iPhone SDK
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iPhone SDK MiniBarCamp at SXSW Austin
Want to get your hack on with the iPhone beta SDK? If you're in Austin, TX, you're in luck. As part of BarCamp in Austin, a bunch of iPhone SDK hackers are putting together an iPhone track tomorrow (Saturday). There will be tutorial sessions, demos and hands-on hacking.The fun starts at 10AM and goes until 10PM and will be held GSD&M|idea city, 828 West 6th Street in Austin. For more information, contact Bart Decrem of Gogo Apps, an iPhone startup (bartd@gogoapps.com). Confirmed attendees include Daniel "Pumpkin" Peebles, Sean "iAppADay" Heber, Thomas Muldowney, and Layton "Polarbear Farms" Duncan.
Apple to charge $99 for Developer Programme & software certificate
Ready to crack on and unleash some applications for the iPhone later this year? Be sure to set aside $99 to get your application onto the store however, as Ars Technica reports "Developers have to register with [Apple]. For that $99, we give them an electronic certificate that tells us who they are .... if they write a bad app, we can both track them down and we can turn off the app's distribution".In addition to the $99 licensing charge to distribute the application (whether it's a free or commercial app) companies seeking a proprietary solution will need to cough up another $200 ($299 total) for the 'Enterprise Programme'.Another item worthy of note those still using PowerPC machines: if you want to develop for iPhone, you'll not only need Leopard, but an Intel-based Mac to run the SDK. Disagreements about architectures aside, what does your $99 get you? Complete set of resources in the iPhone Dev Center Testing of your code on iPhone and iPod touch Code-level technical support from Apple engineers the ability to reach every user via the Application Store The paid-for Developer Programme is currently US-only "and will expand to other countries in the coming months."
iPhone 2.0 software update hits in June
That sound you hear? A million rabid iPhone users crying. After teasing us with mountains of glorious SDK features and apps, Apple dropped the bomb that we won't be getting any of those features until the iPhone / iPod touch 2.0 software update, which arrives as a free update in June (for the iPhone, iPod touch users have to pay up again) and includes App Store. Selected developers will get a chance at a beta version of 2.0 to test their new applications out as of today, and we have a funny feeling somebody's going to be putting in some hours to try and crack this thing for the rest of us. In addition to the SDK-related features, the 2.0 update brings parental controls, such as allowing parents to turn of Safari or the App Store to keep those kiddies safe, and boosts mail functionality with PowerPoint viewing and mass message moving / deleting (freaking finally).
iPhone SDK apps: AIM and others headed your way
Apple wasn't just loving on gamers and enterprise types with its app announcements today. Other hot softwares to get the iPhone treatment include AIM, Epocrates and Touch FX. It probably wouldn't be much of a stretch to call AIM the most requested app for the iPhone, and while we would've liked to see it included out of the box, it's better late than never, right? Epocrates is a medical app, which sounds very very interesting for all five people out there planning on using it. Touch FX is quite a bit more fun, developed by Apple in a couple days and featuring realtime picture manipulation with multitouch.
Apple Tuesday: super special MacBook Pro, iPhone SDK... or nothing at all?
As you may or may not know, Apple has made some sort of announcement -- however minor -- every Tuesday since the beginning of 2008. The internet is currently stacked floor-to-ceiling with guesses of what this last Tuesday in February will bring. Many are speculating that it's going to be the often-discussed, never-seen MacBook Pro update, while others are certain that this will be the day old Jobsy unveils iPhone's supposedly-delayed SDK to the world. Still there are those who believe this Tuesday will see the launch of the Apple Robot Army, while many think that we're going to finally get a look at that iShrink shrink ray that's been long-rumored. Of course, it's possible this will be a heaping dose of iNothing. We want to know: what do the talented, handsome, and infinitely-wise readers of Engadget think we'll see tomorrow?Read - More New Apple Products... This Tuesday?Read - Tuesday's Coming
Springlets for iPhone
While we wait for the iPhone SDK, web developers are busily creating iPhone-compatible web apps and pages. There are a few cool ones out there, like Leaflets and PocketTweets. Even FedEx has created an iPhone-friendly page.Recently we came across Springlets. Unlike Leaflets, which is a single site, Spinglets is a collection of sites with customized web clip icons that look right at home on your iPhone or iPod touch. My favorite is WikiSearch. To use it, just tap the WikiSearch icon on your hompage, enter your search text and that's it! You're taken to the resulting page on Wikipedia. It eliminates several steps.Other treats include Speed Dial (dial any contact number with a touch from the home page) and Text Sites, which strips all of the photos from a given web page (useful when you're on Edge).[Via Steve Rubel]
Rumor: Apple event the last week of February
TUAW has received a tip that the company that does television for Apple's live events and Macworld is apparently hiring for an unannounced Apple event at the end of February. Keep in mind that this is an unconfirmed rumor -- while TUAW trusts our source, job listings are not available on the video company's website, and Apple has not yet announced any events happening this month. But Apple did promise us a year flush with announcements, and starting with the new Mac Pros all the way up to the bigger iPhones and iPod touches last week, they haven't disappointed yet.And what would the event be about? Considering that we've got our ultraportable already, and our HD Apple TV, what big news are we possibly hoping to hear in "the end of February"?This is just a rumor, so don't get too excited yet. But if it is true, and if Apple is holding an event before the end of the month, get ready, baby. We just might be about to see the iPhone SDK.
iPhone firmware 1.1.3 icon rearrangement on video?
Just yesterday we saw some pics of what was being touted as an iPhone running the as-yet-unannounced 1.1.3 firmware version, and now we've got word of some video proof from a pretty reliable source. Nate True, all-around modder and creator of the Walluminate light-up wallet, has a short vid up on his cre.ations.net site that claims to depict that handy home page icon rearrangement feature -- you know, the one that suggests an SDK to make use of all the new slots. Go on, check out the short clip after the break.[Thanks, Marcus S.]
iPhone SDK already seeding to select devs?
It's not anything more than a rumor right now, but reports are floating around claiming that "select developers" are already receiving prerelease versions of the upcoming iPhone SDK. The kit is said to already be producing native apps, and development is being compared to other sandboxed APIs like Google's OpenSocial -- apps have "clear limits" on what they can do, and interactions with the OS are mediated, presumably to avoid any security or performance issues. That jives with what Steve-O said about managing access, but again -- this is all just a steamy cloud of vaporous nothing till that first app shows up in iTunes.[Via Mac Rumors]
iPhone apps through iTunes?
Here's another thing you may have heard on last week's talkcast (which again, I'm told, is this close to being edited and posted): we were talking, of course, about the new iPhone/iPod touch SDK, and knocking around ideas for how Apple might implement apps on the iPhone. Someone in the Talkshoe channel suggested something exactly like this suggestion, sent to us by reader Thomas. They'd like to see apps distributed through iTunes, just like podcasts. Choose which apps you want (submitted by their creators to Apple), dock the iPhone, and voila, apps on the iPhone.Not really a new idea, and it is pretty obvious in its implementation (I had the same idea about games for the Mac a while back). I'd love to see it happen. But the problem, of course, is just how open Steve wants to (or can be) with the iPhone SDK. I really doubt we're going to see something freely distributed, and I know for sure that we probably won't see anything that anyone can place unsigned content on. I'd love to see a quick, easy way for anyone to simply publish apps for the iPhone, but from what I've heard, there are so many security holes in the system right now that that's not really a possibility.Jobs clearly wants to fix things (if his iPhone SDK note is to be taken honestly), but unless Apple starts plugging holes fast, I don't see it happening. More likely, I'd see a few trusted developers given SDKs, and asked to create applications of their own which might then be listed on iTunes, for sale or download. Other developers could probably apply, but Apple will likely try to keep control over the whole thing, pulling an application off of iTunes (and possibly even the iPhones themselves) when a problem is discovered.It'll be interesting to see how this all plays out. As I said, it would be great to see apps on the iPhone from anywhere and everywhere, but the concern we're hearing is that security is far from tight, and Apple is watching its back as closely as it can.
What iPhone apps do you want to see?
Well, now that you've all had a bit time to consider that little bombshell, we'd thought we'd give you a chance to have you say about what third party apps you'd like to see for the newly SDK-friendly iPhone (and iPod touch). Our wishlist has, of course, been growing since day one, but we'd be particularly keen to see some IM apps, push-style email, a Sling client, or even some Jam Sessions-style music creation apps, among a multitude of other possibilities. But enough about us, hit up the comments to make yourself known.
Apple: "we plan to have an iPhone SDK in developers' hands in February"
That's right folks. You read it correctly. Cats & dogs are living together, and in other news Steve Jobs has, via Apple's 'Hot News' page, announced that Apple will, FINALLY, support third-party development of native applications for the iPhone. The SDK will arrive, for iPhone and iPod touch (!), in February 2008 after MacWorld San Francisco. Apple "[is] excited about creating a vibrant third party developer community around the iPhone and enabling hundreds of new applications for our users," but they are taking the time to do it properly "because we're trying to do two diametrically opposed things at once -- provide an advanced and open platform to developers while at the same time protect iPhone users from viruses, malware, privacy attacks, etc."I think I can speak for everyone here at TUAW, and of course our loyal readers, when I say that this move is so incredibly welcome and WOW. All I can say to Steve is: "What took you so long to let us at your beloved devices?" Now the only question is whether the various iPhone dev teams can sit on their collective coding hands until Valentine's Day...Thanks to all those who sent this in!
NYTimes: iPhone SDK at WWDC?
Uncle Steve hinted last week that 3rd party software development would be coming on the iPhone sometime in the future. Gruber wondered aloud over at Daring Fireball just where the iPhone SDK might be that would make this possible. Well according to the New York Times, something is coming at WWDC. An anonymous source "briefed on Apple's plans" said that at WWDC, "Apple intends to announce that it will make it possible for developers of small programs written for the Macintosh to easily convert them to run on the iPhone."Hmm... "small programs"? That sounds a lot like widgets to me. The obvious question is just how limiting that will be. After all some dashboard widgets out now already tie into the Mac pretty deeply. So even if 3rd party devs are limited to widgets it's still likely that quite a lot will be possible. If we're lucky "small" may just refer to the binary size, and full cocoa apps will be allowed as well.
