It's always great to visit San Francisco. It's such a cosmopolitan place. The streets are full of interesting people. Oddly a few people asked me for directions.I'm here primarily for the Apple World Wide Developer's conference which is always a blast.
Qantas flight 73 is to be recommended. A direct flight from Sydney so it's just 13 hours. The in-flight entertainment system is excellent with a great choice of current and "art-house" movies. I watched: "Pan's Labyrinth", which was great but not for the kids (explicit violence including portrails of torture); "The History Boys", strangely overacted by the "boy" characters but enjoyable; "For your consideration", deeply funny exposé of hollywood and the Acadamy awards by the guy that made "Spinal Tap"; and most of "Zodiac", which looks really great and I can't wait to see it all.
Liked the food and had an empty seat next to me, so I can't complain. Didn't get much more than a couple of hours of fitful sleep so, right now, I'm going for lots of walks trying to stay up until a reasonable bed-time so that I'll be in sync for the week ahead. Sitting in a dim room watching a presentation, even about an interesting operating system, is very sleep inducing if you are jet-lagged.
Shared a mini-bus with some locals who apologised for their president almost immediately.
Had a couple of Skype calls over the $12 / day hotel internet. Excellent quality. One time during a video conference my computer screen went to sleep and Skype crashed, it's still rather unstable on the mac for some reason.
Had a look at some products not seen in the flesh before. A Microsoft Zune, that I couldn't turn on, it just displayed a mysterious power plug icon. I guess it was flat. A Sony Reader. Lovely eInk display, readable in direct sunlight. Annoying page turn reverse flashing effect, but for reading long texts I can see a role for it.
Don't expect much detail from me on the WWDC on this blog. I honour the non-disclosure agreement that everything except the keynote will be under.
Congratulations, have a great time. And good luck with the keynote bingo.
ReplyDeleteSaw a Sony Reader here too. Agree the display is lovely but the turn page "effect" is jarring. Also I understand it is hilariously expensive. When they get it sorted out right it will sell bigtime.
I saw a Zune in Frys when I was over there last week. I tried to "squirt" a song to someone but oddly enough there were no other Zune users in the area. The user interface is definitely sexy but everything seems to be laid out in a strange way.
ReplyDelete"Don't expect much..."!? Except that 9A466 entry that's no longer there :) What happened? Apple Police find you?
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