Most of the people at iDev were iOS developers, from deeply experienced to just starting out, along with some of those who employ them, or were looking to. It was a very male experience, but the few women there (I think seven?) obviously footed it with the blokes and knew their stuff - I would encourage more women in this field to attend events like these, as it sure makes for a big brain buzz, not to mention much fostering of business opportunity.
The first session I sat in on was on Siri, which was really fascinating. Obviously, developers here are very keen to harness the power of Siri to deploy voice-assisted apps that would appeal to New Zealanders and to their audiences at large.
Unfortunately Siri is still in Beta, so Apple hasn't properly released any information about it, but it was interesting to hear a dissection of it hosted by Polar Bear Farm's Layton Duncan (who travelled from Christchurch).
There was some knowledge shared of some code that came out before the official launch, discussion about the New Zealand accent and speculation about where Siri might go once developers are allowed to get their eager hands on it.
A later session discussed some new programming tricks that iOS 5 introduced. This was fascinating too.
OK, I have to admit that to me it was virtually unintelligible. But it was interesting watching experts dissect stuff like ARC, memory releasing and storyboarding - whatever any of that is - meanwhile adding and sharing their knowledge into the general pool. It was clear that some people really learnt some useful stuff and considering some of these people compete to win development contracts, it was really nice to see the knowledge being passed around in spirit of cooperation.
A guy from Cactus Labs had the floor on this, but some sessions were just people sitting in a circle and all adding in their own perspectives.
The fully catered lunch was good, and much appreciated by the attendees. (I must admit I missed this as I dashed out to Albany for a real coffee. My caffeine addiction is a hard master - Jade promised to sort the coffee situation out for the Sunday).
After lunch, the session on education was especially enlightening, with Albany Senior High's deputy principal Mark Osborne offering a useful justification of device-independent, open-source and web-based tools in modern education. I've always been fascinated with technology where it interfaces with education, so I was all ears.
There's a useful story about this concept in the Education Gazette, if you are interested.
Dr Nicola Ward Petty from Rogo, also up from Christchurch, added some great insights both here and in the app demo session which gathered about 75 per cent of the attendees. I saw Furrit, a community-assisted info dissemination service, and Combat Skies being shown off, too - all NZ-built apps.
Remember that every hour, four sessions were run simultaneously, with participants encouraged to move around if a session wasn't offering what they wanted and to add their two-cents-worth when they could. It's an excellent forum for passing information around, fostered both by the offices of Jade, the school environs and the remarkably well-informed Nat Torkington, who offered interesting information in every session I saw him show up in.
My final session of the day was about Near Field Communication, widely expected to make it in to iPhones ... some time. NFC lets you exchange information wirelessly within a very short range of about 5cm, with payments being one sought-after option for the tech. Imagine waving your phone at a terminal and boomph! You've paid for it.
Even better, imagine waving someone else's phone at a terminal and they've paid for it ... yeah, there are some issues to work through with NFC. A bloke called Robert O'Brian had a frightening (ok, 'wonderful') depth of knowledge on this subject. Many of the attendees then headed to a bar in town for drinks, with the first round on Jade.
All good - I already anticipate next year's. But I didn't make it to the Sunday - niece's birthdays and a photographic exhibition to hang.
iDev is an exceedingly worthy cause, and key to fostering our iOS talent - I did note a couple of people there offering to port iOS apps to Android, and a Windows Phone developer who was just curious.
But for a insider's take on the whole event, including the Sunday, check out Sam Jarman's blog.
Meanwhile, things to look forward to include a new Apple Reseller, iStore, opening on Hurstmere Road in Takapuna before Christmas (from the excellent Wired Dog people), and some cool specials around for the Christmas season, including an Auckland online backup service called iBus.
But for more on that, check out my personal macnz blog.
- Mark Webster
