iPhone SDK May Be 1-3 Weeks Late 157
tuxeater123 writes "According to a blog posting at BusinessWeek.com, the iPhone SDK could be pushed back by another 1-3 weeks. Unfortunately, the evidence provided, such as the media announcements that are usually made before most Apple releases, suggests that this may indeed be true. Apple usually sticks to their announced deadlines, however they have been known to break them occasionally."
Re:1-3 weeks late? (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Interesting (Score:2, Informative)
I don't see why they wouldn't. iTunes already has free content such as podcasts, and Apple hosts a lot of free software at their OS X download site.
http://www.apple.com/downloads/ [apple.com]
Re:Pointless? (Score:5, Informative)
Any cheap old phone can run Opera Mini [operamini.com]. I too was annoyed by the poor quality of my phone's built in browser, but now I never have any trouble. It even has features like server-side downscaling of image sizes, thus reducing download times (and costs) - so even if your phone does have a decent browser, it's worth a look.
Payment for one is not payment for all (Score:3, Informative)
My guess is that you'll probably be required to be a paid ADC member (~$500) to warrant delivery of apps via iTunes.
That says nothing however, about how much you have to charge for applications...
Re:1-3 weeks late? (Score:5, Informative)
I'm an iPhone app developer. The API is actually pretty nice "under the surface". UIKit is a lean-and-mean version of Cocoa, and behaves just like it in most respects. Being able to write Leopard-style ObjC on a device that goes in your pocket is frankly awesome. Unless you have *specific* examples of this "ragged" nature, I'm just gonna call bullshit on your entire comment, and leave it at that.
Now a proper SDK will be a step forward, no doubt, but that's because we'll get things like named-constants rather than use 0x02 to specify values. Classdump, which is how the API was recovered, can only give you the method signatures and names. We'll also get the official C compiler, not one that works 98% of the time, real debugging, and perhaps even a simulator built into XCode, so you don't have to deploy to a target device in order to test the code. Oh yeah, and I'd expect to see some documentation too...
Lacking any of these things doesn't point to it being "ragged" architecturally, every single point is a consequence of the hacks that were required to get *any* development going on the iPhone. Apple don't have that problem...
Simon.
Re:Security (Score:3, Informative)
Right, because every [microsoft.com] other [s60.com] platform [blackberry.com] that lets you run your own applications has been subject to malware that has actually existed in the wild, right?
Oh, what? They haven't?
Sorry to say, but this story smells apocryphal, given that you explicitly mention she had a "high-end" Nokia, which would be running S60. No S60 "viruses" ever existed that sent MMS messages. If you can find one and identify it, I'd be interested in seeing it. The only S60 viruses that have ever been shown to exist in the wild propagated over bluetooth and did nothing but propagate. [ukonline.co.uk]
The "Security" issue IS a red herring. The iPhone has been wide open to anyone who runs 3rd party software on it for nearly a year now, and yet there is NO iPhone malware. If the concern is over security, then implement a granular permissions system like S60, where you can decide what each app can do at install time, but keep in mind that no phone virus that causes monetary harm has ever been proven to exist, for any mobile platform.
The security handwaving is a bullshit reason for Apple to make damn sure they control exactly what you run on the phone. No VOIP, no SSH clients, nothing that will use too much data, nothing that might bite into a revenue stream Apple wants to create. They can couch it in terms of "it's for the security of the network!," yet somehow, every other network and every other device can run whatever apps you want on it and there's no problem.
Re:You don't know much about web dev I guess (Score:3, Informative)
Without AJAX the apps would basically be useless, now they're just merely ridiculously slow, especially if you haven't recently been using data. The time spent waiting for Safari to load, then for EDGE to activate, then the hostname to resolve, then the page to load, is all not insignificant, especially when compared to just waiting for the app to load delay with a native app.
Using AJAX is wonderful, but it doesn't fix the fact that EDGE sucks and that web "apps" are a pathetic excuse for not delivering on real applications.
Re:Eh, you mean like a classic car? (Score:3, Informative)
I don't understand the fetish for turn-by-turn GPS directions. I guess it's because I can read maps and have a sense of direction. Last night I looked up my friend's address on my iPhone. I used the map to figure out where to get off the freeway and what side streets I needed to use to get there. The Google Maps location finder is pretty accurate in the cities I've tried it in and at least let me know where I am. Since I don't need to give those coordinates to a cruise missile I'm fine with knowing an approximation.