Unless you're press or a booth worker, major industry trade shows can be educational, enlightening, relaxing... dare we say even
fun events that actually don't fill you with dread at their mere mention. Of course, the trade-off is that you (or your employer, if you're lucky) are then responsible for fronting the hundreds, sometimes thousands of dollars that organizations command for passes to those events. So what do you get in return apart from a few days of schmoozing with some of the most important people in your line of work and the opportunity to play with cool stuff and steal as many promotional pens and USB sticks as you possibly can? In the case of
GDC this March, attendees who sign up for either the Mobile / Handheld Summit, the iPhone Summit, or the Independent Games Summit will be gifted with their choice of a
Droid or
Nexus One, representing the hottest, latest Android gear from Motorola and HTC, respectively -- potentially prime targets for the yet-to-be-tapped 3D gaming market on the platform. With Palm
onsite, it should make for some interesting dynamics -- but then again, they're giving these things to people at an event called the "iPhone Summit," for crying out loud.
posted January 23rd 2010 10:28PM
"hi welcome to the iPhone Summit..."
Hi... so where are the iPhones?"
"Ohh i'm sorry we only have Nexus Ones or Droids, we just used the awesome name of Apple iPhone to lure you in here and pay thousands for our iPhones and AT&T bills"
"....."
@DeFlanko
Yes. Because putting an "i" before everything instantly makes it 100000x more "awesome". Honestly, I'd rather have a Droid- something created by George Motherfucking Lucas. The film artist of the 70's. That's when cellphones were MADE!
@Special Agent Steve
o.O
@DeFlanko In San Francisco (where the GDC is held) the iPhone gets *awful* service. Giving developers who go to the iPhone summit is a sneaky way of trying to woo them to develop for the other platform... and hey, now they can actually make calls and get on the web during GDC, too. :)
@Load Ran
Down here in Los Angeles - all major services are great (AT&T, Verizon, Sprint, T-Mobile).. i dont understand why everywhere else is such an issue...
@Special Agent Steve
In 30 years we can expect to all be terribly disappointed when the 'Jar-Jar-Phone' is released.
We can expect a massive flood of Nexus One's on ebay driving down the price.
@SteveJobsCEO :OOoo i thought thats iphone is doing =\
@Evan
He's rich, which = a cure actually exist
@SteveJobsCEO
You know, I see people buying unlocked Nexus Ones on eBay for $650... when it can be had straight from Google for less than that. I don't understand people.
@SteveJobsCEO
So long as those products are advertised on Google search, it's a Win Win.
@paul34 some people from outside USA are buying from ebay since google did not ship to the whole world .
@Evan
i lolled :)
@Evan what a disgusting remark. Even in jest, that's not funny.
Dang. Google's giving out these phones like they're a penny each.
@Radzik so i should be able to find them littering the street outside the conference
@cswright
I didn't say they were worthless, I don't think your gonna see many people parting with them once they get them.
@Radzik
Reminds me of this time I was a kid in a toy store and saw this rich mom buying $40 Lego sets for people coming to her kid's party as PARTY FAVORS!
If they were CDMA ready I would want one for Verizon. My Eris' lack of 2.1 software makes me sad.
@maythetechbewithyou
How's the lack of 2.anything tasting?
@Evan
Like Donuts ;)
Wow wish i'd done media and English (or whatever applicable courses) at college now so I couldve wrote for a tech blog! Blatanly nexus one imo, or blag both? I'll trade u my cake and juice?
@DiGiC
NOO, THE CAKE IS A LIE
That actually makes sense since the Iphone currently has the best apps. Giving these developers free android phones where they could port there games over with the lure of more cash without too much additional cost (since they have the phone). And ideally (for android, although would be doubtful at best,) the developers would switch to android completely. Just a guess though.
Why do people think devs need to choose one platform or the other? They make more money by selling in more marketplaces.
@Marbles
Last I heard developers were pulling out of Android as no one is making much money.
Unfortunately the people with the skills and talent to make really polished apps want a return for their efforts, and on an open source platform pricing your software seems to be a dirty practise.
That's why the iPhone and Palm Pre are burning ahead in the quality department, because they have closed marketplaces where there is only one (or two) devices that the developer need worry about, not hundreds. And the people with those devices are (for better or worse) willing to pay for the apps.
In addition both the iPhone OS and WebOS have really really good SDKs, last I saw the Android SDK was a challenge and a half to use. I don't know if this had changed but I know that personally if I wanted to become a developer I would rather use a good SDK on a limited platform where I could make money.
I guess Google really is trying to attract more developers, but honestly the platform they have created is not exactly developer friendly (rather like being a developer for Linux).
Do I have to pay to attend GDC or have a special role? Or is it all a first come basis? I'm in the SF area so getting there is a snap.
@Comment yes ofcourse you have to buy passes. The price range is from $2000 to $500. check it out here http://www.gdconf.com/attend/passes.html
did anyone just get this page instead of Engadget just now: http://img109.imageshack.us/img109/6640/wtfgy.png
@DeFlanko probably your router (do you have one?). Mine does weird things like that occasionally.
@Xcelerate
I have a DNS server... i don't trust my router tbh.... WRT310N
they need to get the firmware right on those things...
@DeFlanko
Depending on the version of your router, I recommend looking into DD-WRT. It's a third party firmware for a bunch of routers which can fix shitty standard firmware.
http://www.dd-wrt.com/site/support/router-database
Apparently there are two versions of that router, and only one is compatible with DD-WRT right now so find out which version you have and try DD-WRT if possible.
@WiiFTW
Yeah I have the v1. Is there WEB-GUI with this firmware, i never had a spare wifi router to actually test this with...
@DeFlanko
1. go to random site
2. type engadget address into address bar
3. post screen capture on comments
4. ???
5. Profit
@JeremyBenthem
I wish that happened.. its like AOL had a DNS error i swear...
@DeFlanko
Holy Crap! You need to check your email once in a while.
@insky
lol no I have my gmail potted to outlook on my desktop. Gmail dosent clear count with pop and I don't like imap.
I'm yet to see Apple give iPhones to anyone anywhere, as if they were made of gold or something.
@josesxi you clearly haven't been around long enough on Engadget... http://www.engadget.com/2007/06/28/jobs-pulls-an-oprah-12m-in-iphones-for-all-apple-employees/
too bad the developers will be too busy focusing on apple tablet gaming.
Hopefully someone taps into the power of that snapdragon.
@cherryboom
Hopefully someone taps into the power of that Cortex A8
@cherryboom wait, they expect us to call people on these? geeze and here I just text message, tether, and google maps...
If you give a developer a new toy and a good SDK they will crank out some cool stuff, regardless of whether it's an iPhone, Pre, Nexus One, etc.
Fanboyism is best left to technologically clueless end users. You know, like the Mac users who have never seen a Terminal window or the Windows users who think IE is the shit.
@xdv I don't know of any Windows fanboys who think IE is the shit. We pretty much all hate it. It's especially hated because our dumbass relatives use the broken POS "browser", which of course leads to problems... Firefox is most people's browser of choice, followed by Chrime.
@xdv i dont think ANYBODY thinks IE is the shit, in fact its a POS and imo Safari is better BUT Chrome Kicks all Ass
Not like you can exactly give away an unlocked iPhone or an iPhone period without "gifting" them with a 2-year AT&T contract :/
Sp google is gonna give away N1s at the iphone summit, And apple is gonna change the iphones default search to Bing.
This is soooo gonna get ugly!
@cherryboom.
Rumour? Then we must avoid talking about it at all cos- wait. Forget what I said, welcome to engadget.
Have a CDMA Nexus One available, and I'll go.