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iPhone and App Store Attracting Developers
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This is all a conspiracy to get Osama, once he picks up an iPhone to make a call, in come the missiles.
To the Windows guy who said, "...it's currently a Windows world." The times they are a-changing.
Developer
I didn't want to give the impression I have nothing, I have been reading books and playing heavily with sample code and stringing things together, even toying with the interface builder in strange ways. What I need is someone like me that can collaborate and maybe see what I'm missing. Starting a pool is not a bad idea, but they need to be people who can contribute feasible ideas with a little know-how. I have a couple programs slung together, but I can't tighten up the code or get them to work right. Link Available again upon request. We can communicate by email or iChat (faster).
I didn't want to give the impression I have nothing, I have been reading books and playing heavily with sample code and stringing things together, even toying with the interface builder in strange ways. What I need is someone like me that can collaborate and maybe see what I'm missing. Starting a pool is not a bad idea, but they need to be people who can contribute feasible ideas with a little know-how. I have a couple programs slung together, but I can't tighten up the code or get them to work right. Link Available again upon request. We can communicate by email or iChat (faster).
If a developer can't spend 1500 dollar for a suitable iMac that can run Windows, Linux, osX and some other OS's its probably not a great loss for the community. 1 nice app can easily make you a million dollars, think about it.
For what we know now, Apple is only accepting company's (big and small) that can be held legally liable for the code they want to distribute via the app-store. This is a pretty safe situation unlike the jailbreak apps that float around the web.
The worse thing that could happen is a computer virus infecting the developers computer and iPhone SDK, working exclusively on osX reduces this threat substantially.
This is all a conspiracy to get Osama, once he picks up an iPhone to make a call, in come the missiles.
Haha I say instead of dropping bombs on the middle east, let's drop those iPhones!
Thats not true, otherwise, when registering for the iPhone 2.0 seed, they would not have given the option to sign up as an individual or a company....
The problem is that Apple is always trying to launch "revolutions" but then, at the same time, keep them controlled ... Indeed, the situation is better but, as the rest of the non selected 4000 beta users can tell, it can be a PITA. And the real costs of developing for iPhone are not so low (unless you already have a modern mac, leopard, an iPhone ...).
What about the Mac?
Everyone can develop. The tools are free for everyone. Apple doesn't even know your name when you develop for it. Apple has no way to control distribution. And there are still many more Macs than iPhones. The first worm widely spread in the field would even be a great challenge for hackers, but where are that "Macs going down"? I think most stability problems on Macs were in fact introduced by Apples own updates or bugs in the OS itself.
Even look at Windows. There is a lot of crap and a lot of malware and I really don't like that system. But there are many millions of Windows systems in use every day.
I have developed a biz app for Windows CE. I did not have to ask anyone for permission and we could sell it to our customer without asking anyone at MS. Phones and other CE based devices are in wide use and are not "going down". A lot of these even include GPS.
GNU/Linux is a very secure system. Not only can everyone develop Apps for it, you can even modify the kernel and device drivers as you like.
If you trade freedom to gain security you will loose both in the end. This is true for politics and for technology.
In my opinion the most important factor for reliable and secure operation is the user. He does not need to be an expert, but he should THINK before clicking on everything.
Christian
They have opened it wider.
Before WWDC developers from outside the US could not even apply, now it is possible.
We are a small games developer from Germany and we are looking forward to it. We have a game that we consider very suitable for iPhone - we have done tests a touchscreen - and it is already running on Mac.
Our previous game also runs on Mac now and is also a candidate for iPhone.
The former "US only" policy was very annoying to us. We hope tests on real devices will become possible soon.
Christian
70%/30%?!!! damn! i though the fee to be able to develop for iPhone was fair based on iTunes advertising and hosting, but a 30% grab from apple on top of that is defiantly "work'n for the man"! just because other mobile suppliers may charge up to 60% doesn't make apple's 30% any better...
so much for "wow apple's great, they offer free developer tools"
I suggest you go to your local supermarket, write down a few prices for the goods on sale, then do some research what percentage of that price the producer gets.
70%/30%?!!! damn! i though the fee to be able to develop for iPhone was fair based on iTunes advertising and hosting, but a 30% grab from apple on top of that is defiantly "work'n for the man"! just because other mobile suppliers may charge up to 60% doesn't make apple's 30% any better...
so much for "wow apple's great, they offer free developer tools"
You can't be serious. You're trolling, right? A centralized marketplace, targeting millions of very specific users, handling all of the PITA aspects of product marketing/distribution and you call that "defiantly" (Freudian slip, I guess) "work'n for the man"! Sounds like one of those "I'm brilliant and could make $10M if I wanted to market my idea, but I'll be damned if I'm gonna giv da man $3M. No way." Gimmee a break! Try selling anything anywhere (other than homemade baskets out of the trunk of your car, and good luck there w/ $4 gas) with only 30% revenue sharing. And zero variable costs beyond Doritos and Dr. Pepper. How much are you makin' w/ those great shareware apps you're marketing yourself these days?
I bought a Mac about 2 years ago with the switch to Intel. I figured that if it didn't work out, I would just install Windows on it. Fast forward 2 years, and I only have 1 Windows machine left. I converted the entire house. I have an XPS Gen 2 gaming laptop and the kids refuse to use it.
I've developed on a number of systems, Windows included and really just wanted something different. You should really try it, you'll be hooked. One of my buddies here at work is a hard core Windows guy and even he is just about ready to buy one.
As far as developing... Objective C isn't that bad. The system is BSD based, so if you've programmed for any *nix, you'll feel right at home. The IB takes a little getting used to, especially from VC++ (one of the best software MS has ever written).
As far as Apple weeding out the developers, that's not true. The system seems to be random, as there are a handful of independents that got the Developer agreement, but a bunch of longtime Mac software houses that didn't.
I doubt you'll ever see a Windows based version of the SDK, but it is possible.
You're missing the point. No, it's not new technology. Not at all, really. But these applications have much more potential than just widgets. They can open the door to turning the iPhone into the next mobile computing platform (akin to Palm in the late 90s...).
As new developers come to develop on the mac / iphone platform, the mac community should do well to support them with feedback, praise, and good ol' fashioned mac-love.
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"Security through obscurity rarely works for very long. It's better to have more people working on the code to find these bugs quickly than have them hang around to the point where they can do more damage later.
If Apple can't handle designing a secure OS for the iPhone then maybe they are in the wrong business. An interesting fact is that some of the most secure OSs out there are open source (see netBSD). Since anyone can look at the code, many people have which causes even obscure bugs to be found and fixed.
Paranoid much? I have news for you, you can already triangulate from most cell phones today. Also, take a look at all the cars with OnStar. If you're worried about someone knowing where you are, then you need to get rid of all of the computing devices that you knowingly and unknowingly carry around. And really, all the things you described are easily done today if someone wanted to just by driving around and paying attention.
So true, the potential is huge. The only drawback i see at the moment is the need for a computer, Mobile Me could change that but we'll have to wait.
Basically because I just upgraded my PC, and Macs (while very nice) aren't especially cheap. If something happened and I had to purchase a new complete computer rather than upgrade here and there, then I would probably look at getting a Mac Pro and running both Windows and Max OS.
Agreed, however they will attract many more developers into the Mac fold if we could test the waters without having to buy an entire new computer just to do it. If I could write Mac/iphone code in my Windows environment and run it in an emulator, I would be much much more willing to then invest in purchasing a Mac to further that work. As it stands now, I'll just be watching from the sidelines and I suspect there are many many other developers like myself who will do the same.