Official iCreate Blog > iPhone

A Gordon Ramsay-esque website has appeared on the web that vents the frustration of iPhone Developers who have been silenced by Apple’s famous NDA.

A Non-Disclosure-Agreeement is signed by every developer before they are allowed to make Applications for the iPhone (we journos sometimes have to sign them too, before products are launched). It prevents developers from sharing the way they code and build their applications.

This is typical procedure for Apple who believe that by stopping people from communicating about the inner workings of the iPhone it will prevent malicious hackers from gaining valuable knowledge about how to reach parts fo the iPhone OS X that could be exploited.

The downside of this is that developers have to do their work in virtual silence, unable to communicate with others who may be able to help them make their applications better.

As a result there have ben frequent twitter posts of ‘F**king NDA!’ in the iPhone community. There have been so many in fact, that a website with that same name has now appeared online to document the sheer volume of posts.

Its easy to understand both sides of the story in this situation. On the one hand nobody wants to dwnload an application that will brick their iPhone, and on the other hand it seems overly paranoid for Apple to forbid communication between developers because of just a few bad apples in the communty (no pun intended).

Apple have so far been louding the simplicity of the iPhone as a platform to develop for, but at the moment at least it, seems as if there may be a bit of a backlash heading their way. Lets hope some sort of middle ground can be reached so that our apps can get better without anyone ruining it for the rest of the development community.

I had a few days off recently and went to Cornwall where it rained solidly for two days. Apart from the bad weather I was without a signal on my iPhone for pretty much the entire time. With any other phone this kind of impediment would have just meant the inability to recieve and make phone calls, something which, on holiday, would have been a blessing. But, on this occassion it also meant that I had no way of getting online to do all those things I’d taken for granted before.

One of the big things I missed was downloading and trying out free apps on the iPhone. Its gotten to the stage where its becoming an addiction. If I were wealthier I would no doubt be downloading everything, but as it is, I’m fine downloading the free Apps.

So, as I was saying I was without the ability to get more apps on my phone and it served the purpose of highlighting to me how quickly I had become bored of some of the other apps. Admittedly they are mostly free ones but with the promise of newer, better free apps out there I have to say that I have become rather spoiled.

A few weeks ago I’d have killed for a single app on my iPhone and now, with hundreds to choose from I’m like a little brat, always after more, more, more. I need to take stock and think about how lucky I am to even have the ones I’ve got.

The iPhone is an amazing bit of technology and I should probably treat it with more respect, that said it’s just stopped syncing, a quick look at the App Store wont hurt…

There is a great comic on theJoyoftech.com that I’ve put down here that sums up what a lot of iPhone owners must be going through…

Well this is exciting. I’m currently blogging from Wordpress’ iPhone app. The typing is a bit tougher than when I’m at my Mac so I’ll keep this brief but, just so you all know, I can now blog from anywhere. Beware!

If you are planning on heading out and getting a new iPhone tomorrow here are a few pointers:

Numbers may be limited.

At both the Carphone Warehouse and O2 stores employees are not sure of the delivery numbers expected later today ready for tomorrows launch. If you are desperate for a phone, get there early.

Opening Times may vary.

Apparently some stores will be opening at 7:02 and others an hour later, so its best to check in with your local store.

Take ID

The exact requirements for what types of ID to bring to the stores seems to vary so its probably better to be safe rather than sorry. Take your Chip and Pin bank card, a household Bill and your O2 account details if you plan to upgrade.

If you have any other tidbits of advice about your local stores and availability let us know in the comments…

If you want to get iTunes loaded with Apps ready for the release of the 2.0 software update, you can now do so.

Go to the iTunes store and search for App Store and the results page will let you into the new system.

Note: You will need to uprade iTunes to version 7.7

So exciting!!!

We are obviously very excited here at iCreate about the new iPhone and the launch of the App Store so we are trying our best to get in touch with App developers so we can be quick off of the mark with our reviews.

If you guys know of any Apps that are going to be released and are worthy of inclusion in iCreate then let us know!

Answers on a postcard…

So, who is excited about the 3G iPhone and what flavour are people going to pick?

Personally the white one looks so cool that I think everyone is going to get it, thinking that they will stand out, so maybe the black one is the way to go?

As for storage, its got to be the biggest version surely? To accommodate all of those cool new apps…

Thoughts please…..

No gamers, Halo is not coming to the iPhone. The iPhone ‘Halo’ is the effect the product is going to have on the sales of the rest of Apples line up.

A lot of talk has been going on about the new, extremely low price of the iPhone and how Apple can’t be making a great deal of money out of it, especially as revenue sharing has now gone out of the window too.

The theory is that the success of the iPhone and its awesome value for money will create such a good name for Apple that iPhone customers who aren’t Apple computer users will be suddenly compelled to make the switch.

This might sound outlandish for other companies to try, but given the kind of respect Apple customers have for the brand, which is unheard of in other business sectors, it could be just the thing to drive Apples market share towards parity with Microsoft.

Anyone who owns the current iPhone will know that its one of the devices of the century, a revelation in terms of web browsing and it has an interface and menu system that makes it extremely easy to use and difficult to put down. A lot of people thought that despite the high price, the device was well worth the money. So now that its just £100 it looks as though sales could just go through the roof and thats without mentioning the App Store and the hype that wil surround that too.

If there was ever a device that could turn people from PC over to Mac, its the iPhone.

  So, after all the excitement of the announcements on Monday we’ve now got to sit about and wait for everything to become available. Here’s what we’re looking forward to most:

iPhone - Obviously

Its not the 3G capabilities that are going to make this device extremely successful, its the brilliantly low new price (who can argue with £100?) and of course the App Store…

The App Store

This is where all the action is going to happen. iPhone users will be able to get all of the new games, productivity tools ad other cool things through here. Those apps that are under 10MB in size will be able to be downloaded directly onto the phone, the bigger ones will have to be done through iTunes. We’ve heard on the grape vine that as many as 70% of the applications on the store will be free! There is an upper ceiling on the size of apps, they can be no bigger than 2GB.

Best of the Apps?

Super Monkey Ball is  one of the best looking apps so far announced and of course with it being controlled by the accelerometer its even cooler. There will be over 100 levels to choose from and four monkeys  to  use.

And finally…. Mobile Me

This is the replacement for .Mac and this re-branding is an attempt to get those iPhone users who are still  tied to their Windows Machines to get involved in the email account business without wanting to be associated with Macs. We didn’t see that much of it at the keynote but as soon as we can we’ll have a proper look at it in the magazine as we  will with all the new releases. So excited…

There has been a veritable explosion of iPhone rumours this afternoon as WWDC approaches. Both Engadget and Mac Rumors have new posts with new details. There have been claims from eastern manufacturers saying that there will be a smaller iPhone with a 2.8inch screen as well as the possibility of a tablet like device that will have a 7inch screen.

Without wanting to be massively smug, iCreate did predict an iPhone family of products in the last issue of the magazine and this latest batch of rumours seems only to be confirming our prediction.

Of course we’ll all have to wait until Monday to find out whats really been going on at Cupertino.

It really can’t get here fast enough.

www.macrumors.com

www.engadget.com