A WWDC Preview

Apple Matters will be reporting live from the keynote. Bookmark live.applematters.com

The Apple World Wide Developer’s Conference will be held at the Moscone Center West in San Francisco next week, from the 7th to the 11th of August. For those who are unaware of this annual Apple song-and-dance show, the WWDC is where Apple hosts thousands of hardware and software developers every year to showcase new products, provide practical “how to” sessions, provide consultation at hands-on labs and generally show the world how cool Apple really is.

Apple Matters will have coverage from the actual event next week. For now, in case you wanted to go and couldn’t make it, or didn’t want to go but are still interested, or if you are going but haven’t bothered to find out why here is a preview of the WWDC 2006.

Technical Sessions and Hands-on Labs
This year, the WWDC will feature over 150 technical sessions in a variety of different tracks from Graphics and Media to OS Foundations. The sessions will include straight-up presentations by Apple engineers as well as hands-on sessions for learning better coding strategies and leveraging Apple’s core technologies such as Spotlight and Quartz Composer. Of course, the key presentation sessions involve overviews of new stuff developers can expect from Mac OS X Leopard.

The WWDC will also feature 35 hands-on labs for developers to solve specific problems and get specific technical questions answered by Apple engineers.

Special Events
Monday morning is the big event—Steve Jobs will give the keynote address when he will preview all the cool things we expect—Leopard, new iPods, Mac Pros—and also many things we did not expect, but will surely hear the rumor sites claim credit for later. That night is reserved for a reception where Apple geeks from around the world will eat, drink, hobnob and network as they begin to truly comprehend the power of the new developments announced that morning.

Tuesday night features the Apple Design Awards ceremony, which will be used in marketing of all kinds of products for many years. This ceremony is held annually by Apple to honor developers who have created products that demonstrate true technical excellence. From Best OS X Game to Best Dashboard Widget to Best User Experience, there is a wide range and the each prize consists of 2 MacBooks, 2 23-inch Cinema Displays, and free exhibitor space at MacWorld 2007. Maybe you should try your luck next year.

Apple also has a trivia contest called “Stump the Experts” where you get to be the only guy who knows the date that the original Apple ][c was released—if you have been paying attention to This Day in Apple History, that is.

The Rumors
The Apple rumor cycle is perpetual—it does solely depend upon events like the WWDC. The WWDC, however, does contribute to the cycle—it refreshes it. We lose all the old rumors, or many of them at least, and get a whole set of new ones based on the new developments.

For example, if Steve Jobs was to announce a iPod Camera that would put that rumor to rest (if, in fact, it exists), but it would give rise to new rumors of the iPod Video Recorder. Similarly, most OS 10.5 rumors will be put to rest but a new set of wants/needs/must-haves/rumors for 10.6 will arise.

For those keeping score at home, and clearly there are many of us—John Siracusa at ArsTechnica has the WWDC keynote bingo card that people in the audience should be playing. The card has squares with most of the cool (and not-so-cool) rumors surrounding the event- cross out the ones that Steve Jobs announces. If someone shouts “BINGO!” during the keynote, you know the rumor-mill really got it right this time. Of course, a more interesting exercise may be to compose the WWDC Bingo sheet for next year.

So that should keep you going until the 7th. Come back for regular updates before, after and live from the event.