I'm back from WWDC now, and am in the process of moving into a shiny new 17" MacBook Pro with the high-res screen. A rather nice machine. I ordered it the day it was released, the Tuesday before WWDC, but unfortunately it didn't arrive till I was already at WWDC. Oh well... I'll have it for next time! :)

Anyway, it was a good week. I met many developers, including well-known people like Steven & Cabel of Panic (who I had met before, and who most deservedly won an Apple Design Award for Coda for Best Mac OS X User Experience); plus Daniel Jalkut of Red Sweater Software, Ken Case of The Omni Group, plus many other developers.

I've already talked about the Stevenote, and of course can't talk about the conference sessions, other than to say that I'm excited about Leopard, and am looking forward to leveraging its features in future versions of my apps.

WWDC has a number of interesting official and unofficial evening events. I enjoyed the sfMacIndie event on Sunday night, the official reception Monday night, the Apple Design Awards and Stump the Experts Tuesday night, the CocoaHeads gathering at the Apple store Wednesday night, and the WWDC Bash Thursday night.

Check out the photos of my trip to San Francisco and (non-NDA'ed) parts of WWDC.

So, I'm at WWDC currently. I've enjoyed meeting fellow developers (and several Dejal product users) around the conference center, at the sfMacIndie event, and the WWDC reception tonight.

I managed to get an okay seat for the Stevenote, a little back from the center of the room... but in a good position to see the repeater screens. I thought it was an interesting keynote, but with few surprises. I know some people are disappointed, but perhaps they had too high expectations?

So, how'd I do with my predictions? Let's see:

• No hardware announcements: I was right with this one.
• Possibly updated displays: nope... but not too surprising.
• We might see a demo of iLife 07 and/or iWork 07: nope.
• Steve will no doubt mention the iPhone, but there won't be a SDK: yep, called that one. I know this is disappointing for many people, but as I said, that may come later.
• Steve will spend most of his time talking about Leopard: sure did.
• The Finder might be rewritten: yes, though it seems more of a cosmetic overhaul than a full rewrite.
• I've love to see more multi-touch features in the OS, but I don't think we're ready for that yet: yeah, no mention of that... oh well, it was a faint hope!
• Maybe improved syncing features, to fit in with the iPhone: I seem to recall some mention of this?
• The ZFS thing has been a popular rumor of late, but I have no idea whether that will eventuate: no mention of this, so perhaps it didn't... or perhaps Steve was annoyed by the "leak".
• Probably some cosmetic changes in Leopard - using the newly fashionable dark metal styling for all windows, and other UI improvements: yes indeedy. I do like the dark metal, so a unified OS-provided look is a very good thing.
• Probably no major new programmer APIs: so it would seem.

I seem to have done alright. Of course, my predictions were based on an aggregation of rumors, so hardly a reflection of my own prognostication abilities.

Anyway, on with the WWDC week... though of course I can't write about anything else discussed in the sessions.

Just another few days before WWDC07 kicks off!

I will be attending WWDC again this year, and am looking forward to the Stevenote, the various gatherings of Mac developers, and the conference sessions themselves.

There have been lots of rumors of what Steve Jobs will announce on Monday. For what it's worth, here are my guesses - not based on any inside information (I haven't run a Leopard seed since last year's WWDC), but based on rumors I've read, etc:

• No hardware announcements: I don't see an updated iMac at WWDC, being a consumer machine. It is overdue, but will probably be updated at a later date.
• Though updated displays could be possible, with iSight integration, since the standalone iSight is no longer available. I kinda hope not, since I just bought a 23" display!
• We might see a demo of iLife 07 and/or iWork 07 (or will they call it 08, or something else?), but they won't be available till Leopard is out.
• Steve will no doubt mention the iPhone, but there won't be a SDK. I wouldn't want them to release one yet; better to lock down the features and let people become familiar with the phone before allowing third-party development for it.
• Steve will spend most of his time talking about Leopard.
• The Finder might be rewritten. I personally use Path Finder, a great third-party replacement Finder, but Apple's Finder is definitely in need of improvement.
• I've love to see more multi-touch features in the OS, but I don't think we're ready for that yet. I'd really like to see something like Microsoft Surface, done the Apple way.
• Maybe improved syncing features, to fit in with the iPhone.
• The ZFS thing has been a popular rumor of late, but I have no idea whether that will eventuate. Even if it is the default disk format, that won't necessarily affect existing disks, though, so it doesn't seem like too big a deal to me.
• Probably some cosmetic changes in Leopard - using the newly fashionable dark metal styling for all windows, and other UI improvements.
• Probably no major new programmer APIs; Apple would have had to tell us about them before now, to give developers time to get up to speed. But you never know.

Anyway, I could be totally wrong... but those are my guesses. We'll see in just a few days!

I will be wearing one of the several Dejal shirt designs, like the pictured one, so if you're there and see me, come up and say hi! Here's what I look like, too.

I will be at the sfMacIndie event on Sunday night, and hope to meet many fellow indie developers there. I might go to Buzz's party Monday night, or just hang out at the official WWDC reception. And I'll be around for the rest of the week, too.

Should be a great week!

I've just purchased the conference ticket, and booked the hotel and airfare for Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference, coming in June.

Last year was my first attendance, though I'd been meaning to go for years. I enjoyed it, met a bunch of interesting people, and learned useful things about Leopard etc at the sessions, so I wanted to go again this year.

This year's conference should be very interesting again, with Leopard likely being released either shortly before or (more likely) at the Stevenote.

I look forward to meeting more Mac developers at WWDC this year. I'll probably wear Dejal logo shirts, so if you're there and see me, come up and say hi!