Apple Developer Connection

The Apple Developer Connection, or ADC, is Apple Inc.'s developer network. It is designed to make available resources to help software developers write software for the Apple Mac OS X platform. [Apple Computer, Inc. (2005). [http://developer.apple.com/ Apple Developer Connection] . Retrieved October 30, 2005.]

Benefits of membership

* Support from Apple engineers - ADC members are eligible to receive help such as technical support and code support, directly from Apple engineers in their products.
* ADC reference library - The ADC reference library provides developer news, technology releases, and technical information. As well, it provides Apple-authored technical documentation, a wide range of SDKs and tools, and sample code.
* Access to prerelease software - The most notable feature of ADC is the ability to receive prerelease software, most importantly prerelease versions of Apple's own operating system, as well as other Apple software. Apple products are regularly seeded whenever a build occurs.
* Eligibility to attend the World Wide Developers Conference - With an ADC membership comes the eligibility to attend the WWDC, one of the premier Mac conferences held throughout the year. In the past, the WWDC has been the venue for the introduction of Mac OS X v10.3, Mac OS X v10.4, and Mac OS X v10.5, as well as the introduction for the PowerMac G5 - and its successor, the Mac Pro.
* Invitations to exclusive workshops - ADC members receive invitations to exclusive workshops, and conferences about the latest technologies. Generally, the workshop is a demonstration of the latest Apple technology done by an Apple engineer.
* Compatibility testing - ADC provides compatibility testing for new Applications. The compatibility testing, located in Cupertino, California, Tokyo, Japan, and Beijing, China. At the Cupertino campus alone, there are three separate labs which collectively have hundreds of Mac configurations, with several different third party peripherals.
* Hardware discounts - ADC members receive hardware discounts on computers offered by Apple.
* Listing on the Macintosh Product Guide - ADC members receive free listing on the Macintosh Product Guide, a listing of Apple products on Apple's website.

Membership types

ADC offers four membership levels, one of which is free while the other three require payment. The paid memberships are for one year, and are renewable at the same price as originally purchased. [cite web|url=http://developer.apple.com/products/|title=Apple Developer Connection - Products|publisher=Apple|accessdate=2008-06-28]
* Student memberships - Student Memberships are similar to Online Memberships, and offer one Developer Hardware Discount for the lifetime of the membership.
* Online memberships - Online memberships are free memberships which include the most basic features of all four types of memberships. Online memberships only allow access to the information resources available on ADC.
* Select memberships - Select memberships have access to all features, but with two technical support incidents and only one Developer Hardware Discount.
* Premier memberships - Premier memberships have access to all features, with eight technical support incidents, ten Developer Hardware Discounts, and one ticket to WWDC.

oftware leaks

There have been several leaks of secret Apple software through the prerelease program, most notably the Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger leaks, in which Apple sued three men who allegedly leaked Mac OS X 10.4 prerelease builds to BitTorrent. [cite news | last=Fried | first=Ina | title=Apple sues over loose Tiger | date=2004-12-21 | publisher=CNET News.com | url=http://news.com.com/Apple+sues+over+loose+Tiger/2100-1047_3-5500034.html]

References

External links

* [http://developer.apple.com Apple Developer Connection website]