Apple’s announcement that there will be no software development kit for iPhone, while it may fool some in the media, will not fool developers, who see this as a giant “f-you.”
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Apple’s press release could use some translation, with a hat tip to John Gruber.
iPhone to Support Third-Party Web 2.0 Applications
Our browser works.
When it begins shipping on June 29, the revolutionary iPhone will run applications created with Web 2.0 Internet standards
Our browser works.
Apple today announced that developers can create Web 2.0 applications that look and behave just like the applications built into iPhone and that can seamlessly access iPhone’s services.
A coat of paint can fool people into thinking that they’re using a natively running application. The ability to click mailto:
links can fool people into thinking that a web app has integrated e-mail support.
That includes making a phone call, sending an email and displaying a location in Google Maps.
mailto:
, meet gmaps:
and phone:
Third-party applications created using Web 2.0 standards can extend iPhone’s capabilities without compromising its reliability or security.
Your code isn’t worthy of running on our precious iPhone. Did we mention that our browser works?
Forget syncing iPhone data with your Mac or PC. Forget support for interacting with the hardware. Forget the ability to run in the background. Forget a consistent look and feel. Forget local storage of data. Forget games and rich media. Apple’s answer to developers’ pleas is an insult to developers’ requests and to their intelligence. They could have said “hey, we still haven’t figured out how to sandbox code in an operating system whose resistance to viruses is due in part to its ability to protect the OS from malicious applications, but in the meantime, look at what you can do with web applications on the iPhone.”
I almost expected booing during the WWDC announcement. Maybe the developers in attendance were still too shocked. Or maybe the inclusion of “Cover Flow” in the Finder was still making their ears bleed. “Cover Flow is great.” Yeah, well so are Victoria’s Secret models, but they don’t exactly help me be productive.
Meatpieandtatters says
Another bitchy programmer. ahahahaahahah
Mark Jaquith says
I’m a web developer, actually. As a web developer, I think it’s great that the iPhone has such a powerful browser built-in. But as a user, it’s a dealbreaker. An iPhone that is a locked box is only as useful as Apple wants it to be. And right now, not very.