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.
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.
First up, Mike Ash provides a breakdown of code-signed apps (applications which must be cryptographically signed by a developer and authorized by an authority — in this case Apple — in order to run), pro and con: better security and accountability vs. single point of control:
The most worrying one on the list [of disallowed apps], of course, is “Unforeseen”. This is basically a catch-all intended to give Apple an out in case anything comes up which they don’t feel like letting onto the device. Maybe some new class of evil app is developed which doesn’t quite fit into the above categories and Apple needs to block them. Or maybe Apple just doesn’t feel like having any competitors in a particular market, and wants to shut them all out.
Next, Quentin Carnicelli lays out why Apple needs to go “Back to the Future” and remember how it was a 3rd party dev, and not Apple itself, who helped fix core problems on the Mac:
When Steve Jobs first saw Switcher, his reply was: “It’s great. Apple is going to bundle it with the Mac. Congratulations.” Andy had writen a innovative application that improved the platform for every single user from there onward. Fast forward to today, if he had an iPhone instead of a Mac, it would have been legally impossible for him to do so. This is no mere hyperbole – the SDK agreement expressly forbids using non-public APIs, attempting to touch other applications, and running in the background, among other things.
Lastly, Paul Kafasis shares the iPhone SDK bugs Rogue Amoeba has filed with Apple to date, including feature requests for non-iTunes app delivery, multitasking, root access, Media-Picker for music and video, file-system access, host computer access, VoIP over EDGE, Dock access, and asks others to do likewise:
If you have an ADC account, you can submit your own bugs at http://bugreport.apple.com. Plenty of things are still in flux, and with input from users and developers, Apple may just see what a powerful platform the iPhone can be.
Rogue Amoeba isn’t sure they like Steve Jobs all dressed up in his dear leader robes . What do you think? Will Apple create an iPhone user-topia? Or does app-solute power corrupt?
What does all this SDK talk mean with respect to the popular DataViz products like Documents To Go? Read on, my friends!
Although it’s easy to be swallowed up in the sea of information spilling forth from the SDK Roadmap earlier today, and even though I’m still hoping for Stevie J to throw us a bone (like copy/paste ready for download from iTunes? ahem), I’m trying to stay calm. Deep breath. Maybe another piece of good news will help.
One of my favorite apps from my Treo days is DataViz’s DocsToGo. I tried to reach DataViz for comment with regard to the SDK release and their plans for bringing their products to the iPhone, but alas, the time-zone gods are against me and all I could come up with was a blurb from their website. Read their statement and glean what you can:
We are currently investigating the opportunity to develop Documents To Go, RoadSync, Passwords Plus and any of our other software titles for the iPhone and would appreciate your feedback.
Here’s our feedback: Yes, Please.
After the break, DataViz CEO Dick Fontana talks up the SDK for Fox News. [via] — “DataViz has a long relationship with Apple which gives Dick reason to be optimistic about the opportunities for DataViz with the iPhone.” — indeed.
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.
In addition to these new iPhone network and security features, the beta iPhone 2.0 software provides several new Mail features such as the ability to view PowerPoint attachments, in addition to Word and Excel, as well as the ability to mass delete and move email messages.
But what about the other built-in apps like Calendar and Contacts?
Our own eagle-eyed Chad Garrett has already spotted a mysterious new icon on Calendar, and predicted we may indeed see Task integration (GTD’ers, put it on your to do’s!).
Now BlargKABOOM (via TUAW) has hauled out the iMicroscope and discovered yet another tantalizing new icon, this time in Contacts:
It is a little spotlight icon right above the A on the alphabet.
Does this mean we may just be getting search as well? If so, how will it be implemented, and will it be limited to contacts or (dare we hope?) system wide, SDK-level CoreSearch?
iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store, YouTube, the Weather, Stock and other widgets, and MobileSafari Touch have all had search for a while now. C’mon Apple, share the love!
I love the fact that Apple gives us their events on iTunes! Believe it or not, I still watch the MacWorld 2007 video. I enjoying watching the part where Steve says:
An iPod, Phone and an Internet communicator. iPod, Phone, and an Internet communicator. Are you getting it? These aren’t three separate devices…
hmmm, perhaps I have watched that one too many times.
I do wonder why it is a Podcast though and not a “movie”. I say this because the Podcasts do not refresh… we just get a new one every time.
You can find the link here to the Apple store for download, enjoy.
From the 70/30 split to the $99 publishing fee, the lack of information about distributing 3rd party apps to beta testers, the possibility of try-before-you-buy demos, and the mechanism for paid upgrades, Hockenberry pulls no punches:
One thing that disappoints me about the iPhone SDK sign-up is that the entry fee of $99 is too low. I look at the entry fee as a way to filter out developers that aren’t fully committed to the platform. [...] A higher entry fee would lessen the chance of this becoming a bottleneck for getting my product into the system. Please charge me $499 and let move to the front of the line.
Wait… Charge developers MORE? And what, pass the costs on to the consumer?
Not according to former Apple programmer (and writer of Apple’s GeekGameBoard sample code), Jens Alfke. He thinks $0.99 – $1.99 might just set off the perfect high-volume price storm:
So assume you spent some evenings and weekends writing a cool little utility or game. You submit it to the App Store and set the price at $1.43. You get $1 of pure, unadulterated profit from every user of the app. [...] Steve promises us there will be ten million iPhones in the world. If a tenth of a percent of them impulse-purchase your $1.43 app, that’s $100,000.
Alfke also covers the interesting possibility of Xbox-style game expansion packs as revenue streams, and takes a not-to-subtle swipe at carrier gouging and consumer gluttony via the ringtone market.
Hmm, serious developers charging no-brainer prices for “next great platform” apps? I’m in! What about you?
iLounge is reporting the possible leak, via iTunes, of what can only be termed an iPhone/iPod Touch “Fatty”. Turns out that the newfangled SDK led a curious developer to Education First Educational Tours “private page” (the tool that would, for example, allow an enterprise to make and release apps accessible only within their own company and not for sale to the general public). Revealed on this “private page” was the tantalizing/horrifying image of the “fatty” (or perhaps the long fabled iTablet Safari Pad?).
Yesderday’s Apple Event was very, very exciting. My wife is a clinician and was almost leapt off of the couch when she saw Epocrates with the new functionality. I was excited by the gaming apps; go figure.
With all of this energy around the SDK, you might ask why am I feeling a bit disappointed? I feel there is still a lot of work to be done with the core iPhone applications and functionality. The iPhone has been out a year, yet there is basic and fundamental functionality still missing. I think we know what the big ones are; copy/paste and MMS. However, there are some areas that I don’t feel get enough attention. These areas include search and calendars.
It is very difficult to find an appointment on the iPhone. I literally have to go day by day to find an appointment. Since the iPhone runs OS X, where is my Spotlight?
For those of us who use multiple calendars, why can’t I add an appointment to any one of my calendars instead of a default one? While we are on the topic, where is my Notes and Task syncing?
I did notice the 2.0 calendar that was shown had the calendar buttons placed on the bottom instead of the top and a mysterious button located in the lower right. Could it be a task button? Am I getting worked up over nothing? Only time will tell.
Wait…You mean it’s a phone, an internet portal, an iPod AND a gaming device? Apple is certainly following through with this one-gadget-to-rule-them-all motif. In fact, the game demos pretty much stole the show at the iPhone SDK Roadmap event.
Using the three-axis iPhone accelerometer, multi-touch, and pretty much everything else that the iPhone is capable of doing—portable gaming is officially on notice.
Touch Fighter, an in-house Apple creation, which is akin to Wing Commander, uses the iPhone’s intuitive movements for its controls. Tilt the screen to move the plane, tap the screen to fire the missiles. Who’s going to miss the stylus or speakerphone analog stick, after they get their hands on that?
However, the biggest revelation for iPhone gaming is the developers already on board. EA and Sega both demoed early productions of Spore and Super Monkey Ball. Spore for the iPhone is the full-fledged version complete with all 18 levels. Movement for both games is controlled again by tilting the iPhone.
We’re only beginning to scratch the surface for gaming on the iPhone—these games only show 2 weeks of development. If more developers jump on board, there is no telling how far and how fun gaming on the iPhone will be.
