October 2007: Monthly Archive

Charge the defibrillators, my heart just stopped. None other than Steve Jobs himself has officially announced that Apple will indeed open iPhone to native software development, and provide an SDK next February. Apparently plans were in the works to open the platform to developers all along (told you so) but Apple still hasn’t figured a non-invasive procedure for allowing applications to run in OSX.

So, the good news is there is a God. The bad news is it’s Steve Jobs.

Read his excellency’s blessed scrawl after the break. Or go here to see the official announcement on Apple.com

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One of my readers sent me the following story. You be the judge as to the true guilty party.

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figure 1: AT&T has made some changes to benefit customers out of enlightened self-interest.

In news that should please anyone on AT&T, and if you have an iPhone, odds are good that this is you, AT&T is making consumer-friendly changes to how they do things. First, AT&T announced that they will begin pro-rating termination fees. The longer you stay on in your contract, the less of a fee you’ll have to pay. They also announced that they will not require a new contract for a simple change of service. Both are welcome changes.

Odds are good that this change of heart is due to the Senate commerce committee holding those hearings, and T-Mobile’s lawsuit problems — AT&T probably doesn’t want to get into the same legal hot water that T-Mobile is currently in.

The Leopard-January-SDK rumor is floating around again, this time at Businessweek (we reported on it here, and there’s another rumor concerning development here. With it comes talk of a system development kit, or a way to get applications on an iPhone that doesn’t require hacking. There’s no indication as to whether it’s a real SDK or whether it’s a way to sync HTML widgets. My gut hunch is widgets, but it’s also possible that the iPhone requires the same version of XCode that Leopard uses. [via

Apple’s response to Greenpeace’s report of PVC, phthalates, and BFRs in the iPhone is short and sweet. Witness the words of the Apple spokesperson as told to MacWorld:

“Like all Apple products worldwide, iPhone complies with RoHS [Restriction of Hazardous Substances], the world’s toughest restrictions on toxic substances in electronics. As we have said, Apple will voluntarily eliminate the use of PVC and BFRs by the end of 2008.”

There’s another key quote from the Center for Environmental Health, the California-based organization that filed the 60-day notice of a suit yesterday. They aim to

“encourage the manufacturers through a negotiated settlement to reduce the use of these chemicals.”

I’m not a lawyer, but my wife is. If they want a negotiated settlement, that means they don’t want to go to court. Court is expensive. What exactly they want, I don’t know; if they want money, this is essentially a shakedown job. If they want to hurry Apple’s schedule or force a warning, they may be doing it on the basis of their ideals. Either way, it’s a lot of free publicity.

AnySIM, the free software unlock by the iPhone Dev Wiki crowd, now works with iPhones that are running firmware version 1.1.1. The first version of AnySIM, released for 1.0 versions of the iPhone firmware, didn’t unlock the iPhone correctly. So, when folks that unlocked their iPhones with AnySIM updated to 1.1.1, it bricked their iPhones. This version of AnySIM doesn’t fix that issue. They claim that this version won’t cause the same problems as the earlier versions, but it might be a good idea to hold off on unlocking with AnySIM for a while anyway, caveat emptor. You have been warned. Speaking personally, I went crawling back to iPhoneSimFree to fix the broken AnySIM unlock. But, if all of those warnings are of no use to you, you can get the new version of Anysim here.

Apple finally confirmed that Orange would be the carrier for the iPhone in France. The iPhone will be sold on Orange’s website and in Orange’s retail stores for €399, which is around $566 American. Information on plans has not yet been determined or revealed. They did set an official date, however: November 29th. It is widely expected that the iPhone will retail for a higher price if sold without a contract as required by French law.

Apple’s fiscal fourth quarter ended in September, and the bean counters in every investment firm are hard at work following the money trail, speculating on Apple’s quarterly results. Bear Stearn analyst Andrew Neff, the man most well known for his crazy but prophetic predictions about the implosion and consolidation of the PC industry, believes that iPhone could be the start of something big. He tells investors that while deferred profit sharing with AT&T won’t have an immediate impact on Apple’s bottom line, he sees iPhone being a money machine, driving profits. Doesn’t it warm your heart to read those words?

Of course, what really drove profits this quarter were the purchase of two iPhones by one Kent Pribbernow. Yeah, don’t think I won’t be wanting stock options in return Apple. It’s time I start seeing some greenbacks. Capiche?

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iPhone users may experience sudden loss of bladder control in early January. According to sources quoted by BusinessWeek, who are close to the companies plans – sorry BW, the janitorial staff do not count as sources – Apple plans to deliver an SDK at MacWorld, finally opening the platform to software developers. No more of that freakshow hackware stuff, alright?

The sources go on to say that Apple’s timing has to do with the release of Leopard, the next version of OSX, coming next Friday. Apparently this upcoming iPhone SDK will somehow be tied directly to Leopard itself, through Xcode, though I’m still questioning how that is possible. I assume there are major changes to Cocoa, native to Leopard. Or it could simply be a technical way of luring developers to Leopard in the same way that Microsoft soldered DirectX 10 on to Vista, hoping to sucker attract game developers.

Anyway, pour a pint of ale. Three cheers for it. See you in January, and all that rot.

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Most, but not yet all, iTunes Plus songs are now 99¢. Steve Jobs confirmed at the Wall Street Journal that the price drop was now in effect. I don’t know yet if you can upgrade normal iTunes purchases to iTunes plus for free or whether you have to pay a slight fee to upgrade or if you have to re-purchase for the higher fidelity; free would be the bee’s knees. I’m pleased to report that iTunes appears to be heading in a DRM-free direction. I think the arrival of Amazon’s MP3 service is pushing the labels progressively forward. They can’t give Amazon something and not give it to Apple; that would be a lot like the illegal collusion they’ve been accused of in the past.