Apple WWDC 2018 – The review
Is the WWDC 2018 edition was a great one?! All you need to know on a WWDC edition.
I’ve already been to the WWDC 2016, it was a good experience. How about this year? What differences or improvements I’ve noticed about all the WWDC environment?
The location: 7/10
Since 2017, the WWDC is back in San Jose, California. It’s about one hour and a half from San Francisco.
Last year, San Jose city didn’t get that WWDC was back, with almost 5000 engineers who have to sleep in their town. Consequently this year: hotels prices costing twice, not far away to the San Francisco prices. The best plan is to take an Airbnb apartment with other friends; this was what we did with three friends, in Santa Clara. Around $350/person, a reasonable price!
Don’t search to be near to the McEnery Center if you want to pay less. There are Lyft and Uber to commute you to the McEnery Center at a competitive price, in less than 15 minutes. It costs twice less than in France.
San Jose is a calm city. It’s much quiet with fewer people in the street. It’s a little annoying.
San Francisco has some advantages: the Golden Gate, the beach, the sea, the sea lions, parks, big companies, the city life, etc. San Francisco is also about sirens, a lot of homeless people walking around the street, street of billionaires companies and ventures capital. It’s smell poverty and money. I don’t like it so much. The gap is enormous, and the city is cringy.
In the other side, what I’ve missed the most from San Francisco are companies and tech parties: Yelp, Twitter, Airbnb, Realm, Google, etc. In San Jose, the most prominent events were Google Firebase, the Loop Bash, and the Bash itself by Apple.
Finally, you’ll rest more than if it happens in San Francisco, and it’s a good point!
The technical sessions: 8/10
Ok, there were not revolutionary software features or hardware announcements. As I said in the keynote part, it feels good to have some maturity, quality, and performance going back on Apple beta platforms. There are no massive breaking APIs or changes. I appreciated that, in a world of fast & chaotic APIs evolutions.
I have to admit that I expected new UICollectionView APIs (who like the UICollectionView APIs uh?), new “safe” or Swifty localization files, or massive improvements in Xcode completion. Maybe next year it will be better. Perhaps the calm before the storm?
The technical sessions were great: perfect timing, the music (even a DJ!) slides, streaming videos, electrical outlets near to the seats, staff showing you free places, sober & dark decoration to be focused on talks, etc. The quality of Apple products are also into their talks, and it is very appreciable.
The lunch sessions: 10/10
I’ve not assisted to lunch sessions in 2016. Shame on me. This year, there were three great sessions:
- Mapping Archeology from Space: Using high-res satellite and drone imagery, Sarah Parcak uses subtle variations in the Earth’s surface as a clue to potential hidden human-made features beneath. People around the world can contribute to analyze and validate data on GlobalXPlorer for possible unknown civilizations.
- Unleashing the Power of Kids, UNICEF: I’ve not assisted to this one, I had to go to labs & technology labs instead. My friends told me that it was a great one. Rajesh Anandan, the founder of UNICEF USA’s Ventures group, shared insights from innovative youth empowerment programs from Kampala to Kathmandu to Klamath Falls, including UNICEF Kid Power, which launched the world’s first Wearable-for-Good that was named one of Time’s 25 Best Inventions.
- The art of science, Bringing Pixar’s Imagined Worlds to Life. The best one! What a talk! Danielle Feinberg, director of Photography for Lighting at Pixar, told us ere life story about creating unique worlds like no one has seen before. She mentioned the importance of lighting to make life, authenticity, and emotions happened on 3D objects and animation movies.
It’s just a shame that Apple doesn’t capture lunch sessions, it’s like the greatest TED talks!
The staff & organization: 9/10
The WWDC staff is pretty cool and playful, perhaps a little too much. We have to admit that they want you enjoying your week, as never before.
We can recognize them with their orange t-shirts and their smiles. They were around 500, and it was a pleasure to be guided every day & morning. You never lose your time by searching for something. They motivate you on the keynote waiting queue at 5 am, they were dancing, etc.
The food: 5/10
I’m French, so by default, when I’m abroad, it’s disgusting 😅.
Fooding 5000 people by offering quick ordering with good quality are very hard. It’s not tasty, but it was better than in 2016.
Lunch boxes were correctly placed at the ground level. So you can grab your box with no precipitation. In 2016, people were like savages, and food tables were badly positioned in the Moscone Center.
I noticed much fruits and vegetables this year in the morning, fewer donuts and less sugar food. Take a healthy breakfast was possible!
There were also snacks (M&M’s, Snickers, popcorn, etc.) in the afternoon, but you have to move at an incredible speed to grab one or two!
Final words: too many cinnamon desserts!!! Please stop making embedded cinnamon food! 😫
The company store: 7/10
It opened on Tuesday morning. Making the queue is about one-hour waiting. Keep calm and buy T-shirts!
This year was pretty good because T-shirts have a better-made quality, various colors, and models. But stocks were very, very limited and they disappeared as they arrived. Almost Large & Medium sizes were not available anymore in the middle of the first day. Go sooner next time!
For the future edition, I think Apple must offer a T-shirt in addition to Levi’s jacket, or ask developers their size/model during their applications. It will be a better experience & attention.
Internet & services: 7/10
Same as food: connect thousand and thousands of devices is a big challenge: Apple Watch, iPhone, Mac Book, etc.
The bandwidth was around 100mb/s! Excepted during the first days of the week: the majority of developers was downloading the new Xcode and macOS / iOS betas. USB-C adapters, Thunderbolt 2 adapters, electrics outlets, everything is here to enjoy your download time. Perhaps some European electric outlets will be cool :)
The WiFi did his best, and I remember a better experience at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, with almost no lagging. During conferences & sessions, it was practically saturated every time in the McEnery halls.
Finally: too much music. Really. From the morning, the entire journey with HomePods inside, the sessions, the end of the day or concerts: my ears were crying. Perhaps a little too much.
The Bash: 8/10
The Bash happened on Thursday night, excepted the music band, it was awesome!
Food was excellent, delicious, with three food types. Attended queues were not massive, and the staff was perfect too. I had no difficulties to take food and beers quickly.
The park — which is approximately 3 minutes walking from the McEnery Convention Center — is a great place. You have this cliché about planes above your head, landing at SJC airport. Lights decoration was perfect by night, with a lot of vibrant colors. There were also a lot of games!
The band, Panic at the disco!, is the classical type of Californian/rock band that Apple usually invites every year. In 2016 it was Good Charlotte. I compare it as teenagers band.
Sorry Apple, but please make some efforts about music band at WWDC! Google IO had Justice this year!
The labs & technical labs: 6/10
Frustration. It’s the final word for the labs. Here’s why.
Firstly, the engineers’ answers. At the App Store Connect labs, some engineers are searching for answers on their Mac, they hesitate and give you approximative feedback.
The worst was when I asked this question to the Search Ads engineers:
- “When search ads will be available in Europe, like France?”.
- Here the answer: “I think it’s on the roadmap, maybe it will be available this quarter”.
Sorry guys, but when I was back in France, I watched the Search Ads session, which I couldn’t assist during the week. And you know what? “Search ads will be available this summer in Italy, Spain, France, Germany, South Korea and Japan”. Seriously guys?! Even Apple engineers are not aware of new features or launches. It’s a shame. The good point is about timing. You can take an appointment with the WWDC app. You will have your slot at a time for 15 minutes, exactly.
Next, the technical labs. Each day you have twelve areas. Each area was about a framework or a technology. There were no appointments. That makes sense because there are more questions from code & frameworks compared to marketing and Store ones. The problem with a slot of 4 hours on the morning — about UIKit & UICollectionView, with great sessions at the same time — was the difficulty in discussing with Apple engineers. I had the same feeling as in the Apple Store of Opera in Paris: engineers who are available but are doing something else on their Mac, looking at you, or ignoring the fact that there is a significant waiting queue. It does not make sense when you pay a $1499 ticket. Most of the time, they tell you that it’s too late because it will be closed in 30 minutes, or the queue was too long, and you give up.
Too much frustration.
Excepting that, the organization — from whiteboards to open-spaces and thematic variety — was excellent.
I remember a better appointment experience in 2016: starting at 7 am, you had to take an appointment on the app for technical labs. That way, you were sure to talk to an Apple engineer.
Final review: 7.5/10
Everything cannot be perfect with an event of this size. Even if I’ve noticed imperfections and few bad experiences, the WWDC 2018 was a great edition.
Apple made a lot of efforts, starting from the venue, the people flow, technical areas, etc. The organization was pretty impressive. Developers from the WWDC 2017 told me that they’ve noticed some organization improvements too.
This year, I feel better having paid a $1499 ticket. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed the event.
Thank you, Apple.
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