Business Week: iPhone SDK To Arrive 1-3 Weeks Late

[filmguy15]

Let's see:

Copy and paste
Mass delete email
IM, aol, icq, yahoo IM, msn, google talk
ipod over air tunes express
GAMES

Only 2 of those would be done by 3rd party developers via SDK. The others will/need to be implemented by Apple. Copy and Paste, Mass email delete, and iPod over air tunes are all core changes, not third party apps....

Again, people have the wrong expectations, and are going to be disappointed
when the thing actually hits....

 

[deannnnn]

Apple should stop giving time frames.

 

[jameskohn]

I just can't believe the whining that goes on here; some people really need to grow up. Apple is a big, wonderful company. Of course they stumble from time to time; why on earth would that come as a surprise to anybody?

At the end of the day, their products are usually better than the competition's, the stock has done very well, and they keep coming out with products that people want to own. As for the stock: if you've owned it even just for one year you are still in positive territory and you've had a TON of opportunities to take a profit along the way.

So the SDK is going to be another few weeks. If this is really going to make a huge difference in your life, you have bigger problems than the lack of apps on your iPhone.

And for the record, I am an Apple user and a stockholder. I've gone through all the ups and downs of the products and the stock. While I admit I've been frustrated from time to time I understand that no company, even Apple, is perfect. We need to be much more realistic and a little bit more patient.

 

[sjo]

Providing an SDK for developers is not a walk in the park. They have to document every single function that developers can use, not to mention keep things consistent and make sure everything works. It's a lot more work than you'd expect, especially if you aren't a software developer.

again: most of the functions are already documented in the osx sdk. the ones that aren't are those related to phone functionality, and they are not that many. further,

1) the functions' behaviour should have been documented when it was implemented

2) even if bad programming practices were used and the functions have gone undocumented, there should be basic documentation for apple internal usage

3) and as pointed out, they've had over a year to get that documetation into a bit more detailed level.

 

[kainjow]

again: most of the functions are already documented in the osx sdk. the ones that aren't are those related to phone functionality, and they are not that many.

Sure, if we're talking about basic data types. But the entire UI is different. There aren't the same controls on the iPhone as there are on the desktop. All that has to be documented.

And you can't assume everything about the frameworks are the same on the iPhone as they are on the desktop. The iPhone's hardware is nowhere near Mac hardware.

1) the functions' behaviour should have been documented when it was implemented

2) even if bad programming practices were used and the functions have gone undocumented, there should be basic documentation for apple internal usage

In a perfect world.

3) and as pointed out, they've had over a year to get that documetation into a bit more detailed level.

That doesn't really mean anything. iCal's underlying framework CALCore has been private ever since iCal first came out. It wasn't until 10.5 that Apple made small parts of it public, and even then it wasn't anything close to the original API.

I know someone who used to work with Apple, and he said that Apple is extremely meticulous with the process of making APIs public. So I'm sure it has taken a lot of work from Apple to get the iPhone SDK out the door.

 

[DaBrain]

No doubt when it is finally released it will be touted as some major feature by Apple...

"Now you can install aplications to do any task you want! Simply amazing!"

Heck I can wait! My only question would be at what price will these apps be?

I remember the hype on a new macbook being aggressively priced. My comment then was aggressive how? Aggressive as how far apple would want to get into your wallet or aggressive in the terms of a low price. Well when the Air came out we soon saw what was meant by aggressive and I would not be surprised to see the same thing with their apps. Time will tell!

 

[filmguy15]

Your choice:

SDK today - SUPER buggy and left open for plenty of viruses that you will all complain about later.

SDK when it's ready - a few bugs here and there, but solid overall and much better security. People will still complain about SOMETHING.

Bottom line: You will always be complaining. It's my theory that you people genuinely WANT to complain, and deep down want Apple to do something wrong. Otherwise you couldn't fill your day with posting drivel on a forum....

 

[feb21feb21]

itunes?

Personafile reports the delay is because of iTunes, http://www.personafile.com/products. Anyone else hear this?

 

[dopeytree]

emailing

a little of topic but i noticed the other day you can only send 1 photo via email at a time...this is a bit annoying if you want to be able to send photos in emails while out and about to your boss / clients.

Yes you could wait to plug it into a computer but that defeats the point of having a phone with 'email in your pocket' if you have to send 12 emails to just to send 12 photos!?

 

[CasinoOwl]

I'm in the same boat. I have become weary of this message board because of all the whining. It seems to me that some of these people spend too much time reading everything about what is going on with Apple and get their expectations too high. Yes, it sucks that Apple misses some dates, but you know, these dates are not written in stone. I'd rather Apple take the time to get it right. Some of these cries about the stock plummeting because of an iPhone SDK being delayed a couple weeks are just laughable. Try turning off the computer and getting some fresh air.

I just can't believe the whining that goes on here; some people really need to grow up. Apple is a big, wonderful company. Of course they stumble from time to time; why on earth would that come as a surprise to anybody?

At the end of the day, their products are usually better than the competition's, the stock has done very well, and they keep coming out with products that people want to own. As for the stock: if you've owned it even just for one year you are still in positive territory and you've had a TON of opportunities to take a profit along the way.

So the SDK is going to be another few weeks. If this is really going to make a huge difference in your life, you have bigger problems than the lack of apps on your iPhone.

And for the record, I am an Apple user and a stockholder. I've gone through all the ups and downs of the products and the stock. While I admit I've been frustrated from time to time I understand that no company, even Apple, is perfect. We need to be much more realistic and a little bit more patient.

 

[Fredd-E]

he said that Apple is extremely meticulous with the process of making APIs public. So I'm sure it has taken a lot of work from Apple to get the iPhone SDK out the door.

s/meticulous/selfish/
s/work/willpower/

imo, but obviously that's their own good right... i'm curious for what the sdk will bring... i'd love to become non-jailbroken and i don't mind paying for a few apps... i'd love to have the google calendar in native app and the mobilescrobbler for last.fm

 

[DisturbedLen]

If you expect the SDK to allow applications to have access to the AT&T /O2 network, prepare to be disappointed. If I were a betting man, I would put money on it that it won't happen.

Unlimited data is total BS. It's unlimited because it's pretty much limited to serving web pages. Sure, you can "stream" youtube, but you know it's awful. Flash support would actively encourage streaming. M3U and PLS support would encourage audio streaming. Folks, it's not gonna happen. Internet apps will only be available over wifi. Just like the iTunes "wifi" store. And the upcoming iPlayer from BBC. The phone networks will not allow such a strain on their network. Not for $20 per month.

It's quite funny actually. AT&Ts cell-data plans are "unlimited", but laptop connect cards have a 5GB limit. Verizon has this too, but not Sprint, but they're the small guy so to speak. Anyway, this is because from a real computer, you have more access to streaming media.

I doubt you will see Flash. As much as I hate flash, I think it is wrong for Apple to not "allow" flash. Perhaps it's not ready. Who knows. I'm curious to see how open this SDK is. I might choose to re-jailbreak my phone.

 

[kainjow]

If you expect the SDK to allow applications to have access to the AT&T /O2 network, prepare to be disappointed. If I were a betting man, I would put money on it that it won't happen.

I wouldn't be so sure. Explain to me the difference between Safari loading a webpage (which is actually multiple server requests for not just the HTML, but for possible CSS, JavaScript, images, and other files) and a third-party application requesting one single file on a server, or even 2-3. It's technically the same thing.

 

[corvus]

Chill

Lame!

Lighten up. Life is about relationships, not about technologies. Windows rushed Vista to the market and now you need a 3Billion GHz CPU to run it and no vast volume of RAM helps. Apple is cool. So, breathe deep. Let the tension flow out. Go have a nice bottle of vitamin water with a friend. Take a walk. Pet a puppy. Chill. With 23 years as an Apple customer, still have a 128K-512e Mac, this happens. It ain't the first time. It's about relationships, not technologies. Every one errors, including me, including you. Treat others the way you want to be treated. Chill. Chill. Chill.

 

[DisturbedLen]

I'll take this a step further......

iPhone apps. will probably be like Konfabulator (I refuse to call it Yahoo) widgets. You know; the first week your desktop was *littered* with 'em. Now, you don't even have it in your startup folder.

Capesh?

Short of MMS, there's not a whole lot my iPhone doesn't do that I wish it did.

MMS is not necessary IMHO if you have full fledged email for sending rich media. I don't think that Apple will add this functionality. I think to Apple, MMS is to the cell phone what the floppy was to the computer.

 

[kainjow]

MMS is not necessary IMHO if you have full fledged email for sending rich media. I don't think that Apple will add this functionality. I think to Apple, MMS is to the cell phone what the floppy was to the computer.

Apple would have to start pushing this "standard" hard then, just like they did with the floppy. I don't know anybody who can check their email on their phones, and if they can, they don't.

 

[DisturbedLen]

I wouldn't be so sure. Explain to me the difference between Safari loading a webpage (which is actually multiple server requests for not just the HTML, but for possible CSS, JavaScript, images, and other files) and a third-party application requesting one single file on a server, or even 2-3. It's technically the same thing.

But it's a lot less bandwidth than streaming media. I think if you want an app to use the edge network, it will have to be a webapp. Regular apps with the new SDK will be limited to wifi. Why would the iTunes store be wifi only? If I just had to buy something on the go, I'd buy the song over edge and then go have a sandwich. I just don't think it's gonna happen. We will see soon.

I hope I am 100% wrong on this. I'd like to see full access to the edge network.

 

[kainjow]

But it's a lot less bandwidth than streaming media. I think if you want an app to use the edge network, it will have to be a webapp. Regular apps with the new SDK will be limited to wifi. Why would the iTunes store be wifi only? If I just had to buy something on the go, I'd buy the song over edge and then go have a sandwich. I just don't think it's gonna happen. We will see soon.

True, but they could always only allow non-streaming connections I'd imagine, until the 3G iPhone comes out.

The iTunes store is limited to wifi because it'd take about 3 years to download a song on EDGE. Again, maybe the 3G iPhone will change that.

 

[Niiro13]

All I actually want is iChat (or allow Mobile Safari to stop pausing the pages when you go to a different application/page...that way meebo is fun) and Flash (or at least update the Youtube app to allow viewing of comments and posting...shouldn't be that hard...on the video info screen, just add a link for comments...then format it similar to how Facebook has it...[but Flash is good for imeem...so you can stream music rather than have them all on your phone]).

Games...well...Snake would be fun =). Loved the nokia version =P. Simple and addicting.

But yeah, Flash and iChat...everything else is already there (you can send Notes to email, so word processing isn't vital).

 

[DisturbedLen]

All I actually want is iChat (or allow Mobile Safari to stop pausing the pages when you go to a different application/page...that way meebo is fun) and Flash (or at least update the Youtube app to allow viewing of comments and posting...shouldn't be that hard...on the video info screen, just add a link for comments...then format it similar to how Facebook has it...[but Flash is good for imeem...so you can stream music rather than have them all on your phone]).

Games...well...Snake would be fun =). Loved the nokia version =P. Simple and addicting.

But yeah, Flash and iChat...everything else is already there (you can send Notes to email, so word processing isn't vital).

Well, you can always put your music up on a server as a podcast and use Podcaster to stream. I use it almost everyday and I Suck the bandwidth from AT&T with a smile! Maybe 60MB of spoken word audio podcasts daily.

 

[jemoth]

A notes application that can be synched with my desktop machine would be nice (if Apple don't add such a feature to the existing notes app)

Yes please! Any basic WP app with copy and paste would quickly add a layer of dust to my MBP.

PogoNotes, in the meantime, is good for synching with a computer, although of course no offline option -- has anyone been able to get Noter to work? I emailed them for support but have yet to get a reply.

 

[Niiro13]

A notes application that can be synched with my desktop machine would be nice (if Apple don't add such a feature to the existing notes app)

Yes please! Any basic WP app with copy and paste would quickly add a layer of dust to my MBP.

PogoNotes, in the meantime, is good for synching with a computer, although of course no offline option -- has anyone been able to get Noter to work? I emailed them for support but have yet to get a reply.

Except for the copy and paste, you can email notes to yourself...so it can kinda sync with comps

 

[DisturbedLen]

Imagine. Software that enabled video-out (with adapter, sold separately) and supported the external apple wireless keyboard/mouse. Sounds cool, but the video would suck. I have this dream of a pocket-sized computer, like the size of the iPhone or iPod touch, that you could connect to a TV and use with an external kb and mouse.

Actually, a built in projector would be better. Did anyone see that prototype? I think it was from HP. A projector was built into a mobile device. Cool stuff

 

[powderblue17]

Apple should stop giving time frames.

The only reason Apple gave a timeframe in the first place was because of all the iPhone crybabies who wouldn't shutup about an SDK. If it was up to Apple I'm sure they would of liked it to be a secret or at least not acknowledged until it was ready to be introduced. Apple doesn't usually disclose features until they are at least able to be demoed unlike Microsoft but this time they made an exception to shut people up so what do you expect. It's not like 1-3 weeks is a big deal. If it was a 6 month delay then I would be complaining also but it's not so get over it.

 

[kdarling]

Personafile reports the delay is because of iTunes, http://www.personafile.com/products. Anyone else hear this?

No, but it suddenly gave me a feeling that Apple might try to pull something like this:

Instead of each developer buying a security certificate and signing their own app (which might allow them to sell it outside of Apple channels), I'm now thinking that Apple will host all apps for downloading... and give each download a one-time signature that a new iTunes can confirm and use to descramble the data.

So even if you managed to capture a program download, it couldn't be loaded on any other iPhone/Touch.

Thus they get around the high certificate cost issue for developers ($300/year), and maintain total control over what you can download.

Just some musings...