iphone os
Latest
Three flavors of iPhone OS 4.x showing up in developer's analytics?
Speaking of iPhone OS 4, check this out: PixelCUBE Studios, which currently holds the #1 spot on iTunes' list of free iPhone app downloads with The Impossible Test, noticed something rather curious in its usage stats. See, PixelCUBE uses Pinch Media to dredge up analytics, and a quick check of the OS versions its users are running (pictured left) shows that not one, not two, but three distinct flavors of OS 4 have turned up: 4.0, 4.0.1, and 4.1. It's not unusual for Apple (or any major software developer, really) to have different teams working on multiple version milestones at the same time, so we don't doubt that this could be real; then again, this is easy enough to spoof in a world where enterprising devs and fun-loving miscreants are bending iPhones to their every whim with creative hacks and lightning-quick jailbreaks. Anyone up for a careful daily sweep of BART trains until we get to the bottom of this?
Apple holding iPhone OS 4 event, April 8th!
Yes folks -- the world is turning upside down. Apple has announced an iPhone OS 4 event on April 8th at 10AM PT for a "sneak peek of the next generation of iPhone OS software." So if you're wondering about the future of the platform... your answers will appear sooner than you think. The team collectively dropped an "OMG" when we saw this news, as it's pretty unusual to see such a big event coming from Apple right on the heels of something like the iPad launch. Of course we'll be there -- at Apple's Infinite Loop campus in Cupertino -- live and direct, providing the liveblogging coverage you know and love.
Adobe AIR developer demonstration: one game, five platforms, all the same code
We love the idea of Android apps running on iPhone and vice versa, and that's exactly what Adobe's selling with its multiplatform development solution AIR -- but though we've seen a demo here and there, conversations we've had with the company led us to believe that AIR was not yet up to the task. However, Adobe dev Christian Cantrell has the proof -- he created a game of Reversi that runs on five platforms without having to change a single line of code. In a video after the break, he demonstrates iReverse running on OS X, Windows 7, Ubuntu Linux, the iPhone, a Droid and the new iPad, explaining how it took only a series of seriously tiny platform-specific wrappers to make his program function on each. Since each platform has its own hardware strengths, this kind of convergence isn't always a good thing -- but if it provides extra incentive for developers to get cracking on hot new apps, we're all for it.
SDK devsugar: 3.2 leaves beta
As of yesterday, with the release of the iPad hardware, the 3.2 iPhone OS SDK is no longer in beta. The SDK is now available to all members of the iPhone developer program, including the free online program. Normally, during beta, the SDK is limited to paid members only. Since the SDK is now in general release, the NDA will have timed out as well. That means that you will be able to talk freely about the 3.2 SDK outside of Apple's developer forums. Although those forums remain an excellent resource for tracking down information from Apple engineers, they are highly moderated. Since the 3.2 gold master release of the SDK is also known as "Beta 6", you can expect (with a fair degree of confidence) that a new beta should be showing up, behind the NDA and paid developer barricades, in short order. Hopefully, it will address any missing-in-action iPad features and offer some new iPhone-specific features.
iPad 'Spirit' jailbreak demonstrated by MuscleNerd, now it really is magical (video)
You better believe it when notorious iPhone jailbreaker MuscleNerd -- a well-respected member of the iPhone Dev-Team -- declares root access on an iPad. According to this fella's tweets, this new hack is a port of Comex's "Spirit" jailbreak that exploits a bug found on both iPhone OS 3.1.3 and the iPad's 3.2. No downloads are offered right at this moment, but it shouldn't be long before we can throw in all sorts of wild apps and widgets as we wish. Video after the break. [Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
iPad OS digging reveals hints of future iPhone, iPod touch, iPad and Nessie
Well, well -- what have we here? A little digging into the mainframe that lies beneath Apple's freshly launched iPad has uncovered a few telltale signs of next-generation hardware, and while this is obviously in no way confirmation that new wares are on the way from Cupertino, this kind of stuff has led to similar reveals in the past. If we're seeing this right, we're looking at not one, but two new mentions of future iPhones (iPhone 3,2 and iPhone 3,3), alongside a new iPod touch (iPod 4,1) and... a future iPad (iProd 2,1). 'Course, none of this gives us any indication of the all-important whos or whens, but at least this confirms that mythical creatures still exist in the hearts of those who believe.
Stats: iPhone OS is still king of the mobile web space, but Android is nipping at its heels
AdMob serves north of 10 billion ads per month to more than 15,000 mobile websites and applications. Thus, although its data is about ad rather than page impressions, it can be taken as a pretty robust indicator of how web usage habits are developing and changing over time. Android is the big standout of its most recent figures, with Google loyalists now constituting a cool 42 percent of AdMob's smartphone audience in the US. With the EVO 4G and Galaxy S rapidly approaching, we wouldn't be surprised by the little green droid stealing away the US share crown, at least until Apple counters with its next slice of magical machinery. Looking at the global stage, Android has also recently skipped ahead of Symbian, with a 24 percent share versus 18 percent for the smartphone leader. Together with BlackBerry OS, Symbian is still the predominant operating system in terms of smartphone sales, but it's interesting to see both falling behind in the field of web or application usage, which is what this metric seeks to measure. Figures from Net Applications (to be found at the TheAppleBlog link) and ArsTechnica's own mobile user numbers corroborate these findings.
Survey finds people eager to 'work on the go' with iPad, we wonder what line of 'work' they're in
So, give this a listen -- a survey from the lairs of Sybase has found that among smartphone-owning respondents, some 52.3 percent of them "would use a tablet device such as the Apple iPad is for working on the go." We fully understand that this phrase leaves open the possibility of using tablets not Designed in Cupertino, but the mere fact that it's highlighted gave us pause. We're still trying to figure out how exactly Apple's forthcoming tablet is going to fit between our daily laptop and workhorse-of-a-smartphone, and without a major overhaul of the iPhone OS, we definitely can't visualize ourselves using it for "work." 'Course, maybe they're into something that doesn't require the use of multiple applications at once, and maybe the dearth of a real keyboard isn't much of a productivity killer, but we're just not sold on the iPad being a bona fide work machine as-is. So, what say you? Are you one of those 52.3 percenters? Or do you relate more with the vocal minority?
US Army meets with Apple, discusses tech for soldiers
Earlier this month, Major General Nick Justice and several members of his staff traveled to Apple's Cupertino campus to discuss soldiers using Apple's products and technology in the field. In addition to having the most awesome name ever, Maj. Gen. Justice also heads the US Army's Research, Development, and Engineering Command. He's reportedly interested in moving the Army away from the custom-built "big green box" electronics that the Army has used over the past decades; instead, Justice wants the Army to investigate existing solutions from the commercial sector, including Apple's portable lines. Rather than continuing to invest heaps of money to research its own devices, Maj. Gen. Justice wants to take a different approach: leveraging the knowledge and research of the commercial sector into the Army's portable equipment. This approach makes perfect sense for a number of reasons. Companies like Apple have already laid a lot of the groundwork for developing durable and easily portable devices, and their devices provide multiple functions with an extremely easy-to-use interface. Thanks to TUAW reader Ryan for the tip.
Apple now accepting iPad app submissions, get your jumbo-sized beer drinking simulations in before launch day
Apple just announced to developers that it's now accepting iPad applications. From the sound of it, applications submitted now will have a shot at being reviewed and approved before the iPad launch next month, though since most all apps developed so far have only been tested in the emulator, this is more of a "feedback" round for devs looking to be ready for the launch without actually testing their apps on hardware themselves. Apple says that "[o]nly apps submitted for the initial review will be considered for the grand opening of the iPad App Store," so you probably shouldn't wait around -- unless you've got one of those iPad test units headed your way, or you're a hardware-testing purist that will wait for the iPad launch to start testing apps and miss one of those cushy spots on the opening day iPad App Store. Either way, we can't really imagine we'll be seeing true 3rd party iPad app greatness until a month or so after the launch, but who are we to talk down a "gold rush"? Update: We just saw that the deadline for getting apps in for the first round is March 27 at 5PM PT. Fire up that SDK 3.2 beta 5 and start cracking!
AirStash brings the WiFi, neglects the storage, for a cent under $100
When we last saw the AirStash, it was keeping its mystique about it and refusing to disclose any salient details beyond the fact that it'll function as a wireless SD/SDHC card reader. Today, the fog of war is lifted with the news that the AirStash is now officially on sale for $99.99, and will come with a battery good for five hours of continuous data streaming. Marketed primarily at iPhone OS devices, it creates a wireless network that allows any WiFi and browser-equipped computer to access the storage cards within it. The UI is built around HTML5 and recharging is done via a USB connection, which also turns the AirStash into a simple SDHC card adapter when plugged in. Check out our hands-on with it from CES over here and look for a full review coming up shortly. We do care so very deeply our portable storage.
More suggestions of multitasking in iPhone OS 4.0
Developers have found further evidence of multitasking support for 3rd party iPhone apps in the latest beta (3.2 beta 4) of the iPhone SDK, and suggest that it will become a reality this summer. 9to5 Mac reports on a new line found deep within the latest iPhone SDK. Specifically, SpringBoard.js has a reference to a "multitasking dialog box" that did not appear in version 3.1.3 of the SDK; it seems that it's new to version 3.2. Of course, there's no assurance that this refers to 3rd party support for multitasking, but it is new. Additionally, Appleinsider's souces with "proven track records" state that Apple has developed "a full-on solution" for 3rd-party multitasking which will be a part of iPhone OS 4.0. No specifics were given on how it will be pulled off or how it will address the two main concerns: battery life and security. Let's assume that Apple's plan addresses the security issue, but battery life still presents a problem, one that was supposedly addressed by Push Notifications. Apple's remote notification service allows applications to offload polling processes to web servers. By keeping the update algorithms working off the device, the iPhone's battery is spared. Certainly the iPhone itself must take on the task of keeping all of those apps up and running. It should also be noted that iPhone OS does not use a paged memory model. That means, multi-tasking applications must compete for the same memory space, making it more likely that apps will receive memory warnings and even crash when they use too much memory. That's not an issue in the one-app-at-a-time space, but a real problem with multitasking Of course, the iPhone OS is already fully capable of multitasking. In order for non-Apple apps to participate, Apple must lift the current restrictions within the OS. That's something the company won't do until the iPhone engineers have devised the best and safest method. As for iPhone OS 4.0, Appleinsider notes that it's got "a ways to go." Hopefully we'll have an answer in July.
iPad SDK 3.2 beta 4 squashes rumors of a camera, but adds new gesture controls
There's only about a month to go before Apple drops the iPad on the world, and it looks like all those theories about a last-minute camera addition were just fond fanboy wishes -- iPhone SDK 3.2 beta 4 just came out, and in addition to stripping out several video-call related icons, we've been told the docs contain this little tidbit about that Camera tab: Launching the Photos application under the iPad Simulator will initially show three tabs: Photos, Albums, and Camera. The Camera tab represents photos available via the Camera Connection Kit for iPad, and is not relevant for the Simulator. The Camera tab will disappear after a few seconds. So much for that, then. In the meantime, we also have some good news -- 9to5 Mac did some digging and found some files indicating that Apple's opening up some new gestures to app developers, namely the long tap currently used to pop up the copy / paste menu and the triple-tap used to flip the display on and off when using VoiceOver. It's a small consolation, to be sure, but at least the iPad, will, um, be a great game machine, right? [Thanks, Anonymous]
iPhone devsugar: Unit testing for iPhone view controllers
Unit testing refers to a software validation methodology that allows programmers to test individual program units for correctness. It's been an ongoing question in the iPhone developer community as to whether the iPhone's view controller class is testable or not. In response to these discussions, iPhone developer Jonah Williams has written up a view controller unit testing how-to over at the Carbon Five web blog. His write-up offers examples that show how to incorporate some best practices into your code. Williams points out how broken NIB bindings are a common problem for iPhone OS applications. To address these issues, he regularly adds simple assertions that test that each IB outlet and action are set properly from inside his view controller class implementations. These assertions check that IBOutlet instance variables are not set to nil and that IBAction targets have been assigned, adding a layer of protection against broken bindings. Another typical view controller issue involves responding to application memory warnings. To respond, he adds tests that ensure that each view-dependent property gets correctly released and re-created as views unload and then later reload. By building these into test methods, he can execute this behavior on demand, and ensure that the sequence will execute flawlessly in real world conditions. Finally, Williams discusses view controller interdependencies. Often instances are tightly intertwined, with objects acting as clients for each other. For example, a simple table view controller, living within a navigation controller, might present a detail view via yet another view controller when a row is selected. That's three separate controllers to account for, when you really only want to test one at a time. Williams suggests isolating these view controllers away from their interdependencies to test each component separately and provides examples of how you can do so. What made Williams' approach pop for me is how he carefully exposes and isolates dependencies for testing. These are features that can otherwise be hard to inspect and validate in the normal course of programming. His write-up is well worth reading through, and provides an excellent jumping off point for investigating view controller unit testing.
iPhone SDK 3.2 beta 4 drops in
Suspense! Drama! Surprises! Unrealistic expectations! It's always a veritable roller coaster of emotions whenever Apple gets around to cutting a new SDK build -- and without a doubt, iPhone SDK 3.2 beta 4 is no exception. We don't yet have a good read on what's new here, so if you're a member of Apple's $99 dev program and happen to get it downloaded and installed, let us know if you find anything awesome, like an iPhone 4 or iPad 2. Or, you know, anything else. Have fun!
Google responds to Apple lawsuit against HTC
There's one more player in the ongoing the Apple/HTC lawsuit announced the other day. It's Google, which yesterday admitted that it wasn't a party to the lawsuit, but that it would "stand behind our Android operating system and the partners who have helped us to develop it." Lots of analysts and pundits have pegged the lawsuit as a direct shot across the bow from Apple at the Android OS (and the breakdown of patent claims that our colleagues at Engadget did seems to confirm that, with both old-school and wide-reaching patents matched up with brand new narrow UI claims), and it looks like Google will be coming to the rescue for its OS, if it has to. What form that rescue might take, we don't know -- it's possible that Google could provide money, advice, or even lawyers to HTC if it feels that any part of its operating system might be threatened legally. But of course, that all depends on where the case goes -- we're still a long way away from the point where these companies would have to go before a judge and make their case. It certainly seems like Apple is in this one for the long haul, but if it all comes down to a check, Google may end up signing it as well.
TUAW redux: The future of iPhone OS and Mac OS
One of the big topics of discussion yesterday in our TUAW back channel was this post from the New York Times Bits blog. In "Why can't PCs work more like iPhones," Bilton pointed out that the iPhone has given Apple a chance to build a new OS from the ground up. This is a familiar viewpoint to us here on TUAW. Last year, I asked whether the future of the Mac OS would turn out to be the iPhone. In my write-up, I pointed out that the iPhone OS was built from scratch to work with Objective C 2.0 with its properties and other modern language features. Its API, far from being cobbled together, showed ever increasing design maturity without the weight of heavy backwards compatibility concerns. I concluded that Apple might take a lesson from the iPhone OS and consider offering a ground up redesign for Mac OS X, at least in terms of core OS principles. In his post, Bilton considers how Mac OS X might integrate iPhone OS features into its user experience, suggesting a possible Front Row-like overlay layer, running an iPhone OS interface. The goal would be to craft iPhone-style GUI simplicity onto the desktop experience, so that users could move seamlessly between their mobile and desktop worlds. But as much as we believe that Apple is heading cautiously in the direction that Bilton suggests, the TUAW consensus is that a desktop OS needs far more structure and, at the same time, flexibility than what the iPhone OS offers.
Report: iPhone is number three smartphone platform worldwide
(Chart by Apple Insider) A new Gartner report puts the iPhone at number three on the list of smartphone platforms in use worldwide, right behind Nokia's Symbian OS and the RIM software used in Blackberry devices. More importantly, the report has Apple's device gaining market share -- its unit share has more than doubled in the last year, from 11.4 million units in 2008 to more than 24 million in 2009. Android is also on the list, and while it's not quite competing with iPhone yet, that brand experienced even greater growth, from less than a million phones in 2008 up to almost 7 million in 2009. And perhaps the most interesting takeaway is that while Symbian experienced a nearly 10% drop in market share, both its and RIM's totals actually rose. While cellphone sales at large are down, smartphone sales are up across the board. I don't know how much you can thank Apple for this, but clearly more people are doing more things with their cell phones than just the usual calling.
iPhone SDK 3.2 Beta 3 available now
The new beta version of the 3.2 SDK (beta 3, for those of you keeping track) is now available for download. The Apple developer site will likely be getting slammed over the next hour or two, so plan your downloads accordingly. The beta is available to all paid members of the iPhone developer program, with at least the $99/year membership. You will need your credentials to sign in and download the new SDK. As usual, the new beta SDK is under NDA, so please go check out the details for yourself to get further information about the changes between this beta and the last. Good luck, and happy programming! Update: 6PM Pacific. It's baaaaaaaack. Update: Here then gone? Readers report that Apple seems to have pulled Beta 3 for the moment and when I returned to Apple's iPhone developer site, I saw the same. Watch this space. We'll update as we find out more. Update: This was not an accidental upload, per Michael Jurewitz, the Mac and IPhone Applications Frameworks and Developer Tools Evangelist:
iPhone SDK 3.2 moves on to beta round 3
As we march toward the inevitability of a post-iPad world, so marches the development of iPhone SDK 3.2 -- and this time, we're on to beta 3. There's no word yet on what's changed, but unless you're a registered (and paid) member of Apple's iPhone Developer Program, it doesn't much matter to you seeing how you can't get in on the download. Keep us abreast of the trials, tribulations, highs, and lows of your downloads and installs, won't you? Update: TUAW now reports that beta 3's been pulled, but it's not yet clear why. We'll fill you in more as we find out. Update 2: iPadInsider reports that a Photos app has been added to the emulator, and there's a Camera tab in it -- possibly corroborating evidence that there'll be a camera in some version of the iPad, but more likely a tool for the camera connection kit. Update 3: MacRumors has a couple more interesting details. Looks like there's a couple of lines in the code that suggest a front-facing camera (as often rumored), zoom, and camera flash is in the cards. Additionally, there's iPad-sized "Accept" and "Decline" buttons with video camera-related iconography. We know what you're thinking, but we still wouldn't advise getting your hopes up anytime soon. It's not good for your heart, y'know. Update 3: ...and it's back up. Thanks, everyone!
