WOWODC West 2009

WOWODC West 2009 will occur the weekend preceding WWDC (June 6-7) in San Francisco. From where I sit it looks like it’s going to be amazing. I’ve been talking to Pascal and the presenters list looks stellar (and I’m not saying that just ’cause I’m on it).

Like WWDC, I find WOWODC as valuable for the people and contacts I get to make as they are for the session content, but I have to say I’m pretty jazzed about the sessions at WOWODC West this year. I’m also glad that the community has been able to step up and fill in the gap left by WebObject’s anemic showing in the official WWDC’s sessions.

If you work with WebObjects I think you really owe it to yourself to attend WOWODC West this year. Full details are available on the WOCommunity website. If you are thinking of attending, book soon, the early bird pricing (a $50 savings) ends May 6th.

See you there!

Lunch Bag Letdown…

Rogers announced their voice/data plans for the iPhone last week and to say I am disappointed is an understatement.

I will need to get an iPhone in the near future, my business and clients will demand it, but these plans are completely insane.

I have no idea what the folks at Rogers were thinking, but obviously none of it was good. You can find plenty of analysis of the plans on the web so I won’t go into that here, but for me the plans make no sense.

They are bundles of voice and data at arbitrary points without any of the flexibility that I require. What happens if I want more than the base level of voice minutes (150 minutes?!?) but without increasing my data? Where is the network calling? Where is the long-distance options?

The only thing that I can think of is that these plans are intentionally simplified to reduce the load on the CSRs for the initial launch of the phone. No options equals less questions and less time activating the phone. I’d like to think there is a reason beyond pure stupidity and greed, but maybe I’m being too generous…

Anyways, I am now left with this decision:

Do I buy the phone, lock in at the lowest plan, because I’m going to need to start developing on it soon anyway, and hope for things to get better?

Or do I say FU Rogers and wait. The spectrum auction is coming, maybe we’ll get a new GSM carrier without their collective heads wedged up one of Ted Rogers’ orifices. Maybe voting with my dollars will join the others that are feeling the same way and give Rogers a wake up call.

Regardless, I am conflicted and saddened…

WOWODC & WWDC 08

In no particular order, some of my favorite things:

WWDC08 Sold Out

The news that WWDC has sold out is causing some consternation in the Apple Dev community. The unexpected news (due to the rising popularity of the platform and the introduction of the new iPhone track at WWDC?) has caught a number of developers off guard. Accustom in past years of being able to register right up to the last minute, many are now scrambling to find tickets.

I’ve read several posts to various dev lists in the past hour containing plaintive pleas for anyone offering WWDC tickets to sell.

iPhone coming to Canada… soon…

From 680News Radio (yeah radio how quaint):

“We’re thrilled to announce that we have a deal with Apple to bring the iPhone to Canada later this year. We can’t tell you any more about it right now, but stay tuned,” said Ted Rogers, president and CEO of Rogers Communications Inc., in a statement issued today.

That’s just great. Potentially 8 more months to wait…