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.

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

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

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.

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

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.

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

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

OK man I gotta get that SDK

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.

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?

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

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.

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.

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

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

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.

iPhone FW 1.2 (future 2.0) has been jailbroken.

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

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/

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

That's what jailbreaking and Installer are for.

Sorry, but that's incorrect. They're not requiring you to distribute your app at all. You can use the free SDK and enjoy your own personal apps without any worry of censorship. However, if you want to distribute that app to everyone through the App Store, obviously you'll have certain guidelines.

Erm, by telling developers what they can and can't develop for OUR iPhones, Apple is indirectly telling the end users what they can do with their iPhones. Limitations affect EVERYONE.

Simple.

Again, this is why I support jailbreaking. I used to be against it when I worked for Apple Care (when 1.1.1 came out, hundreds of people called in daily about their bricked phones -- Apple said 'Oh well!'), but at this point, there's no reason not to have a jailbroken phone, other than you have to wait an extra 6 hours for someone to jailbreak a new iPhone update after it's released ...

How is giving developers an SDK, which a relatively small niche of users were crying for, somehow telling those users what they can and can't do? Unless they themselves are devs, Apple isn't telling users to do or not do anything. They also haven't cracked down on jailbreaking, which they rightly could do as a safety precaution, so if anything, they've only empowered the end user as some devs will likely use the SDK to develop jailbreak apps.

I still don't think you really get it, dudey...

Developers are the ones who make the programs for the end users -- and with these limitations, again, affects everyone. It's like the government restricting softcore porn on television stations, which limits the ability of viewers to watch softcore porn on their TV's. Not exactly the greatest of examples, but frankly, I hope you get the point.

Jailbreaking has been cracked down on, ever since 1.1.1 ... how isn't this true? Apple won't warrantee a jailbroken phone, and with every update, someone has to crack the firmware.

I see what you're saying. At the same time most of the limitations are due to hardware constraints (iPhones are mobile devices, not full-fledged computers) or legal constraints (Apple doesn't allow porn on iTunes, thus it's not going to allow pornographic apps in the App Store; similarly, the RIAA and MPAA would surely shut iTunes down if they allowed P2P apps).


Apple could very easily kill your iTunes account, which allows you to sync your iPhone with iTunes. They could do that to prevent malware and spyware from entering your device, but they aren't, obviously, if people are still jailbreaking their phones. You also have to consider what competing companies like RIM and those selling Windows Mobile phones would do in similar circumstances. The difference is Apple's competition offers such pathetic desktop syncing, most people never even update their devices, nor download 3rd party apps.