“Even with a firm release date and FCC approval, much about the iPhone remains cloaked in mystery. We know that the phone will run what Apple CEO Steve Jobs calls “a full version of OS X,” but the company has yet to reveal some very basic details about the phone’s innards, keeping even its processor and architecture a closely guarded secret. That’s in addition to a handful of outstanding questions about how the user interface will work, mind you,” Bryan Gardiner reports for ExtremeTech.
Gardiner asks, “Now, in the shadow of next week’s Worldwide Developer’s Conference (WWDC), there looms an even larger question mark: Just how open will the iPhone be to independent software vendors looking to develop programs for the device?”
“There remains scant information about the smartphone’s overall openness as a platform. Scant, but not nonexistent. Indeed, by examining the growing trail of comments from Jobs and company, as well as polling the developer and analyst communities, the future of third-party applications on the iPhone becomes clearer, as does Apple’s strategy with the smartphone. If you look closely, there are even some hints as to how outside applications will eventually make their way onto the iPhone,” Gardiner reports.
Full article here.
I wonder if they will show a software iPhone at WWDC and announce third party support. So devs can write software/plugins and test them without using an actual iPhone.
actually, for the initial release, I dont really care how open the platform will be .. the iPhone will certainly come equipped with most everything you’ll need … this is not to say that sometime in the future, some “killer app” will show up … but when it does, you can be sure it will be included …
on another note .. here is yet another troll looking for hits.. saying the iPhone will bomb !
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Some of the respondents set him straight, tho
Just make your app a web app and you’re on!!!
Apps in your OS are slowly fading…
look – NO ONE has ever developed an app for this UI. Evar. The last thing all of us need is a bunch of apps with scroll bars and drop down menus when what iPhone apps need to be is 100% different and made for a UI that NO ONE outside of Apple has even really used yet.
that Apple has gotten the OS/UI settled in, gestures worked out, touch screen hardware working, AND put in all the multimedia and phone capabilities working is starteling enough… if you don’t think so – go play with a Q or a Treo W and see what i mean – its basically windows with a stylus instead of a mouse. whee.
see Ars Technica’s comments on the subject – Siricusa is spot fscking on.
http://arstechnica.com/staff/fatbits.ars/2007/06/04/the-frontier
[quoting…]
But what does an application behave like in this new world? What makes a pleasant, easy to use iPhone application? Where are the iPhone Human Interface Guidelines? No, seriously. Yeah, sure, we’re all such old pros that we can just ignore the Mac HIG and riff, right? After over 20 years of the Mac-like GUI, maybe that’s true. But you have to know the rules before you can know when to break them. We’re all in the dark on the iPhone.
And that includes Apple. Not only does Apple have to figure out what makes a good iPhone application, it has to actually create the APIs to produce such a thing. Okay, so no scroll bars, but surely there will be some standard way of scrolling, some standard gesture recognition engine, and so on. Apple has to create all this, if only for its own internal sanity, before it can really get cranking on iPhone application development.
And like the Mac GUI before it, there will be fits and starts, dead-ends, and bad ideas to shake out in the first few years. Also, an IDE would be nice. Xcode, sure, but some sort of simulator or remote debugger system would help. And, whoops, let’s keep revising all those APIs and that IDE to match the best practices as they evolve. Oh, and by the way, we need to ship something that works by June 29th.
[end quote]
fanboys and conspiracy nuts – relax. Did you want the damn thing, or not? And if so, just cool the hell down and we’ll get the SDK done asap, a-ight?
Just saw Dvorhack has just released a “short APPL” opinion on the DowJones newswire.
Before anyone jumps on me, I meant AAPL.
Just make your app a web app and you’re on!!!
Apps in your OS are slowly fading…
No they’re not. Only clueless idiots say shit like that.
Just got off the phone with AT&T who told me you can buy the phone outright with no 2 year plan and that the unlimited internet plan is $19.99
WOW. – I’m sold if it is true
wow effward, way to backup your opinion with facts. just like the guy you are talking to….
atleast he points out that web apps are a good plan, even if we are in the dark on a lot, that seems a good approach. but you, you just spout opinion followed by personal attacks. real classy!
I don’t know why anyone is complaining about iPhone being a closed to third party apps. iPhone can run the internet, and any type of application you use can be made into a web app.
How open will Apple’s iPhone platform be?
I have talked to people in Cupertino and the iPhone will be as open as present day widgets are on Mac OS X.
There will be a regular “call Apple and check” on the widgets to make sure they have not been altered, much like it is on Mac OS X.
iPhone widgets will be distributed only through Apple’s sites. Sure anything could be hacked, but you jeapordize being kicked off AT&T network if you do.
@ zerO
Hope youre right !
But despite all the FUD being spread around, lately, .. I think a measure of the iPhones success, will be the cottage industry it will spawn ..
For example … just look at all the iPod accessories which have become available since its launch .. (gazillions !)
Already, someone has lots of iPhone accessories available …
I dont think theyre jumping the gun, here
the reason they are keeping the cpu so quiet is because it’s a ibm g5 running at 3.1ghz lol
How open is Open Source and OS X? ASK A STUPID QUESTION!
If the local AT&T shop has the iPhone in stock on June 29th I will probably be an early adopter (I usually am), but if they don’t, I won’t be scurrying around town trying to find one. I will simply wait and watch the reviews, and hope for a quick v2
This is terrible, the iPhone is not even out yet and we already don’t know how open it’s platform will be. My guess is that it will be as closed as OS X, not even viruses can’t get in.