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iPhone To Allow 3rd-Party Development

Posted by kdawson on from the let-us-at-it dept.

Anarchysoft writes "In an exciting shift from previous statements, Apple CEO Steve Jobs revealed at the D Conference that 3rd-party development will be supported on the iPhone. Questions remain as to whether the opening of the platform, slated for later this year, will be through Dashboard-like widgets or a separate SDK."

3 of 215 comments (clear)

  1. One approach by SuperKendall · · Score: 5, Interesting

    One thing Apple could do is allow software development, but only allow HTTP calls out of said apps - that way it would allow Cingular to shape traffic and not risk wonkiness from raw TCP handling by applications.

    I'd be happy enough with an API that let me develop a simple interface that could store some data locally and sync with a computer, so even no network access for applications at all would be of some use (though obviously as the device is very network centric it would not be nearly as fun).

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    "There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
  2. One Word: by Penguinisto · · Score: 5, Interesting
    Skype.

    If this critter has WiFi, and someone ports Skype to it, a damned fine radical shift in cell communications is very possible. While it wouldn't work outside of large metro areas (ones with lots of free WiFi, anyway), it would make phone companies, contracts, and all the BS that goes with 'em rather obsolete, methinks.

    (then again, we'd likely see folks like Verizon et al start lobbying city councils to stop putting in free wifi, like Qwest and Comcast did when Utah began it's UTOPIA project of multiple city-funded fiber-to-the-doorstep projects all linked together).

    Either way, it'd be damned cool, IMHO.

    /P

    --
    Quo usque tandem abutere, Nimbus, patientia nostra?
  3. Two words: by MacEnvy · · Score: 5, Interesting

    802.11 sniffer
    That's what I've been waiting for in iPhone news. Sure, there's the Oqo and some Axim-type devices that work for this, but very few that can harness the power of a terminal window, which I've been told (by an Apple higher ed employee) we'll be able to do on the iPhone.

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