Apple Releases iPhone Beta SDK 6 [Archive]

MacRumors

May 28, 2008, 04:06 PM

http://www.macrumors.com/images/macrumorsthreadlogo.gif (http://www.macrumors.com)

http://images.macrumors.com/article/2008/05/28/155711-sdk.png
(http://developer.apple.com/iphone/program/)
Besides releasing Mac OS X 10.5.3 (http://www.macrumors.com/2008/05/28/apple-releases-mac-os-x-10-5-3/) today, Apple also released (http://developer.apple.com/iphone/) a new version of the iPhone SDK (Beta 6). No details have been posted. Apple should be wrapping up development of the iPhone SDK which is expected to complete by late June. Apple will be covering many aspects of the iPhone SDK during their Worldwide Development Conference which starts on June 9th.

Previous versions of the iPhone SDK and Beta 2.0 Firmware have revealed new features coming to the iPhone, including Geotagging (http://www.macrumors.com/2008/05/22/latest-iphone-2-0-beta-adds-geo-tagging-to-photos/), 3G preferences (http://www.macrumors.com/2008/05/10/latest-iphone-2-0-firmware-has-3g-on-off-option/), Chinese handwriting recognition (http://www.macrumors.com/2008/05/05/apple-includes-chinese-handwriting-recognition-in-iphone-2-0-beta/), and Photo saving (http://www.macrumors.com/iphone/2008/04/15/iphone-2-0-allows-saving-photos-from-safari/),

Article Link (http://www.macrumors.com/2008/05/28/apple-releases-iphone-beta-sdk-6/)

amac4me

May 28, 2008, 04:09 PM

This iPhone will be packed with new and interesting features by the time it's released. As we're inching closer to WWDC we'll surely see an announcement soon. Looking forward to finally owning an iPhone!

levitynyc

May 28, 2008, 04:10 PM

Cool....less than 2 weeks til WWDC...so excited..

PhilipOrr

May 28, 2008, 04:12 PM

I'm a total WWDC virgin, how exciting. Doing the meet ups with a few groups before the big event.

Diatribe

May 28, 2008, 04:13 PM

It's only gonna be a matter of hours until we see what the new version brings...

soloduo

May 28, 2008, 04:23 PM

cool my birthday is two days before the Worldwide Development Conference ill have a boost on my iphone savings i cant w8 for 3g iphone :D

indie1982

May 28, 2008, 04:27 PM

Interesting, it requires 10.5.3

Before installing and developing with the sixth beta version of the iPhone SDK, you must first upgrade your Mac system to Mac OS X v10.5.3. To upgrade your Mac, go to System Preferences and select Software Update to install the latest version.

Drumjim85

May 28, 2008, 04:31 PM

Interesting, it requires 10.5.3

ya, i was just about to post that ....

Pippen Man

May 28, 2008, 04:35 PM

Interesting, it requires 10.5.3

In other words, expect Apple's servers to be dead as a stone today.

SirOmega

May 28, 2008, 04:36 PM

Its interesting that its SDK v6, and not the "final" version. I would expect the final SDK to be released at WWDC and then developers are given until the end of the month (June 27) to get their products ready.

indie1982

May 28, 2008, 04:38 PM

In other words, expect Apple's servers to be dead as a stone today.

Yeah and my ISP throttle me after 800MB per day, gone from 10Mbps to 2Mbps because of 10.5.3 and the SDK today :(

Raidersmojo

May 28, 2008, 04:41 PM

mavis

May 28, 2008, 04:42 PM

It's only gonna be a matter of hours until we see what the new version brings...I'm hoping it brings a few bug fixes to the table, in addition to new features. :)

ruckus

May 28, 2008, 04:55 PM

Yay! another update to change the API and break my app! Thanks Apple! Keep them coming! (stupid beta)

sk8mash

May 28, 2008, 04:56 PM

So whast new? :P

wizard

May 28, 2008, 05:01 PM

The one thing that really bothers me about iPhone right now is the XCode based IDE and Objective C. It simply isn't a rapid development platform thus not a good place to try to deploy low volume or limited interest apps.

It is to bad Apple didn't embrace python on the platform, that would have made for an excellent platform for apps that don't need the heavy development that traditional C based languages require.

Now given that the current SDK is a bit lacking I can understand the lack of Python or anything but Objective C. To me it is a sign that Apple really slipped up bad when fleshing out the original iPhone. The IDE should have been under the same amount of development as the iPhone hardware. It is kinda sad that a company with as much cash as Apple couldn't hire a few more software engineers.

Dave

Dave

twoodcc

May 28, 2008, 05:03 PM

another step to iPhone 2.0! can't wait!

SirOmega

May 28, 2008, 05:05 PM

Yay! another update to change the API and break my app! Thanks Apple! Keep them coming! (stupid beta)

It could be worse - my Macbook's HD died this weekend and I lost all my code. At least you aren't starting from scratch!

Drumjim85

May 28, 2008, 05:27 PM

The one thing that really bothers me about iPhone right now is the XCode based IDE and Objective C. It simply isn't a rapid development platform thus not a good place to try to deploy low volume or limited interest apps.

It is to bad Apple didn't embrace python on the platform, that would have made for an excellent platform for apps that don't need the heavy development that traditional C based languages require.

Now given that the current SDK is a bit lacking I can understand the lack of Python or anything but Objective C. To me it is a sign that Apple really slipped up bad when fleshing out the original iPhone. The IDE should have been under the same amount of development as the iPhone hardware. It is kinda sad that a company with as much cash as Apple couldn't hire a few more software engineers.

Dave

Dave

http://pyobjc.sourceforge.net/
you can't use their IDE, but it's there ... not sure how it'd work for deployment onto iPhone... or if there's Cocoa Touch support

extraextra

May 28, 2008, 05:29 PM

(broken record)

MMS and copy/paste... please. :'(

sweetandsour

May 28, 2008, 05:30 PM

It could be worse - my Macbook's HD died this weekend and I lost all my code. At least you aren't starting from scratch!

You're writing software and you had nothing backed up???!

Not sure I'd buy YOUR app!!! lol!

tny

May 28, 2008, 05:52 PM

Yes, because every wants to saddle their phone applications with the overhead of an interpreter.

The one thing that really bothers me about iPhone right now is the XCode based IDE and Objective C. It simply isn't a rapid development platform thus not a good place to try to deploy low volume or limited interest apps.

It is to bad Apple didn't embrace python on the platform, that would have made for an excellent platform for apps that don't need the heavy development that traditional C based languages require.

Now given that the current SDK is a bit lacking I can understand the lack of Python or anything but Objective C. To me it is a sign that Apple really slipped up bad when fleshing out the original iPhone. The IDE should have been under the same amount of development as the iPhone hardware. It is kinda sad that a company with as much cash as Apple couldn't hire a few more software engineers.

Dave

Dave

Mykbibby

May 28, 2008, 06:08 PM

Mobile Safari seems snappier....

Just kidding, hopefully we can uncover some new gems about the 3G iPhone... like a front camera ;)

iPost

May 28, 2008, 06:09 PM

The one thing that really bothers me about iPhone right now is the XCode based IDE and Objective C. It simply isn't a rapid development platform thus not a good place to try to deploy low volume or limited interest apps.

It is to bad Apple didn't embrace python on the platform, that would have made for an excellent platform for apps that don't need the heavy development that traditional C based languages require.

You're certainly entitled to your opinion, but in my opinion, interpreted languages like Python have no place on a mobile device like the iPhone. Battery life is of prime importance and I don't want my battery drained by programs written in languages like Python that are interpreted at run-time on the phone (and as such will drain the battery more) when they could have been written in a much more efficient language like Objective C. This isn't the desktop or a server... it's a mobile device. I'd rather the programmer spend a little bit more time writing a program that is power-efficient.

Have you used Objective C and the various frameworks (UIKit, CoreFoundation, etc.) that Apple provides? They are incredibly rich and offer a ton of functionality to you. You can do so much by using the built-in classes which offer a lot with typically very little coding. I've written some very useful programs with the SDK in less than a day.

Apple is absolutely justified in their choice of Objective C for the iPhone. I hope they keep Flash (another power-inefficient technology) off of the phone as well.

Drumjim85

May 28, 2008, 06:27 PM

You're certainly entitled to your opinion, but in my opinion, interpreted languages like Python have no place on a mobile device like the iPhone. Battery life is of prime importance and I don't want my battery drained by programs written in languages like Python that are interpreted at run-time on the phone (and as such will drain the battery more) when they could have been written in a much more efficient language like Objective C. This isn't the desktop or a server... it's a mobile device. I'd rather the programmer spend a little bit more time writing a program that is power-efficient.

Have you used Objective C and the various frameworks (UIKit, CoreFoundation, etc.) that Apple provides? They are incredibly rich and offer a ton of functionality to you. You can do so much by using the built-in classes which offer a lot with typically very little coding. I've written some very useful programs with the SDK in less than a day.

Apple is absolutely justified in their choice of Objective C for the iPhone. I hope they keep Flash (another power-inefficient technology) off of the phone as well.

you do have a very good point, but the number of people that know objective C vs the number of people that know python is vastly different

Krevnik

May 28, 2008, 06:30 PM

The one thing that really bothers me about iPhone right now is the XCode based IDE and Objective C. It simply isn't a rapid development platform thus not a good place to try to deploy low volume or limited interest apps.

Objective-C is the RAD platform for OS X, for the most part. It can't do command-line, but with IB, you can throw together some pretty slick stuff with minimal code in a couple hours.

Now, where the iPhone development probably failed is that IB wasn't available right off the bat (and I am still not sure if it is default yet), and bindings are a bit wonky before you get the hang of them. Oh, and the lack of CoreData makes it even harder.

But considering I had a functioning bug-tracking app on OS X in 2 hours, just lacking the polish and shine expected of a released app... I can say you can prototype just fine with Cocoa. However, as I haven't touched the IB/Bindings elements in the iPhone SDK, I can't say you are entirely /wrong/ about the SDK.

It is to bad Apple didn't embrace python on the platform, that would have made for an excellent platform for apps that don't need the heavy development that traditional C based languages require.

See above. Apple's policy isn't adopting languages to solve SDK/platform problems, it is solving the SDK/platform problem with easily applicable technologies.

Now given that the current SDK is a bit lacking I can understand the lack of Python or anything but Objective C. To me it is a sign that Apple really slipped up bad when fleshing out the original iPhone. The IDE should have been under the same amount of development as the iPhone hardware. It is kinda sad that a company with as much cash as Apple couldn't hire a few more software engineers.

Dave

Dave

The IDE has been under much more development as the hardware. I think you are really referring to the SDK elements itself (platform APIs/etc).

The platform is what determines what languages/etc you can support, and for the sake of space, simplicity, and their desire for a secure platform, they can't simply support every app language under the sun and let everyone have at it. While I would love to see anyone write anything for this, it isn't Apple's goal for the device, and supporting python is a design choice rather than simply they ran out of time or didn't have resources to make it happen.

gujamin

May 28, 2008, 06:33 PM

you do have a very good point, but the number of people that know objective C vs the number of people that know python is vastly different

This also helps to keep casual developers/malware off the device and limit it to those willing to invest a little time learning cocoa.

I'm speaking as someone who primarily codes in PHP and has very little cocoa experience, but I'm learning cocoa and think it's the right way as there are so many things that cocoa offers for the platform that either aren't available or are horribly complex in other languages.

SirOmega

May 28, 2008, 06:38 PM

You're writing software and you had nothing backed up???!

Not sure I'd buy YOUR app!!! lol!
I have a backup from the end of April but most of the code has been heavily modified. I'd be better off rewriting it at this point anyways (it usually takes me 3 starts to get fully immersed in a language, this will be v3).

aaronbrethorst

May 28, 2008, 06:38 PM

you do have a very good point, but the number of people that know objective C vs the number of people that know python is vastly different

I'd guess that virtually 100% of Mac developers know Objective C, Interface Builder, Xcode, AppKit and Foundation. They're not going to have too much trouble adapting to the iPhone SDK. Besides, the learning curve for Objective C is extremely low if you already know another C-like object oriented language. The only time-consuming part is learning the Cocoa frameworks, and using Python in place of Objective C would do nothing to ameliorate that.

Aaron

Krevnik

May 28, 2008, 07:05 PM

I have a backup from the end of April but most of the code has been heavily modified. I'd be better off rewriting it at this point anyways (it usually takes me 3 starts to get fully immersed in a language, this will be v3).

Depending on how your machines are setup/etc, it might be worth trying to find, or setup a SVN server. SVN has saved my bacon plenty of times, not only from crashes, but bad code I checked in that I wanted to backtrack.

TeeJayEm

May 28, 2008, 07:06 PM

It could be worse - my Macbook's HD died this weekend and I lost all my code. At least you aren't starting from scratch!

Reason #2,230,549 on why to use time machine :)

Chedam

May 28, 2008, 07:25 PM

Yeah and my ISP throttle me after 800MB per day, gone from 10Mbps to 2Mbps because of 10.5.3 and the SDK today :(

I wouldn't be complaining about 2mbps. I get speeds up to 300kbps in NZ, and thats good enough for me.

Which is the main reason for me being scared to come to the US. I'm going to turn up at home, and complain about the slow speeds for the rest of my life :(

Rocketman

May 28, 2008, 07:54 PM

In other words, expect Apple's servers to be dead as a stone today.

I thought they had a world class Telco center? Are you saying it is not up to web 2.0 standards?

Rocketman

Niiro13

May 28, 2008, 08:23 PM

They better have fixed IB in this one.

Not a single build has a useable IB.

DiamondMac

May 28, 2008, 09:06 PM

once the 2.0 software upgrade hits and the iphone is allowed third party apps the iphone is going to become such a powerful tool and will probably get a lot more people to switch. the iphone how it stands now is going to seem so limited in caparison.

but can we please get for texting the ability to turn the phone sideways and get a horizontal keyboard!

This iPhone version will be a big one and it will sell incredibly the first few weeks but I suspect it will take some time for the kinks to be worked out before we see it really become a "powerful tool" that gets people to switch

Don't get me wrong, the iPhone has done WONDERS for me as a cell-phone and already has a huge base but I think it still has some things to be worked out before it becomes the bar-none #1 cell phone in the market (including sale numbers)

crees!

May 28, 2008, 09:18 PM

Does anyone know if the current methods to get this going on PPC machines has been nixed with this update?

Iron Chef

May 28, 2008, 09:45 PM

Anyone foresee any problems should I upgrade my 15" G4 Powerbook to Leopard?

mackiwilad

May 28, 2008, 10:40 PM

I wouldn't be complaining about 2mbps. I get speeds up to 300kbps in NZ, and thats good enough for me.

Which is the main reason for me being scared to come to the US. I'm going to turn up at home, and complain about the slow speeds for the rest of my life :(

If that is the main reason you are scared to go to the US, you might be shocked to know what happens at Customs/Border Control over there now.
The Customs Officials have the right to seize your laptop and go through it with a fine tooth comb, possibly installing malware at the same time if they decide to give it back to you. Of course you won't notice this because while this is happening you will be getting fingerprinted and your iris scanned and put into the guverment databases. No joke, going through US Customs now makes you feel like a criminal. Nobody knows what they do with all your information. Scary business.. I mean I really enjoy visiting America, great place and all but the whole Big Brother thing now is quite endemic.

iPhonePhan

May 28, 2008, 11:23 PM

the iPhone is waaaaay snappier than previous builds. Even typing in textboxes like this one feel much smoother than any other previous build. Even the webpages seem to load up way faster.

I'm loving the progress and I can't wait for the finalized product. This build feels almost like the final version and is by far the most polished. Many issues that have been irking me till now have been resolved. Woo-hoo!

DiamondMac

May 28, 2008, 11:36 PM

Anyone foresee any problems should I upgrade my 15" G4 Powerbook to Leopard?

Make sure you got the memory for Leopard

I had a MacBookPro that was a year and so old when I upgraded to Leopard and my system fell off the face of the earth speed wise until I added two GB's and everything was great after that :D

Chedam

May 29, 2008, 02:15 AM

If that is the main reason you are scared to go to the US, you might be shocked to know what happens at Customs/Border Control over there now.
The Customs Officials have the right to seize your laptop and go through it with a fine tooth comb, possibly installing malware at the same time if they decide to give it back to you. Of course you won't notice this because while this is happening you will be getting fingerprinted and your iris scanned and put into the guverment databases. No joke, going through US Customs now makes you feel like a criminal. Nobody knows what they do with all your information. Scary business.. I mean I really enjoy visiting America, great place and all but the whole Big Brother thing now is quite endemic.

Holy crap.

I'm so not touching America with a laptop.

Seriously, how do people get in? I mean, almost everyone has some form of pirated software / documents on their computer...

EDIT: Oh, and they can't do anything with mine anyway. The IT admins at school have locked even me out of Admin.

Although, it would make for a great excuse for hacking admin...

EagerDragon

May 29, 2008, 08:32 AM

The one thing that really bothers me about iPhone right now is the XCode based IDE and Objective C. It simply isn't a rapid development platform thus not a good place to try to deploy low volume or limited interest apps.

It is to bad Apple didn't embrace python on the platform, that would have made for an excellent platform for apps that don't need the heavy development that traditional C based languages require.

Now given that the current SDK is a bit lacking I can understand the lack of Python or anything but Objective C. To me it is a sign that Apple really slipped up bad when fleshing out the original iPhone. The IDE should have been under the same amount of development as the iPhone hardware. It is kinda sad that a company with as much cash as Apple couldn't hire a few more software engineers.

Dave

Dave

Python? Why would Apple want to bring Python Development to the iPhone?

Have you even tried to use the tool? The EULA is very clear about not using an interpreter.

It is not going to happen. Besides Xcode is the IDE used by all Mac developers, it is good enouph for them, why is it not good enough for you?

Python has its place and the iPhone is definitly not the place for it.

Sounds to me that you just don't want to learn Objective C.

guzhogi

May 29, 2008, 09:37 AM

Still haven't upgraded GCC yet. I just checked after installing… 4.0.1. 4.3 has been out for a while now.

javaGuru

May 29, 2008, 10:10 AM

If the new version of the iPhone software will not be ready by late June does that mean that the new iPhone won't be available until late June as well? Or, will they go ahead and ship the new iPhone with the most current SDK? I was hoping that the new iPhone would be available shortly after its announcement at the WWDC on June 9th.

ruckus

May 29, 2008, 10:39 AM

It could be worse - my Macbook's HD died this weekend and I lost all my code. At least you aren't starting from scratch!

Ouch! Sorry to hear that. I was pretty happy to get my subversion server up and running to back up all of my stuff.

orgham

May 29, 2008, 11:27 AM

Anyone foresee any problems should I upgrade my 15" G4 Powerbook to Leopard?

I upgraded my Powerbook G4 in April to Leopard and everything crashed. The genius at the Apple store told me "the mother board is dead, the hard drive data is lost and I need to buy a new Powerbook." I ended up taking it to a third party that replaced the harddrive and restored the data for less than an Apple repair. Now it is ok, but some applications won't work with the new OS.

Back everything up and be prepaired for the worst.

rand0m3r

May 29, 2008, 11:44 AM

cool, beta 6 breaks this line of code:

self.navigationItem.backButtonTitle = @"Back";

what do i do now?

mreed911

May 29, 2008, 11:55 AM

Yay! another update to change the API and break my app! Thanks Apple! Keep them coming! (stupid beta)

Um, *beta*.

*BETA*

*B*E*T*A*

beta

mreed911

May 29, 2008, 11:55 AM

cool, beta 6 breaks this line of code:

self.navigationItem.backButtonTitle = @"Back";

what do i do now?

File a bug report?

crees!

May 29, 2008, 01:54 PM

File a bug report?
It's not a bug if they removed or changed the function. Check the differences in the API to see if what you're calling has changed. There's a differences link on the iPhone page highlighting that.

javalizard

May 29, 2008, 02:24 PM

vaportalker

May 30, 2008, 10:42 AM

Did anyone notice different checksums each time they download the SDK ?
I downloaded it several times, and each time I get another MD5 on the file.
Might that be some watermarking and timestamping from Apple ?

gujamin

May 30, 2008, 11:07 AM

Enuratique

Jun 7, 2008, 04:50 PM

MacsAttack

Jun 7, 2008, 07:03 PM

Hi all,

I am relatively new to the Mac OS X way of doing things and I was wondering if I need to uninstall XCode / iPhone SDK Beta 5 before installing the new one... I have Beta 6 already downloaded and it shows that it will upgrade the SDK part but install the XCode part. I don't want to have multiple beta versions of XCode laying around in my /Developer folder so I was wondering if I should uninstall my current XCode before running the iPhone SDK Beta 6 installer. It would stand to reason that giving it the same location would upgrade XCode but I'm not 100% sure and was wondering what others out there do. I would like to think that I can simply run the installer and everything will be upgraded properly. I can't find any information regarding this question in the release notes on developer.apple.com/iPhone

Thanks!

I have always just installed each of the SDKs over the previous one. No problem. Just replaces the previous version so you will not have multiple copies installed unless you use a different installation location for each one. I just went with the default.

As always it is wise to have a proper backup of your system before installing new software - especially beta software. Just in case.