Another bit which may or may not make it into 2.1 is copy/paste. We’re still both hopeful and skeptical, but supposedly in the new version of the WebKit framework exists commands for “plugins,” “copy,” “paste,” “cut,” and some others. We can’t confirm if these really exist (and if they do, we don’t know how they’ve actually been there, or if they’re simply holdovers from the desktop WebKit frameworks), so don’t hold your breath.
Greg “Joz” Joswiak, Apple’s head of iPod and iPhone marketing has previously stated that cut, copy, and paste is on the future feature list, but with limited time and resources, Apple didn’t get to it for 2.0. Will 2.1 be different?
What do you think? Any breath holding on your end?
No, not the 2.1 firmware beta, that one’s for realz. We’re talking here about the Washington Post, which ran a Techcrunch story breaking the news that:
Now we’re hearing from an app developer that Appleis finally going to start rolling out a new beta program in the next few days has released an Ad-Hoc program. Details are slim, but it seems like Apple is capping the total number of beta participants at 100 per app. In order to download a beta app, users will need to submit their iPhone’s UDIDs number to the developer,who will then need to flag its eligibility in the store itself. All betas will still be distributed through the App Store - you won’t be able to download one on an external site.The apps will be directly distributed by the developer.
Sound an awful lot like the Ad-Hoc distribution method Apple announced for educational institutions way back at WWDC to you? Sure did to iPhone developer extraordinaire Erica Sadun, who rumor smashed thusly:
The “Beta Program” will not be released in the “next few days.” Ad-hoc distribution is already available and working. Developers can create ad-hoc provisions through the iPhone Developer Program site today.
Sadun also provides a handy-dandy Ad-hoc Helper app for mailing your UDID directly to a developer, should you be part of an Ad-hoc app distribution group.
I saw Golden Shellback on Tekzilla (video link via Engadget) over the weekend and still don’t believe it. How can it be true? One vacuum applied coating and my iPhone will forever be safe from water damage, inside and out?
They claim to have had gadgets working fully immersed for days on end, but do say that it’s a one-way process: the coating don’t come off.
Though not released to the public yet, I believe Partick Norton quoted the application price as being somewhere around $75 but would depend on the size of the gadget.
Installer.app, the app store before that other app store, is coming back for firmware 2.0 and being re-fashioned as Installer 4. Currently, jailbroken 2.0 iPhones are using Cydia as their main app pipeline but when Installer 4 is released, well, they’ll likely play nice with one another and especially nice with that other app store.
The RiP Dev Blog has a lot of complicated, programmer’s type language describing the updates for Installer 4.0 so I’ll try to translate to more understandable, layman’s terms: It’s going to be faster, safer, and more integrated. Bang.
The release of Installer 4.0 seems to be imminent but well, really, there’s no rush, many of the apps that were available for 1.1.x aren’t quite ready for the big time yet. So take your time with Installer 4.0. We here at TiPb would almost always prefer a little delayed polished product over a rushed, rough, not as advertised..yeah, we’re looking at you MobileMe.
Apple has reportedly seeded an early beta of firmware 2.1 (5f90) and a new and improved SDK to developers. Among the changes, CoreLocation (which covers GPS and other location-aware services) gains direction and speed tracking abilities (leading to a fresh round of turn-by-turn speculation, ‘natch), and API’s for the Notification Server that, come September, will be used in-lieu of background multitasking to push alert badges and sounds to Apps (like Instant Messages, Tweets, etc.). Given how MobileMe is doing with Push, that one may prove interesting…
On the negative side, 2.1 is one way street. Developers using 2.1 can not create binaries compatible with the current 2.0-centric App Store, so they either have to maintain two independant development environments (Update: possibly 3 environments and up to 6 devices, 2.0 and 2.1 for iPhone 3G (with mandatory carrier plans), iPhone 2G, and iPod Touch — expensive much?), or wait for App Store 2.1 to launch (in September along with Notification Server?)
Of course, before 2.1 we’ll likely see the already being tested 2.0.1, which will hopefully fix many of the bugs plaguing upgraders and new adopters both. Like, really soon, right Apple?
Jonathan Ive, me thinks you’re going to need a bigger mantle, what with all the awards Apple’s VP of Design keeps taking home!
This time it’s the IDEA (International Design Excellence Awards) handed out by BusinessWeek. In addition to the Gold prize for the original iPhone 2G, Apple also received Gold IDEA’s for the MacBook Air and Bluetooth Keyboard, and a Silver for the redesigned iMac. These four — the most of any company this year — brings Apple’s lifetime IDEA total to 13.
Never have I seen a thousand pound gorilla play such defense:
Apple: In the competition between PCs and Macs, we outsell Apple 30-to-1. But there is no doubt that Apple is thriving. Why? Because they are good at providing an experience that is narrow but complete, while our commitment to choice often comes with some compromises to the end-to-end experience. Today, we’re changing the way we work with hardware vendors to ensure that we can provide complete experiences with absolutely no compromises. We’ll do the same with phones—providing choice as we work to create great end-to-end experiences.
Seriously, Microsoft? Seriously? You pretty much invented the software industry and helped commoditize the PC business to an extent that Windows runs on an amount of servers, desktops, laptops, and — yes — even handsets, so vast it blots out the stars, and you’re re-focusing your business model on being more like Apple?
Seriously?
Now, I love Apple. My server, desktop, laptop, and handset were all designed in Cupertino, and their market share may one day approach 10%… but that’s the thing. 10%. (Not counting iPod here because, try as it might, Zune isn’t even really in that business).
You’re the gourmet restaurant on one side of the street or you’re the dozens of McDonalds on the other. Try to build your fine+fast eatery in the middle and… you get rammed by the oncoming bus (or Gordon Ramsey, whichever gets there first).
Instead of obsessing over Apple (and Google), how about spending some time on Microsoft. Your branding is a mess (8 word product names with inconsistent and seemingly random uses of Windows and LIVE! may work for puzzle games, but not consumer interest), your SKU’s are terminally skewed, and you’re increasingly at cross-purposes between partner platforms and in-house “whole widget” approaches. Heck, you’re making Yahoo! seem focused right now.
During Apple’s Q3 conference call Monday, along with App Store updates, Apple’s Chief Operating Officer, Tim Cook, announced that the iPhone 3G would launch in 20 more countries/regions on August 22nd, some six weeks after the initial 22 country launch back on July 11th.
While we’ve previously known that some 70+ countries would launch during 2008, we still don’t know which of the remaining 50 will be included in the second wave (or whether carrier and iTunes servers will remain up and running this time!).
Apple has posted 3 new iPhone 3G ads. We’ve been seeing them on TV here and there (fast-forward-TiVo-style), but it’s nice to see that Apple’s posted them fully. Two of them focus on 3G speeds (with a tiny, gray “3G not available in all areas” at the end) and the third talks about “work” without specifically mentioning that it’s discussion Exchange support. All in all, they’re not all that compelling, truth be told, but “Unslow” at least falls in the iPhone commercial tradition of advertising-through-education: “What exactly is 3G?” It’s fast, baby. It’s also apparently GPS too, though again Apple doesn’t specifically drop that apparently unhip series of letters in the commercial.
Tired of the three-percenter Mac population hogging all the iPhone Unlock/Jailbreak/Pwnage goodness for their eye-candied, single-button’ied selves? No longer!
Support for both 1.1.4 and 2.0, Custom Image Support, Custom Payload Support, 3g iPhone support
So, if you really want to Pwn your iPhone and haven’t already hunted down that turtle-neck wearing snob at the sushi bar and commandeered the aluminum sliver that passes for his laptop, your Microsoft compatible version awaits…
The iPhone Blog merged with the Phone different site in May of 2008. Both sites were founded on a premise that comes one from one of Apple's old slogans: Think different. The iPhone Blog: for people who dare to phone different.
