All Articles Tagged omgnoappz

After waking up on Tuesday to face the dreaded Blue– er… Pink-Screen-of-Death (?!) that signaled the expiry of the 2nd beta release for the iPhone SDK, would-be-developers managed not to go to bed angry as Apple kissed and made-up in the form of SDK Beta 3.

Erica Sadun over on TUAW reports that the latest/greatest weighs in at 1.4GB, or just three-quarters the size of the original beta, with the matching firmware at under 200MB according to a commenter.

What new goodies does this release hold? We’ll have to wait a bit to find out. But with the continual slow, grinding, excruciating march towards an anticipated June release (WWDC? June 30 at 11:59 pm? Little help?) waiting is something iPhone lovers are used to.

Rumor gets reported there will be Flash on the iPhone. Rumor gets smashed. Rumor gets reported there will be unlimited music on the iPhone. Rumor gets smashed. Rinse and repeat.

What’s going on? Why aren’t we getting these stories straight?

Turns out maybe these stories weren’t meant to be gotten. Turns out maybe these stories were meant to get us.

There was a time when media really was the fourth estate, when it reported the news. In something akin to the scientific method, media observed what was going on in the grand experiment that is society, looked for pattern and flaw, then contextualized it, gave it form and flavor, and broadcast it by mule and truck and cable and fiber to those who wanted or needed to know.

Now media is entertainment and is competing with itself and other forms of entertainment for your attention and your dollar. One of the ways to compete is to get mysterious “un-named sources” to give you the highly prized “sensational headline”. And instead of digging for these sources and convincing them to come forward, the anonymous sources now trip and push past each other to get to the reporters first. Why? Because controlling the story is important. Information is power and spin is leverage.

Okay, soap-box, what does this have to do with the iPhone? Two interesting and very similar blog posts emerged recently shedding new light on both the Flash and unlimited music stories that have been all over the web lately. Let’s take a look:

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Macnn/iPodnn (via The Inquirer) reports that unlike CoreLocation, which gives access to the Google Maps-like location-based services, Apple’s new iPhone SDK will be providing absolutely no access to iPod functionality or the onboard iTunes:

Any functionality related to music playback is inaccessible by the iPhone SDK, a new report claims. While the SDK allows access to many other functions of iPhone and the iPod touch, such as dialing, the camera and Internet access, The Inquirer writes that any components connected to iTunes are off-limits, preventing developers from accessing one of the most popular features of the phone

While this could be an anti-competitive move meant to keep VLC off the iPhone — or to protect consumers from the horror that would be RealPlayer Touch… — it may also cripple any Guitar Hero, Rockband, or iPod-style Phase gaming. (Unless Harmonix and other big game developers like EA are granted that oft-mentioned “special dispensation”…?)

Did it used to about the music, and Apple’s now telling us to just “sl@g off!”? Or are you happy they’re keeping developers’ tone-deaf mitts off your shiny (i)tunes? What do you think?

iLounge tells us that Apple has sent out a second note to would be $99-level iPhone SDK developers:

“We have many more requests than we can serve during this initial beta period, so we must limit the Program at this time. We plan to expand it during the beta period, and we will contact you regarding your enrollment status at the appropriate time. We appreciate your patience.”

This follows up on last week’s far more confusing note, and the rampant speculation it caused.

Now TUAW brings word that some developers have, indeed, been granted access to SDK paradise:

The accepted developers were apparently among the first to apply. The accepted developers previously received the rejection letter. The acceptances appear to be random. The program is firewalled. Five iPhone limit. Test devices are iBricks [or maybe not: see update at TUAW]

So does that really clarify anything? Will anxious developers get in before June? Or is Apple dropping the ball?

Engadget honcho Ryan Block got his techie mitts on a pre-release version of the iPhone 2.0 firmware, and here are the highlights (and lowlights!):

Exchange over Wi-Fi is not instantaneous (!). No contact search he could find. New button in Calendar don’t do nothing for him yet. App Store error’s out. Cisco branded VPN screen. Parental controls are good-to-go. Wi-Fi order can be specified in prefs. Calc has new widescreen scientific mode and icon. And his favorite new feature — Multi-Select in Mail!

Head on over for a full rundown and gallery o’ pics!

Ah, Apple gone and done it now! SXSW debuted this year’s hottest social trend: Mass Twitter-steria, and now the 140 character mob has its torches and pitchforks ready to storm Cupertino. Or not.

Let’s back up a step. Following the Apple SDK announcement, pretty much everyone and their neck-bearded uncle rushed to developer.apple.com and started their download engines. 100,000 of them in the first few days alone. That’s a lot of love. And even more expectation.

Today, many would-be developers, including tippity-top tier indie sensations, received the following cryptic response from Apple (via Daring Fireball)

Dear Registered iPhone Developer,

Thank you for expressing interest in the iPhone Developer Program. We have received your enrollment request. As this time, the iPhone Developer Program is available to a limited number of developers and we plan to expand during the beta period. We will contact you again regarding your enrollment status at the appropriate time.

Thank you for applying.

Best regards,

iPhone Developer Program

Apple slamming the door, or asking a larger-than-anticipated crowd to take a number and please be patient? Sadly, no rosetta stone was provided to help us suss that out.

My money is on the latter. 100,000 certificates is a lot to process (and almost certainly weed out). That Apple didn’t communicate this effectively is, unfortunately and increasingly, par for the course 1 Infinite Loop way.

It should also be made clear that this in no way prevents anyone from developing on the iPhone, using the free ADC membership and the simulator environment. What this does, however, is prevent anyone who hoped to sign up for the $99 membership from receiving their authentication certificates. This means no transferring apps to an actual iPhone, and more importantly, no testing on an actual iPhone for now.

The internet in your pocket. That’s what Steve Jobs and Apple advertising have promised us since Macworld 2007. Not the watered-down WAP internet, the server-pre-rendered kinda-sorta-internet, or the stunted mobile internet. Just… the internet.

In large part, they’ve succeeded. By promoting open, standards-based support for HTML (hyper-text markup language) structure, CSS (cascading style sheet) design, Javascript actions, and the hybrid interactive richness of AJaX (Asynchronous Javascript and XML) that enable WebApps, Apple has brought us the closest thing yet to a desktop-class browsing experience on our mobiles.

About the only thing missing, many would argue, is Flash.

Adobe’s ubiquitous interactive, multi-media technology powers everything from online office apps to easily embedded video clips to in-our-face banner adds. It also powers it’s own “cookie” (online state-saving and tracking) system. Didn’t know that? Advertisers do. They already exploit Flash cookies on the desktop. And as much as we want our videos clips on the iPhone, they want their cookies more. After all, the iPhone is the “next generation mobile” devices — the one that know everything about us, including who we are and where we are, with all of our private contacts and secure contents just there for the tracking, aggregating, and selling.

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Bonus Podcast!

We couldn’t wait until our regularly scheduled podcast to talk about the iPhone Software Roadmap. Mike and I were also lucky to be joined by Phone different writers Chad Garrett and Rene Ritchie! Listen in as we chat up all the new announcements about the new Enterprise features and the SDK.

This post is also a Wait-a-Thon post! Your comment posted here enters you for a a chance to win a $100 iTunes Gift Card! Also note that starting today, you can use your User Referral Link (found here when you log in) to get two entries in this week’s drawing.

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Everybody here at the iPhone Blog is very, very excited about the iPhone SDK Roadmap. We can’t wait for native apps, for more functionality, for games, for Apple to go after BlackBerrys. We can’t wait - seriously - it’s going to kill us waiting until “Late June” for all this good stuff. We’ve called in a team of psychiatrists, it’s not looking good.

We bet you feel the same way.

So to help ease the pain we’re instituting the iPhone Blog App Wait-a-Thon! Starting next week and then every week until Apple releases the iPhone 2.0 Software Update, we are going to give away a $100 iTunes Gift Certificate to a lucky reader.

You may not be getting your native apps now, but at least your can download some emo music to drown your sorrows, or a Pixar movie to cheer you up, or the first three seasons of LOST¹ to help remind you that it’s not that bad.

Here’s how it will work: Sometime during the week, two to three of our blog postings, articles, or reviews will have “Wait-a-Thon” after the title, that’s your cue to comment on that entry. Comment on that entry and you’ll be automatically entered in that week’s drawing. (Just one entry per post counts, max three per week).

The latest Wait-a-Thon post is always available here. Just take a look over next to the Wait-a-Thon contest graphic!

Full details after the break!

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We’re not able to liveblog the event here at Phone different, but we are able to put our two cents in — stay tuned to this blog post during the event for color commentary on what Apple announces. It won’t be up to the second, but you’ll get a little more analysis in exchange for those extra minutes.

Bonus: comment on this post and we’ll quote our faves in at the top.

T-Minus 25 minutes. When you see the “read more” link below, it’s showtime!

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Mike and Dieter speculate on the SDK announcement, discuss enterprise email support, and read from your letters. Listen in!

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It’s coming, the SDK is really really coming. Thank the lord. Apple has sent out invitations to an event titled “iPhone Software Road Map.” That may or may not mean they’re actually releasing the SDK, but it doesn’t sound like we’ll be getting a slew of new apps next week.

Yes, it technically is late for the February release, but it’s a relief to not be so in the dark anymore. Also interesting:

Apple also said to expect details on “some exciting new enterprise features,” which at first blush sounds to me like a method of getting the iPhone to work more closely with corporate e-mail software - CNET

Hello Exchange support?

The SDK might be delayed one to three weeks, says Arik Hesseldal of BusinessWeek:

I’m hearing from one source that its going to be late. I’m not yet hearing any reasons why, and it’s sounding like the official release date could slide by anywhere from one to three weeks. [...] However I’m also hearing that the situation is fluid, and a lot of last-minute decisions are close to being made about what precisely will or will not be disclosed next week, if anything. There are, apparently, a lot of moving parts to something this complex.

A lot of “moving parts,” eh, ya think? It would be a major bummer if the SDK is delayed, but it wouldn’t be too shocking - the sand is quickly running out of February’s hourglass. Fairly soon, though, we’re going to have some information about the SDK and I have to admit that my expectations are rising the more I think about it.

This is related (again) to Mike and my discussion in our iPhone Podcast last week. As I see it, there are four ways that the SDK announcement (whenever it comes) can shake out. Read on for some thoughts on what we might see and what I hope to see.

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Mac Rumors is reporting that the Apple Event, the one we were all hoping would bring the announcement of the SDK and end the omgnoappz saga, happened last night. It was Linkin Park playing a show at an Apple Store. They’re also reporting that the dearth of press invites bodes ill for a full-on press event for the launch of the SDK.

In other words, though we’ve heard that Apple is supposed to still be able to meet their self-imposed February deadline, things are starting to look bleak in terms of their being much more than just the release of the SDK. I hope I’m wrong and that I was wrong in my podcast prediction: that if Apple makes the deadline, we’ll just see an SDK released to developers and the iPhone update that allows for apps will take awhile longer.

(Also: Linkin Park is still around and popular? Hunh. I thought all they did was get stalked.)

Two weeks later and we’re still waiting for the SDK. Mike talks about what he hopes will come, Dieter about what he fears. Plus we discuss the Tiny Code excitement (lies!) and, yes, Google again too.

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