Google Now, the lack of custom launchers, and the locked down interface on iOS, since those issues have been covered ad nauseam. I'll do my best to stay away from the obvious things like Siri vs. This has finally afforded me the chance to really compare the two operating systems, as opposed to my previous method of researching and copping five-minute sessions with in-store demo units. It's an iPhone 6, so it's not the latest and greatest, but it does run the most recent version of iOS. This isn't due to some blind trust in Google or some unfounded hate for Apple, either, because I've always made sure to get my hands on each iPhone iteration along the way to see what it had to offer.īut just this last April, I finally got my very first iPhone. Over the course of the past seven years, I've owned ten different smartphones-all of them powered by Android. But chances are you won't be downloading that from App Store, either.I'm an Android user. So, happy birthday iPhone! Here's hoping that next time you get to blow out the candles some clever soul will have given you cut, copy and paste facilities. They're just waiting for the firmware to come out. My understanding is that this has already been done. Of course, this assumes that the likes of NerveGas and others are going to be able to jailbreak the 2.0 firmware so that you can install unsigned apps that haven't been built from the official SDK. In one camp you will have tons of games available from App Store and in the other, tons of very clever utilities and productivity enhancements from the rest of us. But all the API's are accessible using open-source Toolchain.Īfter the first year's experiences with Apple, I foresee an increasingly fractured marketplace developing around the iPhone. The reason is that in order to do anything this clever on the iPhone, you have to go beyond the very restrictive set of API routines that Apple want you to use. IntelliScreen won't be available from Apple's forthcoming App Store any time soon. What you can't do with Apple's official SDK IntelliScreen is the name of an awesome iPhone app that takes over your "Slide to Unlock" screen. But it does make life more difficult for those folks who prefer to stick with the "unofficial" open-source Toolchain.Īnd why stick with the open-source Toolchain, I hear you cry? Check out the screenshots here to see. After all, the $99 you must pay isn't going to break the bank. Personally, I don't have any big problems with this. Of course, to get the SDK to sign the app, you've got to be a fully paid up, kosher iPhone developer on Apple's official program. Without that digital signature, the app runs just fine on the iPhone simulator that's part of the SDK, but it will just thumb its nose at you if you try and run an unsigned app on the actual device. When you build your iPhone app using the latest development tools, a digital signature gets embedded into the executable file. Apple has cunningly implemented code-signing capabilities into the new SDK. What you didn't get was the ability to just upload a custom application to your jail-broken iPhone and expect it to work. Yes, you get Microsoft Exchange interoperability, a cute scientific calculator (darn! I was planning to make millions by writing a scientific calculator that flipped into normal mode by rotating the phone - see you in court, Apple), and support for the new "push" notifications that come as a part of the recently unveiled MobileMe service. Once people started downloading and working with the SDK, it quickly became clear that the 2.0 device firmware had a sting in the tail. With the announcement of the 2.0 firmware and official Apple SDK in March, though, the floodgates were about to open on native, third-party development. All the others tell you how to write - yawn - web apps. This is currently the only decent book on iPhone development. One of the original hackers, Jon Zdziarski (alias "NerveGas" in the IRC chat rooms) has even written a book about it. A lot of talented individuals have invested much effort in developing the so-called open-source Toolchain, which essentially allows you to create your own iPhone applications. Of course, it's not much use having a jail-broken phone if there are no third-party apps to run. ![]() Since the original firmware release, Apple has been through a series of firmware upgrades, but in every case, the hackers have found ways to keep the phone unlocked. I soon found myself in possession of an unlocked, jail-broken iPhone: in fact, I was up and running before the official UK launch, last November. Like his conferences, Steve prefers iPhone development remains closed
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