Casey's Tumblelog

I agree with Marco in that I don’t see that paid upgrades will happen on the App Store anytime soon.

However, I do see an alternative angle. What if there was a way to discount “upgrades”?

Let’s take Tweetie for example. When Tweetie 2 was introduced, what if Atebits/Loren could have said “charge $3 for those whom don’t have Tweetie 1, but charge $1 for those whom do have it.”?

I haven’t thought this through that much at all, as I’m sure is obvious, but what if developers could specify that certain bundle IDs (ostensibly only their own) will qualify their applications for a different, discounted price point? So, say for example, you had:

com.atebits.Tweetie = $3
com.atebits.Tweetie2 = $3, unless a user already has com.atebits.Tweetie, in which case, $1.

This allows Atebits/Loren to:

• Continue to make [the same] money from those that had never purchased either app.
• Earn money from those whom upgrade–this wasn’t possible previously unless you forced the user to pay full price for the new app.
• Keep those whom upgrade happier by not charging them $3 all over again–this wasn’t possible previously.

This begs some interesting questions though:

• What does the UI look like for users? My thought is, iTunes could query this and just give the user whatever their relevant price is.
• What does the UI look like for developers? It shouldn’t be too hard to add a place to specify a discount ID and a price for that discounted version.
• Can you still sell Tweetie “1”? I would think not, but this does solve the problem of making it still a standalone entity in the App Store for the purposes of bug fixes, etc.

I’m sure I’m missing stuff here, but it seems like the most Apple-like answer I’ve heard or come up with.

In 2011, I was somehow able to convince my employer to send me to WWDC.  It was, without question, the most fun and inspiring week of my career.  This year, I’m going again.

There are a lot of great guides on what to make of WWDC that are available; this one is a great example.  I also compiled many last year.  Most of these guides were written by people whom have quite a bit more experience than myself.  But, I couldn’t resist the chance to throw in my $0.02.

So, let’s try to take this step-by-step.

You absolutely want to get into San Francisco sometime Sunday afternoon.  This is for a couple reasons:

• Acclimate yourself to the area and the new time zone [if applicable]
• Even more importantly, get your badge, and your swag.

You do not want to get your badge Monday morning; you’ll almost surely want to be in the keynote line long before registration opens.  More on that later.

If you’re anything like me, you’ll probably want to book a mid-afternoon flight back home on Friday–the conference pretty much shuts down by lunchtime¹.  For those on the east coast like myself,  you can usually avoid a redeye if you get an early afternoon flight, and that’s well worth it to me.  

If you don’t really care, Sunday and Friday afternoons are a great time to go explore San Francisco–in fact, expect those to be your only times.

By no means an exhaustive list, here are some of the items I would not leave at home:

• iPhone battery pack
• Laptop (an iPad is not enough)
• If you have a MacBook air, an ethernet adapter
• The long cable for your MagSafe brick
• At least enough iDevice chargers and cables to cover charging all your devices simultaneously
• Clothes to handle violently shifting weather conditions.  It will be warm, sometimes even hot, during the day.  If you’re out after sunset, it will be stunningly cold.  Wear layers.
• Extremely comfortable shoes

In 2012, the attendee registration runs from 9a - 7p.  In 2011, I went sometime around 2p and the line was very short.  The process is fairly straightforward; you provide a government ID, and you are asked (at least, in 2011) what size sweatshirty/jackety thing you want.  They then hand you a sample that hundreds of other people have tried on first, which is mildly skeevy, but also super-awesome so you know for sure what you’re, well, getting into.  Once you decide on a size, they give you your sweatshirt and your badge.

As everyone will tell you, that badge is just as important as your license/passport for the next few days.  Apple will not replace it, and if they do, expect to shell out another US$1600 for the privilege.

No, seriously.  Don’t lose it.

I didn’t know until long after arriving Sunday that often times, there are informal groups that will make a pilgrimage to the Apple Company Store on their campus in Cupertino.  I’ve heard that this is, on the whole, fairly unimpressive, but I was definitely bummed to have missed out on it.

That said, from what I’ve gathered, you cannot go anywhere on campus except the Company Store, and they have a satellite company store open in Moscone² for pretty much the duration of the conference³.  So, by no means is a trip to Cupertino requisite.

If you don’t catch wind of such a thing, don’t sweat it.  Sunday afternoon is, as I said above, one of the only times you’ll really be able to explore San Francisco.  Now is the time to meet up with friends whom happen to live in town, or generally goof off.

That said, go to bed early, as you’ll need to be up early for

I’m not sure how things are going to be this year for the keynote, but I have no reason to believe it’s going to be any different than any other year.  In 2011, I agreed with a friend to meet up in front of the Intercontinental Hotel, which is adjacent to Moscone, at 6:30a.  We expected to run to Blue Bottle Coffee and then get in line.  We walked three feet out of the hotel, and that was the end of the line.  It had wrapped nearly 100% of the way around the block, back to the entrance again.

So, if you want to be in the keynote and not the overflow room, get in line earlier than you think you’d need to, even in your wildest doomsday scenario.

The wait in line is long, it’s tiring, it’s cold, and it’s what you make of it.  Now is the time to try your darndest to be social.  There is a camaraderie amongst the line goers–everyone realizes this entire act is somewhat absurd, but that’s okay, because we’re in it together.  Even the least social among them are happy to talk to kill some time.

Unless you’re liveblogging, or your hotel is far away from Moscone, there’s no need to bring your laptop.  You won’t use it, and you’ll almost definitely have the time to pick it up after the long lunch break, before the sessions really start.

However, do not forget your iPhone battery pack.  It doesn’t matter what your battery pack of preference is; just remember to bring it.  The keynote line is long, and no matter how social you are, it’s boring.  You’ll end up playing with your phone a lot, and you’ll end up nuking your battery.  Bring a battery pack.⁴

The line has a tendency to move inches, and to do so sporadically.  This is, in most cases, due to the Apple folks telling you (with varying degrees of aggression) to move forward and generally not leave a comfortable amount of personal space between you and your other line goers.  Don’t get excited though; it’s absurdly late that they actually let you into Moscone.

Somewhere around 9:30, which seems impossibly late to me, they’ll let you into Moscone, and up the escalators to the second floor, if memory serves.  In here, you’ll find basic breakfast items like bagels, and juices.  You’ll find people will sit down in the middle of the hall, relax for a bit, and shove something in their gullet.  You’ll also find that people use this opportunity to try to line jump by sprinting any time the line is not stopped.  This is, unless you’re extremely aggressive, fruitless.  You’re almost certainly not going to make any significant improvement in your lot in life place in line.

At just a few minutes before 10, you’ll notice a lot of agitation, and a wave as people start standing up again.  This is it; you’re about to enter the keynote.

Getting into the keynote is an interesting endeavor, because people are assholes.  Especially nerds trying to get as close as they can to what they think is the most exciting moment at WWDC–the keynote.  So, what do these nerds do?  They dump their breakfast leftovers exactly where they were sitting, and leave them.  Thus, you’ll find yourself navigating a minefield of diemboweled pastries, decapitated bagels, gutted juice drinks, etc.  It’s really quite revolting, and was one of my least favorite parts of WWDC.

We’re all adults.  If you can’t find a trash can, just take the stuff with you.  It’s not hard to leave it under your chair until after the keynote, when you can dispose of it properly.

Once you navigate the minefield, you’ll go up to the third floor, and see another mad dash into the keynote room.  I would argue that mad dash is also fruitless.  However, I will also concede that if you’re going to run, now is the time to do it.  You may get a couple rows closer, but not much.

Naturally, your inclination is going to be to run to the front as quickly as possible, and sit wherever.  I’m not going to argue against that.  I will, however, propose an alternative.

In the keynote room, there is the stage in the front, but halfway back there are two large screens hanging from the ceiling.  We positioned ourselves just behind one of those screens, so we could strain and see the stage, but easily see the side screen for times when we wanted to see something up close.  That means, effectively, we watched most of the keynote on the screen, rather than straining to see the stage, which was no less than 300 miles away.  I liked this setup, and will probably attempt to repeat it this year.

Some of you may be extrapolating that there is really little benefit to getting up early, waiting in line for hours, only to look at a screen instead of the stage.  Why not go to the overflow room?  I have no answer to that question.

The keynote is pretty amazing.  Being in the same room as Steve that year, I can tell you the reality distortion field is real.  I was so amped after that presentation I didn’t know what to do with myself.

This year, I’m curious to see how things go.  I suspect the sheer spectacle of it all will have far more impact on me than I would have otherwise expected.

In 2011, if memory serves, I didn’t try very hard to get on Moscone’s WiFi.  Throughout the conference it’s actually quite good, but during the keynote everything is crippled.  I will say, however, that I had a stunningly easy time getting a reception on AT&T, especially given all the rumors as to how bad it was the year prior.

That said, do yourself a favor.  Put your phone down.  Put your iPad down.  Just watch.  This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and your 30 Twitter followers don’t care about your thoughts as you’re watching; in fact, they hate you for being there.  Just watch.

After the keynote, you’ll be pretty ready for a break, and for food.  Apple will usher everyone to at least the bottom floor of the building.⁵  Then they serve lunch.  Lunch was fairly long on Monday, if memory serves, so you’ll have time to eat, socialize, and still run back to your hotel and grab your laptop.

Generally speaking, Apple will provide two meals a day, both in the bottom/street-level floor of Moscone.  Breakfast is always fruit and bread-derived items like bagels, pastries, etc.  Juices of various flavors are provided.  They were not spectacular breakfasts, but they were by no means bad, and they were fast, which is of paramount importance as you’ll be tired and will not want to waste time doing a fancy breakfast.

Lunches are typically boxed lunches, and they typically have roughly three different kinds, each on their own tables.  Often times they are sandwiches, sometimes they are salads, and they are always decent.  A couple of them were actually really tasty.  If you’re a food snob, you’ll be disappointed.  If you consider Apple is providing you easy and “free” food twice a day for five days, you’ll be pleasantly surprised like I was.

Sessions are like nothing I’ve ever seen.  They’re led by geeks like us–you can tell this is not a part of their normal day-to-day activities.  Many of them are clearly uncomfortable in front of a large audience.  

I like to think of myself as a pretty good public speaker.  I’m almost never fazed by audiences of any size.  That said, the speakers at WWDC make me look terrible.  These sessions are so well-rehearsed and so well delivered that it’s stunning and humbling just to watch.  It’s clear anyone who presents at WWDC has spent an inordinate amount of time preparing.

There are conflicting theories as to what to do during the sessions.  There is a valid argument that the session videos are available online shortly after WWDC, so just sit back and pay attention.

I know I do best when I take notes, though, so that’s what I did.  And I did it using SubEthaEdit.  SubEthaEdit allows you to take notes collaboratively.  Someone will create a document, usually titling it with the number and name of the session.  As they type, you see it.  In nearly all cases, they’ll also make the document editable by peers, so that many people can be typing and whatnot at the same time.

No matter how god your notes may be, the notes of you and 5+ other geeks are better.

I’d definitely recommend purchasing SubEthaEdit and using it during each session.

I also took a tip of Marco’s and, on a couple of occasions, went to sessions I was at best tangentially interested in.  Those were absolutely valuable and I learned extremely interesting things during them.  Don’t feel compelled to go to every session, but definitely don’t sit around bored just because you didn’t think any sessions were that interesting.  Pick one at random and go.

Most sessions end around 5.  After that, you’re on your own on every day except Thursday, which is the bash.  You’ll often find yourself organizing dinners with friends old and new during the day or at the last minute.  If you’re type-A like myself, let go of that this week.  You’re just going to have to roll with it.

One of the best parts about WWDC is being able to meet other developers in the community.  They’re almost all universally really nice people, whom will talk to anyone.  In my experience, The Chieftan and the bar at the W Hotel were both popular watering holes.

I cannot overstate how great it was to meet a bunch of people that I now consider friends.  The social aspects are extremely fun.  No matter how nerdy/geeky/socially inept you may be, you’re amongst people whom are just as bad, if not worse.  You won’t embarrass yourself.  Make friends.

• Stump the Experts: Worth seeing once, but wasn’t that exciting unless you’re a serious Apple nerd.
• Pixar Lunch Talk: Apparently almost every year the same gentleman from Pixar⁶ comes and does a talk during lunch one day.  We’ll see if it happens this year, but if it does, go.  He’s an excellent speaker and gives you really unique and interesting insight into how Pixar works.
• Bash: Depends on the band, which creates a fun game of gossip during the week.  Free food and beers are nice, but otherwise it was… okay.  And cold.
• Finding Your Friends: Twitter is the key to communicating amongst people, though SMS does work fairly well.  I’m very anxious to see if Find My Frends actually takes off this year.
• Getting to and from SFO: I took a taxi last year, though I don’t recall how much it cost.  I’m really considering trying to take the BART this year, which I hear is easy.