brad's life - iPhone SDK [entries|archive|friends|userinfo]
Brad Fitzpatrick

[ website | bradfitz.com ]
[ userinfo | livejournal userinfo ]
[ archive | journal archive ]

iPhone SDK [Feb. 22nd, 2008|10:47 pm]
Previous Entry Add to Memories Tell a Friend Next Entry
[Tags|, , ]

Seeing this story that the iPhone SDK might be late made me remember a conversation I had with an Apple employee who I ran into at a bar in San Francisco recently.

I told him [info]dan_erat's theory that the Apple SDK won't let you write an AIM/XMPP/Yahoo/whatever IM client, as then it'd cut into SMS revenue.

I said,
"So that means either no network access, or no backgrounding running apps."
He smiled and said,
"Well, you get network access."
Sad.
LinkReply

Comments:
[User Picture]From: [info]matthew
2008-02-23 07:13 am (UTC)

(Link)

Totally lame. But then this is the kind of thing that Apple has been doing lately. For instance they left out video playlists on the AppleTV. Is that to keep people poking the thing? wtf. Cupertino makes me sad these days.
[User Picture]From: [info]jwz
2008-02-23 07:42 am (UTC)

(Link)

As soon as you start smoking {Bell System,RIAA,MPAA} pole, you have to stop making products that users want, because their business models are fundamentally adversarial.
[User Picture]From: [info]sbisson
2008-02-23 09:10 am (UTC)

(Link)

That would be a pity, as there are numbers to indicate that IM usage actually increases SMS traffic


It turns out that the usage models are completely different, and one complements the other.
[User Picture]From: [info]ioerror
2008-02-23 12:27 pm (UTC)

(Link)

Just include a local root exploit in your app. They're a dime a dozen anyway, right?
[User Picture]From: [info]mart
2008-02-23 12:34 pm (UTC)

(Link)

Solution: Don't buy Apple's crippled products.

From: [info]edge_walker
2008-02-23 01:38 pm (UTC)

(Link)

Or at least, don’t buy them with the expectation that they’ll be anything other than what you get from Apple. You’re buying an appliance, not a computer. Steve Jobs doesn’t build platforms, except by accident.

[User Picture]From: [info]radven
2008-02-23 04:05 pm (UTC)

(Link)

The problem is that while Apple's products may be crippled, they are less crippled than everyone else's.

I really wish there were a decent mobile platform.

But despite all its flaws - the iPhone is the best I've found both for use and hacking upon.

- Chris
[User Picture]From: [info]mechanyx
2008-02-23 06:24 pm (UTC)

(Link)

If you're looking for a dev platform, there's Openmoko. Of course, when they missed their October launch date, they lost my faith (and rightfully so as the front page of the wiki still has a "not suitable for end users" warning and it's almost March).

I stand by my Nokia E70 where I can background my IM client.
[User Picture]From: [info]radven
2008-02-23 10:10 pm (UTC)

(Link)

No - I'm not looking for a dev platform. I am looking for the best possible device to carry in my pocket.

The Openmoko doesn't even come close, sadly.

The iPhone right now is trivially easy enough to unlock and jailkbreak, so I do get app support and a dev platform now. I just hope the official SDK is worthy of the awesome hardware and OS.
[User Picture]From: [info]robflynn
2008-02-23 02:04 pm (UTC)

(Link)

Meebo.com works well in Safari for IM purposes, though, as you said, it's not really a background thing and it's also not a true Application. I'm a tad disappointed, as well. Oh well, whatever.

I guess we wait and see?
[User Picture]From: [info]meowpurrr
2008-02-23 07:42 pm (UTC)

on a vaguely related note

(Link)

istr, but may have imagined, you mentioning here ditching one phone for another. could you by any chance recommend a geek-friendly "smart"/pda-ish phone that's currently available? i'm in europe, but information's information. :)
[User Picture]From: [info]dan_erat
2008-03-13 06:07 pm (UTC)

(Link)

AT&T is increasing SMS fees to $0.20/message. :-P

My follow-up prediction (apparently also correct?) was that you still won't be able to get media files onto the phone without using iTunes. Not being able to run apps that you've written on your own phone without paying Apple is an added bonus, though.