Ambrosia Software released a new version of iToner that returns ringtone functionality to iPhones running firmware version 1.1.1. Previously, iToner owners were only able to sync their non-Apple-sanctioned ringtones with iPhones that were using one of the 1.0 firmware versions. iToner costs $15 and doesn’t involve any hacks to your iPhone.
Steve Jobs has confirmed the rumor. It looks like this won’t be just widgets — it will be full, system-level native apps. It will be interesting to see how they perform this — as the iPhone stands, everything is running in ‘ring 0′. My guess is that they’re going to have to redesign the iPhone to run in multi-user mode. That is, some things will be running as root, other things will be running as ‘radio’, and some things will be running as ‘Mike Overbo’, for example. From http://www.apple.com/hotnews/:
Third Party Applications on the iPhone
Let me just say it: We want native third party applications on the iPhone, and we plan to have an SDK in developers’ hands in February. We are excited about creating a vibrant third party developer community around the iPhone and enabling hundreds of new applications for our users. With our revolutionary multi-touch interface, powerful hardware and advanced software architecture, we believe we have created the best mobile platform ever for developers.It will take until February to release an SDK 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. This is no easy task. Some claim that viruses and malware are not a problem on mobile phones—this is simply not true. There have been serious viruses on other mobile phones already, including some that silently spread from phone to phone over the cell network. As our phones become more powerful, these malicious programs will become more dangerous. And since the iPhone is the most advanced phone ever, it will be a highly visible target.
Some companies are already taking action. Nokia, for example, is not allowing any applications to be loaded onto some of their newest phones unless they have a digital signature that can be traced back to a known developer. While this makes such a phone less than “totally open,” we believe it is a step in the right direction. We are working on an advanced system which will offer developers broad access to natively program the iPhone’s amazing software platform while at the same time protecting users from malicious programs.
We think a few months of patience now will be rewarded by many years of great third party applications running on safe and reliable iPhones.
Steve
P.S.: The SDK will also allow developers to create applications for iPod touch. [Oct 17, 2007]
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
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
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.
First, iNdependence has been updated to perform the jailbreak for iPhones running firmware 1.1.1. So if you’ve got a Mac around, there’s now a GUI tool to run your iPhone through the hoops to get it jailbroken. I’ll post up a tool for Windows as soon as I see one, but for now it seems Windows users are stuck with the tough method; iBrickr hasn’t been updated yet but remains the best hope for you.
Second, if you’ve got an iPod Touch, there’s an automatic jailbreak tool that’s available from iPod Touch Hacks that will do it all for you on both mac and windows. Both use the recent TIFF vulnerability.
Apple has created a searchable directory of mary various online web applications. The service is available at http://www.apple.com/webapps/, and offers over 200 (!) online applications. We had considered doing an online application database very early on, but we didn’t. And it now makes me happy that we didn’t, for very real. All of the iPhone application list sites are now competitors with a company with very deep pockets.
Apple has quietly posted a Safari web app directory, similar to the one for Dashboard Widgets, featuring every available iPhone-optimized web 2.0 service or web app created by human hands. Ok, so these aren’t the apps we’re looking for, and there are dozens if not hundreds of directory sites in existence already, but let it never be said we iPhone users are in want of a good web browser. Right? crickets chirping
[Update] Amazingly this directory isn’t formatted for iPhone. Strange that Apple would build a web app directory for iPhone, designed to be accessed from a desktop.
It seems that Mozilla has finally acknowledged the need for a mobile browser on the mozilla codebase that isn’t wreteched. PC Advisor reports that the mozilla foundation will be putting resources towards a mobile browser. And they didn’t act until now on the mobile browsing kit on the iPhone, 3 months after WebKit shines on the iPhone. To add insult to injury, Nokia has been using Apple’s WebKit, the browsing engine that powers Safari on the iPhone, instead of anything based off of Mozilla’s code, though Nokia also has a mozilla-basbed browser on their N800 tablet.
For those of you that are aware of Minimo, the project to bring mozilla to mobile devices, erm, make that Windows Mobile devices, the project is essentially dead. Minimo, doomed with only one developer who was not willing to expend extra time on the project, will never see an update again. A mobile browser project will now instead start from scratch.
You know, Opera has really been on top of the browser space. They put opera pretty much everywhere they could, and really got it out there. Their J2ME browser, Opera Mini, is a breakthrough bit of software for featurephones. I’m not generally liable to say anything pleasant about Internet Explorer, and by extension Pocket IE, but Pocket IE was a sight better than Minimo. It makes sad that Mozilla didn’t get until now that the mobile browsing world isn’t really a segment of the market where you want to be in last place.
Rumors are like falling apples in an orchard - some are perfectly edible, while most are wormy and end up on the ground rotting away, eaten by insects. The Apple rumor mill yields bushel baskets full of both kinds. Today’s rumor comes courtesy of Glenn Fleishman of TidBits, who claims to have heard from “sources” (mwaha) that Apple is very close to making a public announcement regarding native application development on iPhone. Naturally his “source” is vague and void of details, which makes it totally credible!
Not that I wouldn’t love to sit here all day playing this game of he said, she said, but like I’ve said so many times before… we KNOW application support is coming. I have my own “sources” as well. It isn’t a question of if, but what and when. Will Apple open its kimono, releasing a full blown SDK with no handrails and locked doors? Or will this be a token sandbox environment with kiddie pool and happy meals? Wait. Just wait, all will be revealed soon.
  
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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.
