iPhone SDK: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly Options

[Colonel]

After many months of waiting, jailbreaking, and crying ourselves to sleep mode, the iPhone SDK is finally upon us! Having the ability to write apps for our iPhones with the very own tools and SDK that Apple itself used would make writing apps for the iPhone so much easier, right? Well, maybe not... As most of us know, some of the great things about Jailbreaking was the ability to use AIM, MSN, Gtalk, and having it run as a background process as you do other things on your iPhone. You could go do something in Safari, change a song, watch a video, or something else and still receive IMs in the background. With the new SDK, your apps are now limited to what they can do, making it so they can not run as a background process. This means that if you want to change a song while you're using AIM, you have to sign out, change your song, then sign back in. Now, there are workarounds for this, but since that would violate the iPhone Interface Guidelines, it would be forbidden from being put on the AppStore.

Another limitation to the new SDK includes the "you can't make plugins using other APIs than our own" rule, which would stop any Safari plugins in it's tracks such as Java or a 3rd party flash, as well as stopping any sort of emulator for the iPhone from being created.

Is this fair of Apple? Maybe or maybe not. Hopefully in future releases and revisions of the SDK and documentation, they'll be more flexible on what we can and can't do.

[Hugin777]

Those are of course only guidelines and not some absolute rules that Apple cannot bend if they want. And as the SDK is still only a beta -applicationSuspend may become documented before june

But still, a background IM app would probably keep the network on even when the device is "turned off" (suspended), resulting in an unacceptable battery drain... But I would like the option, of course

[bofors]

Is this fair of Apple?

Is it fair for Apple to take 30% of retail application prices as distribution fees?

[Frohike]

Is this fair of Apple?

In the long term no… although Apple is relatively new at this. My guess is that Apple is starting small and they'll see how things go. The last thing any iPhone owner wants is the situation like many Palms where they're constantly having problems due to poorly written applications and/or those applications having access to too much.

[bofors]

Is it fair for Apple to take 30% of retail application prices as distribution fees?

Is case anyone else is interested in this issue, John Siracusa at ArsTechnica gets into it. Some of comments to his article make it seem that a 70% cut of retail price is not such a bad deal for developers: http://arstechnica.com/staff/fatbits.ars/2...falling-in-love

[skinrock]

Is it fair for Apple to take 30% of retail application prices as distribution fees?

By distribution fees, I assume you are including free access to the SDK for 3 months until applications are officially available, giving everyone ample time to learn and develop their code, along with providing a medium that makes said application available to a million people over Edge and WiFi, and being signed so that potential buyers won't have to question if it's safe or not...

I think 30% is fair.


Back on topic, I think Apple will end up deciding to let the background suspend be something you can override. They are probably testing it right now, and weighing the benefits and consequences. They are probably worried about battery life and potential conflicts. There's no way they will allow it unless they are 100% sure no issues will arise.

[~pcwiz]

What I need is an iPod Touch or iPhone emulator for OS X

[bofors]

What I need is an iPod Touch or iPhone emulator for OS X

Don't you know that the iPhone SDK includes one?

[~pcwiz]

OK man I gotta get that SDK

Does it have full iPhone capabilities?

[bofors]

Does it have full iPhone capabilities?

No, it seems to be limited to what you need for basic iPhone application development.

It only includes the Photos, Safari, Contacts and Settings stock applications.

[~pcwiz]

Hmm, thats too bad, but oh well...

I'm DLing it right now. Its 2.15GB. It says that it includes the Xcode IDE as well, would that be Xcode 3.0 or Xcode 2.5?

[stroke]

It includes Xcode 3.1, which is a "Leopard-ized" version of Xcode 3.0.

[~pcwiz]

Sweet, thats awesome! 40% done!

EDIT: 68%

Anyway, has anyone installed the CHUD tools that comes with Xcode and the SDK successfully? People in another thread say that installing the CHUD stuff on a hack causes a KP.

[pyrates]

I'll continue with my jailbroken iphone thank you very much. No skype on edge? No running third party apps in the background? No thanks.

[Ferret-Simpson]

CHUD tools run fine on a T4210, including Processor panel. Processor controlling varies from kernel to kernel.

[lord_muad_dib]

where's the source of this news, even if the api is not visible with xcode it doesn't mean it's not usable.. well.. let's see

[CLiDE FTW!!1]

Cool, this is more of an incentive for the jail-broken community (or however you want to call them) to continue developing their apps.

No need to abide by what APPL states what to do with YOUR iPhone/Touch.

[Hara Taiki]

iPhone FW 1.2 (future 2.0) has been jailbroken.

http://www.ipodtouchfans.com/forums/showthread.php?t=47812

[NatMusak]

Cool, this is more of an incentive for the jail-broken community (or however you want to call them) to continue developing their apps.

No need to abide by what APPL states what to do with YOUR iPhone/Touch.

Apple isn't telling YOU what to do with YOUR iPhone/iPod touch, they're telling DEVELOPERS what they can do on THEIR platform.

As for no background apps, that simply means no third party apps can be running in the background when in other apps. That's already true for a number of Apple's own preinstalled apps. OS X on iPhone/iPod touch quits most applications when you hit the Home button to save battery life, reduce heat, and keep whatever app you choose to use running smoothly. You'll still be able to listen to music while using AIM and when you move from AIM to Safari, you're chat history will not disappear. You'll pick right back up where you left off without having to log back in or anything like that.

Also, to the author, the SDK has most definitely made it easier for third party devs to develop apps. The iPhone/iPod touch are not full-fledged computers, they're mobile systems that must contend with processor and RAM constraints, battery life, heat, etc.

Here's an article that addresses this myth if anyone cares to question what they read:
http://www.roughlydrafted.com/2008/03/13/i...titasking-myth/

[appleFanboy107]

why do I seem to be missing something? The 30% is arguable I suppose... but to me REQUIRING app store distribution s a non starter to begin with.

What good is developing your own app, if the only way you can use it is if the approve it for everyone?

This model is really only useful for commercial distribution, but for the rest of us that just want to share some personal apps it's a deal breaker