iPhone Tech Talk @ Wilshire Grand Hotel

8:10am PT - I registered and they gave me the agenda for today which comes with 3 simultaneous sessions. I already know what session I'm gonna take and it will start at 9ish... and yeah, this hotel has free WiFi.. yey!

9:00am PT - Due to NDA, we cannot blog anything about the tech talk, or even take pictures or video. It is really a 'confidential' event. I met some interesting people, one who's a game developer, and one who works in Cisco. There's a few women in the room and we told ourselves that we should REPRESENT =) According to the evangelist, he was not expecting that they would receive such a great response. The room was full and I think it can hold up to 500 attendees. The tech talk world tour kicked off a couple of days ago and it started in San Francisco. I tried to look it up last night for any reviews but I didn't get any.. and yeah, it's because of the NDA ;)

12:00nn PT - The session was insightful as they gave out tips on how to create a GREAT, innovative and delightful iPhone apps. The evangelist told us that they have a 'thank you' gift for us. WOW! thanks Apple.. and did I say that this event is FREE! I opened the gift while having lunch at Panda Express and the shirt is by American Apparel.... Fancy! it's one of the fave shirts of Jen Aniston ;)

1:00pm PT - I just learned Objective C and Cocoa Touch and it's pretty similar to C++. I'm planning to get a book to get things started. Strike while the iron is hot, right? They also showed us how to use Xcode and UIKit. I have installed both of these dev tool 2 weeks ago but I dont know how to use it. This track helped me a lot to get an overview and know the best practices on developing apps.

3:00pm PT - My MBP is running out of battery so I had to go at the back of the room and look for a power outlet. The view is better at the back and I noticed that almost everyone have their Macs on. Oh yeah, you can only run Xcode on a Mac.

5:30pm PT - Left the hotel and had my parking ticket validated so I can just pay $15 and not $40. Yeah, parking spot in downtown LA is expensive and I'm glad our office is not in downtown ;) The drive home was pretty bad coz it's rush hour, a 15 minute drive took about 45minutes... it's that bad!

Source:
http://developer.apple.com/events/iphone/techtalks/

September Update

I finally had a chance to sit back, relax and have some 'ME' time ;) For the past couple of weeks, It's been really crazy most especially at work. We had two project release and both applications will be used by our customer service department. They rely so much on this project as this would help them provide better and more efficient customer service. But it's good that my schedule is flexible that I can take 'comp-off' anytime I want whenever I work more hours ;) In our field of work, we must meet the target date of the project no matter how it takes.

PARTY
In spite of all these, we still find time to enjoy the company of our friends. Sherwin & Jannie hosted a "Drunk band" party before the month ends (Sep 27) which is just perfect. It was also Sherinie's birthday and they just got back from a week long trip in Barbados. It's nice catching up with the girls and know what they're up to. We learned that Cherry is trying to have a baby... we can't wait to have another baby in our group!



More pictures here:
http://gallery.me.com/siaz#100043

I'm still waiting to get pictures from Jannie's camera. I was not able to take pictures that night coz I'm just too wasted! :P

MOVIES
I got my SATC bluray disc and the movie is FABULOUS! It's an extended cut and there are a couple of scenes that were not shown in movie theatre. The special feature is FAB too! It's a must have for all SATC fanatics out there! The best part is it comes with a digital copy so I was able to sync it on my iPhone.



I also saw IQ and Forgetting Sarah Marshall which are both feel good comedy/romance. The Legend of Bagger Vance is good too! I haven't been to the theatre for awhile. Need to save up for something ;)

MACBOOK PRO
I've been thinking about getting a Mac since August but I just don't have any valid reasons on why I should get one. Until... my old laptop gave up on me after trying to revive it. I stayed up until the wee hours just to make it work... then it occurred to me, this is just perfect! On Sep 10, 2008 - I got my very first Mac!

This is the best toy/gadget I've ever had. It's so sleek, pretty and it's a MAC! It's so exciting to have something new to learn and tweak. The application that I like most is MobileMe as it syncs data such as contacts, calendar, pictures from my Mac to my iPhone and vice versa. I was able to create my vblog too but it is still unpublished ;) It needs a LOT of editing. We're also thinking about having our very own podcast where we'll talk about food, good deals, sports, music, technology, etc! I'm still working on its format but we'll soon broadcast it... so watch out!



More pix here:
http://gallery.me.com/siaz#100057

VAMPIRES
My cravings on vampires started when I saw 'Interview with the Vampire' for the very first time. Brad Pitt is soooo HOT! Then there's True Blood which premiered on HBO last Sep 7 which is slated right before Entourage. It's a show about vampires co-existing with humans and they drink synthetic blood to survive. It's kinda weird & most of the characters are horny but it's alright ;) Then I got the whole Twilight saga audiobook which Darwin downloaded and I started listening to Twilight audiobook since Sep 19. Last night while looking for videos on youtube, I found out that Stephanie Meyer and the lead cast of Twilight were also in Comicon but on a different day. I could have seen them if we went there 2 days earlier ;) There's a LOT of screaming fans and most of them are teenagers =P Darwin was actually teasing me about it coz I read a novel for teenagers.. But I cant help it, Edward is just sooo sexy! I can't wait to see the movie on 11/21/08!