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First Third-party Native iPhone Application Released

An anonymous reader writes "A third-party native application for the iPhone is now available. Gizmodo discusses the real full-fledged iPhone application with a graphic user interface and its own icon in the iPhone home screen. It is not a Web 2.0 app but the real thing. What is it? Ironically enough, MobileTerminal, 'a terminal emulator application for the iPhone. MobileTerminal.app is NOT an SSH client, nor Telnet for that matter. It can however be used to execute a console ssh-client application.' The iPhone dev revolution has just started."

10 of 192 comments (clear)

  1. Re:IPhone Revolution? by sokoban · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Spare me. OpenMoko is an open platform that nobody cares about.

    It does look cool, but without an Apple sized hype-machine and good support from cell phone companies and service providers I don't see it taking off.

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    09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0 is the magic number.
  2. Network impact by hypermanng · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Assuming Apple doesn't take steps in a subsequent update to actively disable third party applications, this could provide a channel for showing (or not) that third party applications doesn't automatically mean disruption of the provider network. Hopefully the inaugural apps will play nice, creating pressure on Apple to release an SDK to make it more likely that subsequent apps also play nice, rather than start patching it closed like a console. Apple has to respond, but they could go either way.

    --
    I am the one true god. However, as an atheist, I don't believe in myself. I guess I have a self-esteem problem.
  3. Re:IPhone Revolution? by DaleGlass · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Nobody cares about the iPhone as a platform either.

    With no official SDK who is going to make applications for it? Maybe a couple of geeks happy to mess with something that's not documented and for which there's absolutely zero support from the vendor, but nobody of much importance. They'll have exactly the same problem you say OpenMoko has: That very few people will ever hear that something can be installed into an iPhone, and fewer yet will install something.

    Installing applications will probably not be just a matter of point and click on a standard phone either.

  4. Whoa there boy... by GarfBond · · Score: 3, Insightful
    Let's not make too many big leaps of logic...

    Second, if Google Code is hosting this it probably means either that 1) Apple is giving the nod to this kind of development, 2) they are going to release an SDK or 3) Apple will realize the need for people to access the iPhone as a development platform to do really cool stuff with it. All three options are good for me.
    Or, maybe it's anyone can create a project there.

    1 and 2 are ridiculous claims based off of this information, and I'm pretty sure they were already aware of #3 based off of the grumbling developers and blogs after WWDC.

  5. Re:PSPhone DS by richy+freeway · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Anything you can do with the DS, you can do with the iPhone.

    Except play brain training, or nintendogs, or pokemon, or new super mario bros, or have it cost you (and I mean the average person who can't hack it, and even if you can it's still gonna cost you £250+) less than £100.

    The iPhone is a flashy gadget, it's not a games console and it won't ever be.

    Ever.

  6. Re:Revolution? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Uh, like, did you not notice the iPhone has only 3 physical buttons and one control surface, whereas every other smartphone is littered with buttons? Did you not notice the relatively huge screen for such a pocketable device? Did you not notice the lack of a stylus? Did you not notice that the UI morphs to meet the needs of the current task? Did you not notice the use of gestures to control the device and the use of visual feedback? Did you not notice how the user interacts via a built-in accelerometer? Did you not notice the visual voice mail? Did you not notice the accurate rendering of web pages using the built-in browser, and the equally accurate rendering of HTML e-mail? Did you not notice how easy it is to pan and zoom?

    Oh, sorry, I didn't realize you were blind.

  7. Functional by SuperKendall · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Tell me again why this is a revolution? The iPhone is a pretty cool toy

    No, the iPhone is a really functional device that sucks a lot less than so many other phones, and fans of dynamic symbolic UI finally have a device that doesn't wimp out in presenting us with a virtual interface. Plus the screen DPI is so high it actually makes reading really small text practical so the screen is much more usable than you would think only from looking at the size in specs.

    Furthermore it's also a device with a huge amount of potential, in part from Apple but also in part from hacking. And as we have seen with the Apple TV and other devices, Apple devices are generally hackable and Apple doesn't push back the way Sony or Nintendo or Microsoft do.

    I don't quite know if revolution is the right word either, but it sure is a breath of fresh air in a world that until now has been a fetid swamp.

    --
    "There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
  8. Re:SWEET! by lucifuge31337 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    It's beyond me how someone would switch carriers without trying out the service first. A $20 prepaid phone from RadioShack or similar comes with like $10 worth of airtime. Carry it around your normal places for a week. Try it first. It's really your own fault if you lost that kind of money because you aren't in a good enough service area - it's just not that hard to figure out before signing a 2-year contract, ESPECIALLY on a phone with a restocking fee.

    --
    Do not fold, spindle or mutilate.
  9. Re:Revolution? by djh101010 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Tell me again why this is a revolution? The iPhone is a pretty cool toy, but remind me what's revolutionary about it? Folks, Apple is a company that makes neat products. It's not a club or a religion. Well for starters, you're doing that whole "pretend to be speaking for the opposition" thing which, sorry, you're not. It's a great device that does everything it does very well. Yes, I could do pretty much everything this thing does with my Treo but, the iPhone does it all with a more logical, consistent GUI, well thought out process flow, and all sorts of other things that people who merely tick off a features list will miss the value of. It's the same old story - people who want a car to get from home to work won't understand why (insert brand name here) is a nicer car, while those who have said car value the differences that the other person does not.

    That said, a terminal app on my iPhone? Are you kidding? Hell yes, I'll set it up. It's not so much that it gives me a command line interface, it's that it gives me access to the Unix system in my pocket. Again, if you don't value that and don't get it, it's _fine_, really, but that doesn't mean it's without value to those who understand the value of such a thing.
  10. Re:Beg to differ by Achromatic1978 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Now you might say, that doesn't count because it's "just" a browser based app. But all of the applications listed there have been tailored to fit and work well on the iPhone. Most of the even use fragments of custom CSS that helps define the appearance for the iPhone specifically. If it's tailored to the platform, then how is using the browser as a GUI library really that much different than a true native app as far as the intent of the developer, and interaction by the user? There are even proof of concept web-based apps that detect phone rotation and respond accordingly...

    It's fantastic. For years, I've heard Mac fans (amongst others, sure) moan loudly about web standards. Browser independence. Railing against websites that discriminate against Safari. That are "best viewed in IE".

    Now, there's the iPhone. And suddenly coding HTML and CSS to meet the needs of one device / browser combination is apparently A-ok, because it's their device. I see.