Posts tagged News
New Gestures in iPhone SDK 3.2 for iPad?
Mar 10th
9to5Mac continues its tradition of tearing through new iPhone 3.2 SDK for iPad betas, this time digging into beta 4 and finding:
In the gestures folder, you’ll see two new types of commands (3Tap.plist and LongPress.plist) that are certainly not implemented in the current 3.1 iPhone SDK.
No idea what these mean yet, but if you were Apple, what would you use the triple tap and long press for? (Aside from morse code!)
New Gestures in iPhone SDK 3.2 for iPad? is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.
TiPb – The #1 iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch Blog
Birdfeed Twitter Client is now Brizzly… and Free!
Mar 10th
The delightful Twitter client Birdfeed has been bought, updated, and rebranded by Brizzly and is now available as Brizzly for iPhone… for free! [iTunes link]
If you’re looking for a great Twitter client, give Brizzly a try. (Note: per comment below, you do need a brizzly.com account to use it which might not appeal to some.)
[via Daring Fireball]
Birdfeed Twitter Client is now Brizzly… and Free! is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.
TiPb – The #1 iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch Blog
iTunes LP was Record Labels’ Idea?
Mar 10th
GigaOm is reporting that, contrary to speculation that Steve Jobs wanted to return us to a more analog time when we bought new albums and sank back for ours drinking in every liner note and detail, iTunes LP was actually the record labels’ idea:
I’m told by an industry source who preferred to remain anonymous that iTunes LP wasn’t Apple’s idea in the first place. Rather, it’s the result of the same renegotiations between Apple and the major record labels that yielded DRM-free songs and flexible pricing early last year, a concession by Cupertino to make a gesture in favor of album sales as consumers increasingly show a preference for digital singles.
It’s further said that Apple subsidized the first batch of iTunes LPs, whose production costs were an unbelievable $60,000. The more recent release of developer tools is seen as reducing that cost, and rumors persist of an iDVD-like replacement application from Apple that would work to make iTunes LP and iTunes Extra.
Either way, enthusiasm among artists and Apple itself seems to be low, though just over double the amount of iTunes LPs are available now than were at launch. GigaOm suggests artists are also interested in the App Store as a way to provide extra content to consumers, which might split focus for iTunes LP.
In terms of pushing the format forward, it’s now supported by Apple TV (stuttering though it may be), but there’s been no sign of support for the 75 million iPhone and iPod touch devices on the market. It will be supported by the iPad, however, though Apple hasn’t been pushing iTunes LP as a selling point so far.
Have you bought an iTunes LP? Are you interested in the format going forward?
iTunes LP was Record Labels’ Idea? is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.
TiPb – The #1 iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch Blog
Verizon Wants to Sell You Data for Your iPad… via MiFi
Mar 10th
Verizon is looking to turn no-iPad 3G lemons in iPad Wi-Fi + MiFi lemonade by craftily counter-programming the official AT&T data plans with their own potent portable internet and router combo, says Engadget.
You’ll save $130 off the price of the iPad 3G, but a 5GB Verizon MiFi plan will run you $60 vs. “unlimited” AT&T data for $30. Then again, you can use the MiFi for more than one device (and more than one at a time).
So, is Verizon’s plan a good one? Would you consider iPad Wi-Fi + Verizon MiFi on April 3rd rather than iPad 3G on AT&T in late April?
Verizon Wants to Sell You Data for Your iPad… via MiFi is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.
TiPb – The #1 iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch Blog
iPhone SDK 3.2 Beta 4 is Out
Mar 9th
iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch developers: get yourself over to Apple’s developer center, as iPhone SDK 3.2 Beta 4 is ready for you to download, a mere two weeks after Beta three was unleashed for your coding pleasure. As MacRumors and Engadget note, it’s too early to say what magical new capabilities are to be found here – but don’t let that stop you.
iPhone SDK 3.2 Beta 4 is Out is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.
TiPb – The #1 iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch Blog
Apple vs. HTC Lawsuit a Warning Shot to Disrupt Competitors?
Mar 9th
Fortune quotes Oppenheimer’s Yair Reiner, who thinks Apple’s patent infringement suit against Google Android and Microsoft Windows Phone manufacturer HTC was a warning shot meant to disrupt competitors’ roadmaps:
“Starting in January, Apple launched a series of C-Level discussions with tier-1 handset makers to underscore its growing displeasure at seeing its iPhone-related IP [intellectual property] infringed. The lawsuit filed against HTC thus appears to be Apple’s way of putting a public, lawyered-up exclamation point on a series of blunt conversations that have been occurring behind closed doors.
“Our checks also suggest that these warning shots are meaningfully disrupting the development roadmaps for would-be iPhone killers. Rival software and hardware teams are going back to the drawing board to look for work-arounds. Lawyers are redoubling efforts to gauge potential defensive and offensive responses. And strategy teams are working to chart OS strategies that are better hedged.”
What changed?
“Top-tier handset makers continued to avoid implementing multi-touch, but Apple could safely assume that they were hanging back to gauge Apple’s response to Motorola and HTC. If there wasn’t one, the OEMs would likely read the silence as a green light, especially after Google also moved to enable multi-touch on its Nexus One phone.
It was likely in order to counter that perception that Apple began reaching out to handset OEMs in January and explaining in no uncertain terms that it was now ready to do battle–and not just on multi-touch. It was ready to press its case along a number of axes that had made the iPhone experience unique, from the interpretation of touch gestures, to object-oriented OS design, to the nuts and bolts of how hardware elements were built and configured.”
He believes it’s working, and might end up driving people away from Android and… towards Windows Phone.
Nice.
Apple vs. HTC Lawsuit a Warning Shot to Disrupt Competitors? is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.
TiPb – The #1 iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch Blog
EFF Uses NASA to Out iPhone SDK License Agreement
Mar 9th
The Electronic Freedom Foundation (EFF) petitioned NASA (an iPhone developer – iTunes link) under the Freedom of Information Act to provide them with a copy of Apple’s iPhone SDK License Agreement, and have gone through and provided both a link to the agreement (an older version, provided at the time of the request) and some analysis of what it contains.
For those not familiar with the document, it contains the legal terms a developer must agree to before they can develop for the iPhone platform. Since the EFF and Apple have been duking it out over Jailbreaking for a while now — the EFF wants Jailbreaking to be made an official exception to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) and Apple has opposed that move — the EFF thinks the SDK agreement is particularly interesting at the moment.
The major points brought out and up by the EFF include:
- One rule of the SDK license agreement is you can’t talk about the SDK license agreement. Despite it not being “Apple confidential information” developers are contractually prohibited from discussing it in public.
- Apps developed using the SDK can only be released through the iTunes App Store. So if Apple rejects you for any reason, according to their own guidelines or just on whim, you can’t release via Jailbreak or on a competing platform (if any were compatible).
- No reverse engineering or helping others reverse engineer, even where such actions have legal precedent as exceptions to copyright.
- No hacking or helping hack any Apple products. That means no Jailbreaking the iPhone, no putting Boxee on your AppleTV, no loading Linux on your iPod Classic.
- Kill switch is informed in the agreement. Apple can revoke your certificate at any time. (Though they’ve yet to ever do this).
- If Apple messes up and owes a developer damages, those damages will never exceed $50, so good luck suing for millions over your rejected Sexy App or RSS Template.
The EFF is none to pleased at the one-sided, gate-kept, stifling terms of the SDK Licensing agreement and good for them. And good for us as well. The way we look at it we need the opposing forces of Apple Legal and the EFF always pushing for more on both sides. Apple’s going to want to protect themselves as much as possible and the EFF is going to want to show us every way they’re doing it so if we don’t like it, we can voice our concerns as well.
We’ve used the analogy of restaurants before. The iPhone is Apple’s boutique, haut-cuisine eatery. They set the menu. You can’t go there, demand a burger, and then throw a fit when they tell you they don’t serve it. (Well you can, but you’d be nuts — Apple’s not in the business of serving burgers). Instead of Gordon Ramsey you get Steve Jobs crafting your dining experience, and if you go there, that’s what you should expect — to trade control for ease of use (as opposed to Google where you trade privacy for free service). However, the EFF making sure the ingredients are what we’re told they are, and that the kitchen is kept clean and compliant with local ordinances — that’s good for us, and ultimate it’s good for Apple.
Check out the EFF article, take a look at the agreement, and let us know what you think.
[Thanks to Fassy for the tip!]
EFF Uses NASA to Out iPhone SDK License Agreement is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.
TiPb – The #1 iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch Blog
