Reporter's Notebook - Day #2 in WWDCville

by , 6:10 PM EDT, June 11th, 2008

Day Number two brought continued realization that Apple as a corporation, with all its engineering resources, is into the iPhone in a big way. This is not a hobby, folks.

Tuesday was the third day in a row with cloudless blue sky and the temperature in the 70s. (F). It's not uncommon for the weather to be like this in San Francisco, and I love it. For once, I didn't need a jacket in the evening when going to dinner. I am told that it was cooler and rainier back in May for Java One, but June in S.F. seems always just scrumptious.

On Tuesday afternoon, Bertrand Serlet, Apple's Senior Vice President for Software Engineering spoke on the state of OS X. Maybe I'm getting used to his French accent or maybe he's been practicing. Either way, I didn't have nearly as much trouble syncing with his speech pattern. Sometimes, if you fall out of sync, you realize that Bertrand is speaking English, but you didn't understand a word he said. Think about pronouncing the word register the same as the word transistor.

Later, I would realize that Apple has provided power outlets in the presentation rooms. They're strapped to the back of the chair legs, and they make it easier to keep the MacBook fully juiced all day long. Attendees find it almost compulsory to time share on their Macs in the presentations, and this thoughtful addition was fabulous.

For the first time in awhile, I engaged in the dining hall food for breakfast and lunch. Breakfast consisted of rows and rows of bagels with cream cheese, donuts and all the juice one could want. Breakfast was good, for me at least, a big bagel fan.

For lunch, we have several choices for what would be in the plastic box that I have lamented in the past: typically chicken-something sandwich or salad, meat sandwich (South Beach diet) or something vegetarian. For the meals I selected, there was typically some pasta with capers and a cookie or some fruit in the other compartments. The pasta was cool and clearly the sandwich had been refrigerated before being put out on the tables. All in all, I can't complain this year about the food. And there was plenty of room to sit and sip on oodles of (canned) lemonade.

Network Operations Center

Maybe it was there in years past, but I never noticed the displays for the Network Operations Center that show the network activity in the hall. Despite the inscrutable nature of the graphs, one thing was clear this year: Internet access via Wi-Fi was a breeze, seldom interrupted and widely available. Yea for Apple. They got that important part very, very right for perhaps the first time in Moscone West.

It's my perception that a lot of the problems of year's past have been fixed this year. So far, everyone seems to be spending time focusing a lot on iPhone development and not bitching about problems with the conference infrastructure.

Finally, I can't emphasize it enough. Apple as a company is behind the iPhone in a big way. The business opportunities for developers are enormous. The Mac will be around for a long time, but in some ways, this feels like the transition from Classic to Mac OS X. If you're not on the iPhone development bandwagon, prepare to be left behind by companies that will be making a lot of money.