The iPhone's love/hate relationship with hackers

Amazingly, it's now a whole year since metrosexuals and geeks waited patiently outside Apple and AT&T stores in the US for their very first iPhones. Since June 29 2007, the iPhone has gone from novelty spot to "oh, there's another" in bars and business meetings, as Apple has quickly overtaken Microsoft in US smartphone market …

[Joseph Hill]

Missing the point

"If course, to get the SDK to sign the app, you've got to be a fully paid up, kosher iPhone developer on Apple's official program. Personally, I don't have any big problems with this. After all, the $99 you must pay isn't going to break the bank"

Wrong - it's not a question of cash.

Apple choose who they are prepared to join this programme. 80% of application are rejected.

For over a month my Apple SDK page has been showing "Thank you for applying to the iPhone Developer Program. We have many more requests than we can serve during this initial beta period, so we must limit the Program at this time. We plan to expand it during the beta period, and we will contact you regarding your enrollment status at the appropriate time. We appreciate your patience."

This is DESPITE me opting for the $299 programme, not the $99 programme. A colleague has another account and has chosen the $99 programme - and also sees the same message.

Although one may download the SDK for free - and develop apps - it's no f'ing use since you're not a registered developer.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Missing the point

"Although one may download the SDK for free - and develop apps - it's no f'ing use"

I've removed the redundancy in your statement but on the whole agree with you. The free-to-download SDK is entirely missing the point.

[Bickus Dickus]

My point

If CC&P, TomTom and some sort of encryption could be put on the phone, I would be set. And maybe less crashes with Safari.

[Dave Jewell]

RE: Missing the point

"Apple choose who they are prepared to join this programme. 80% of application are rejected."

With respect, I think you're missing the point. I'm not quibbling about the $99/$299 "admission fee". Like I said, that's not a key issue.

Remember that the 2.0 firmware and new 3G phone haven't officially been released yet. Once the 11th July deadline is passed, *THEN* we'll be in a better position to judge whether or not Apple plan to approve the outstanding developer applications. For now, I'm giving Apple the benefit of the doubt, but only for now...

Dave

[Anonymous Coward]

C'mon Apple!

The pocket PC has been doing stuff like that for years.

[Chad H.]

re missing the point

its a limited beta, not a free for all. They had a limit for the beta and you didnt get in.

[Anonymous Coward]

@ Chad

Well perhaps Apple should say "This is a limited beta not a free for all. You did not get in. We may have some spaces later on. If you wish to remain in the queue please don't do anything - we will contact you should you wish to avail yourself of this beta opportunity. On the other hand if you wish to withdraw your interest please ... (whatever)" ?

[Matthew Barker]

Haxies anyone?

The time-honoured tradition of Haxies on the mac is continuing on the iPhone.

Nobody complains about this on the Mac. EVERYONE seems to complain about

it on the iPhone.

Developer whingeing is now firmly linked to the iPhone SDK not being out fast enough and not being all things to all people in one dot naught. Probably we'll next have developers filing suit against Apple for mental anguish and break-up

of their marriages.

I'm giving up on reading any news on the Mac:

1/ Rumours constantly abound as though they mean something real.

2/ Developer whingeing over not having everything now.

3/ Flaming religious wars any time anyone posts a pro-PC, pro-Mac, anti-PC, or anti-Mac statement.

I think I'll go for a walk on the beach whilst the whole jamboree collapses in an inferno of blame and whingeing.

Cheers,

Matthew

[Anonymous Coward]

Priceless!!

"Amazingly, it's now a whole year since metrosexuals and geeks waited"

*wipes the tears of hilarity from his eyes*

With a sense of humour like that, you really should give Seth M a hand on his new Google project.

[Thyl Engelhardt]

Restrictions

Frustrating though, is that "serious" companies probably will not be willing to rely on hacked iPhones. TomTom comes to mind, who intend to write a car navigation prog, but might stumble over the licence agreement. And what about hardware development, now that Apple seems quite unwilling to open up the Bluetooth stack? Will anybody invest in an "illegal" solution for e.g. an external keyboard, or a hands free device including Bluetooth transmission not only of music (A2DP?!), but also of control commands?

[Anonymous Coward]

Jailbreak.

Is it still a total pain in the arse to manage for any length of time? I was doing it up to 1.1.3, but then I couldn't see the point in continuing, as having to restore my device every time I hard reset it was a massive annoyance, given the regularity with which half the apps I was using crashed my device. If this is fixed, (along with the 40 minute install and convoluted upgrade paths) then I might go back to jailbreaking.

[jan]

re:Haxies anyone?

your walk would have been so much more relaxing if you skipped your rant/winge/blame/inferno.

re: everything else

Windows mobile has been doing all this for years with lots of lag and crashes and memory leaks. I haven't used an iPhone yet and I have the opportunity coming up but the thought of being so restricted is very claustrophobic. i'd much rather stay with windows mobile and play with iphone imitations that never quite suffice.

[mafro]

Everyone seems to be missing the point

I'm pretty fed up of developers whining about the ADC program taking so long to accept everybody. The comments by Chad H above are absolutely right.. Apple aren't too bothered about your complaints (like so many times past) because they know you'll still come when they open the door.

Anyway, the point of the article is to highlight the 2 separate developer models which will/have emerged. I haven't jail broken my iPod since I didn't really see the need yet, but as soon as the apps start to mature (and crash less) then I probably will.

As an aside, I have entered the developer program (and half written an app) but am waiting for Jobs' approval.

I'd like to see someone hack the code signing - then jail broken is definitely the future.

[Thomas]

RE: Missing the point

> Apple choose who they are prepared to join this programme. 80% of

> application are rejected.

>

> For over a month my Apple SDK page has been showing "Thank you for

> applying to the iPhone Developer Program. We have many more requests

> than we can serve during this initial beta period, so we must limit the Program

> at this time. We plan to expand it during the beta period, and we will contact

> you regarding your enrollment status at the appropriate time. We appreciate

> your patience."

I'm not sure your definition of 'rejection' aligns with that provided by the dictionary. In the dictionary meaning it has a finality, whereas what you are quoting clearly isn't final.

Furthermore, it's obviously invalid to suggest that the rules enforced under the beta programme are going to be the rules in perpetuity. For one thing, they've only accepted Americans. Probably Apple's motivation is partly patronage (i.e. they let the big firms into what they expect to be a cash bonanza early so as to limit competition and endear themselves) and partly just about being able to manage everything and have humans double check lots of things until the distribution channels are properly tested.

[Tom Hawkins]

Never mind cut, copy and paste...

...if they can add Undo - and extend the functionality to the phonecall you just made, obviously - they've got my money!

[Trevor Nielsen]

preventing malware since '76

Just for the record, this approach is most probably not designed as Apple profiteering, but rather as a way for Apple to stop malware / viruses becoming mainstream on the iphone. If you haven't considering mainstream mobile phone viruses, this is a *BAD* thing.

[Matthew Barker]

@jan

"your walk would have been so much more relaxing if you skipped your rant/winge/blame/inferno."

Nah, it was quite relaxing; I only thought about what I was writing during the time I was writing it. And while you responded, I was blissfully thinking about what I was doing then. Definitely water off a duck's back.

Nor was there inferno, rant, or winge, just some quiet observations that the general tenor of the conversations seemed to be going for a more and more predictable degradation. And that I was packing it in, had something better to do with my time, and was offering an example to anyone else who might've been willing to accept the suggestion that the lack of meaningful discussion on the noted topics was becoming commonplace.

Cheers,

Matthew

[Dave Jewell]

RE: Everyone seems to be missing the point

Mafro said: "As an aside, I have entered the developer program (and half written an app) but am waiting for Jobs' approval."

That makes two of us! ;-)

"I'd like to see someone hack the code signing - then jail broken is definitely the future."

Agree again. If the hacker community can by-pass the code signing stuff (and -- like I said -- I think they already have) then there's really very little advantage to sticking with the official SDK, unless you're happy to confine yourself to writing kosher, Apple-approved apps.

Dave