Day 0 WWDC 2012 Recap

So last night I slept at 4am, I think because of two reasons:

  1. Still having a bad jetlag
  2. My family & friends are iMessaging & Twittering me between the hours of 11pm – 3am ๐Ÿ™‚

Few hours later at 7am, I woke up and showered. Since I had a heavy Fish’n’Chips for dinner, I decided to skip breakfast and walk all the way downtown to the Moscone West.

Moscone West

Arrived at 8.30am, and yikes! There was already a crowd in front of the convention main entrance. Pulled out my iPad, and…no free WiFi yet ๐Ÿ™ ย So there was nothing to do for 30 mins except watching the people around me that kept increasing in number.

What’s nice is that once we entered the convention hallway for registration, the Apple Events folks started clapping for us. I think that’s a nice humanly gesture.

I queued for the T-Z counter, cos I believed my name starts with Z. When it was my turn, the guy over the counter couldn’t find my conference badget. I sort of panicked a bit, then I calmly asked him, “Could it be sorted by last name?” ย And yes it was, my dear badge was actually a few counters away in the ‘i’ section. Pheww, I sighed with relief.

Cupertino

By 10.30am I was done, and was heading to the Moscone North, where a bus would take us to 1 Infinite Loop, Cupertino, Apple HQ. The bus was almost full, managed to find myself a seat at the back. The journey was quite long for a non-trafficky route, I almost fell asleep ๐Ÿ™‚

The bus arrived at 12noon in front of the Apple Visitor’s Center signboard, where next to it, the Company Store is located. Unfortunately, the Store was still closed, so again I pulled up my iPad, and yeah, at least we got free WiFi now. Spent 30mins Flipboarding, then when the crowd was allowed in, it was like those Christmas-sale opening. Being tall and calm, I saw that way in the back was an area marked “SALE”. Obviously I went to that area first, while the others were busy grabbing jackets and T-shirts arranged in the front row. Lucky for me, the items in sale were kids T-shirts, jackets, and female T-shirts. They all cost $6.99 each. I said lucky, cos I’m a married man with 2 sons so this sale row is definitely for me ๐Ÿ™‚

There was nothing much in the Company Store besides the apparels. There were electronics and books, but you can get them from Amazon too. So yeah, I just bought T-shirts and headed off for lunch.

Being on a strict fish-and-vegetarian-only diet, I only ate salads and lots of carrots ๐Ÿ™‚ ย The place was the famous BJ’s Brew House that was mentioned in Steve Job’s biography by Isaacson. The place where if you spilled the beans on what you are working on, the next day you will get a pink slip aka fired on the spot…

Security was everywhere, they were there to make sure we can only photograph the Visitor’s signboard and nothing else. It is as tightly-controlled as they say in the books.

By 2pm, we left Cupertino to head back to San Francisco. This time I really did sleep on the bus ๐Ÿ™‚ ย It was a tiring walk uphill back to the Orchard Hotel, so once I arrived, right away I showered (SanFran is really hot during the day, but cold during the night) and then jumped to the bed and zzZzz sleep…

Tomorrow (actually it’s this morning since it’s 12.30 midnight as I write this blog) will be the Keynote. I’ve heard that people go as early as 3am and sleep in front of Moscone, but that’s just crazy… I’m a little less crazier and I’ll go around 6.30 am ๐Ÿ™‚

Oh, on the way uphill back to the hotel I met a fellow Infusionite, Robert Ringham from Infusion New York. I’ll tag him here once I know his Twitter handle, so you guys can follow his tweets too.

Alrighty, let’s rest for the Keynote now…

Here are some photos from Day 0 (click to go to the Gallery):

Reader Comments (2) on “Day 0 WWDC 2012 Recap

    • haha, Geeks has always been a Microsoft Indonesia house, so as guests I have to be wary when posting non-Microsoft or critisizing Microsoft stuff. Now I have more freedom, as can be seen from the caricature, cross-platform mobile development ๐Ÿ™‚

      the caricature was from an iOS gaming talk with Mitchell. He told me to go to ODesk.com to find illustrators and actually guide their illustration as they work because the ODesk software allows you to view screenshots of the contractor’s PC/Mac. The illustrator was very talented, me and wifey only had to give him directions draw this way, make this color, add this robot for Android’s euphemism, etc.

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