WWDC2014
developer.apple.com
developer.apple.com
What you get now: 1. Session vids come out same day or very soon after. 2. No more Q&A. 3. Keynote is live streamed. 4. Same cheap jacket, just a different number (representing the year) on the back.
What you've always had, and will continue to get: 1. Access to the labs. Good if you have a problem that can't be answered in any other manner. 2. Networking with other devs over lunch and after-conference events.
If you don't need the labs, and aren't going to be all that social, save yourself $1600.
(EDIT: don't know who's downvoting you for asking a reasonable question. Have an upvote to offset it.)
So only go if you have substantial and important questions to ask to help you solve some problem – and, as always (and unavoidably) with any conference, for networking. The cost is there to further encourage you not to waste that opportunity.
1. All the information. This has historically been very important, but Apple's getting faster and faster at putting out videos these days, so if you just want the sessions, you can save a lot of money by watching them from home. 2. Direct access to Apple engineers in the labs. Depending on your needs, this can either be irrelevant, or it can be priceless. 3. Networking. A lot of people at WWDC don't even bother going to a session every time slot and instead wander the halls talking to people (plus all the time set aside for socializing, such as lunch, after hours, and the few minutes in the halls between sessions).
I sat down with an Apple engineer who did not have a firm grasp on the English language, and he pulled out his laptop and googled my question right in front of me. He clicked the first Stack Overflow post, saw it didn't have the answer I was looking for, and sent me on my way.
Words cannot describe the rage I had at that moment.
Googling or using Stack Overflow to answer someone's question is simply wrong. Even if it was a really basic introductory question.
One year I was working on a kernel driver and I got acquainted with several Apple kernel driver developers during labs at WWDC. After the conference I could email them directly when I had issues. That was extremely valuable compared to going through Apple's official technical support incidents.
I'm not entirely sure why pretty much every piece of Apple marketing these days involve short, staccato sentences of incomplete "sentences", but it's really annoying.
In addition, text as images ,_,
EDIT: An example of how to deal with this. Say you can't go, but know someone who can. Coordinate with the individual to contact the hotel. Tell the hotel reservation manager that you're wanting to transfer the reservation to another name/CC. Have the second person contact them (likely need your reservation # that you originally got) and give the hotel the info (like CC, name, address). You can contact the hotel afterwards to confirm that the transfer has occurred and that you're no longer on the hook for the room.
This is also a useful trick for getting out of leases early. They transfer the lease to the new person's name and you don't have to break it.
Perhaps when the actual lottery occurs we could have a thread to do that.
They will showcase the platform to develop apps for the iWatch.
My parents for example both have iPhones, but neither of them would wear a watch unless it really had some extra special usefulness. What is the killer feature? I feel like the Pebble has proven that the killer feature is not that obvious because a lot of Pebble users say they stopped wearing it.
I imagine Apple will take a similar life-data approach, especially with the rumors around Healthbook (http://9to5mac.com/2014/03/17/this-is-healthbook-apples-firs...).
Much more likely is that we'll finally see an Apple TV SDK. If there is an iWatch this year, my money is on it starting out as a "hobby" just like the Apple TV did (and is presumably about to graduate from).
2. An iPhone, unlocked from Apple in the US starts at $649.
3. An iPad Air, from Apple starts at $499.