News: iPhone still rules, will rule more in late June
The iPhone has finally exploded into the feature set it should've had all along. Now it integrates with Microsoft Exchange for enterprise users. It has licensed Active Sync from Microsoft and has made a seamless push technology for email, contacts, and address book. Additionally, it will support WPA2 Enterprise with 802.1x, and Cisco IPsec VPN. That should sell a few million iPhones right there.
The iPhone SDK includes an iPhone simulator so you can test and debug before even putting the application you are designing on your iPhone. This is incredibly useful, and includes powerful debugging tools. The iPhone SDK will allow developers access to the multi-touch interface, animation technology, accelerometer, geographic location technology and more.
Application Demos
Apple allowed several developers (EA, SEGA, AOL, etc) over the past couple of weeks to take a crack at creating some iPhone apps to demo. Boy did they bring the goods...
First up, AIM for the iPhone. AOL has developed a great looking native chat program for the iPhone. Is there a Doctor in the house? There will be one with an iPhone soon. Now the Epocrates database is now available right on your Apple device. But what about games? How about SPORE or Super Monkey Ball Deluxe? I prefer the latter. Both demoed at today's presentation, and I can only hope they release them to the general public.
How do we get all of this goodness? Well, the new iTunes App store, of course. You have access to applications that are for purchase and for free as well. You simply install and wirelessly download them, much like we have been doing with Installer.app for jailbroken iPhones.
Free applications can be put in the store without charge to developers. However, if they want to sell the apps, they have to pay Apple 30%. This is to give Apple a little profit, and they absorb the credit card fees, hosting fees, marketing fees, etc. It's paid monthly, according to Steve's slides during the demo.
Software Update 2.0
All of this is going to require a hefty software update of course. Welcome to iPhone Software Update 2.0. Free of course, for iPhone users.
Can we see it today on our iPhones?? Nope. If you are curious, you can download the iPhone beta SDK for free and run the iPhone Simulator. You can get it ahead of time to start developing the apps. Regular folks (like me) that aren't so proficient at programming will have to wait until... LATE JUNE. Ugh, come on Steve. I guess the rumors were true. Again.
Good news for iPod Touch users, they aren't left without. For a nominal fee (due to accounting issues on how they handle the Touch), you can get all of this greatness too. I think that's fair... but I'm also not an iPod Touch owner either.
One More Thing...
The $100,000,000 iFund. I think it's like an incubator for iPhone app developers. Check out the venture capitalist firm KPCB.COM for more details on that, at least for now.
Final thoughts
Nobody likes to wait. We want the capabilities now. If we can be patient, I think that it will be worth the wait. Mac developers are awesome and will definitely harness the power of this technology and make the best apps out there for any platform. Most importantly, I really think that Apple did the right thing by not excluding FREE applications. That is what everyone was worried about, but they certainly laid that rumor to rest today. Way to go Apple!
Read the full press release from Apple
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