iPhone Software Roadmap
iPhone Software Roadmap
[From Apple - iPhone]
Unless you've been hiding under a rock somewhere in the far reaches of the solar system you would be aware that Apple's iPhone event was on today. The brass tacks are that it delivered, and it delivered big time - at least for us lucky developers that already have Mac's, well Intel Macs.
The rest of you are just going to have to cross the platform bridge if you want to make that iPhone app of yours legitimate.
For those that don't want to read the press release or watch the video stream, the keys points are:
- iPhone 2.0 to be released in late June as a free upgrade to iPhone users
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- iPod Touch users will get the same upgrade for a nominal fee (the old different accounting thing again)
- this coincides nicely with the 2.0 hardware release ie. a 3G iPhone for places like Australia
- An extensive set of development tools (for the Intel Mac crowd only)
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- XCode IDE
- Interface Builder (thank the giant teapot for this, hand crafting UI was a real pain)
- Remote Debugging (that's right build it on the Mac, run it immediately on your iPhone/iTouch)
- iPhone Emulator (so the non-US developers can legitimately test their work)
- Instruments for debugging and optimisation (this is also how the remote debugging is managed)
- all free to registered ADC Members (even the free accounts)
- Complete Exchange support through the licensing of ActiveSync, this gets the 2.0 iPhone
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- Push Mail, Contacts and Calendar events
- Remote Wipe (if you loose you iPhone with important data on it)
- Global Address lists
- Password policies
- Auto Disovery
- More Corporate features
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- Cisco IPSec VPN support (sweet!)
- WPA2 Enterprise (as opposed to WPA2 Personal)
- Digital Certificates and multi-factor id's
- Configuration Utility for IT Admins to setup, configure, manage and wipe your iPhone!
- Ability to write their own software
- Software Store built-in
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- All this new iPhone software will be able to be installed wirelessly from the built-in App Store
- Software can also be brought through the iTunes store on your Mac as well.
- Developers can publish to the App Store if they're paid up memebers of the iPhone Dev. Program
- Pricing can range from $0 to infinity (though I don't think there will be many sales at that top end)
- Apple provides all of the Credit Card, Hosting services required - even some marketing...
- For a 30% take off the top... the other 70% is between you and the tax man, given what I've seen boxed software cost to get into stores, this isn't that bad...
- A small fee to get onto the store, mainly so they can 't authenticate who you are
- Oh, and naturally your app's can't be from the dodgy side of the world, ie. no porn, spam, spyware etc etc...
- Lots of Demo's
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- The most anticipated game of 2008 - Spore was demo'd on the iPhone and apparently will be available in September...
- Electronic Arts demo'd Spore after only 2 weeks of work on it
- Sega demo'd Super Monkey Ball also built in the same two weeks...
- A sample space shooter put together by Apple developers (yes in two weeks)
- All of these games used the 3D Accelerometer found in every iPhone/iPod touch to do the navigation
- Apple also demo'd a "2 days to build" graphics app for goofing around with photo's.
- AIM by AOL no less - working live and very cool, swipe to change conversations - gotta love it. (Can iChat or even Adium be far away?)
- Business solutions by SalesForce
- Medical Reference software by Epicrates Inc.
- The Missing Bits
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- No sign of IBM and Lotus Notes (were they put out by the Exchange support?)
- Nothing about 2.0 hardware, but very careful in saying this was the "roadmap for the 2.0 software"
- No VOIP over EDGE but will be allowed over WiFi
- No access to Dock attached peripherals... but that may come later...
- and "One more thing..."
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- US$100,000,000 iFund - just go to the site its just all too much for me - to think how hard we had to fight for investors and funding in the '90s and early Naughties... sigh...
By now the hard core of you will have tried to download the SDK but you can give up now - I've been trying since 6am local time and the site has only just gotten to the point of handing out token's and telling "We are processing your request. Please wait a few moments then refresh this page." To say that Apples Developer website is being hammered is somewhat of an understatement - I've never even seen it do this during a WWDC...
[Update 19:30 7 March 2008 EST - still waiting sigh talk about being overwhelmed... amazing for one of the busiest websites in the computer industry]
