An ordinary blog about all sorts of cosmopolitan topics.
Have you ever wondered whether you would be able to take screenshots with your new iPhone 3G or the early iPhone updated to firmware 2.0? Well, here you go with a simple solution:
Press the sleep/wake and the home button at the same time for about a second. The screen shortly flashes, this is the sign that the screenshot has been created. It now lies in your camera roll folder in the Photos app.
Happy shooting!
The iPhone Software Development Kit is revolutionary for Apple. When the company put its device on the market a year ago, they forbade anyone to develop third-party software for it. Maybe they had too much all the security issues in mind or they wanted to prevent competition with their carrier partners. Many users regarded this aspect of the iPhone as a drawback and not helpful to make it a truly unique and advanced mobile device.
Now Apple has finally listened to customers’ demands and dared to bring out an intuitive, easy-as-usual, software kit for developers around the world. But what is its need?
Some arguments speak against it: Too many restrictions, monopoly situation with the App Store, etc.
Of course there are also many positive aspects: OS layers are fully usable now, clear guidelines for programming, there is no need to hack the device anymore (except for those who live in “non-iPhone countries” like me or those who don’t want a data plan)
Now if you are a developer you certainly want to code something as revolutionary as the iPhone. Nevertheless you should stay in between the defined restrictions, that means: No download of the software from your own server; some apps may not get approved for the App Store because of guideline violations, content problems may arise, e.g. VoIP (restricted for the use with the provider network) and the like.
Will developers accept the App Store as their channel of distribution? Or will they go on hacking the device by using the SDK on the one hand and hacking the device on the other hand (of course they will)?
Asking myself these questions, I am seriously anxious that the whole project could eventually get out of hand. What if developers won’t follow the guidelines and use carrier networks for huge data transfers and therefore force the breakdown of it? Also, viruses or trojan horses could find a quick way to spread out in the iPhone world and harm stability and security of a network. Apple really has to set the security aspect as their number one on the priority list. If not, they risk a loss of their image and a decrease in iPhone sales.
I am not pessimistic at all, because I see a huge chance in this SDK: There will certainly be many qualified developers who know what they’re doing and create fun apps. I wouldn’t go that far to say that it is a hit but Apple is on the right track to something powerful on the mobile market.
The future will show where the hick-ups and advantages of this SDK and the new iPhone firmware 2.0 are.
In that sense: Let’s be pirates and dive in…
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