2008: Yearly Archive

The iPhone OS, like its big Mac brother, has a lot of little tools, preferences, and settings, some explicitly surfaced, others hidden away. The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) brings us one of each this week!

First up, by way of RipDev’s molecular decomposition of the code (either that or a well-placed source…) is a way to enable screen capture on your jailbroken iPhone:

After setting the preference in /var/mobile/Library/Preferences/com.apple.springboard.plist, just restart Springboard and use the following super-secret key combination: Hold down the Home key and toggle the mute switch. Your screen flashes white, a screen shot appears on your camera roll. [...] If you’d rather not edit your property lists directly, add http://repository.ripdev.com as an Installer repository and install Apple Screenshot Enabler. Warning: trying to remove the mod via Installer.app caused my phone to reboot. It just would not uninstall properly.

Next, for our international readers who may want to use their own TLD (top level domain such as .ca, .uk, .de, etc.) rather than the standard .com, here’s a way to internationalize your Safari Touch keyboard:

In settings, choose General > Keyboards and enable some of those international keyboards. Next go to Safari and start to enter a new URL. Tap the globe to switch the active keyboard from US English to some other nationality. [...] Finally, tap and hold the .com button. After a second, a regionalized version of .com appears just to the left of the default.

Hit the links for more and If anyone gives them a try, let us know how they work (or don’t) for you!

The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) is running some screen shots of what may well be our first glimpse of the iPhone’s App Store.

Pretty much what you’d expect if you combined the Wi-Fi Music Store with apps, the shots came TUAW’s way via a tipster. Seems said tipster claims that, after repeatedly stabbing away at the App Store button (does that mean he was running the SDK beta??) and failing to connect, lo and behold he got through.

UPDATE: iPhone l33t hax0r Erica Sadun went poking around the storeBag.xml from Apple’s public iTunes server and found the following:

There appears to be a new service, labeled “p2-panda” [note: p2 might stand for "purple", the iPhone code name] that offers access to the same functionality that Cory reported on last night. Specifically, the panda calls include StoreFront listings, Genres, Top Fifty listings, and Updates. If nothing else, this independently confirms functionality seen from those screen shots.

Be sure to check out her complete post for more geeky goodness!

We’ve covered gaming here a few times already. Now Roughly Drafted Magazine’s Daniel Eran Dilger chimes in with another of his highly detailed (and highly partisan) articles, this one looking at Apple’s iPhone and how it compares to, and seems poised to disrupt, the established portable gaming platforms:

The most obvious competition the iPhone faces is the leading Nintendo DS and the distant runner up, Sony’s PlayStation Portable. Incidentally, both gaming units appeared on the market in late 2004; the iPhone benefits from being nearly three years younger, and therefore based on considerably more modern technology. However, gaming isn’t an easy market to break into.

Dilger covers whether or not a convergence device like the iPhone can even compete against dedicated gaming handhelds. He runs down the current console market and Apple’s thus far discreet approach to gaming on iPods.

From unit pricing to hardware specs, Dilger makes his case that while the iPhone is expensive, its also a generation ahead in terms of performance, and despite the price, offers features above and beyond gaming.

Potential smart phone rivals, including Micrsoft’s XNA and Nokia’s N-Gage 2.0 are also discussed.

What’s Dilger’s conclusion?

As Apple migrates its 150 million iPod installed base toward the iPod Touch and iPhone, the company will pair a large user base with enthusiastic development efforts. Users will get the gaming environment as a free addition to the phone, media player, and web browser they purchased. Conversely, that also means that lesser phones with plodding web browser capabilities and simplistic media playback–as well as dedicated games consoles that really only play games–will have a hard time competing against the new platform. That should make for an interesting 2008.

Personally, I’ve considered a PSP in the past but could never justify the (then very high) cost for something I wouldn’t use all that often. But I have my phone with me all the time, and if I could get games as innovative as the DS (or Wii!) and as high quality as the PSP on my iPhone, it would be a no brainer. And maybe Apple’s counting on that as a way to “trojan horse” its way into gaming.

On a very deep level, using the accelerometer to fly an X-Wing into the Death Star is something I think the iPhone was forged to do. (You listening, Lucas?)

Here we go with another hand of high-stakes SDK multitasking three-blogger stud. Commenters (as always) wild.

Craig Hockenberry, developer of Twitterrific for Icon Factory, opens with two reasons why he understands the current Apple-enforced no multitasking policy, power:

The heart of the problem are the radios. Both the EDGE and Wi-Fi transceivers have significant power requirements. Whenever that hardware is on, your battery life is going to suck. My 5 minute refresh kept the hardware on and used up a lot of precious power.

And presentation:

You now have five independent sources for notifications. How do you let the user know which one is which? One might say, “make the sound different.” Another might say, “make something flash in the status bar.” Someone else might say, “make the phone vibrate.” Or even, “put up an alert box.” A truly sick individual might say, “Do all four.”

Jens Alfke, who developed iChat for Apple before going indie due to creative differences over the importance of social software, sees power:

[... H]ow much less power does it take to leave the EDGE radio passively listening for packets, as opposed to sending them? [... M]y prior cellphone, the T-Mobile Sidekick, had excellent AIM support, as well as push email, from day one, so it clearly is possible. The Sidekick’s battery life was decent, with maybe 3/4 the standby time of my iPhone.

And raises on presence:

I don’t buy this at all. In fact, I think it’s paternalistic. Yes, user interface design has to consider unintended consequences of users’ own actions, but this is a situation where the consequences are entirely obvious to the user: the more notifications you turn on, the more distractions you’ll get. The remedy is just as obvious: if you end up with too many distractions, you turn some of them down or off by using the exact same steps you used to turn them on in the first place.

(Be sure to hit up the original posts linked to above and read the comments for several bonus rounds of back-and-forth between the two and with others.)

John Gruber of Daring Fireball brings the hand to an end, calling:

I believe the number one reason why the iPhone OS doesn’t allow background processes is RAM. Battery life, CPU sharing, bandwidth — all of these are factors, too, but I think RAM is foremost. The iPhone only has just 128 MB of RAM and no swap space. A good chunk of that 128 MB goes to the OS itself and the built-in apps that do run in the background — Phone, Safari, and iPod. There really just isn’t much left over. If Apple were to just allow background processing now, what would happen is that background processes would often wind up getting killed by the OS at some point when the frontmost app needs more memory. From the user’s perspective, it would seem as though background apps inevitably mysteriously fail and stop running. You can argue that you’d rather have that than no third-party background apps at all, but it’s clearly a reasonable trade-off for Apple in terms of consistency and obviousness in the user experience.

Is Hockenberry right? Alfke? Personally I’m not betting against Gruber on this one. The iPhone is the first smart phone (can we call it that yet?) I’ve ever owned that didn’t crash almost daily when making or receiving calls, and being a smart PHONE, that’s the functionality I — and it appears Apple — is most concerned with. As things progress, Apple can always add functionality. It’s far more difficult (and nightmarish from a PR standpoint — right AirDrive Time Machine?) to take it away when it falls apart later.

Come June, when Apple lays all their cards on the table, we might just have a better idea. Until then, what do you think?

Apple COO Tim Cook said we’d see the iPhone in Asia by the end of 2008, and see it we did in China and Hong Kong! Er… oops, he meant officially, didn’t he? Well, then, Ars Technica (via Thompson) reports that SingTel might just make Singapore the first Asian nation to introduce Poppa Jobs’ pocket universe-dent’er:

The information comes from “industry sources,” and indicates that the iPhone will appear in Singapore in September. The sources don’t have any information on whether or not a package deal that includes Australia and Thailand has been reached, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see news or rumors concerning those countries start popping up. SingTel and Apple aren’t talking just yet (not that we expected them to).

Singapore allegedly boasts over 10,000 unlocked iPhones already, but if they go legit that’ll bring our official score to:

Rumors (via Apple Insider) suggest Apple may even be willing to drop its revenue sharing model in exchange for the up-front carrier subsidies more common to the industry.

What gives? No Visual Voicemail in Ireland. No unlimited data in Austria. And now no revenue sharing in Singapore? Is Apple getting beaten down by the very carrier domination they seemed so poised to uproot? Or is Apple’s business model really, as Tim Cook suggested, flexible as an 8 year old gymnast when it comes to getting the iPhone in countries?

Maybe when the Canadian model finally debuts with no Visual Voicemail, a heft 1MB of data, and Rogers’ branded WAP browser in lieu of Safari, all for the low-low price of $199 a month for 100 min., we’ll have our answer!

Roughly Drafted Magazine’s Daniel Eran Dilger along with Jason Smith have written up an article detailing how signing certificates work, and what they mean for would-be iPhone developers.

Last May, I asked Steve Jobs for a public comment to clarify Apple’s plans for third party software for the iPhone. He assured me that Apple did indeed recognize a market for software outside of the web platform outlined for the iPhone, but was “wrestling” with how to balance openness with security.

They cover the brief history of App signing, how it works (like a drivers license that can be suspended for illegal activity), and the benefits and drawbacks for that type of system (restricted access vs. secure environment).

The simple threat of revocation would likely be enough to prevent legitimate developers from allowing fly-by-night spammers and identity thieves to use their assigned certificates to sign and distribute malicious software. Apple can also vet software as it is submitted, and rapidly respond to user complaints by terminating the distribution and revoking the run rights of signed software. With such a system in place, there’s no need for iPhone anti-virus software. Our children will never know why Symantec and Norton ever existed.

(For a differing opinion, see Rogue Amoeba: Will App-solute Power Corrupt?)

RIM/Blackberry and Nokia’s signing models are discussed, with fees ranging from $100 per App to $780 for full-feature access, to $1295 packages. Dilger and Smith also compare the relative costs of developing for console games ($10,000+ after being slashed nearly in half) compared to the $0, $99, $299 iPhone tiers.

Likewise, the development environments for Java, Android, Palm, Symbian, and WinMob, all of which cater to a wide range of hardware, are compared to the iPhone’s (familiar to existing Mac developers) single-device focus.

Lastly, Dilger and Smith wrap up with the 70/30 App Store cut debate, pointing out Danger’s 50% cut, Handango’s 40%, and Nokia’s 40%-50%.

(For more views on this, check out Devs on Apps: Charge Us More, Users Less and First, Free, Finest: The Three Pillars of App Success?)

While Microsoft, Symbian, RIM, and others scramble to offer their own software stores that can match iTunes, it will all be too little, too late. Apple has the cohesive platform grabbing the most attention, the most familiar and modern developer tools, and the most most trusted consumer software store. By offering developers guaranteed sales and sustainable profits at a low cost of entry, no smartphone vendor is going to be able to match the sophistication of apps that sprout up around the iPhone.

Are Dilger and Smith giving a fair assessment of the iPhone’s position in the current market? Or is this just more rampant Mac’tivism at work? Personally, I think the distribution terms are better than most I’ve experienced, but I’m waiting to see how the approval process goes before making any final opinions. What do you think?

Every week I will be bringing you what I think are the week’s biggest stories and articles. Here we go!

Adobe Flash for iPhone

Would Adobe just make it for our beloved already? We started off the week with Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen hopes Apple’s newly released SDK will help Adobe deliver that middle ground, with or without Jobs’ blessing. The world was ecstatic, could this really be?

… Well, not so fast, a few days later there was a, um, clarification.

Can’t we all just get along, join hands, sing Kumbaya and make Flash happen?

More of our best stuff after the break!

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Business Week apparently read the Financial Times’ story on Apple Considering All-You-Can-Eat Music Subscriptions, cleared its throat, and allowed itself to retort:

[N]o such talks are under way, according to people familiar with Apple’s plans. An Apple spokesperson declined to comment. Insiders at major music labels were similarly dismissive. One person familiar with the matter said the idea of subscription plan has been “kicked around” for about a year, but said there have been “no meaningful discussions” on the subject.

Of course, Apple was also never planning a phone or a tablet or a video iPod either…

(via iPhoneAlley)

Be first to market, give it away for free, or be the finest in the space. Steven Frank, co-founder of award-winning Mac development house, Panic, says any one of these properties is a key to iPhone app success. Any two of these?

If you are first AND best, you’ll be doing quite well for a very long time, as long as you stay the best. If you’re the best and free, it’s going to be very hard to compete with you — although those two lines don’t intersect just every day.

Frank also gets into his thoughts on Apple as gate-keeper vs. cr@p filter, and had this to say on the subject of the App Store’s 70/30 revenue split:

Whenever one of our apps hits the Mac Software page of Apple’s site, we get a tidal wave of traffic. Forget VersionTracker or MacUpdate, you want to be on the Mac OS X Software page. Assuming this extends to the iPhone app store, I say you re-think Apple’s 30% cut as your marketing budget, and suddenly everything makes a bit more sense. They aren’t just taking your money and giving you nothing back — they’re putting your apps directly in front of EVERY SINGLE person who can possibly use your product. If you can’t see the value of that, then I don’t know what else to tell you.

An interesting read from an acclaimed developer, my only question is what are Frank (and Panic) cooking up with the SDK?? Transmit FTP? Coda Web Dev? CandyBar customization? Something completely new but just as shockingly good? What do you think?

The Seidio Inno Case for the iPhone ($32.95) is a very subtle case that manages to increase the functionality of the phone and enhance the user experience. The design is simple and understated and comes in colors such as blue, black, and burgundy. The case adds some flair but little to no bulk to your iPhone.

Read on for the full review!

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