iPhone Web Development Guidelines

[strangelogic]

Wow is Right

I do like that attempts to enforce their NDA's - because people paid good money to go to WWDC and get a leg up on even the limited things they can do for the iPhone.

I also like that sometimes people slip and share the information.

I'm curious if MacRumors is already optimizing, and reviewing their pages for iPhone compatibility - it will probably be the first site I visit on my new iPhone... (after I'm forced to go the default home page...)

to my knowledge - 'flash' isn't part of any Web standard, it's a proprietary application thing. While commonly used, and desired it's not a global standard. I just don't buy into the conspiracy theory one poster presented here that implies how 'easy' it would have been for to include it out of the box. Integrating s/w and h/w is not easy, and freezing it by a specific date to get it flashed into millions of units being manufactured... bla bla bla

 

[artalliance]

iChat? iChat? AIM?!?! Are you....SERIOUS? Do you...you aren't an ATT customer..are you? AIM on Phones is like such a non-starter in this day and age...its been a marketing tool for *ages*!!! Get a phone with AIM/Yahoo/ICQ/MSN!!

I mean they...oh nevermind.

i guess what the previous poster meant is that ATT charges you SMS rates for every AIM line you sent, at least on my phone.

 

[RnSK]

I just don't buy into the conspiracy theory one poster presented here that implies how 'easy' it would have been for to include it out of the box. Integrating s/w and h/w is not easy, and freezing it by a specific date to get it flashed into millions of units being manufactured... bla bla bla

I made that assertion...but not as a conspiracy, as a flat out "they just don't care and never said it was gonna be there anyway".

Flash on many archs is an old problem, long solved in many ways inside of Macromedia/Adobe and outside. Its not at all like it would have been a scratch job or a big licensing deal...

The "conspiracy" part comes from the blame-shifters putting an apple design decision on the carriers

 

[RnSK]

i guess what the previous poster meant is that ATT charges you SMS rates for every AIM line you sent, at least on my phone.

But not all of them. Do you have a more "premium" phone that uses a sockets based client or one that does AIM as a wrapper over sms? If you have a java capable phone and a data plan, you can buy a sockets capable aim client...from America ONline no less, or any one of many 3rd party ones that work in different ways and don't involve SMS at all.

Its the blanket nature of these statements that irritate me. They are no more true than saying that macs are "incompatible" with standard PC ram and hard drives

 

[LizKat]

yes, sometimes i just want the facts... TEXT rules!

... The web design requirements are almost the same for the internet in general before 2000ish. We tried not to use a lot of frames, were concerned about bandwidth, and small computer screens.

I LIKE IT- I think too much junk gets in the way of conveying information on the internet. I love flash, and do a lot of flash design - but sites are using flash for the sake of using flash - not to convey information in a simple and effective way....

I'm with you. And I'm a little tired of hearing people scream about limitations on iPhone apps. With a new device, simpler apps are much better at rollout. Plenty of time for enhancements. First make the thing stand up and get dressed in the morning. Every morning. Like we have to do. After all, it's going with us and it's supposed to be useful to us. Do I want flash-loading lulls while just trying to find out when some movie starts tonight? No. I want to know when the movie starts.

Progress is progress, and we wouldn't be about to own iPhones without Apple's decision to elevate the concept and put some serious 21st century technology into it. Certainly we must all evolve or die when using or helping to develop technologies. But all this impatience or dissing of perfectly reasonable modes of communication (such as plain old TEXT) sometimes really does tick me off. I mean if one can't read a printed time like 7:10 but must have a flashing analog clock or maybe some revolving monkeys singing "Seven Ten Tonight, Seven Ten Tonight!" .. then one has problems beyond help from iPhone!

I will love whatever the iPhone offers me for fancy entertainment, but I will also be very happy if it will answer my simplest questions in simple fashion, and quickly. Maybe I'd rather read another page of the New York Times than watch the dancing monkeys get ready to sing what time the movie starts.

 

[arn]

I'm curious if MacRumors is already optimizing, and reviewing their pages for iPhone compatibility - it will probably be the first site I visit on my new iPhone... (after I'm forced to go the default home page...)

We've got http://mobile.macrumors.com/

but we could make some front-page design changes for the iPhone. we'll see as we get closer.

arn

 

[DrFrankTM]

Still looking for the perfect GTD device... :S

Ok, sorry to be a little off topic, but I thought my comments might be relevant insofar as they deal with my concerns about the iPhone's limitations.

Putting aside the issue of the 2-year contract, I thought the iPhone might be a great GTD tool if it allowed me to manage my notes on the go and synched with my Mac relatively painlessly. What I need is the following: the ability to create new notes on the go (locally, without relying on an internet connection of any kind) and to tag them (so that I can assign both a context and a project to each note); and the ability to synch those notes to and from my Mac when I come back or leave home.

Now there are several ways of doing that, but I still haven't found the perfect hardware-software combination, so if anyone has tips, they'd be much appreciated. First, GMail and Google Gears. The problem is that GMail doesn't work with Google Gears yet and I have no clue how long it will take before it does. Google Gears works with Firefox and Internet Explorer, but I don't think it works with any mobile browser yet. (Please correct me if I'm wrong.)

Second, RememberTheMilk seems promising, but Safari support for Google Gears isn't here yet, and Google Gears support for mobile browsers might take a while to show up. RTM allows editing of the notes on a mobile device, but it requires an internet connection, so it's a no-go for me as I'll be using that all the time, everywhere.

Third, there is TiddlyWiki and other Wikis, but as far as I know, they require a Java app to save offline edits in most browsers (except IE, but I'm NOT going to start using IE anytime soon). Since the iPhone will not allow Java, that option doesn't work either.

Now I am aware that there are tons of smartphones out there, but I kind of like the idea of having a decent screen to access my content. A QVGA screen sounds a bit too small for serious stuff. So I thought about using a Palm instead, but I have no clue whether Java works on the Blazer browser. (Java support isn't mentioned on Palm's page.) I guess I should get a QUERTY device and settle for a QVGA screen since I'll be doing a lot of typing (of short notes) on the thing, but I'm kind of clueless as to what hardware-software combination would allow me to do the stuff outlined above (edit notes offline, tag them, and synch them to and from my Mac).

Thanks for any advice about that.

Frank

 

[MacMan93]

Don't get me wrong, I'd love to write in ObjC for the iPhone. That would be the best solution, and someday maybe it'll come. But if they add local storage of "apps" (widgets) and data, most app needs can be met. Modern HTML and Javascript can do wonders, especially once coupled with HTML5/WHATWG.

For June 29th, it'll be a nice browser but certainly not a development platform.

That would be a dream....and a reason for me to buy an iPhone. Can you say profit?

I love the iPhone...will buy it eventually(a few years) wheather it has dev. support or not; but like I said ObjC/Cocoa would push the iPhone up in my priority list.

BTW, Steve DID say Cocoa based apps were on the phone when he did the keynote when it was released....I still think Cocoa/ObjC development for the iPhone WILL come eventually.....

 

[AppleIntelRock]

I'm with you. And I'm a little tired of hearing people scream about limitations on iPhone apps. With a new device, simpler apps are much better at rollout. Plenty of time for enhancements. First make the thing stand up and get dressed in the morning. Every morning. Like we have to do. After all, it's going with us and it's supposed to be useful to us. Do I want flash-loading lulls while just trying to find out when some movie starts tonight? No. I want to know when the movie starts.

Progress is progress, and we wouldn't be about to own iPhones without Apple's decision to elevate the concept and put some serious 21st century technology into it. Certainly we must all evolve or die when using or helping to develop technologies. But all this impatience or dissing of perfectly reasonable modes of communication (such as plain old TEXT) sometimes really does tick me off. I mean if one can't read a printed time like 7:10 but must have a flashing analog clock or maybe some revolving monkeys singing "Seven Ten Tonight, Seven Ten Tonight!" .. then one has problems beyond help from iPhone!

I will love whatever the iPhone offers me for fancy entertainment, but I will also be very happy if it will answer my simplest questions in simple fashion, and quickly. Maybe I'd rather read another page of the New York Times than watch the dancing monkeys get ready to sing what time the movie starts.

I totally agree with you! If the iPhone did support flash (god forbid flash 9 :-o) people would develop all of there web-based programs with it. Everything would be SLOOWWWW *even when using WiFi*
The applications that have already been developed for the iPhone look straight, simple and to the point. (like the shopping list one.) The ONLY negative I see with the iPhone is that, they don't offer it in white! It really seems like the perfect device (for me at least) and seems very easy to use. The Day-To-Day use section of MWSF07 shows exactly how wonderful the iPhone really is.
(download the keynote and watch for yourself)

 

[cwerdna]

I didn't see this thread before it was taken down.

It's not surprising. Per http://developer.apple.com/wwdc/faq/ "With the exception of the WWDC Keynote Session, all information presented or provided to you by Apple during WWDC is considered Confidential Information and is subject to the terms and conditions of your ADC Membership Agreement with Apple."

I wasn't there this year, but they have signs up at WWDC reminding people of that and not to disseminate such information on blogs, web pages, etc. UW obviously screwed up.

 

[goosnarrggh]

So you're saying that everything important to Apple gets done on time?

I never said they needed Flash for it to be successful. I said I believed they would rather have Flash than not.

You're saying that the absence of Flash proves it isn't "needed"? I never disagreed. It's merely "desired." I have no doubt that it's secondary to many other iPhone functions, but it's still something people want--myself included.

And thus I still believe it is likely to come to iPhone in future. I've outlined why Apple would want Flash, and have heard nothing convincing about Apple why would want to exclude it. You imply that a full, finished Flash player on iPhone would be SO easy that NOTHING could be put ahead of it on Apple's "to do list." You seem very sure of this despite lacking inside info on how the iPhone software works, or what other challenges Apple is also working on--and you brush aside mouse/keyboard interaction complexities. I'm unconvinced.

And I'm quite SURE there will be multiple "problems" or "mistakes" with the iPhone. Every product has some. It's not unthinkable and it's not the end of the world when they come to light.

Adobe has already provided the world with their proposed specification for human interface with Flash apps on devices with limited I/O capability (ie no mouse/keyboard) - it's implemented in their Flash Lite player. And 3rd party device manufacturers are openly invited on Adobe's webpage to enter into an agreement for access the Flash Lite player's source code (for integration into the manufacturer's operating system) in exchange for a royalty agreement.

Alternately, the Flash Player 7 SDK (more fully featured then Flash Lite) includes the full source code of Flash Player 7, along with completed reference designs for Windows XP, Windows CE, and Windows Mobile 2003 to help kickstart developers in porting the code to other platforms.

 

[Counter]

I save pages all the time on my Treo...why couldn't the iPhone do the same?

Whether or not you can save pages out of Safari on the iPhone I don't think has been answered. But this is getting further and further from the original question. A saved page would have to be static and require no server connections (and no other page loads unless Safari in iPhone can save a web archive). A saved static (can do local things with javascript still) html page is a billion miles from a real application for the iPhone.

I think this situation is a stop gap until Apple can provide access to the phone and maintain security. Although Apple being Apple wont say this. Which leaves open the possibility of Apple wanting a monopoly over the apps.

 

[72930]

We've got http://mobile.macrumors.com/

but we could make some front-page design changes for the iPhone. we'll see as we get closer.

arn

What if the RSS showed the full story (like Engadget) instead of just the first line?

 

[whooleytoo]

Being able to save pages locally as archives would be very useful - if it turns out it's available. Even the ability to save bookmarks as files though would be good (i.e. so you could save a bookmark to the Home iPhone screen as use it as an app launcher, rather than having to launch Safari and browse to it).

As for the lack of Flash - eek. Chances are Apple mightn't even be able to run that "this isn't a mobile version of the internet" advert in some places (such as the UK, where the advertising body has blocked Apple adverts in the past for being misrepresentative).

 

[iCe Cube]

I definitely disagree with this. Flash is used extensively for interface and navigation - its not fluff. It is also used for delivering essential content, video and animation. It plays a central role for informing and entertaining not to mention the importance of overall user experience - where html completely sucks.

I think that the Flash used for substituting HTML to display information on sites is very annoying. On the other hand, when it comes to multimedia usage, such as videos, games, etc it is very important I think.

 

[DrMoray]

Personally I can't wait for a real SDK. I think it will come eventually. But these details are a start. I think that people will come up with some great web-based ideas for the iPhone.

Here's a quickie app to test the form factor. http://iphav.com/Calculator/Calculator.html

 

[citi]

I think that the Flash used for substituting HTML to display information on sites is very annoying. On the other hand, when it comes to multimedia usage, such as videos, games, etc it is very important I think.

I agree and I think there is a place for everything. Flash to me is like HD TV or 5.1 surround sound. You don't need it to get your content, but if done right can be very immersing and can actually enhance your experience. Personally, I prefer flash sites because they are more interactive and I enjoy dynamic movement but also see great designed CSS sites. The problem is multimedia. Trying to pick a stream that works with both OSs can be a challenge. Flash is the only univeral app that's works out of the box with Windows and Macs and it's also far more secure to place your content in a flv or swf streamfile over a mp3 or avi. Some people don't want to install Quicktime and The windows media player for the mac is crap, but they'll install flash.

 

[A Pittarelli]

ive said it before and ill say it again, they HAVE to have a good SDK in order for the iphone to have an iPod like effect. its the software that makes the hardware...who said that?

 

[twilson]

99% of pages on the net which use javascript (even extensively) need no more than a second. Javascript is mainly used for things which happen instantly. Animations with Javascript are POOP. It's not like the iPhone has a replacement for displaying animations (Flash, Java) but hey, this is rev A.

But Safari 3.0 deals with pages containing Javascript faster than other browsers (except maybe Opera).