Apple Posts WWDC 2012 Session Videos for Developers

WWDC Videos on iPad (UX)

The User eXperience of watching WWDC session videos on the iPad has always been a thorn in my side.

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. Yikes!

Does no one at Apple dogfood their own learning application with their own content?

With the free session videos available the last few years, there's no longer a reason to attend WWDC in person. Attendance is sure to plummet! ;)

As an attendee of the recent WWDC 2012, there's many things that you're missing beyond the session videos:

- networking and learning in person with other iOS and Mac OS X developers
- QA sessions after each session
- Special lunch time sessions which are not on video
- access to the onsite Apple labs and 1000+ Apple engineers
- Apple awards ceremony
- discounts from companies like the BigNerdRanch.com
- WWDC Bash
- Stump The Experts
- and so on

In short, I felt that I received my money's by having direct access to Apple engineers and being able to network with other developers. It's only once a year and it's always good to invest in ones career.

I miss the other posts about new macs. NOw they seem to be a lot about software thatI don't use :/ oh well I hate complaining.

Doesn't seem like you hate complaining too much...

The good thing about attending... I was forced to stay focused and take in a good amount. Other than the time I spent in the labs with the engineers, I don't think I will go next year.

I've experienced the frenzy, stood in line for hours and... thats about it.

Attendance is sure to plummet! ;)

You would think! It's amazing that it sells out and fills up so quickly as it does.

I can not find them on iTunes. :(

You reach them through the developer site, so if you haven't a dev login create one (Safari dev or students are free, Mac & iOS have a paid account (that gives you access to betas and the Stores))

You've got to love Apple and the push they gave years ago to take control of their dev platform (moving away from Codewarrior and others to develop Xcode). Those videos are really interesting and if you're not a dev you might want to download the couple of introductory videos about the platform and the dev tools to see the amount of work Apple has been putting preparing the future.