developer forums, and settle some
             | of the edge questions that have been waiting for answers
             | for years.
        
         | manmal wrote:
         | For those who cannot spend 5k and a work week on a conference,
         | the fully online format is way superior though.
        
         | ghaff wrote:
         | I don't think you're in the minority. But I do think a lot of
         | companies are recognizing the value of hybrid events. I at
         | least dipped into 2 or 3 events last year that I couldn't have
         | justified normally (this one and Adobe MAX). And that's coming
         | from someone who normally attends/speaks at a _lot_ of events.
        
       | rvz wrote:
       | Most likely going to release a more performant Apple Silicon
       | iMac/Macbook Air/Pro, etc running M1X in this year's Macs with
       | thinner bezels. Obviously not in a rush to getting last year's
       | model.
       | 
       | We'll see how far the developer ecosystem has to catch up and
       | mature with Apple Silicon support rather than hitting
       | 'unsupported' footguns and workarounds for months. I'm avoiding
       | them until then.
        
         | TechBro8615 wrote:
         | Does Apple usually make hardware announcements at WWDC?
        
           | wmeredith wrote:
           | They haven't in over 10 years.
        
             | plorkyeran wrote:
             | The retina macbook pro was announced at WWDC in 2012.
        
             | jolux wrote:
             | Totally wrong. The current Mac Pro was announced at WWDC
             | two years ago. Lots of other stuff was announced in 2017.
             | The last Mac Pro was announced at WWDC in 2013.
        
             | kerbs wrote:
             | The Retina MacBook and Mac Pro (trash can and new grater)
             | were announced at WWDC within the last 10 years.
        
           | xuki wrote:
           | Plenty, for example every iPhone before iPhone 4S with the
           | exception of the original iPhone was announced at WWDC.
        
       | PostThisTooFast wrote:
       | Is back in that format? When did it leave it?
        
       | fnordpiglet wrote:
       | Cv
        
       | 88840-8855 wrote:
       | OK, so there was no new iPad in March and there is not
       | announcement for an event in April yet.
        
       | ivanech wrote:
       | Based on the reflections in the glasses in the header image, I
       | wonder if Apple is going to show off ray tracing support on their
       | new M chips
        
       | de6u99er wrote:
       | I go mostly to conferences as a networking opportunity, to
       | connect with and learn from people who have similar interests.
       | Most of the sessions cover nothing ehat can't be found online.
        
       | sylens wrote:
       | If we do eventually move back to in-person conferences, I hope
       | they keep recording the keynote ahead of time. I have enjoyed the
       | amount of depth they get into, the transitions and overall
       | polish, and most importantly not having to pause every 2 minutes
       | while the part of the audience that is Apple employees claps for
       | more Animojis.
        
       | victor106 wrote:
       | > To support the local economy, even while WWDC21 is hosted
       | online and as part of its $100 million Racial Equity and Justice
       | Initiative, Apple is also committing $1 million to SJ Aspires, an
       | education and equity initiative launched by the City of San Jose.
       | 
       | Slightly OT, but this is so important where most events are
       | moving online in a post covid world. Hope other companies realize
       | this and do the same.
        
       | ourcat wrote:
       | Based on the artwork, they'll definitely be announcing their
       | mixed-reality "iGlasses".
        
         | DanHulton wrote:
         | I want to believe, but everything I've read about them insists
         | that the tech isn't anywhere close to ready to roll out.
        
       | Zelphyr wrote:
       | Any chance that image is a hint at an AR glasses announcement?
        
       | ksec wrote:
       | One thing I really like about Online WWDC is how the material are
       | prepared with no timing restriction. Engineers can talk as much
       | as they want to make everything clear without being told trying
       | to fit all within one hour. Or features that only really need 20
       | min and not try to waste everyone's time to fit in a 45 min slot.
       | 
       | I do wish the future continue to be online video, with a Hybrid
       | in person gathering offline for all sort of questions and
       | interactions.
       | 
       | Looking forward to Safari [1], if we look at their Developer
       | Release Note there has an unusually large amount of work in the
       | past year post Safari 14. I think they hired some of the Firefox
       | developers to Webkit. Hopefully that will speed up certain
       | features implementation.
       | 
       | MacBook Pro M1X, iPad Pro, iMac M1XX?, and Mac Pro
       | 
       | Edit: And you know what? How about bringing back WiFi 6E AirPort
       | Extreme.
       | 
       | And hopefully some App Store policy update.
       | 
       | [1] https://developer.apple.com/safari/technology-
       | preview/releas...
        
         | heisenzombie wrote:
         | > Hybrid in person gathering offline
         | 
         | This is basically the "flipped classroom model", which I like a
         | lot.
         | 
         | I think a dedicated in-person conference where it was assumed
         | you had already watched pre-prepared videos and then presenters
         | did either "office hours" for semi-formal group Q&A or "labs"
         | for hands-on working through examples together would be pretty
         | awesome.
        
         | lotsofpulp wrote:
         | > Edit: And you know what? How about bringing back WiFi 6E
         | AirPort Extreme.
         | 
         | I'm lucky to have bought an AirPort Extreme and Time Capsule
         | just before they were discontinued. I have no idea who I'd turn
         | to now for plug and play home networking. I hope they come out
         | with some updates, because I don't feel like doing research
         | into that space again.
        
           | dont__panic wrote:
           | I actually recently bought that last ever Airport Extreme
           | with Time Capsule and wow, I'm pleased with it for the price
           | I paid on ebay. Plus now I have backups of my personal and
           | work computers! The only issue I've noticed is that you can't
           | set discrete DHCP settings for your personal vs. guest
           | networks, so my guests have to manually set their DNS since
           | they can't reach my pi-hole that's on my personal wifi. But
           | that's pretty acceptable since I don't want people to get too
           | comfy on my guest network.
           | 
           | I would really love to see Airport come back with a 1-3 year
           | old A-series chip, kind of like what they did with the
           | HomePod. Except without all the AI/always-on microphone crap.
        
           | galonk wrote:
           | I would have said splurge for a Ubiquiti Dream Machine, but
           | it's not quite the automatic recommend it was before they
           | started taking a "go fast break things" attitude toward their
           | software. Still better than any consumer-level gear though.
        
             | briangerman wrote:
             | They recently started putting ads in the management
             | console. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26628198
        
             | Someone wrote:
             | "Not quite"? We're talking about the Ubiquiti discussed in
             | https://krebsonsecurity.com/2021/03/whistleblower-
             | ubiquiti-b..., are we?
             | 
             | If so, and if that whistleblower is right, _"attacker(s)
             | had access to privileged credentials that were previously
             | stored in the LastPass account of a Ubiquiti IT employee,
             | and gained root administrator access to all Ubiquiti AWS
             | accounts, including all S3 data buckets, all application
             | logs, all databases, all user database credentials, and
             | secrets required to forge single sign-on (SSO) cookies."_
        
             | lotsofpulp wrote:
             | I was on the Ubiquiti train, but then I found out the owner
             | started cutting costs and outsourced development and now
             | there's headlines about ads in the dashboard. I assume it's
             | only a matter of time before they start cutting corners in
             | manufacturing and quality of components.
        
               | cactus2093 wrote:
               | The ads complaints are a little overblown IMO. It's not
               | like they're selling your data and ad space on your
               | dashboard to other companies. They're just showing you
               | their newer product lines from their older product lines,
               | it seems more like a deprecation warning than advertising
               | to me.
               | 
               | Edit: Ok I immediately regret defending Ubiquiti after
               | the new top story about the covered up data breach. I
               | agree it seems like there is some crazy mismanagement
               | going there based on this and other leaks/rumors over the
               | past year or two.
        
               | martimarkov wrote:
               | Which is fine if there is an option for me to turn it
               | off. But from the settings I couldn't fine one (I might
               | have missed it as I don't login that often and it doesn't
               | bother me too much).
        
             | manmal wrote:
             | I spent some really frustrated hours with the non-Pro Dream
             | Machine before I sent it back. Instead, I'm using a Unifi
             | USG and two APs, and am really happy with this setup.
        
               | redsky17 wrote:
               | Not sure exactly when you had the UDM, but the earlier
               | firmware for both the UDM and UDMP was awful and filled
               | with bugs. It has since gotten a lot better. I haven't
               | had any issues with my UDMP since the newer firmware and
               | my home internet experience is much smoother than with my
               | consumer routers (which would randomly drop connections
               | or refuse new connections until a reboot... full NAT
               | table maybe?)
        
           | tw04 wrote:
           | I've heard good things about Aruba Instant-On:
           | https://www.arubainstanton.com/
           | 
           | I've heard nothing but good things about their enterprise
           | gear. They've obviously got to do some market segmentation
           | but they appear to be doing that by having APs with lower
           | density than the enterprise gear which shouldn't be a big
           | issue for most homeowners.
        
           | 1over137 wrote:
           | >I have no idea who I'd turn to now for plug and play home
           | networking.
           | 
           | Not as simple as Apple's was, but Ruckus' gear is good.
        
         | gsnedders wrote:
         | > Looking forward to Safari [1], if we look at their Developer
         | Release Note there has an unusually large amount of work in the
         | past year post Safari 14. I think they hired some of the
         | Firefox developers to Webkit. Hopefully that will speed up
         | certain features implementation.
         | 
         | While certainly some people have been hired from Mozilla, I
         | don't think it's particularly significant.
         | 
         | The areas which have seen increased activity are mostly down to
         | earlier architectural work being completed, both speeding up
         | new feature development and accounting for lack of new features
         | previously.
        
       | trollied wrote:
       | Lots of speculation about AR glasses, given the header image ...
        
         | mortenjorck wrote:
         | It's amusing to see Apple embrace a meme that arose from last
         | year's M1 event. The header is a clear reference to this:
         | https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/macbook-craig
        
         | 1337_d00dZ wrote:
         | That is a reflection from the MacBook screen
        
           | bengale wrote:
           | I'm sure they put these things in to bait the rumour mill as
           | it feels a bit early for glasses. But they do seem to have at
           | least two variants of that image with different characters,
           | both with glasses 'reflecting' the screen.
        
             | gh-throw wrote:
             | They _have to_ expect to figure out how to make non-
             | terrible AR glasses in the nearish future. There 's no
             | other explanation for why they (and several other
             | companies) keep dumping money into AR tech that's cute to
             | use for a couple minutes, but otherwise terrible outside
             | some very niche applications, on current devices. They want
             | to be ready to take advantage of the new tech on day one,
             | when they finally figure out how to package the hardware.
             | 
             | Maybe it won't be this year, but I 100% expect to see
             | widespread AR glasses becoming the next smartphone
             | revolution before 2030, if only because so many big tech
             | companies seem to be betting big bucks on it. Certainly
             | seems more attainable than self-driving cars.
        
               | bengale wrote:
               | Yeah feels to me like it's going to be the next big
               | thing. Does seem a little early days though, but this is
               | a developer conference I suppose.
        
           | praveenperera wrote:
           | Yes, but it's highlighted that way on purpose.
        
             | vesinisa wrote:
             | The reflection off the screen reads "Calendar", "June 7",
             | "21", and the Xcode and Terminal.app logos. Don't read too
             | much into it - those are just the usual "parameters" of the
             | event.
        
         | briangerman wrote:
         | I hope so it would be nice to spend my developer gift card on.
        
       | nkotov wrote:
       | I like that it's online but I will miss in-person events.
        
       | whywhywhywhy wrote:
       | Find the Apple MeMoji things fascinating, they're so utterly
       | charmless and ugly. Really sums up to me how Apple doesn't "human
       | very well", they just don't know how to make something appealing
       | and cute (Like LINE Inc.) or even just weirdly funny that it
       | grows on you like Bitmoji.
       | 
       | They just come across as weird and gross to me, the art style and
       | how they're used feels like an AI failing the Turing test.
        
         | sylens wrote:
         | yeah i've never really cared for them
        
         | meibo wrote:
         | They're also a very good indicator of which Twitter accounts to
         | stay away from. Those soulless eyes don't lie.
        
         | dkdbejwi383 wrote:
         | I don't feel quite as strongly, but I do agree they have a
         | whiff of "Gen X attempts to appeal to Zoomers" about them
        
         | jibbers wrote:
         | Ah they aren't so bad. Kind of look Pixar-y to me. And they're
         | not horrifying like Samsung's equivalent thing[1].
         | 
         | [1]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oUnTthHVMCI
        
           | whywhywhywhy wrote:
           | >Kind of look Pixar-y to me
           | 
           | More like Dreamworks...
        
       | pibefision wrote:
       | It is a great opportunity to ask about ssd lifespan in the M1. At
       | the moment it's top secret and nobody knows what will happen in a
       | year of normal usage with Big Sur.
       | 
       | Maybe they could change your entire motherboard if it fails after
       | guarantee for a small fee?
        
         | rapsey wrote:
         | Why would be different to older models with ssd?
        
           | pibefision wrote:
           | Older models where not soldered on the motherboard.
        
             | DVk6dqsfyx5i3ii wrote:
             | Unless by older you mean over 5 years old that is
             | incorrect.
        
             | trollied wrote:
             | Yes they were, just look at the teardown for a model from
             | the year before:
             | https://9to5mac.com/2019/07/12/2019-13-macbook-pro-
             | teardown/
        
             | hundchenkatze wrote:
             | They've been soldering them on since the 2016 MBP[0]. I
             | thought you were referring to the reports of unusually high
             | writes on M1 macs, thus shortening the life of SSDs[1].
             | 
             | [0] https://www.macworld.com/article/3144532/revealed-the-
             | macboo...
             | 
             | [1]https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26244093
        
           | hundchenkatze wrote:
           | There were reports of higher than normal writes on M1 based
           | macs not long ago.
           | 
           | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26244093
        
           | mrkstu wrote:
           | They cannot truly boot externally- even when you do boot
           | external there is an initial dependency on the SSD, so if it
           | fails you have an expensive brick.
        
       | makecheck wrote:
       | Apple likes flashy presentations but they are far, FAR behind on
       | proper support for developers. Addressing problems would go a lot
       | further with developers than a bunch of videos.
       | 
       | It's not even difficult to come up with a starting list:
       | 
       | - Add COMPLETE documentation (but we'd all settle for "any" in
       | most cases)
       | 
       | - Fix all the NEW bugs being added in each update (and obviously
       | get to the old ones too); also, it would be nice if an
       | embarrassing number of problems weren't in the developer tools
       | themselves...
       | 
       | - After 10+ years provide support for sane income options on the
       | App Store (free trials, paid upgrades, no need to create complex
       | IAP patterns)
       | 
       | - Abolish 80-90% of App Review, since it clearly fails to prevent
       | any scams but does steal endless energy from developers dealing
       | with pointless rejections or delays
       | 
       | - Put some restraints on the UI "designers" that keep ruining
       | functional UI and making it work worse than ever; development is
       | actually becoming harder because things I use everyday are being
       | fiddled with
        
         | sturza wrote:
         | Any sources/examples for these references? They seem just angry
         | venting.
        
         | kitsunesoba wrote:
         | The apple dev experience is far from perfect, but it's not like
         | the competition is much better. I find myself frustrated when
         | working on Android projects much more frequently.
        
       | akshayB wrote:
       | I think in future more companies will adapt a complete all-online
       | format specially after the pandemic.
       | 
       | One my friends have attended Apple Developer Conference in past
       | and he loved the whole process. But there is lot of money spent
       | traveling to California, hotel stay, food .... But now with
       | events being online it should save small companies lot of money
       | too and hopefully Apple gets more participation with online
       | format.
        
         | pickle-wizard wrote:
         | I don't like the online conferences.
         | 
         | When I go to the in person conferences, it is easy to say I'm
         | out of the office those days, and focus on the conference.
         | 
         | With the online ones, I always end up getting pulled into
         | stuff, but it's ok because I can just listen in the background.
        
           | ghaff wrote:
           | I don't necessarily do a huge number of breakouts when I'm at
           | a conference anyway. It's mostly meetings, social, and
           | serendipitous interactions.
           | 
           | With virtual conferences, I definitely have a limit both
           | because of distractions and just fatigue. It's one reason
           | I've pretty much refused to pay for any of the conferences
           | that were still trying to charge relatively big bucks last
           | year. I just wouldn't have gotten the same value out of them.
        
         | vlozko wrote:
         | There's value in in-person meetings that online classes aren't
         | good at or simply can't provide so it becomes a trade off.
         | 
         | Cost isn't much of an issue. iOS developers tend to be paid
         | well and even then it's often a reimbursed expense. I'm
         | obviously not speaking for everyone here.
         | 
         | Most notably it's a means to network with other developers. One
         | can recruit, find out more about other companies, meet the
         | people working on their favorite open-source project, etc.
         | Hands on technical support is significantly easier than doing
         | it remotely, especially when external devices are involved.
         | 
         | Lastly, for many it's a chance to unwind and take a pseudo-
         | vacation. The San Jose area has lots to do, there's plenty of
         | evening events, and there's plenty of people who you'd have
         | something in common with to socialize with.
        
         | smoe wrote:
         | For me one of the most important things about attending
         | conferences is meeting people. Just for networking or some ad
         | hoc problem solving. As well as being somewhat "away" from
         | work.
         | 
         | I'm curious because so far I haven't attended any online
         | conference: What has been done /experiment with during the last
         | year especially to foster interaction between the people
         | attending instead of just having someone talking into a camera?
        
         | vesinisa wrote:
         | It was rather dissapointing that Google cancelled the I/O 2020
         | altogether. I really hope they could put something together for
         | 2021.
        
         | gherkinnn wrote:
         | Product releases yes.
         | 
         | Conferences in general? I hope not. Remote conferences just
         | defeat the point. There's no food. No hotels. Nobody to chat
         | with. Defeats the entire purpose if you ask me.
        
         | coddle-hark wrote:
         | Is there much difference between "attending" the online
         | conference and just watching the sessions afterwards?
        
           | bombcar wrote:
           | There's a huge difference between attending an online
           | conference and attending an in-person - you don't have a
           | large number of similarly minded people in a small space for
           | a given time when it's online.
           | 
           | It's been the hardest thing to recreate, the hallway and
           | lunch meetings (basically because it's hard to politely tell
           | everyone to bug off in person but really easy to just log off
           | online).
        
             | _fizz_buzz_ wrote:
             | I think they meant if there is a difference between
             | attending the online conference while it is happening vs.
             | watching the videos afterwards.
        
           | belval wrote:
           | "Attending" means that you will lock time in your schedule to
           | actually watch the sessions.
           | 
           | For most people "watching afterwards" is just another way to
           | say "I'll watch it when I have time".
        
       | hvocode wrote:
       | I'm very glad it's online, and hope this continues. I've done
       | decades of conference/workshop/meeting travel, and yeah - the in-
       | person interactions are useful. Those interactions IMHO don't
       | outweigh the cost, disruption-to-life, and unfairness that
       | physical travel has. I've been mentoring early career people for
       | years, and this past 12 months has been wonderful for many of
       | them. Not everyone has the $ or time to travel, and many people
       | got left out of participating in in-person events as a result.
       | Online events have flattened the playing field and are allowing
       | people to participate who would have otherwise been excluded. I
       | would 100% sacrifice chatting over beers or during coffee breaks
       | to let a wider population participate - I'd much rather optimize
       | how we do things for everyone, not focus on the desires of the
       | subset lucky enough to have the ability, desire, and resources to
       | travel.
        
       | fnordpiglet wrote:
       | I feel like 99% of the issues here stem from the fact we are in
       | the midst of a global natural disaster and folks are irritated
       | they can't share respiratory aerosols. That's fair. However I
       | think the future is undeniably hybrid conferences.
       | 
       | 1) audience participation- this is the fault of the conference
       | organizer and tooling. I have an amazing device attached to my
       | computer that captures local photon statistics using an
       | interesting effect Einstein discovered that can magically beam a
       | simulation of my face to the presenter. If you aren't seeing the
       | audience, that's not the fault of the format it's the fault of
       | the organizer for now allowing you to see and interact with your
       | audience.
       | 
       | 2) in person events and hallways incidentals - yes, this is fair.
       | A lot of people really derive pleasure from travel and sharing
       | air with tons of other people. Personally, I'm tired of air
       | travel and the hassle of sleeping in a widely shared bed at a
       | hotel and getting sick in the first 15 minutes of a conference.
       | I've had as valuable or more valuable networking interactions
       | through irc, Usenet, slack, even pull requests. I've never landed
       | a job via a conference or even someone I met at a conference, but
       | my career is built on my early use of irc. But it's ok - if there
       | weren't a global natural disaster, I expect we would have dual
       | format conferences. The successful ones will solve point 1
       | effectively, and point 2 can be solved through online networking
       | events in the platform. The fact organizers aren't successful yet
       | is probably more to do with we slapped this stuff together in a
       | hurry due to a global natural disaster. With time and experience
       | I don't see why the esports version of the live conference won't
       | be just as viable.
       | 
       | 3) blocking time for the conference forces present me to attend
       | sessions during the day and my employer is happy to save travel
       | and entertainment expenses and let me attend. I will insist on
       | that in the future as well - and I'm senior enough I can do that
       | unilaterally and allow my people to do it too. I hope you do if
       | you're also a tech leader, and if you're an IC advocate with your
       | management. Otherwise I can create a playlist for future me, but
       | present me will always be too busy to prioritize watching these
       | things "in my spare time" (hahaha what's that?)
        
       | perardi wrote:
       | I have to think WWDC was costly for Apple to do in person, and
       | they may not go back.
       | 
       | Not in terms of money--Apple is not rate-limited by money. But in
       | terms of attention. Getting everyone on site for this, namely the
       | engineers, while they are also in final iPhone cycle prep must be
       | a drag.
        
         | alexashka wrote:
         | Ah yes, because Apple is so short on money it can't afford to
         | hire more engineers.
        
           | jmull wrote:
           | They need to have the same engineers at WWDC to talk about
           | the software and APIs as the ones developing the software and
           | APIs. Adding more engineers doesn't change that so it won't
           | help.
        
         | mpweiher wrote:
         | > Apple is not rate-limited by money.
         | 
         | One of my favourite live SJ scenes, at the QA of a new-hire
         | meeting:
         | 
         | Person thinking they're clever: What would you do differently
         | if you had unlimited resources?
         | 
         | SJ, after short pause: I do.
        
           | andredz wrote:
           | What is SJ?
        
             | CharlesW wrote:
             | Steve Jobs.
        
             | granzymes wrote:
             | In this context, presumably Steve Jobs.
        
         | jldugger wrote:
         | It is a distraction but also serves as a forcing function: if
         | you can't demo or commit to polishing by September something in
         | June, it probably needs to be cut.
        
         | perardi wrote:
         | And to flesh that out, as I typed that quickly before a
         | meeting...
         | 
         | I have worked on design and events for user conferences for
         | several medium-size-ish software firms. Last year, our long-
         | standing annual conference went online-only. And I tell ya:
         | night and day differences in terms of stress levels.
         | 
         | There is still that crunch to get things to MVP state to show
         | off, and people still need to record talks and hold Zoom
         | meetings, but something about not having to deal with
         | _physically preparing a space_ just made it all so much easier.
         | _(And our event space was literally across the street.)_ No
         | machine /projector drama, no conference wifi falling apart,
         | nobody with late flights...
        
           | formercoder wrote:
           | Everything but the last problem is something money solves. A
           | good production company would ensure that, while issues like
           | that would happen, you'd never be aware of them.
        
       | williesleg wrote:
       | I thought masks work.
        
       | ChrisMarshallNY wrote:
       | I kinda like the online format, but it feels very strange, to see
       | these videos being recorded in an empty office building.
       | 
       | I suspect that a $1M contribution will barely twitch the needle,
       | compared to what the WWDC brings in.
       | 
       | Hotels in the Union Square district generally hit the "Gouge The
       | Attendees" button, on WWDC week.
        
         | burlesona wrote:
         | Even with the conference moved back to San Jose? The last few
         | WWDC it didn't seem like anyone was staying all the way up in
         | SF, and why would they?
        
           | ChrisMarshallNY wrote:
           | Good point. Shows how long it's been since I attended.
           | 
           | For the record, the first few I attended were at the San Jose
           | convention center.
        
         | dhosek wrote:
         | >Hotels in the Union Square district generally hit the "Gouge
         | The Attendees" button, on WWDC week.
         | 
         | But how much of that directly impacts the local economy vs
         | going into corporate coffers which are not necessarily anywhere
         | near the convention site?
         | 
         | Giving $100 to each of ten employees at a chain restaurant
         | would probably have a bigger impact on the local economy (or at
         | least the micro-economy of the employees) than spending $5,000
         | on food at the same restaurant.
        
         | vmception wrote:
         | It does seem weird, and I hate how curated and perfect it is.
         | 
         | But I do find it fascinating how much of an example of
         | pandemic-conscious they had been trying to be.
         | 
         | "ah, nothing can go wrong because it is pre-recorded" part of
         | the thrill of performance theatre is the suspense of perfection
         | and error.
        
       ___________________________________________________________________
       (page generated 2021-03-30 23:02 UTC)