WWDC 2012 Session Videos
developer.apple.com
developer.apple.com
Back when the 2011 videos were new, I downloaded them all to my computer (in Standard Definition) and synced them all to my iPad so that I would have immediate offline access to them all should I find myself with a free hour to spend.
Sadly, the Videos application has one horrible UX problem: the names of each session video was very long, but the label in Videos is too short, and so they all endup being truncated, like "Session 205 - Introducing Collection Vi...". Even in landscape, mind you! Half of the screen was wasted with a graphic that added no useful information.
Halfway through the year, things got a lot better when the "iTunes U" app was released, and browsing the 2011 videos immediately became much better. The Videos app still has the same usability issue (and I think they should still fix it), but the iTunes U app is better so at least I can avoid the bad app.
Well, last night I downloaded the 2012 session videos and synced them over to my iPad, and now iTunes U has a horrible UX, because the videos from 2011 and 2012 are all mixed in the same list, and there's no way to tell from the session title which year it came from.
It's as if no one at Apple dogfoods their own applications with their own content.
Edit: just to be clear, none of my complaint here is about iTunes or the iTunes store. Those applications (though I admit the former is a bloated dumping-ground of features) have always behaved perfectly for me. Rather, I'm specifically refering to the "iTunes U" mobile app (see link below) and the "Videos" app that is bundled on the iPad.
Searching the iTunes store is horrible, particularly on an iPad or iPhone. More often than not it is easier to use Google on a browser to search the iTunes store.
Importing content into iTunes is equally fraught with issues. I had to import a library of hundreds of music CDs from Windows Media. Thousands of songs. iTunes refused to maintain the grouping of songs per album (as they show-up in Windows Media) and required manually editing and sorting of thousands of songs in order to clean-up the mess. I understand that it has to do with metadata issues, but if MS can do it iTunes ought to be far more intelligent and do it right and offer to auto-magically fix the issues during import.
This is very similar to what happened with XCode 4. Before XC4 browsing documentation was a good experience. Now they chose to overload the iTunes-ish Organizer with all manner of things, including documentation. Now browsing the docs is ugly and difficult. It sucks.
What I'd like to see is for iTunes to return to being the best app for managing your music while new specialized apps are introduced to manage your iPhone and other content.
Remember the old UNIX philosophy: Write programs that do ONE thing and do it well. Whoever is in charge of overall software development at Apple (both apps and dev tools) needs to have this drummed into him. Preferably with a large hammer. ;-)
The videos for sessions 600 and 601 would be good if you are developing web apps.
https://deimos.apple.com/WebObjects/Core.woa/BrowsePrivately...
adc.apple.com looks down from here: http://www.downforeveryoneorjustme.com/adc.apple.com
EDIT: Nevermind, I watched the videos on the iPad and will download the others tonight on my iMac.
edit: Nevermind, I think it was my SSD running out of space. Still waiting for that damn retina macbook ;).
Can someone explain what's the benefit of doing it that way? I'm on Windows (Ubuntu also, in a VM) running Chrome. Sure, I could install Safari or iTunes, but why do I have to? (And don't say "So you can watch the videos.")
It's fine, I'm barking up the wrong tree here TBH. Apple makes it clear that they want you to use their products to view this developer stuff. It's the same type of lock-in that others try to do, so they're not the only guilty party. Just unfortunate when companies do that.
I'll go and install iTunes.
It's also probably more convenient to them: they have this huge system for content delivery through iTunes, so they might as well use it.
That said, from a promotional aspect, it would make more sense to have the videos readily available for Windows/Linux users also, so they can lust over the development options for Cocoa/iOS.
It's not like they wont have to buy a Mac to program for it anyway, so it would do Apple no harm to lure them with openly available videos.
I already know what I want to watch so iTunes is good enough. But maybe it's just me.
But happy watching. It's a great resource, every year.
Keeping out the riff raff? Those videos are targeted at Mac developers, not people having issues with Safari and/or iTunes.
>I'm on Windows (Ubuntu also, in a VM) running Chrome. Sure, I could install Safari or iTunes, but why do I have to?
Just because those are the prerequisites Apple made for watching them.
That said, I think you can also watch them without Safari for streaming (you just need Quicktime IIRC), but downloading them needs iTunes.
Can we please stop with the "zOMG my data!!1" whenever someone asks for a registration?
That said, these complaints about registering to access proprietary data always struck me as a bit silly.
However, the actual documentation and tools don't require an account to access. Just conference content.
You'd be surprised. They might have some videos and material for free (as does Apple, btw), but lots of other development stuff from them requires an MS/Google account.
BUT even if they weren't under NDA this is totally ok! Going to the conference would have cost you minimum 1 week time and >1500$. You get all of this for free after only four days the conference happened. The only thing they ask for is an account and you are complaining about this? I will never understand such attitude!
Including this very site.