What Would Things Be Like if Microsoft Had Invented the iPhone?

by Guest Author on Sep 9, 2010

When I was in junior high school the only thing I knew about Apple was that they made computers with enormous floppy disk drives. The Discman was the hottest portable music player and it would cost you about $100 for the latest and greatest. Bill Gates was a nerdy guy who was also the richest man in the world.

Imagine if you will that Steve Jobs never came back to Apple and the quirky computer company died off, leaving Microsoft as the uncontested developer to produce us our technological fixes. Assume that the story plays out identical to the way it is today with Gates and company unveiling the now iPhone under the Seattle based company… Read More

 

Does Apple’s SDK for iOS Kill Creativity?

by Guest Author on Sep 9, 2010

I can’t imagine owning an iPhone or other Apple handheld without the addition of the App Store. I’ve said before that I believe it to be the greatest asset to the iOS platform. So what’s the problem?

Apple Investor outlines the possibility that a vague module and a totalitarian controlled acceptance process has caused developers to walk on egg shells thus stunting their creativity. Some say the terms of service are often inconsistent, but as with any report like this, there are two lines of thought to be heard… Read More

 

Skyfire Submits App That Brings Real Flash Videos to Your iPhone

by Guest Author on Sep 3, 2010

Anyone who has an iPhone knows that trying to watch Flash videos is just not possible. There are a few hacks and cracks that bring synthetic Flash knockoffs to your device, though the jury is still out on how well they actually work. That could be changing real soon.

Skyfire has submitted an application to the App Store that would perform a nifty little conversion and bring real Flash to your iPhone. We know that natively, the software would never get a chance to grace the presence of Apple territory, so the developers created a way to make the content compliant… Read More

 

The Ultimate PartyDock Coming to The iPhone

by Guest Author on Aug 30, 2010

TUAW recently unveiled a product design by Griffin that could change the way you think about gaming on the iPhone or iPad. The FCC has released the exciting filing that would allow up to 4 people to simultaneously play in an individual setting. Sounds cool, right?

Griffin will send 4 games along with the PartyDock that will will include party, family and casual styles of entertainment. The games will be available in the App Store and would be designed to be ran specifically with aforementioned platform. Head over to the product site for additional info including development.   Read More

 

Attention Developers: Apple Promises to Pay You Faster & More Consistently

by Guest Author on Aug 28, 2010

If you check out the Apple iPhone Dev Center you will see an encouraging vow to developers stating that they can expect to see quicker, more consistent payments in the future.

As it reads on the website there is a new payment and financial report module in place. Here is an excerpt from the site: Read More

 

FTC Takes Care of Fraudulent App Store Reviews. Sort of

by Guest Author on Aug 28, 2010

One of my pet peeves is the current state of how apps in the App Store get their review grades. As you probably know the system as it stands is simply set up to allow anyone to write about and rank an application as many times as they like. Nothing had been done to prevent fraud in the sense of app developers writing multiple high ball reviews, until now, kind of.

The Federal Trade Commissions office has satisfied a complaint against a California based PR group called Reverb Communications. It turns out that the company who have worked with several developers were having their employees posing as actual users, and having them write up glorified reviews of different applications… Read More

 

iPhone Game Angry Birds Coming to Toys and Movies?

by Guest Author on Aug 25, 2010

I wondered when the App Store would produce a hit so huge that it would crossover into a cultural phenomenon. It seems that time is now, and the characters in the the limelight will be the fierce and feathered Angry Birds.

Variety reports that the developers at Rovio have been in talks with Hollywood executives about expanding the iPhone success of Angry Birds to the next level. The following is from the original article… Read More

 

CEO Says the iPhone App Store is Crashing

by Guest Author on Aug 19, 2010

This week at Europe’s GDC (Game Developer Conference) Bigpoint CEO Heiko Hubertz claimed the iPhone App Store is headed downhill. He states that the profits boasted by Steve Jobs aren’t put into perspective. However, according to TUAW, Hubertz also acknowledged Apple as a flagship of mobile space. So which is it? A bit of each can be true.

Perhaps you have noticed that the average price of apps (especially games) has trended downward. Why you ask? The reasons for the decline are probably more intricate to explain in just a simple article so we’ll leave that alone. However I think that the CEO is generally off-base in his declaration. With record number of iPhone owners, there has never been a better time to cash out in iPhone development. More people equals more potential revenue.

The very nature of the App Store wasn’t to support huge pre-existing gaming corporations. Quite the opposite is true. Allowing every Mac owner the opportunity to help create apps for the product they use was the point, and in that respect the App Store has surpassed these owners expectations. Every time we hear of a kid creating applications, Apple looks like the hero.

There are plenty of platforms for big corporations to thrive in gaming. iPhone developing can be another but that isn’t the purpose of it. Do you agree with Heiko Hubertz? Has the App Store maximized itself, or have we only seen the beginning of the App Store’s capabilities? Let us know in the comment box.

 

Apple’s Dropping of the NDA Has Echoing Effects

by Cody on Oct 10, 2008

For a long time, developing software for the iPhone seemed like a members-only activity. Even when Apple introduced the App Store and released the SDK for public download, the iPhone developing club still seemed pretty exclusive.

A majority of this secrecy was forced upon developers by way of Apple’s Non Disclosure Agreement: a binding contract that said anything developers came across while programming iPhone software ‘better not leave the room’. Apple claims this was to protect many inventions and innovations embedded into the iPhone software.

But as we all know, after hearing all the moans and groans from developers, and probably reading thousands of angry blog posts, Apple has removed the NDA. In fact, Apple is now planning to tour the world with seminars and workshops for iPhone developers of any skill level from independent game developers, to IT professionals.

But the benefits don’t stop there. Now with the NDA lifted, several Authors are given the green light to publish books on iPhone developing. Alicia mentions one of the more popular ones here, set to be released the 15th of this month. Another one, Beginning iPhone Development, is due out the 27th. In fact, a quick search in Amazon for the topic ‘iPhone development‘ brings up a long list of new iPhone-programming-related books due to release in the next month.

I can’t imagine the improvements we’ll see in the quality and complexity of future iPhone applications. Hopefully this will encourage Apple to drop another rediculous App Store practice ::cough:: App store rejection policy ::cough::

 

New iPhone Developer Cookbook to be released October 15th

by Guest Author on Oct 9, 2008

Addison-Wesley Professional is releasing a new Programming Reference Book called The iPhone Developer’s Cookbook, The: Building Applications with the iPhone SDK. It will be released by InformIT on October 15th and Amazon is listing it as October 25th.   As many of you are probably aware there hasn’t been a plethora of iPhone 3G programming books out there. I have three on pre-order at Amazon, but I,  keep getting notices that the dates have slipped. This book promises to targeted toward all levels of developers.  Follow this blog to get an in depth review before the end of October. According to InformIT this book is described as follows:

Leading iPhone developer Erica Sadun begins by exploring the iPhone delivery platform and SDK, helping you set up your development environment, and showing how iPhone applications are constructed. Next, she offers single-task recipes for the full spectrum of iPhone/iPod touch programming jobs:

  • Utilize views and tables
  • Organize interface elements
  • Alert and respond to users
  • Access the Address Book (people), Core Location (places), and Sensors (things)
  • Connect to the Internet and Web services
  • Display media content
  • Create secure Keychain entries
  • And much more
 
Page 412345