Bjorn Davies visits Apple's WWDC 2007

First of all Bjorn, what is WWDC?

“WWDC is the Apple World Wide Developer Conference, where every year in June software developers, IT managers and IT technicians all get together under one roof. This year it was held in San Francisco, USA..”

So do they get a good turn out for these events?

"Five thousand people attended this year’s 5-day event.”

What happens at one of these events?

"During the five days there were 150 sessions and 90 hands-on labs, run on a strict timetable. I attended 15 of these sessions concentrating mainly on the technical strains, looking at software deployment and online learning."

Meet anyone famous?

"Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO was there. He gave a keynote presentation on the opening day, where he talked about new Apple technologies that are in the making and their anticipated release later in the year."

So, what are Apple up to?

“One of Apple’s new releases is the much talked about Apple ‘iPhone’ which is a portable touch screen phone including iPod, calendar and Safari web browser features.”

Any viable use for Swinburne staff and students?

“I looked at this phone as a learning device to help staff and students by using it as a tool rather than just a “gadget phone', the possibilities are almost endless when you have a phone that can wirelessly connect to the internet and that supports Pod Casting using the iTunes software.”

What else are Apple up to?

“The release of the Safari web browser which Apple claims performs twice as fast as Internet Explorer and 1.6 times faster than Mozilla Firefox. Apple has released a Beta version for PC users, which I am currently testing.”

Was there a main focus for the conference?

“The conference was centered on Apple’s new operating system release, ‘Leopard’ which is due to be released later this year.”

First impressions of Leopard?

“Looking through Leopard, there is no shortage of new innovative features that I can see very useful at Swinburne. One example that really stands out is a software package called ‘Time Machine’.”

Sounds intriguing. What does the ‘Time Machine’ do?

“Time machine keeps a backup copy of everything on your hard drive. A staff or student user on an Apple Mac computer is given the option to setup an external Firewire or USB drive to quickly perform a weekly or daily scheduled backup of important data files.”

“If a file is deleted by accident at any stage you can hit the ‘Time Machine’ button and “go back in time” to find all your files sorted by date and time deleted. This will prove to be a very important and extremely useful application. ‘Time Machine’ can take the chore out of performing regular back ups.”

We hear you got a staff scholarship to help you get to San Francisco.

“Yes, I was sponsored by the Apple University Consortium (AUC).”

The who?

“The Apple University Consortium (AUC). It's an organisation established to look after universities across Australia. The AUC operates a number of quality programs and initiatives that deliver many benefits to its members.”

“The AUC has helped to provide Swinburne staff subsidised positions to attend many training courses and technical conferences including annual events like Macworld WWDC and XWORLD.”

“AUC release a magazine called “Wheels For The Mind” which is a bi-annual publication, it is produced by AUC members and universities, with articles that cover new Apple products, issues facing universities, case studies on specific tools used to create solutions as well as research and other information.”

“I have been deploying this magazine to staff at the Lilydale campus, the interest and feedback I have been getting from staff is very positive so I will be deploying this magazine across all campuses in the future.”

Summing up your week - was it worth the trip?

“I found my week at WWDC to be very inspiring. I have started work on my own image-manipulating package and have started filling my inbox with iPhone research ready for its arrival in Australia later this year."

"I thoroughly enjoyed the week and found WWDC to be the best opportunity to talk with Apple engineers, to network and gain contacts with other university staff and student members and to get a firsthand peak at a lot of Apple’s latest technologies!”

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