iPhone SDK agreement forbids real-time route guidance, dancing, rock'n'roll

Apple's always been known for its amusingly-conservative disclaimers (you can't use iTunes to "design a nuclear weapon," for example) and it looks like the products-liability team at the Fruit has had their way with the iPhone SDK agreement as well, inserting a provision specifically prohibiting developers from creating apps "marketed for real time route guidance; automatic or autonomous control of vehicles, aircraft, or other mechanical devices; dispatch or fleet management; or emergency or life-saving purposes." Yep, that's right -- no real-time route guidance (or, uh, fleet management) allowed. That'd be a huge bummer -- except, of course, that TomTom has already come out and said that its app is ready to go on the iPhone. Assuming TomTom used the SDK and not the jailbreak toolchain, we'd bet that Apple is just covering its ass here and that it's worked out an agreement with TomTom to pass along any liability -- you can bet Steve doesn't want to get sued when iPhone users start careening into sandpiles and into oncoming trains. We'll see for sure when the App Store finally launches, though -- until then, it's all just cheap speculation. [Via BoingBoing Gadgets]Permalink | Email this | Comments

iPhone SDK Downloads Top 250,000

SAN FRANCISCO—June 9, 2008—Apple

Macintosh/iPhone software update round-up - October 28, 2008

Section: Software + Apps, Miscellaneous, Third-Party, iPod + iTunes, iPod touch, iPhone + Communications, iPhone Accessories, iPhone, iPhone SDK & Apps, Mac + Computers, SoftwareMacintosh and iPhone software updates and announcements for October 28, 2008: Griffin Technology, Inc., has announced the availability of iTalk, a new sound recording app for iPhone, iPhone 3G, and 2nd generation iPod touch. Griffin iTalk turns iPhone or iPod touch into an ultra-mobile, super-compact recording unit. This two-part app allows users to create high-quality recordings, and then transfer the recordings to a Mac or PC. Users will appreciate the one-touch recording controls, and the ability to pause/resume recordings and even append to previous recordings on the fly. Lava Software is now shipping PasswordVault 6.1, a simple and practical enterprise-level password manager for Windows, MacOS X and Linux. This new version includes instant search abilities, makes it easy to add new entries by dropping a web address onto a dropbox on the main window, includes password and web bookmark management and synchronization over LAN and Internet, and is compatible to all web browsers on all platforms. Desktop and portable USB stick versions are available. Full Control and WIT Entertainment today unveiled ElectroCUTE, their first coproduction for the iPhone. The game is designed to redefine gameplay and user interaction by fully utilizing the unique multitouch interface of the market’s hottest mobile device. Where regular tapping the screen obscures most of the screen, ElectroCUTE lets players enjoy the full view of the game while playing. Information Appliance Associates has announced the release of PocketMac iCalScreenSaver, the first screensaver to attractively display iCal appointments. PocketMac iCalScreenSaver leverages IAA’s iCal sync technology to produce an attractive, clear and simple screensaver that cycles through users’ calendars. Arten Science has announced Pointer+. Pointer+ is a simple, inexpensive, very focused application for your Mac that adds additional functionality at the press of a key. Functionality that is invaluable if you are using your computer to demonstrate software to a third party, or if using any sort of screen recording software. Myvu Corporation today announced that Myvu Crystal is now fully compatible with Apple’s revolutionary iPhone, in addition to existing compatibility with all Apple iPod with video models. Myvu video eyewear transforms mobile media players into hands-free, full-screen private viewing experiences. The Myvu patented SolidOptex technology offers the thinnest, lightest and most durable video eyewear available. Users can purchase the new Works with iPhone cable for $24.95. publicspace.net has announced MacBreakZ 4.8.6. Version 4.8.6 improves activity feedback via the application’s menu bar item. MacBreakZ monitors the user’s keyboard and mouse activity and provides feedback on how likely the current activity level is to cause repetitive strain injuries. The menu bar icon changes color from green, to amber, red and finally flashing red when the activity level exceeds safe levels. Sonos today announced the availability of Sonos Controller for the iPhone application. Using the native iPhone point and flick interface, Sonos Controller for the iPhone lets iPhone and iPod Touch owners fully control their Sonos music experience with complete search, music playback and independent volume control for any room with a Sonos Zone. The robustness of this application means that anyone with an iPhone or iPod Touch could bring the Sonos experience home for the price of one Zone Player. Classic heritage and technogadgetry are quite arguably some of Proporta’s most definable characteristics, which is why they’ve timed the launch of their Limited Edition Aluminum Lined Leather Case (Apple iPhone 3G) with the launch of the new James Bond film - Quantum of Solace. Handcrafted from the finest Leather and lined with Aluminum that’s tough enough to meet even aircraft-grade specifications, Proporta brings superb protection to the table, and classically styled it in a way that would make even M impressed. Yazsoft has released a major new update to ShareTool. Developed for Mac OS X 10.3.9 or later, ShareTool lets you access all of the Bonjour services on your home or office network from anywhere in the world securely over a 100% SSH encrypted connection. This includes iTunes Music Sharing, Screen Sharing, File Sharing, printing, and much more. No configuration. No complication. No server or technical skills required. Just a mouse click. Macvide has announced Audio Recorder 2.0, their Audio capturing conversion utility for Mac OS X. With a focus on ease-of-use, Audio Recorder allows capture voice, music and other audio that you can use in podcasts or other audio or voice presentations. All of the most popular formats are supported, including mp3, amr, wma, mmf, aac, ac3, flac, mp2, and helps bridge the gap between many audio standards. ProteMac has announced ProteMac Meter 1.1, their network Activity monitor and network traffic logger utility for Mac OS X. With a focus on ease-of-use, ProteMac Meter allows control network activity for each application on your Mac, showing you exactly what was transmitted and to where. ProteMac Meter provides real-time network processes monitoring and shows the history of every network activity. Even though Apple removed the iPhone SDK NDA, it is hard for iPhone developers to find iPhone SDK developer related Web resources. AppsAmuck.com has put together ”The Really Big List of iPhone SDK Development Links” with well over seventy iPhone SDK links listed. Dare to be Creative has announced the release of ResizeMe 1.3.1, the batch image and photo editor for Mac OS X Tiger and Leopard. The new version ships with a French localization as part of the company’s global expansion plans, and following popular demand from users in France, Belgium, Switzerland, Canada and other French speaking countries. Online television network blip.tv has announced it is now offering dynamically served, fully interactive, third-party tracked advertising for video podcasts in iTunes. The advertisements are verified using DoubleClick’s industry standard DART platform and support click-through with DoubleClick DART click tracking. The system is designed to be compliant with the IAB Digital Video Advertising Standards. Full Story » | Written by Kirk Hiner for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »

Apple finally drops NDA, iPhone developers rejoice

The nondisclosure agreement attached to Apple's iPhone SDK has finally been lifted. Now developers can freely discuss nonbeta versions of the SDK, which will surely result in an explosion of publicly available hints, tips and programming discussion.Read More...

iPhone SimDK™ for iRise: Prototyping for the mobile phone

Section: iPod + iTunes, iPod touch, iPhone + Communications, iPhone, iPhone SDK & Apps, Operating Systems, Windows Have you ever wondered what everyone on the Windows world does if they want to develop an application for the iPhone? I’ve been asking myself this question more and more now that I see the growing excitement, and the business possibilities surrounding the iPhone development efforts. If Microsoft has more than 80% of the OS home and office market, it means a lot of potential developers are being left out the party. As far as I know, there’s no solution for that problem yet, at least not one as elegant as the iPhone SDK for the Mac, with all its fancy tools. Nevertheless, the idea behind this article is not to propose a solution for Windows developers, but rather to focus on just one element of the application development process: the design. Any group of professionals dedicated to software development know that one vital part of the whole process of creating an application is the design itself. All the effort invested at this stage will be rewarded at the end, when making changes and adding new features for an application will take less time, and, therefore, cost less money. iRise is, according to them, the market leading supplier of visualization software for business applications. This company believes (and I couldn’t agree more) that the visualization process is the key to a positive and effective software development process. iRise announced a few months ago the availability of the iRise Simulation Template for the iPhone. This template gives you a chance to look at and feel the behavior of any future iPhone application by making it possible to simulate all of the iPhone’s icons, menus, buttons and most of the user actions. OneSpring, an iRise partner, offers a group of solutions for prototyping business applications, and today we’ll get to know a little bit better a very interesting one: iPhone SimDK. The iPhone SimDK, as OneSpring describes it, is: … a complete toolkit for the design of custom iPhone applications inside of iRise. It offers a template guide that matches the form of the iPhone to help ensure designs can be accurately reproduced with the Apple SDK. The OneSpring iPhone SimDK for iRise toolkit includes: iPhone iRise iDoc template with guides Menu icons Template to create your own application icon Slider and button action behaviors Multi-touch interface actions This tool allows anyone in the Windows world to design and test high-fidelity prototypes of iPhone applications without a single line of Objective-C in them.  The creator of the toolkit affirms that in order to assure accuracy and authenticity, the iPhone SimDK was created using the iPhone SDK provided by Apple. The great potential of this advanced tool is that you could go through the process of designing and distributing a close-to-reality model of an iPhone application to the management crew of your company, corporate clients, customers and developers without having to even get around a Mac, allowing your Windows (and iRise) based company to somehow get started with the development of iPhone applications right away, with no dramatic increase of hardware and software investment. If your company specializes in software engineering, analysis and design of software applications, being mainly Windows based is no longer an excuse for staying out of the current and increasingly trend of developing for the most advanced mobile platform of today: the iPhone. Full Story » | Written by Juan Gonzlez for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »

iPhone SDK Downloads Top 100,000

CUPERTINO, California—March 12, 2008—Apple® today announced that more than 100,000 iPhone™ developers have downloaded the beta iPhone Software Development Kit (SDK) in the first four days since its launch on March 6. The iPhone SDK provides developers with the same rich set of Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) and tools that Apple uses to create its native applications for iPhone and iPod® touch.