lynnfredricks.com

A new release of the Mac OS and version of Apple xCode, the Apple owned tool for building applications for Mac OS X in C++ or Objective-C, always brings with it a measure of hype into the Mac OS developer community that can occasionally slop over into the Mac OS user base. But I have yet to date see a release of a developer tool, let alone an SDK, receive this much attention since the original public showing of Java - yes, the Apple iPhone SDK. And this isn’t even about the actual release, but the availability of the beta! The final release is scheduled for some time around June, 2008.

I don’t want to talk about the technical details of the release, but as John Milton put it, to justify the way of God to men on the release format and what the business implications are for the release and the iTunes Store venue. (more…)

I visited the Washington Square Mall Apple Store on 4th of July and had an opportunity to join a small crowd of people playing with the iPhone. Two things struck me about the iPhone - how bright and beautiful the screen is compared to so many Windows Mobile based phones, and how dependent the iPhone is on third party services such as You Tube and Google Maps to give it additional value. I did not find the interface to Google Maps as helpful or usable as I would have liked, given how slow the input method is. But Im sure a third party will come up with a small, full keyboard to supplement inputting addresses that wouldn’t otherwise be available by whatever synchronization method is used. I almost never buy first generation hardware but the iPhone gives every indication of not being just another first generation product. (more…)