If you’ve applied for Apple’s iPhone Developer program, check email for your rejection letter. The twitterati are reporting widespread disappointment and anger as thousands of iPhone developer hopefuls have received a “Thank you but no thank you” message in their inbox. The emails are arriving with the subject of iPhone Developer Program Enrollment Status.
Did you get accepted? Do you know anyone who did? Let us know in the comments. Some readers are reporting acceptance — if you’ve been accepted please send us some more details — but they appear to be confusing the iPhone online developer SDK download with the “iPhone developer program,” which you can learn more about at Apple’s site. What we are talking about here is the $99 signup for the developer program, which includes a signing certificate to allow applications to run on physical iPhones and not just in the Aspen simulator. Just because you have downloaded the Xcode SDK components does not make you an iPhone dev Jedi — if you haven’t paid your $99, or you haven’t been invited to pay it, you have no lightsaber.
Corporations have been rejected and so have individuals. Premiere members, Select members, Online members, all rejected. To be clear, these rejections are not for the general iPhone SDK download program but for the paid $99 developer/AppStore access program. I have not been able to confirm any acceptances into this latter program.
Out of country developers are reporting slightly different rejections. One anonymous developer received this message: “At this time, the iPhone Developer Program is only available in the US, and will expand to other countries during the beta period. We will contact you again regarding your enrollment status at the appropriate time.”
An absolutely LOL moment from Daniel Jalkut, which I quote in full: “In other news, it looks like the Jailbreak Developer Program still has open slots, and people are getting approved as I type.”
TUAW reader UO perfectly summarizes the dilemma: “I got a rejection this morning too. What if I never get accepted? Spending that much time (until June?) working on code I may never be able to ship is an unacceptable risk right now.”
Dear Registered iPhone Developer, Thank you for expressing interest in the iPhone Developer Program. We have received your enrollment request. As this time, the iPhone Developer Program is available to a limited number of developers and we plan to expand during the beta period. We will contact you again regarding your enrollment status at the appropriate time. Thank you for applying. Best regards, iPhone Developer Program
And just one more reminder: this is less about ‘rejection’ than it is about developers being unable to commit resources when Apple won’t give a firm go-ahead. Feel free to think about it as a “limbogram” rather than an outright rejection.
Unconfirmed insider reports are trickling in. One blue & green anonymous tipster tells us that Apple has yet to set up its certificate management system and cannot issue developer certs until this is finished and put in place. While this doesn’t explain why Apple sent out its letters worded the way they were, it might explain why TUAW cannot find a single developer who has documentedly been accepted into the system.
PC World
Apple is readying significant enhancements to the software in its iPhone handset for later this year. The company takes cues from both the business and consumer worlds, finally letting third-party developers in on the action to bring games, utilities, and other apps to the phone.
These impending changes promise to radically transform the daily experience for iPhone users. Based on what we’ve seen of Apple’s Microsoft Exchange integration and our first-hand look at the new development kit, here’s what you can expect to see when the upgrade becomes available in June.
Within a few minutes after the initial wave of iPhone hysteria ran its course, business users began debating whether the iPhone was really ready to take on the corporate enterprise. The general consensus: it wasn’t, owing to incomplete networking and security tools, and an inability to support the nearly ubiquitous Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync protocol that keeps handsets connected to the central server. But the phone’s widespread appeal kept interest alive in the business world, and Apple has responded bybuilding Exchange ActiveSync directly into the phone, and revamping the iPhone’s native e-mail and calendar apps. In addition, the company has added Cisco IPsec VPN support.
What does all this mean to you? If you’re an IT professional, it could mean a lot. (At present,IT types are ambivalent about whether to trust the iPhone on their networks.) But even if you’re not a network admin, or your company doesn’t want to support iPhones, the update could still make your iPhone more functional at work: It makes it easy to configure your own corporate e-mail.
Apple recently demonstrated the phone’s upcoming Exchange ActiveSync features, and even in its beta form the software looks simple enough for moderately savvy end users to set up without necessarily needing to call up their company’s IT department. Like existing iPhones, the updated devices will display a selection of e-mail services to choose from. If a user selects Microsoft Exchange from that list–as opposed to, say, Gmail or Yahoo–the interface will present a standard Exchange settings menu.
From there, all you’d have to do is copy your login info and settings from your desktop or laptop’s Outlook preferences and you’d be ready to receive push e-mail from the server, schedule and accept meetings, and browse the company’s shared contact list as you would from the computer at your desk.
The basic Exchange features will be accessible to pretty much anybody with access to an Exchange server. However, some advanced features, such as the ability to remotely wipe the company’s data off a misplaced handset or to use VPN, would clearly require your IT department’s involvement.
VPN is particularly noteworthy: If your job involves a lot of work from the road, using sales leads, templates, or other data stored on a corporate server, you need VPN access. With Cisco IPsec VPN on the iPhone, getting to that data could prove a whole lot easier.
Currently, the iPhone’s L2TP and PPTP VPN software requires users to get a lot of hands-on assistance from their corporate help desk to get a remote connection to their company’s network (that is, if they’re willing and able to do so). The popular Cisco VPN software should streamline VPN connections, requiring little more than a passcode from the end user once the device is configured. Setting up your VPN connection with IPsec will still require some help from your IT person, but it will make their job a lot easier.
Apps Galore
For most users, business data support may not be the biggest thing coming out of Apple’s new software update. In fact, the biggest news may not even come from Apple itself.Apple has released its own software development kit (SDK) into the wild, giving programmers the tools they need to write native software–rather than just Web apps–to run directly on the iPhone.
The iPhone 2.0 update will include aniTunes App Store utility. Tap it, and you’ll see a library of downloadable titles. Apple CEO Steve Jobs indicated that, while the purpose of the App Store will be to sell software for the iPhone, many of these apps will likely be free. Of course, that depends entirely on what developers decide to do. To get a better idea of what kinds of apps you’ll be likely to see come June, we downloaded the SDK ourselves and took a look at the tools Apple is offering.
The iPhone SDK will give developers access to most aspects of the device, from the touch screen to the camera to the accelerometer that is responsible for sensing when you tilt the device. Sample code available on Apple’s iPhone Dev Center site includes examples of how to do many of these things. What’s clear from these examples–and from the developer demos at yesterday’s briefing–is that games will be a major factor on the second-gen iPhone platform.
With the SDK, game developers will be able to tap into the iPhone’s accelerometer and discover new ways to control the on-screen action. By tilting the device in various directions, or with combinations of tilts and screen taps, you’ll be able to navigate heads-up displays, virtual environments, and anything else game makers can dream up. We may even see games that take advantage of the phone’s geolocation capabilities in new, innovative ways.
Meanwhile, with the Wi-Fi hardware readily accessible, new apps will be able to do everything from conventional Web surfing and messaging to device-to-device data and media sharing. And most of these development tools will have benefits for iPod Touch users also. So while Apple never implemented a Zune-like squirting feature for music–letting users send songs from one device to another for temporary sharing–such a feature could easily come from a third-party developer (if Apple doesn’t kill it first).
Ultimately, the iPhone may very well shape up to be a major platform in its own right if programmers take to the SDK en masse. And if the App Store fills up quickly with cool tools and games, yesterday’s announcement may prove to be a major one, even for those who have no interest in creating their own software.
by Macworld Staff
In about two hours on Thursday, Apple rolled out a massive amount of information about allowing independent software developers to create programs for the iPhone. SDK, SQLite, core data, App Stores — who can make sense of it all?
Well, we’re going to give it a go. In this story, we’ve tried to anticipate and address many of the questions swirling around Apple’s iPhone announcements. Got questions of your own? Post them in the comments, and we’ll try to answer them.
What did Apple announce Thursday, in a nutshell?
That it was releasing a Software Development Kit, or SDK, for the iPhone. The SDK is a set of tools that lets independent programmers and software companies design, write, and test software that runs on the iPhone. Right now there’s a beta version for developers, but a final version of the iPhone software that supports the installation of new programs written by independent programmers is due in late June.
As a part of the announcement, Apple introduced a new iPhone program, App Store, through which you’ll be able to purchase, download, and update iPhone software. That will be available as part of the new iPhone Software 2.0 update in late June. That’s when you’ll be able to add third-party apps to your iPhone for the first time, at least via official channels.
Will Mac software run on the iPhone?
No, but since iPhone software is developed using the same development tools as Mac software, it’s possible that developers will be able to re-use some of their code to make iPhone versions of their programs. But the entire user-interface layer of the iPhone, dubbed “Cocoa Touch,” is completely different from the Mac’s Cocoa interface layer, owing to the iPhone’s finger-based interface.
Could someone post a free program on the App Store and then force users to pay for a registration code to make it functional, thereby bypassing Apple’s 30% cut on App Store sales?
It seems unlikely that Apple would put up with those type of shenenigans. Doing so would basically let Apple pay for your marketing and bandwidth costs, and deprive them any money they’d get from selling the software. It may be specifically forbidden as a term of being an iPhone developer.
Will shareware not be an option on the iPhone?
As we said above, we assume Apple won’t let you sell a “free” program that requires an unlock code. However, there are some other scenarios we expect to see. First, donationware: People will probably sell “free” programs that request that you make a donation if you want to keep the project going. We don’t think Apple will have any problem with that, since the donation would be voluntary. Second, it’s possible that you’ll see two versions of various iPhone programs: a free “lite” version that’s a good advertisement for a more feature-rich for-pay version.
Then there are programs such as the Iconfactory’s Twitterrific, a Mac program that is free, but contains ads. For an “upgrade” fee, users can shut off the ads. Whether Apple would allow this to be handled within the program or there would need to be two separate versions of an iPhone version of Twitterrific remains to be seen.
What kinds of programs will be allowed, and what won’t?
Mainstream programs such as games, Internet tools, productivity tools, and the like should be fair game for the iPhone. What’s unclear is if there are portions of the iPhone that are locked off, forbidden locations that no approved third-party program can enter. We know that third-party software can’t access the Dock connector, which means companies can’t create software that requires specific hardware add-ons. Will the iPhone’s UNIX subsystem be accessible? What will the access to the EDGE cellular network be? We just don’t know.
Is someone at Apple going to decide which programs are approved and which ones aren’t? Won’t that take a lot of time?
Apple executives were deliberately vague on this point Thursday, but some of what they said may give an indication of Apple’s future policies. It seems unlikely to us that someone at Apple will thoroughly test each product that goes up on the Store—it could become a gigantic bottleneck that could overwhelm Apple and frustrate developers. It’s more likely that Apple will ask developers to follow certain development guidelines and fill out data about what their programs actually do. Since each iPhone program will be digitally signed by its creator, this gives Apple the ability to “turn off the spigot,” as Steve Jobs put it, and revoke programs that don’t meet its standards. But we’re sure that iPhone software will be given at least a cursory examination by someone at Apple before it’s placed on the App Store, with special attention paid to new developers.
What kind of programs can we expect to see?
That will all depend on the ideas floating around in the heads of developers. But during the event, five companies showed off what they were able to put together with two weeks of engineering work and very few people involved. There were games from Electronic Arts (Spore) and Sega (Super Money Ball), an AIM client from AOL, medical software from Epocrates, and business software from Salesforce.com. The programs took advantage of the iPhone’s built-in accelerometer, Multi-Touch capabilities, interface elements, and more. If you can imagine it, chances are someone will try to build it.
What kind of stuff does Apple say it won’t allow developers to create?
The slide behind Steve Jobs read: “Porn, privacy [i.e., programs that could comprimise your privacy], bandwidth hog, malicious, illegal, unforeseen.” The big mystery is, what’s “unforeseen?” Does that mean that any program with needs that are not foreseen by Apple are no good? Does it mean that those programs will be scrutinized the first time, and then if they pass muster, they’ll be allowed to go in the App Store?
There are also some specific restrictions that may be a part of Apple’s approval process. During the Q-and-A session that followed Apple’s event on Thursday, one reporter asked if Voice-over-IP programs would be allowed on the iPhone. Steve Jobs’ response was that they would, but only via Wi-Fi connections, not via cellular data connections. How that rule will be enforced is somewhat of a mystery.
And yes, that disturbance in the Force you just felt was the American porn industry weeping. Cheer up, guys — the iPhone still plays video.
What if someone writes a malicious program?
Apple can look at the program’s digital signature, which is linked to the developer account of the person who created it. Then Apple would presumably disable that account and deactivate that program across all iPhones, everywhere. (Which is a little scary when you think of it.) And, Steve Jobs said that Apple will then call the parents of whomever wrote the program and give them a good talking to. (Seriously. That’s what he said. He’s gonna call your parents.)
What’s a “bandwidth hog?”
Apple hasn’t explained, but we can guess. Programs designed to push continuous, full-availability-connection data streams at all time, will probably have trouble. (BitTorrent, anyone?) The devil is in the details, though: will bandwidth hogging be allowed over Wi-Fi, which is much faster than the iPhone’s EDGE network? Perhaps programmers will be able to restrict network traffic while on EDGE networks and open the throttle when on Wi-Fi networks. (The iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store already makes this distinction, not allowing any use over EDGE.)
Can I buy these programs on my Mac, or just on the iPhone?
You’ll be able to access the App Store—the only place you’ll be able to find and download third-party software—from either the iPhone or iTunes. It’s similar to how music purchasing works via the iTunes Store and the iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store on the iPhone and iPod touch. If you buy a piece of software (or download a free application) from the App Store on the iPhone, your phone will wirelessly download that program the program and install it. If you download something via iTunes on your Mac or PC, you’ll be able to load it onto your iPhone when you sync them. Apple didn’t say how the syncing will work, however. For example, will you select certain programs, as you would playlists or podcasts, to sync? Will apps downloaded on the iPhone transfer to your computer when you sync?
What about software updates?
One of the coolest features of the iPhone’s App Store program is that it’s aware of all the apps you’ve installed on your iPhone, and automatically checks to see if new versions have been released. So instead of having to remind yourself to check for updates, the App Store will automatically remind you and, if you wish, download and install the updates.
That covers free updates. What happens when you want to download an update that you’re supposed to pay for? We assume that the App Store will give you an upgrade path and offer to let you buy the new version, but we’ll need someone to write an iPhone app, grow a loyal customer base, and then generate a new for-pay upgrade before we’ll know for sure.
What if you’ve synced your phone on one computer and then restore it on another? Do you lose your apps until you sync to the original?
We assume that iPhone apps will work like Ringtones: You can choose to sync all of them back and forth with iTunes, or selectively choose which ones appear on your phone and which are merely stored back on your computer.
If I buy a program for my iPhone, can I also transfer it to my significant other’s iPhone?
Probably not. Our guess is that each App Store program will be tied specifically to your Apple ID. It’s possible you’ll be free to copy it to multiple iPhones, but more likely you’ll only be able to use it on a single device at a time. (We don’t know what this means when it comes to site licenses or volume discounts for software, either.)
Can I download programs off the Web, or any place other than the App Store and iTunes?
Nope. With the exception of large businesses, the only place to get iPhone software will be via the App Store program on the iPhone or via the App Store area on iTunes.
What about internal, “private” software? What about beta testing?
Good questions. When Jacqui Cheng of Ars Technica asked Apple executives about in-house corporate software, the kind that a corporation would never want to appear on the public App Store, here’s what Apple’s Phil Schiller said: “We’re working on a model for enterprises for them to distribute applications to their end users, specifically with a program for them to target their end users. We have a model we’re building for that.”
That covers part of the story. In the realm of pure speculation, we wonder if this solution might also be the way developers can run beta-tests of their software. If you’ve got a program that allows big companies to distribute software to their users, it’s not a stretch to see that same technology applied to a software developer with a controlled number of beta-testers. One developer we talked to said, “From a developer’s point of view, releasing software that’s not fully tested by a large group of people is support suicide.” So we’re figuring that Apple will find some way for developers to test their software without posting it publicly to the entire App Store.
Can I try the iPhone SDK?
As long as you register as an iPhone developer and have plenty of free disk space, yes.
How much will it cost to put an application on the App Store?
While the SDK is free to download and use, iPhone developers who want to test their programs on their iPhone and sell them on the App Store must pay a fee of $99 to enroll in the iPhone Developer program.
Can iPhone programs read and write to the iPhone’s filesystem, so I can save documents like I do on my Mac?
As far as we can tell, the answer is no. According to Ars Technica’s John Siracusa, iPhone programs can write files to their own “application package” — in other words, the folder in which an app’s own files are stored. But it’s not likely to be a very safe place. However, since all iPhone programs will have access to a SQLite database, it’s likely that programs that need to store “files” on the iPhone will actually do so by saving them into the iPhone’s built-in SQL database. Still, this is one of those areas that’s going to take a bit of time to shake out.
I’m a developer. Do I know who’s buying my software, or does Apple hide that from me? Are these people my customers, or Apple’s?
Great question, and right now there’s no good answer, but it’s one that all developers will want to know.
Is there a limited amount of storage on the iPhone for applications?
As far as we can tell, your iPhone’s storage is yours to fill with whatever you want, be it music, video, or programs. (Some of those games we saw Thursday look like they might be kind of large, so you might need to slim down your videos to make room.)
I’m a Windows developer and really, really want in on this sweet iPhone action, yet the iPhone developer tools run only on Intel Macs running Leopard. WTF?
My man, there has never been a better time to buy a Mac. And hey, since they’re all on Intel now, you can install Windows and run both on the same piece of hardware. Come on, admit it — you’ve always wanted a MacBook Pro. (And once you’re all up and running with Xcode, might we suggest you consider writing software for the Mac too?)
[Macworld editors Jason Snell, Jonathan Seff, Dan Moren, Christopher Breen, and Rob Griffiths contributed to this article. Thanks to Glenn Fleishman, Craig Hockenberry, and Daniel Jalkut for their feedback and contributions.]
PC World
One of the earliest complaints about the iPhone–even before it was a shipping product–was that it could only use Web-based applications, which couldn’t offer the same functionality as native applications. Today’s announcement of the iPhone software developer’s kit (SDK) fixes that limitation–and by doing so, sets the stage for the iPhone as the phone to beat. Period.
Apple’s SDK blows open the process of creating native apps for the iPhone by letting most any would-be coder get started. Developers can sign up and download the SDK for free, which in turn allows Apple to reach out to a wider cross-section of would-be coders than they might have otherwise.
According to iPhoneDevCamp co-founder Raven Zachary, “The fear [in the development community] today was that Apple was going to constrain the ability for third-party developers to distribute apps, in the same way they did with the iPod games market.” There, Zachary notes, Apple made it very difficult for small developers to create and release a game: “You have to get Apple’s approval, have them approve the source code, and then they take a large percentage of the profits for the distribution of that app.
“What we’ve seen instead is Apple opening up the marketplace in the same way they’ve opened up the podcast directory in iTunes Music Store. They will be far more open about letting developers list their apps,” says Zachary.
Developers will need to do so in a Mac environment, though. And that leaves an open question as to how well these apps will be able to tie into the PC universe. So far, even Apple’s own synchronization with Windows-based content has been limited, at best–and what the iPhone/iPod Touch can do, they do through the existing Windows iTunes framework. What will happen when hundreds of developers try to create apps that tap into content on a PC? Will all scenarios be supported?
Those questions remain big question marks for now. But many in the industry appear bullish on the prospects for third-party iPhone/iPod Touch software. Venture capitalist firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers announced it was creating the $100 million iFund to help new developers for the Apple handheld platform. This move marks the latest effort by a VC firm to back software development; already, Facebook and Google’s Android are among the available vertical funds, although neither of those has the same resources as the newly announced iFund.
Ultimately, Zachary remains optimistic that Apple’s strategy will be good for developers in the long-run. There’s huge opportunity for commercialization and revenue generation, he says. The fees, he adds, are not too outrageous, either: To publish apps, you have to do so through the iTunes App Store for a fee of $99 (Apple will receive 30 percent of the revenues earned on any apps sold through the App Store).
Some have questioned that number as being a high piece of the action, but Zachary thinks it’s right on target. “I think it’s fair. That number will drive thousands of developers to the platform. Apple will be absorbing all of the costs associated with bandwidth, distribution, and marketing. The net benefit probably outweighs the costs.”
Which Apps to Make the Cut?
One big unknown is where Apple will draw the line on which apps they’ll allow and which they won’t. So far, they’ve stated outright that pornography and illegal apps will not be tolerated (natch). But beyond that, Apple appears to fostering innovation, encouraging developers to stretch their collective imaginations–right down to allowing developers to offer free apps as well as for-pay apps.
Steve Jobs has confirmed that developers will be able to tie apps into the phone’s Wi-Fi connectivity (including for VoIP over Wi-Fi), as well as the camera; it’s not known yet to what degree, if any, developers will be able to tie into the dock. If they can, expect a whole new cottage industry of accessories to crop up around the iPhone/iPod Touch.
The biggest catch to Apple’s approach, though, is that the company is forcing everything to be distributed through the iTunes App Store, be it via the mobile device itself or the iTunes desktop client. This benefits Apple: The company retains a modicum of control over what gets installed on its devices. But without a third-party download source and a bonafide application installation/deinstallation manager, Apple will have the ability to constrain the needs of its consumers if and when it so chooses.
All of the attention on the iPhone SDK has to be making Apple’s competing handset manufacturers nervous. And rightly so. When the new iPhone 2.0 software update (which includes legitimate support for third-party apps) ships in June, it will transform the iPhone into the mobile phone to beat, for consumers and for enterprise users.
Never before has this kind of excitement–and accessibility–occurred around a mobile platform. At one time, Palm had a thriving community of active developers, but the oomph has long left the Palm. Neither Research in Motion’s BlackBerry nor Microsoft’s Windows Mobile platforms ever really generated the attention, let alone comparative accessibility, that the Apple’s iPhone has.
Since the iPhone juggernaut was unleashed in the summer of 2007, it’s been clear that Apple has had an indelible impact on mobile consumers. Now, the iPhone’s SDK–coupled with the announcements of other enterprise support through Microsoft’s ActiveSync and Exchange–means that traditional corporate handset makers are on notice, too: They need to shape up and compete head-to-head with the iPhone. If they can.
