Apple Releases iPhone SDK 3.2 Beta 2 (for iPad)

[jFcolourtheatre]

sometimes i think Steve is an abnormal genius. i mean, we get it. some things should not be implemented just because you can because it affects the user experience (ie archos 9 could've been magic but everything was cumbersome and quite slow).

sometimes though, i just think he's being a plain donkey/kniving brat. jailbroken iPhones has had awesome multitasking available for yonks (multifl0w, proswitcher, backgrounded EVEn) and Apple still hasnt picked that fruit up yet.

 

[9822737]

pissed-offedness

Genuis use of a word. This should be in the dictionary!

 

[Peter Harrison]

It will be so cumbersome to have to log into a program (Pages), type something, realize you need an image, log out, log into another program (Safari or Photos), find an image, copy it, log out, log back in to the original program, and then paste the image.

You wouldn't need to do that with Photos. Without leaving Pages, you have access to your media library, and can import photos from a simple drop-down menu while you work. This was demonstrated during the January keynote.

 

[tdream]

Yeah, it will be interesting to see if the "camera hooks" are still in there.

Come on devs, start giving up the secrets! Dashboard yet? Where is Weather, Stocks, Calculator and Clock?

They have to save something for next year.

 

[Peter Harrison]

I don't think devs will find a dashboard with widgets. Surely that's the kind of thing Apple would be advertising. I'm happy with the iPad, and I plan on getting one (yes, it's not perfect, but it does everything I need it to do, even if it doesn't for you), but I must admit I've been puzzled about the missing native apps. No camera doesn't bother me, and I'd hate it if Flash was supported. But surely the apps such as calculator and weather etc should be somewhere.

 

[johnnyjibbs]

Woah, some people on here need to be careful as the latest SDK is under NDA..

I'll download the latest version tonight... wish I didn't have to download the full 2GB each time...!

As others have reiterated, I don't think the stuff we saw on January 27th was the full hog. I reckon it wasn't all finished and that's why some stuff was missing and others lacked polish. I hope anyway...

 

[Thex1138]

Woah, some people on here need to be careful as the latest SDK is under NDA.. ...

Yes that's why in the past when the SDK was published people would talk talk talk...
Now the NDA hath sewn their lips together somewhat...

 

[twilson]

Is is really so hard to provide an upgrade SDK instead of having to download the whole 2GB+ every time some Apple employee adds a comment to a header file?

It'll be more than comments, won't it.

And to be honest, a whole new SDK means there is less chance of something going wrong, as you aren't assuming any kind of state. Which is best in some cases.

More often than not, something changes in the binary too.

 

[wayne226]

bookmarks bar

there is now a bookmarks bar in safari/http://att.macrumors.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=214317&stc=1&d=1265802070

 

[Truffy]

How can anyone rate this as negative?

Now those devs can make all those lovely apps to clutter up our new shinies.

 

[jragosta]

It will be so cumbersome to have to log into a program (Pages), type something, realize you need an image, log out, log into another program (Safari or Photos), find an image, copy it, log out, log back in to the original program, and then paste the image. Why not just click, drag and drop. This was genius when it was invented 30 years ago and it still is.

Which iPhone OS are you using? I sure don't have to log out to switch programs.

You simply push the home button and then the app that you want to go to. No logging out and logging in.

Your way would still require the same thing - you're switching applications no matter how it's handled. All you save would be that you click, drag and drop while the way it's done is click, copy, go to new location, paste. Not a lot more work.

It's really hard to figure out how you could have both apps on the screen at the same time in order to do a drag and drop, so yours is impractical, anyway. It works on a full-blown computer, but it's just not going to work on the iPad where everything is full screen.

 

[Peter Harrison]

Your way would still require the same thing - you're switching applications no matter how it's handled.

But only if he wants something from a website. No need to leave Pages at all if he wants to add Photos that he already has saved on his iPad.

 

[goosnarrggh]

Yes that's why in the past when the SDK was published people would talk talk talk...
Now the NDA hath sewn their lips together somewhat...

The NDA was in effect from the very first day the original iPhone SDK was released.

Since then, Apple has backtracked somewhat, and recently (since late 2008) the NDA has only been applicable to SDK software being previewed by developers while it is in the prerelease stage of development. After an SDK makes it out of prerelease, they have typically lifted the NDA.

The iPhone 3.2 SDK is still a beta; it hasn't been officially released to the public yet. After it is, you should expect the NDA to drop, and the open chatter about its innards to resume unencumbered.

 

[DanielSw]

I totally agree; it's a real pain. Also you'd think that Apple would want to figure out a more efficient way to update the SDK so they'd conserve bandwidth.

Ah, quit complaining. It doesn't take that long if you have a good connection. Apple isn't going to waste time to tediously sort out what's new from what's old just to patronize a few whiners, when the priority is to get new versions of the SDK out to developers.

 

[blackcrayon]

They shouldn't. The iPad will have a different User Agent Profile than the iPhone.

But if the iPad Safari is just as limited as the iPhone's, maybe sites will squirt their "mobile-y" version in response to that new user agent as well I hope not. Actually it might be nice to be able to switch between them with the developer setting that's in the current iPhone Safari preferences. Sometimes it would be nice, even on a device with a larger screen, to get the low bandwidth version (if you're in a busy 3G area or maybe you can only get EDGE, etc).

 

[cmaier]

Ipad apps are not supposed to just be scaled up iPhone apps. Apple says as much in the hig. Aside from the fact that all the views change due to resolution and relocating of controls, and changing some controls to more appropriate types, the different capabilities of the device change what you can do. It is appropriate to add features and improve old features. Bitmaps are also completely different. And the ui has all sorts of new code and backed code to do new useful things in each orientation (the rules are different - if you used to change views based on rotation, that's not appropriate "because the user may pick up the ipad in any orientation.") much has to be reworked and redone. Since a large percentage of code is UI plumbing and since I've found that much of my back end wad full of device detection, 2 binaries makes more sense. This is also true of a couple of my apps which use a lot of bitmaps. Why include a ton of resources in the iPhone .app that are not only not used, but which take up a bunch of memory?

Apple may want universals to get the app count up, but that will result in a lot of disappointing apps.

If this is the case, you are doing something wrong. A properly designed iPad app should be almost exactly the same as a properly designed iPhone app, save that the views are different, and perhaps some view-specific code. There is a good reason Apple is pushing for universal binaries.

All the backend code should be exactly the same (the MC in MVC) and only the views should change. That should leave you with a set of nibs, and possibly a few custom views for iPad, otherwise your code should be exactly the same. In some cases you won't even need custom views.

The only exception to this is if your app is mostly views, and has very little logic behind it - even then using multiple screen resolutions might encourage you to think about controls which can scale to different sizes easily.

 

[DanielSw]

Very useful comment. I was thinking more or less the same when I was going through the ipad programming guide. Bundling the two apps in one offer, would be a nice feature too (as some other reader posted here before).

Though I think it's great to have this bundling facility for apps which want to be on both platforms, personally, I'm simply loving the greater screen space of the iPad and very well may not bother with other versions. Even if the iPad never gets a camera (unlikely), I could set up a photo sharing import from an iPhone via Bluetooth for image acquisition.

For the apps I'm planning, screen space is of paramount importance, and the iPad's screen seems to be a good one for a portable device.

 

[eastcoastsurfer]

It'll be more than comments, won't it.

And to be honest, a whole new SDK means there is less chance of something going wrong, as you aren't assuming any kind of state. Which is best in some cases.

More often than not, something changes in the binary too.

I was exaggerating, although the changes in 3.1.3 were not much more than that.

Ah, quit complaining. It doesn't take that long if you have a good connection. Apple isn't going to waste time to tediously sort out what's new from what's old just to patronize a few whiners, when the priority is to get new versions of the SDK out to developers.

Um, it's called a build system and it should be automatically able to build a diff between one version and the next. It's the same situation where they have to take the whole store website down in order update one item. That should not have to happen in a modern, properly designed system.

 

[cmaier]

I was exaggerating, although the changes in 3.1.3 were not much more than that.



Um, it's called a build system and it should be automatically able to build a diff between one version and the next. It's the same situation where they have to take the whole store website down in order update one item. That should not have to happen in a modern, properly designed system.

They LIKE taking the store down. Whenever they do, the whole tech world goes crazy. They get lots of free press. And when it comes back up they get even more free press announcing what the change is.

 

[nagromme]

there is now a bookmarks bar in safari/http://att.macrumors.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=214317&stc=1&d=1265802070

I like the new broswer controls (and the universally-black time/header bar on all iPad apps I’ve seen). But I’d love to see sub-pixel font rendering! Even if it had to be done less well (or disabled) in landscape view. That would really sharpen up text for books and browsing.

 

[Peter Harrison]

there is now a bookmarks bar in safari/http://att.macrumors.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=214317&stc=1&d=1265802070

Thanks for that.

That's great, I do find the bookmark menu on the iPhone to be a bit fiddly. These sorts of things should have been shown at the Keynote. Hell, I can't believe the Keynotes app had the laser pointing and live-painting features at the Jan event and Jobs & Friends didn't even show them off! I only found out about them through a Youtube video of a hands on.

 

[QEII Student IT]

It contains the word "iPad." That sends the angry iPad-hating horde here into a frenzy. I can't wait for the menstruation jokes to start flying again.

Exactly what I think. People who don't know anything about it are posting all over youtube "reviews" even though they clearly haven't even looked at Apple's website! One youtube "reviewer" claimed the iPad had no USB connectivity. It has the 30 pin connector AND an adaptor for USB 2.0. What more USB could you want? It'll take a few months for people to stop saying 'iTampon' and realise how wrong they were.

 

[cmaier]

Exactly what I think. People who don't know anything about it are posting all over youtube "reviews" even though they clearly haven't even looked at Apple's website! One youtube "reviewer" claimed the iPad had no USB connectivity. It has the 30 pin connector AND an adaptor for USB 2.0. What more USB could you want? It'll take a few months for people to stop saying 'iTampon' and realise how wrong they were.

When they talk about USB capability they mean the ability to connect things to it like thumb drives, hard drives, printers, etc. No sign that you can do that, yet.

 

[dejo]

sometimes i think Steve is an abnormal genius. i mean, we get it. some things should not be implemented just because you can because it affects the user experience (ie archos 9 could've been magic but everything was cumbersome and quite slow).

Remember, it is a philosophy of Apple to "implement solutions, not features". So says John Geleynse, Director of Technology Evangelism, Apple.

 

[HiRez]

When they talk about USB capability they mean the ability to connect things to it like thumb drives, hard drives, printers, etc. No sign that you can do that, yet.

Well, there's an adapter for SD and USB (and as I recall the iPad has a higher voltage available through it to support more external devices), there's no reason it technically couldn't work, but I don't know that Apple wants to enable all that and the accompanying support headaches, honestly. A hard drive attached to the iPad, really? Sorry, but I doubt that's something Apple has in mind for the iPad. Once again I have to say you're not anywhere near the target audience they have in mind for this device. As far as Apple is concerned, that's what their desktops and laptops are for.

Printing I can see a need for, at least wireless printing. I do think you will see that and last week there was some report about APIs for that found in the iPhone OS. That'd be great to let's say sign in to your airline on Safari and quickly print out a boarding pass. For more critical printing tasks, again, do it on the desktop machine.

What I'm trying to say it don't expect the iPad to do everything, to replace a desktop or even a laptop, at least for a power user. It won't and Apple doesn't want it to. Simplicity is the key word when you talk about the iPad. Anything that makes it more complex or ungainly has a high probability of being shot down, and that includes not only hardware but software such as full multitasking.